Familiarity Breeds Witchcraft (12 page)

Gemma’s newfound self-confidence allowed her to increase the power to a point where they could help out Rowan with whatever strength and healing power she needed to give birth.
 

A rush of joy overwhelmed Gemma at the exhilaration of the experience.

At her side, Enid gave her hand a slight squeeze.

Gemma realized all had been forgiven between them. She only hoped Rowan felt the same way…once she wasn’t so busy elsewhere.

☆★☆

Floating on the tides of magic, Gemma lost track of time. The coven continued to send their power in to shore up the strength of the laboring mother inside the house. The combination of focus and intense magical participation would have drained any solo practitioner. As a whole, though, the group reinforced the strengths of others whenever they flagged.

It may have been minutes, hours, or days. Gemma couldn’t tell.

Yet when it was time to end the spell, everyone knew instinctively.

They felt
her
.

The new witchling had come.

Excited shouts rang out as they all welcomed the new member of their coven.

“Blessed be!”

Gemma sagged with exhaustion, reaching out to feel through the power how her friend Rowan might be feeling. The mother seemed okay. Though exhausted, and still in a bit of pain as she went through the immediate post-birth experience, she exuded feelings of relief and exultation out to her fellow coven members.

“Wonderful,” Enid said, embracing Gemma tightly. “That was wonderful!”

“And now we must ground!” Adora shouted so that everyone could hear.

Laughter met her announcement.

Grounding meant eating good food, drinking hard cider, and laying around: the best part of a successful spell. They broke apart to attend to such important business.

Gemma felt a little wobbly-kneed as she turned to find Fox standing at her side with a piece of pie and glass of cool water. Gemma took the offerings with a grateful, if weak, smile.
 

“That was
so cool
.” Fox took her by the arm and led the way to the mound where they’d been sitting before. “Wow! You’re so lucky to be able to do this all the time. My imagination never came close to the true experience.”

She felt a slight disorientation and couldn’t determine how much time had passed since she’d last spoken with Fox. Her arms and legs trembled after the extended exertion.

Passing a hand over her eyes, she looked toward the horizon, trying to gauge the hour by the height of the sun. “I wouldn’t say we do this all the time.” Gemma wasn’t trying to be modest. With such a small population, Secret Hallow didn’t have many births. “You see how long we’ve gone without welcoming a new child into our coven.”

“You were
great
! I would’ve thought you do this all the time!”

Gemma ducked her head in embarrassment.

Fox placed a hand under her chin and turned her face up so their eyes met. “I wish you could see what I do when I look at you, babe. You’re amazing. You should give yourself more credit for your strengths and forgive your weaknesses. We’ve all got ‘em.”

She saw a kind of…wonder, maybe…in Fox’s eyes. No, that didn’t describe the expression since wonder implied a lack of familiarity. Maybe pride worked better.

Yes, that was it. Fox looked proud and admiring.

More than anything else, Gemma wanted to be worthy of that look.

Before she could say anything, a group cry arose, and she turned to find Garrett standing in the upstairs bedroom window with a tiny wriggling bundle cradled in his arms.

“Her name’s Siobhan!” he called, not too loud, but with enough projection to be heard.

Everyone cheered. “Siobhan! Merry meet!”

Fox let out a whoop, though not as loud as the people who’d imbibed a lot of cider.
 

Gemma made no noise—Garrett had a baby, after all—but smiled until her cheeks hurt. Again, tears tracked down her cheeks. This time, though, she cried with joy because she couldn’t contain all the positive emotion filling her at the moment.
 

Feeling a light touch, she looked down to see Fox’s hand holding hers. Their eyes met and she once again lost track of time as she drowned in their sparkling depths. The two shared a moment of such connection, her breath caught.

Caught up with Fox, she missed Garrett pulling back from the window at Siobhan’s quiet protest. She also missed the majority of the group breaking up to return to their own homes. By the time she could focus on anything outside her companion, she saw that only a few stragglers remained to break down the tables, and realized the couple now sat almost alone in the gloom of early evening.

