Chapter 52

Bayla

"And then I gave Finn the middle finger and sat down in his seat with my friends," Mia laughed aloud and nibbled on the cookie dough that Mady had mixed. Mady immediately came running over to her and slapped her on the fingers. Mia laughed with a grin and pulled herself up onto the kitchen counter.

"It's hard to believe you're Julian's little sister," Larissa said, the corners of her mouth turning upwards in amusement as she filled the three bowls with all kinds of nachos.

She had been the one to remind me of Mady's offer and now there were the four of us at the Campbells and, to be honest, it was a welcome distraction from all the supernatural crap out there.

I was aware of what Mia was, but we didn't talk about it, and so what we were doing here felt like we were just normal girls enjoying our time together.

"Finn is Emely and Nash's brother, isn't he?" I asked with interest, because Mia had mentioned the name Copeland.

Mia made a waving hand gesture and snorted. "Yeah, but he's really okay when his guys aren't around."

So, every Copeland was surrounded by a few werewolf guys?

"Maybe all Copelands are like that," Mady commented, pouring the dough onto a baking pan.

She was wearing one of her dark green summer dresses decorated with white flowers, black tights and the usual black cardigan. I wondered if she wasn't freezing.

I was wearing one of those Vanderwood hoodies and my normal jeans, and the cold was still trying to creep under my clothes. I would probably get sick soon. That was all I needed right now.

"In case you were on the verge of coming up with reasonable excuses for Nash being an asshole to you, don't. " Mia looked at Mady with a serious expression.

The latter put the baking tray in the oven and hurried to the sink, avoiding our scrutinizing glances.

Mia turned to us. "Is it true that he had a fight with Julian?"

Larissa looked at me with a grin, then at Mia. "I even have photos to prove it."

Mia shook her head in bewilderment, and we all laughed.

"Could you please not be so loud, Mady? I have to study."

We turned to the doorway where Ezra, Mady's handsome brother, was standing.

He held index cards in one hand, made his way past us, waving hello , and refilled his water bottle at the fridge before turning back to his sister.

"You can't be a spoilsport for one night?" Mady snorted and opened the fridge. "Beer?"

"Are you serious, Mady?" He looked at her scrutinizingly, and she immediately put the bottle back. Then he looked at us. "You drink alcohol?"

"Ugh, no," Mady laughed.

He didn't know that she had welcomed us with champagne, but I hadn't drunk it because I felt like a walking corpse. Larissa finished her glass.

"Come on, let's go upstairs." Mady looked at us promptly and reached for the sodas. "The cookies need a bit more anyway."

"No alcohol, Mady!" Ezra called after us, but we were already upstairs.

Mady just rolled her eyes and pulled another bottle of champagne out from behind her back two seconds later, whereupon Larissa patted her appreciatively on her shoulder.

"You lied to your brother?" I asked Mady, knowing she was nineteen and therefore old enough to drink in British Columbia.

I looked around her spacious room. The first thing I noticed was the colors. White bed linen with pastel green roses, which were also on the curtains. Pastel green and white cushions, a white carpet that stretched halfway across the room and a closet full of band posters by Imagine Dragons and Cigarettes After Sex . Mady also had a bookcase full to the brim, next to which a huge gray plush wolf leaned against a mirror. On her dresser was her jewelry and other hair bands.

"God, Bayla," laughed Larissa, who must have misunderstood my comment, and pushed me into the soft beanbag from which I would certainly never get up again because it was soft and cozy as hell. "We want to have fun. We're not fifteen anymore."

"Um..." Mia laughed sheepishly, earning a grin from Larissa. "You're not getting anything either, Mia."

Mia just rolled her eyes and I offered her the divine beanbag because my urge to look at Mady's books was stronger than my aching limbs.

I realized that Mady mainly read thrillers, which I didn't expect from her.

"This is champagne." Mady held up the bottle and looked at Mia. "And I won't forbid you anything." She gave us a crooked grin and her eyes sparkled. "I'm not your brother."

She tried to open the bottle, but was unsuccessful.

Larissa finally snatched it from her and a few seconds later I flinched as the cork flew to the ceiling with a loud bang and then into the monster plush toy. Larissa and Mia laughed loudly and Mady filled the glasses.

Larissa turned on Mady's jukebox.

"Larissa! Ezra wanted to learn," I admonished her, feeling like the spoilsport, but at least Larissa turned down Ban All the Music by Nothing But Thieves .

"Ezra's from the last century," Mady laughed and handed Mia her glass. She shook her head.

