Chapter 3

When you have and hold a need, harken not to other's greed

– The Wiccan Rede

The aunts were in the kitchen when I arrived home. A spell was well underway. I identified the scents of lavender, peppermint, rosemary, and the familiar smoke of sage – a spell for cleansing and protection. Aunt Callista leaned over the cauldron, stirring as she sprinkled powder over its surface, whilst Fennel held open a spell book upon the palm of her hand, and held her other hand out, fingers splayed, whilst she chanted.

I skirted the edge of the kitchen not wanting to interfere and headed upstairs.

As I approached my room, I passed the bathroom that I shared with my sister. The door was ajar, music spilling out, and I paused on the threshold. Nova leaned into the mirror applying false eyelashes. The dress she wore was one we had outgrown several years before. She had retrieved it from the chest in the attic and made it over, lowering the neckline and removing the white collar that had been there. The velvet strained over her breasts and the skirt barely covered her arse revealing the lacey tops of her stockings and the suspender straps that held them up.

She wasn't alone in the room. There were the shades of others going about their own preparations, caught in ghost form at the cusp of departing on the evening out that ended them. Great Aunt Jacinta who had died at twenty-two when a jilted lover found out that she was seeing another man. A teenager whose name I did not know, in a long lacey white dress, her hair fluffed and piled high in the Gibson Girl style…

Nova caught my eyes in the mirror, her expression shifting to one of guilt. "Nyx…"

"I'm just…" I gestured towards my room. "I was just heading to my room. I'm reading up on invocations and…" And grim reapers.

"Okay," she straightened slowly, pushing up from the palm braced on the vanity's surface. "I… Ah, I am going out… The aunts…" Her smile was wry. Whilst the aunts would not prevent her from going out, they would have something to say about how she was dressed. It was provocative, and being provocative was dangerous for a young Vossen woman. Leave that for when you're older, Aunt Callista would tell her. "About the coffee shop…" She started.

"It's cool," I told her. So, uncool… I grimaced. No wonder she did not want to include me in her socializing. "It's fine. Really, Nova." I stepped away, intending to leave her to it but she called out my name, stalling me.

"Nyx," she paused in front of me and straightened the collar of my shirt before giving up. "We could… you know…" Her eyes met mine on a fine balance of confidence and insecurity. "Do something with your hair and makeup? If you wanted to, I mean…"

I was taken aback by her offer of a make-over. My shrug was one-shouldered and awkward. "Yeah… Okay. Thanks," I said. There had been a time when we had been inseparable, but something had happened during the school year. I had been busy working every spare moment at the coffee shop and Nova had seemed to never be home at the same time as I was… I wanted to recapture a moment of the intimacy that had been lost.

Her face lit. Perhaps she too missed our closeness. "Just wait, Nyx. You'll be a heartstopper, trust me."

For the next few minutes, I stood with my eyes mostly closed whilst she wielded her brushes across the surface of my face and fiddled with my hair. "Done!" She declared triumphantly at last, and I considered my reflection in a mirror.

I couldn't see any significant difference to my normal make-up, but if she thought that she had made a difference in my appearance, I wasn't going to argue that fact with her. "Great," I smiled through my teeth. "Thank you."

"You should come with me," she said, and I saw that the suggestion was impulsive and not planned from her surprise at her own words. "I guess…" She was flustered. "If you want to. A bunch of us are meeting at the beach for a bonfire."

"Okay." It would be a good opportunity to make friends at the Academy. If I got accepted, knowing someone who already went there would make those first few days easier. "That would be great. Thanks, Nova."

"Change your clothes," she was regretting her offer as she reviewed the shirt and shorts that I had worn to work.

"Of course," I tried not to sound sarcastic for fear that she would change her mind. "I'll be right back." I hurried to my room and dug hastily into my closet, trying to find something that Nova would not be able to criticize. The dress I pulled out was a long-sleeved and mid-thigh black lace which had been bought for my high school graduation. Nova had shopped with me for it, so I figured that she had already approved it.

I pulled it on and switched my joggers for a simple pair of black ballet flats. We would be on the sand, and I expected to take them off. As I stepped out in the hall, Nova met me. She had a bag slung over her shoulder.

She paused to evaluate me. "You look good," she decided, before leading the way down the front stairs, one hand on the bag, holding its contents still. We eased the front door closed behind us, picking up pace as we entered the gardens, threading our way through the meandering garden paths to where a staircase led down to the beach below.

As we descended the steep and uneven stone steps, Nova's bag clinked and clanked. Our eyes met and we burst into laughter as I realized that she had stolen some bottles of homemade wine. "Here," she paused, leaning back against the stairs, and retrieved a bottle of wine, breaking it open and taking a gulp, before passing it to me.