“Would you like to come back to my house?” Gemma asked, when she could form words again. She hadn’t realized how that would sound.
 

Fox waggled her eyebrows.
 

Her face flushing, Gemma’s next words came out with a slight stammer. “I mean…uh…well. You know Nana will be busy with her family tonight. She’ll be busy for a while, in fact. You probably don’t want to stay in a strange house alone.” She shrugged. “Like Enid said…we’ve got plenty of spare rooms.”

“Nothing about how much you want me to stay with you?” Fox winked.

“No. I can’t stand you.” Gemma deadpanned in a way she hadn’t been able to manage in an in-person interaction up to that point. The euphoria of residual power of the healing birth spell emboldened her. She also felt exhilarated at the thought they wouldn’t be able to cast Fox’s spell for several days after the group’s exertions that day. “Asking you to my house is my way of avoiding you.”

When Fox fell backward into the grass, giggling, she pulled Gemma down with her. The stars blinked to life overhead as the last of the twilight faded to full darkness. A pleasant glow emanated from the windows of the nearby house and the warm happiness of the new family washed out over them.
 

They rolled around together for a long time. By now, they were the only ones left outside, the stars overhead the only illumination once the lights in the house went out.

 
Gemma wished for the moment to never end.

ON ANY OTHER day, Gemma would’ve returned to her attic alone after the gathering, settling in for an online conversation with Fox until she tired enough to fall asleep.

For once, reality proved to be better than the internet world.

Instead of sharing a digital communication with Fox on this wondrous night, she found herself enjoying a happy conversation about the events of the day as they headed to the Winterblossom cottage. They needed to retrieve Fox’s things so she’d have her sleepwear and toiletries so she’d be comfortable for the night.
 

The stars twinkled overhead, the moon not yet up. A light breeze caused the crisp leaves on the nearby trees to rustle and fallen ones crunched beneath their feet as they walked. When Fox stumbled a bit on a hidden rock or small hole, she reached out and took her friend by the hand to steady her. A thrill raced up her arm and warmth spread across her cheeks. She felt happy the darkness hid her blush.

“Careful with your footing. This path can be a little rough.” Gemma didn’t want Fox to end up with a sprained ankle or something. Not after such a nice start to the evening.

“Thanks.” Fox gave a little laugh and squeezed Gemma’s hand.

They continued to hold hands the rest of the way to the cottage. Trying to convince herself they only did so to prevent Fox from hurting herself, Gemma continued to enjoy the intimacy of a companionable walk hand-in-hand through the night until the darkness gave way to silvery moonlight.

The cottage seemed empty without Nana’s presence, since she was still with Rowan, Garrett, and Siobhan. Gemma remained outside as she waited for Fox to gather up the things she’d left in Rowan’s old bedroom.

She heard no sound other than a soft chirp of crickets and the occasional rustle caused by the passage of some nocturnal creatures. She stood in the middle of the front garden and turned a slow circle. While she enjoyed being outdoors during the daylight hours, she preferred the night time hours. Gemma loved the mysterious feel of the shadows in her oh-so-familiar territory.

“All ready!” Fox hurried out onto the porch. “Do you think I should lock up?”

“The place will be fine. Protective wards work much better than any traditional lock.”

Fox laughed again. “Of course. Silly me…” She slung a large duffel over her shoulder and they headed out of the yard. “Secret Hallow is so beautiful. Leaving here will be hard.”

“Are you going right away?” Gemma’s earlier relief about them having to wait to perform the love-seeking spell turned into a fear that her friend might not wait around until they could cast it.
 

“Not unless you kick me out! Just saying, I’ll have to return to real life at some point, and that’s gonna suck.”

The duo fell into a companionable silence as they made their way back to the Victorian Gemma shared with Enid. Once they reached the edge of the village and turned onto the street where the Ash sisters lived, the gentle glow of gas streetlights lit their way, once again changing the look of their surroundings from the pale black-and-white look of the moonlight to something more akin to faded mid-century photos.

Gemma swung open her ornate iron gate and stepped aside to allow Fox to pass through.
 