"I'm not going to drink anything. It's enough that my father has a drinking problem."

Larissa and I looked at each other in surprise, and she turned the music down a little more.

"He's got it under control again, but he always sits in front of the bottle and stares at it like it could get him out of Blairville."

Mia sounded like she really needed to talk about it. I wondered if she communicated in this open way with Julian. The two of them had seemed very familiar at dinner.

Larissa came over to Mia and sat down cross-legged in front of the two girls. "Shit, Mia, I'm sorry..."

I sat down on the windowsill.

Mia just smiled, as if she could just shrug it all off at the age of fifteen and looked at Mady. "Never mind. I've got my Sunshine Girl."

Mady smiled, but her smile seemed surprised and artificial.

"Why does everyone call you that?" I asked.

First Julian, then a few guys in the campus bar and now Mia.

Mady's cheeks had turned red, and she started to laugh nervously. "Long story."

Larissa looked at her challengingly. "We have time."

After some hesitation, Mady finally began to tell.

"Nash called me that even before we got together." Oh, no. What if I had touched the wrong topic? "Before we got together, I wasn't doing very well. My parents died in a plane crash when I was sixteen."

I had definitely touched the wrong topic.

"I'm sorry about that, Mady..." I tried to salvage it somehow. "You don't have to go on..."

Mady, however, smiled gently, though I wasn't sure if it was genuine.

"It's all right. We're at it once." She took the black emerald colored hairband out of her hair. "Nash approached me at some point. He said I was the girl who had always smiled so much. The sunshine girl in the schoolyard." I had been expecting something else typical of Nash, something condescending, but the story took a surprising turn. "I hadn't managed to talk about it up to that point, but somehow it worked with him. I did tell him about the accident at that moment." The corners of her mouth moved slowly upwards, and this time it felt real. Just like the tears that gleamed in her eyes. "He invited me to Lola's Diner and, somehow, we met up more often, talked a lot, did things. He was there for me, even though he wasn't feeling well himself. And he helped me smile again... Until he broke up with me out of nowhere." That must have hit home. "He used to be so different compared to now..."

Mady fell silent, and I could see her fighting back tears. But then she quickly reached for her glass.

"But whatever." She raised it. "Here's to a future without toxic relationships."

Larissa quickly raised her glass.

I knew she could sing a song about such things.

"Now, it's your turn," Mady looked at me with a challenging look. "Have you ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend, Bay?"

Old memories came flooding back, but I hadn't felt the pain for a long time.

" David Eaton , blond athlete and exchange student from England."

"Oh, come on," Mia admitted in amazement and reached for the nachos Larissa had stashed around her.

"I thought he was the love of my life, but then he slept with the popular girl."

"Oh, shit."

Mady showed her clenched teeth.

Larissa just groaned. "Olivia McConnell, that little bitch . She's been snatching up my ex-boyfriends too."

I was glad that Olivia was now studying in Boston. Law , if I remembered correctly.

"What about your family?" Mady looked at Larissa with interest. "They must miss you terribly."

I watched my best friend closely because I knew that was her sore spot. But she had already shared half the bottle of champagne with Mady, so she just started talking.

"I grew up as an orphan in a children's home and was later thrown out of the house for causing too much trouble." No one said anything. "My mum was a drug junkie, and my father left her dying when I was born."

Mady and Mia looked at Larissa, stunned. They probably couldn't imagine what Larissa had been through. And the fact that my best friend talked about it as if it was just a point in her biography didn't make it any better.

I let my gaze wander out of the window toward the dancing treetops. But it remained fixed on the road. My breath hitched.

"But it's only half as bad. The Adams were good hosts."

I could no longer concentrate on the conversation. My attention was gone. Because in front of me, just twenty meters away, in the middle of the street, stood a man. He was dressed completely in black, wore a slightly longer coat, and didn't move at all.

I swallowed. Because he was staring up at me. With red glowing eyes .

"Bayla, are you all right?"

I jerked my head around to the girls. To be more precise, to Mady, who blinked at me with a worried look.

I turned to look out of the window again.

The man had disappeared.

Now, fear and confusion spread through me.

If the guy was no longer standing there. Where was he now?

"There was someone in the street..." I stuttered, almost breathlessly.

"My brother, maybe. He always goes running at this time of day."

What? Julian was out there? On his own?

"He should be home by now if he doesn't want to get in trouble with Dad."

I knew that hadn't been Julian there.

I couldn't take my eyes off the road.