I took a sip, some of it spilling around the seal of the bottle's mouth and my lips. I giggled as I caught the spilled drops on the back of my hand and sucked them off as I returned the wine to her. Like most of my aunt's wines, the buzz of the alcohol was counteracted by the addition of fruit, herb, and floral tones, and the wine both burned and soothed.

We continued to trade the bottle between us as we descended the stairs and by the time that we had reached the bottom, I was quite drunk, and silly with it. Arm in arm, we staggered across the soft sand, our feet slipping beneath us.

The bonfire was a flicker in the distance, but gradually brightened and music spilled into the darkness to greet us. "Here," Nova pressed the remainder of the bottle into my hands and pulled away, walking ahead, deliberately putting distance between us. I lingered back, suddenly cut out and abandoned in the dark, and watched as she greeted a group of girls, my hopes of introductions and inclusion dashed. Nova did not want to be associated with me.

Embarrassed, I circled the fire avoiding its light and took several more mouthfuls of the wine. I took off my shoes and walked along the water's edge, feeling the wash of the waves sucking at the wet sand. When I looked up, I could not see Nova. She must have gone up the path towards the ruins of the old colony.

In the shifting light, I saw a group of girls that I had gone to high school with and decided to approach them. We had never been friendly, but nor had we been hostile. It was either that or return home.

"No one believes in witches, for real," someone snorted out their laughter. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," one of the girls said. "You see the lighthouse on the hill and the house before it? The women who live there are witches. They have all always been witches. Generation after generation of witches. One was even burned on the stake in town."

"No way!"

"Yes, way!"

"What sort of witches? Like ride broomsticks sort of witches?"

"More like the curse you so that your hair falls out sort," the girl's giggles peeled out around her fingers, her eyes dancing with laughter. My family was a joke to her. Something told around the fire in the dark of the night to shock and scare. "Truly."

My cheeks burned and I headed away from the light of the flames, and deeper into the shadows. I should not have come, I thought to myself. I had been stupid to think that I could make friends. Vossen women did not make friends among the townspeople. History had been clear that any Vossen woman who made the mistake of thinking a woman from the town was her friend, that so-called friend would betray her.

I hoped for Nova's sake that she was keeping history in mind and that she would not let her pursuit of these new friendships lead her into trouble.

I didn't know what I sought to achieve by seeking her out along the dark overgrown path that led to the ruins of the original settlement. I did not want to leave without letting her know that I had done so, and there was something dark and dangerous about this party and these people. I knew she would not heed my warning and would resent my intrusion, embarrassed by it. I would cause a fight, a rift between us.

The spiny saltbush caught at the lace of my dress, and I paused to free it my eyes catching on a darker shape within the shadows. For a moment my heart picked up speed, but my logical mind reasoned that it was just a partygoer relieving himself where he had thought he would have privacy to do so.

I started to retreat the way I had come, but the saltbush snagged again on my skirt, and I cursed under my breath, fighting to free my skirt with one hand, shifting my hold on the bottle of wine that I still carried.

In the darkness, his fingers were the bleached white of bone as he reached out to take over the task of freeing my lace from the bush that sought to tear it. They were long and thin, the knuckles distinctly larger, and their movement ascetically elegant. As he leaned over me, the dark silk on his hair fell forward and against its curtain, his profile was revealed by the moonlight as strong sharp bones, hollows of cheekbone, and feathers of shadowy eyelash against the white of skin.

The scent of dragon's blood incense, clove, orange, and patchouli clung to his clothing and hair. His position meant that his cheek almost brushed against mine and I wondered if it would be hard, cool, and smooth as bone, or soft and warm as flesh. I turned my face into his instinctively, my lips almost brushing against his skin.

"Thank you," I was breathless as he freed me from my entanglement.

"It is my pleasure," his eyes picked up the distant firelight, the warm red glow dancing in the pupils. When he spoke it was hushed, somewhere between a murmur and a whisper, an intimate sound that had me leaning in closer to him to capture every syllable that left his lips. His voice was deep, slightly hoarse, and soothing. A voice that would comfort the sick and dying or settle a restless child into sleep.

"I'm…" My brain failed me, the words scattering like rain into water and my heart beat a rapid staccato against my ribs. "I am Elenyx, but everyone just calls me Nyx."

"Elenyx," he tasted my name with relish. "I am Ender."

"Ender," I repeated, enchanted. It was a foreign name, not one commonly used in the region. "Are you from…?"

"I am not from around here," he confirmed my suspicion that he attended the academy. There was no other reason a young man would be in town and attending the bonfire. "May I?" His fingers wrapped around mine on the bottle I held, and he guided it up to his lips so that I fed him the wine. His tongue flickered over his bottom lip, capturing the last drops.