“Wow,” said Fox in a breathy voice. “This is more beautiful than I imagined.”

Gemma turned to look up at the façade of her home. She’d lived here her whole life and didn’t tend to think much about how the place might appear to others.

Her eyes followed the stone pathway to the front steps leading onto a wraparound porch. The shadow of the overhang hid the front door and first-floor windows from view, and the exterior light turned off, but she could see what they looked like during daylight in her mind; the wavy glass of the windows, the dark wood of the door, and the antique rocking chairs her parents used to enjoy in the evenings. No lights lit the windows on this side of the house, but she knew the highest one in the back would be lit by the soft glow of the desk lamp she’d left on the night before.

Fox didn’t take the beauty for granted, but Gemma did.

She shook off a strange feeling of excitement that came over her. “Looks like Enid didn’t come home yet. I wonder where she could be.”

They entered the house and Gemma switched on the Tiffany lamp on the table in the front hall. She motioned at the doorway near the stairs. “That’s the living room. The kitchen’s that way. I’ll give you a full tour in the morning. We don’t have a lot of good lighting in here and I’m sure you’ll want to see all the detail.” They climbed up to the second floor and she opened a bedroom door. “You can drop your stuff in here for now if you’d like to come up to see my fortress of solitude.”

“Of course.” Fox tossed her bag into the dark room and followed Gemma up to the attic.
 

Seeing Fox in her personal space in the flesh, and not just as a welcome part of her phone or her computer screen, felt surreal. Not bad, just…not something Gemma could have expected in her wildest dreams.

Fox stood in the middle of the space and turned a circle as her eyes widened.

Gemma couldn’t imagine how Fox saw magic—every witch saw it a bit differently—but watching her guest’s expression of awe as she took everything in made Gemma see her space through new eyes.

The blues and greens of her powers filled the air, sparkling just a touch in response to her reaching out a hand toward them.

She’d never before noticed how a lot of her wiring glowed with differing intensities depending on her proximity to them. Most of all, Gemma enjoyed seeing the reflected colors in Fox’s eyes.

“This is…” Fox shook her head a couple times. “
Wow
.”

Gemma blushed. “Thanks.”

Her components seemed to realize she was experiencing some emotional intensity, as they always did. A few Ethernet cables slithered across the floor and nudged her ankles questioningly.

Fox stared. “Wow,” she said again.

Gemma nudged them away with her toe and plopped down on the saggy couch. She sighed a little as her feet throbbed; she hadn’t realized until then that she’d stood a lot more that day than she did most of the time. She tugged off her boots and leaned her head back with a sigh of relief. A VGA cable sneaked under her feet to snag the laces of her boot, then dragged it under the couch.

She might not have been one for tidiness, but her electronics had their own ideas about how the attic should be arranged. She didn’t fight it anymore.

Hovering next to the couch—probably the only time Fox would be taller than Gemma—Fox chattered about her surroundings. “Babe,” she said, “
You
are amazing. The way you stepped in and focused that power today. Now this computer stuff, I just…I can’t…” She smiled. “Don’t you feel wonderful after helping usher Siobhan into the world? She looked like such a cute little thing…I can’t wait to get a better look at her. How about you?”

Gemma stared up at the peak of the ceiling high overhead and said nothing. She was blushing so hard. She felt like she might burst into tears if she tried to speak.

Dropping onto the sofa, Fox took her hand and stroked the skin of her palm. “I really believe the coven can rebuild the school with magic, after what I saw today. You don’t need outside help.”

“How?”

“The spells on the Ash Academy didn’t work in the past because you didn’t help. You’re the missing link, babe.”

“I…I couldn’t.”

“If you can get past yourself like you did tonight, there’d be no stopping you!” Fox went on to rave about how Gemma could be more involved in the coven. She just needed to practice blocking out all the background chatter cluttering her mind. Working with a few members of the coven, the ones she felt the most comfortable around, might also help her become more comfortable. On and on Fox went, sometimes holding Gemma’s hands, sometimes pacing the floor, even pulling out her phone on occasion to take notes.