"What are you doing out in the dark?" I asked him. "Hiding?"

"I am not hiding. I am merely watching from afar."

"Watching what?" I turned to look back at the beach. The flickering flames cast those that gathered around it into silhouette. I looked back up at him and found him looking down at me. A flush of heat rose up my chest to my cheeks. "You're not missing anything," I told him.

His lips curled gently in answer.

"Do I…" I hesitated. The sense of knowing him was so strong however that the question was irresistible. "Do I know you?" Was it a trick of shifting shadow that as our eyes met, his skin seemed almost translucent, the skull beneath revealed, and his eyes glowed with inner fire?

"Yes," he said with a soft smile.

It was, after all, a small town. Perhaps I had served him in the coffee shop, I reasoned, but I did not believe myself. I was certain that I would remember him had we ever encountered each other.

"I was… looking for my sister." It felt safe standing with him in the dark, and the contrast to how I had felt before encountering him was stark, bringing my mind back to Nova and the reason I was wandering the path towards the old settlement. "Did you see her pass this way?"

"I see only you."

My breath caught and I looked up at him again, searching the darkness for the details of his face. The effect of shadow and the shifting distant light of the fire meant that his features were revealed in slices, hidden as much as was revealed, the details mysterious, and the whole never seen at once.

"Do you attend events like this frequently?" He asked before I could gather my thoughts.

"No." My answer was startled from me with a laugh. "Absolutely not. This is my first." His eyes tracked my restless gestures, and I realized I was gesturing with the bottle. I offered it to him. "More wine?"

He wrapped his fingers around mine and guided the bottle to his lips, before guiding it to mine. "This…" He said softly as the wine spilled over my tongue. "Is extraordinary."

"We make it ourselves," I told him after swallowing. "My family." I decided to get it over with. "On the hill," I gestured up to where the lighthouse beyond it beamed light out towards the water, brightening the sky and Vossen House stood in dark silhouette. Several windows glowed warmly with light.

"Normally my sister and I watch these parties from our house," I added. "But she has friends…" I said to explain our descent down the hill. "Of a sort," I amended.

"And now you are here, with me," his hand cupped my elbow, stroking down my forearm until my palm rested on his. His skin was cool to the touch, his palm slightly calloused, and his hand much larger than mine. He held my eyes as our fingers linked.

"Yes," I barely breathed the word. We were going to kiss, I thought. He would be my first real kiss, as I didn't count that awkward, teeth-striking kiss with Jonathan Hale in ninth grade that he'd afterward claimed only to have done on a dare.

"Nyx!" Nova appeared suddenly out of the shadows. She was dishevelled, barefoot, her hair a mess, and breathless as if she had been running. "Give me that," she grabbed the bottle from my hand and my wrist, tugging me along the path behind her. "It's time to go home."

"Oh, but…" I twisted to look over my shoulder, but Ender had disappeared again into the shadows as if he had never been there at all.

"It's late. It's really late," Nova said under her breath, avoiding the firelight and those around it. She didn't let go of my wrist until we were well away from the party, and then she released me and paused to drink heavily from the bottle, emptying it completely.

"Is everything alright Nova?" I asked her, warily for her behaviour was erratic and intoxicated. She had obviously finished off the other bottle of wine whilst I had wandered the beach and encountered Ender.

I wondered where he had gone and whether I would ever see him again. Perhaps, if I was accepted to the academy, I would see him there…

"It sucks," Nova exploded the words angrily as she started up the stairs. I followed on her heels, prepared to catch her if she slipped. The stairs were partially naturally formed, partially carved out by hand, and eroded by the sand-filled wind. They could be treacherous if the sand had built up enough to create a slippery surface to the stone, and due to their unevenness. "It sucks to be us, Nyx. It sucks to be a Vossen. I wish I was a Smith, or a Harrow, or a Norman."

"I don't," I was vaguely insulted by her vehemence. "I like being a Vossen. A Smith, a Harrow, or a Norman couldn't light a candle by will or bring rain during a drought. Mortensby might not appreciate us," I guessed that someone had said something that had hurt her. "But they need us, whether they know it or not."

"Well, maybe we need to teach them a lesson!" Nova grumbled. "Maybe we need to stop helping them until they treat us like…"

"Nova," I protested. "You don't mean that."

"Don't I?" She spat over her shoulder. "Don't I? Maybe I'm just sick… so sick of being…" She broke off panting slightly under the steep climb as she reached the top of the stairs. She did not wait for me. I paused at the top, watching her disappear into the garden, before turning and looking out over the cliff to where the fire still flickered on the beach.

Was Ender there? Had he joined the group on the sand around the fire? Did he sit even now with his arm around another girl?

I hoped that I would see him again.