What if Mady had a stalker? What if there were other crazy people up to mischief in Blairville besides the wolves and witches. What if there really was a murderer in Blairville?

"We should enjoy the evening now and listen to some decent music. Otherwise, I'll fall asleep!"

Larissa had jumped up and run to the music box, which she turned up again before opening a second bottle with Mady. The two of them giggled so sweetly that it completely distracted me, and then they were already dancing around Mady's big room, singing loudly to the song Easily by Fort Lean . Mia pulled me up, and reluctantly I followed her until we were all dancing through the 2000s together.

It was one of those moments where you forgot about the world around you because the music and the people were right. Everything felt good. For a moment. The present was what made the past and the future relative. And even if I hadn't consumed anything, I felt high.

We talked all night, and I felt more and more sorry for Mady. She had been friends with Grace and Vivienna before they had excluded her because of her relationship with Nash. And it was all because of this supernatural stuff.

Larissa talked a lot about her burglary stories and showed off her tattoos, just like she had always done with the guys when she had dragged me to one of the many clubs. She ignored the questions about the date under the knot tattoo next to her breast. She hadn't even told me what it was all about.

We played truth or dare, I had a drink after all, which I immediately regretted as my headache returned, and Mady and Larissa were so drunk at one point that they convinced us to play hide and seek in the house.

But the feeling of being watched wouldn't leave me, so I woke up in the middle of the night from a dream in which the shadow of the dark man had followed me through the woods. But every time I turned around, no one had been there.

Breathing heavily, I sat up and looked at the other girls, who all seemed to be deep asleep. I rose as quiet as possible, trying not to stumble over Mia's legs as I made my way to the window to check the street.

Without the music, everything seemed so strange, like I was in a less beautiful version of the present. The part they called reality .

Holding my breath, I pushed aside Mady's rose curtains and looked at the Victorian lantern in front of our house. The street was empty. Only a few leaves swept across the sidewalk, branches flew through our front garden and the letterbox squeaked in the wind. A black raven was sitting on the box, as if it was waiting for me to get the post so it could attack me again.

I looked over to the forest into the dark thicket that swayed threateningly back and forth.

It was as if I was looking for the red eyes. But they had disappeared.

After the little party at Mady's, I had returned home, where Mum had welcomed me with concern.

It wasn't as if she had left me in this witch temple only a week ago, and anyway , as if this wasn't all her fault.

I tried to concentrate on the book in front of me, the one Alarik Copeland had given me, but my eyes kept falling on the three new boxes of pills on my bedside table.

There was something about them that worried me, which was why I had started to stop taking these pills for my attacks a week ago. And sure enough, I had had no more outbreaks, no more strange veins on my arms and even the itching had stopped.

I had decided to observe my body's reaction for a while before confronting my mother.

What if I had been taking the wrong pills for years and the doctors had just thought something was wrong with me?

"Bayla!" I heard Mum call from downstairs. "Dinner's ready!"

I slammed the book shut and decided to take it downstairs with me.

I looked out of the window one last time at the street, which was covered in colorful autumn leaves that were whirled up by the wind every few seconds.

I actually liked fall. But Blairville was in a doomsday mood because of all the thunderstorm warnings and there were ravens everywhere you looked, which scared me more than the massive Halloween decorations in the streets of this little neighborhood.

Larissa called me paranoid because I had once told her that I felt stalked by these creatures. She was probably right. This town made me paranoid.

"Bay!"

I jumped up from the carpet next to my window, feeling dizzy and a painful tug rushing through my chest.

Since this morning, I'd been feeling a strange pressure between my breasts, like something was stuck there that didn't belong.

Something was wrong with my body, because I was also freezing all the time.

Larissa had said I wasn't used to the weather here, but it felt more like chills.

I didn't know what was wrong with me, but ever since Mum's witch friend had almost broken my neck on the altar of sacrifice in the witch temple, the symptoms of illness had been alternating. Headaches and tiredness went hand in hand day and night, and now I was also freezing.

The smell of freshly baked blueberry pancakes and hot butter filled the entire first floor, and my mouth automatically watered.

Mum definitely knew how to wrap me around her finger.

Last night, she had called me and told me to go with Julian, which I had done.

I didn't mind sitting next to Julian in a slightly older tin car, not at all. He hadn't exactly been talkative, almost over-focused on the road. We'd exchanged a few words about the Copelands, and I'd asked him questions about the English professor. He'd only meant that I should stay away from the Copelands and their pack, if Julie and Grace said so.

Very helpful.

He'd answered the question of what part he played in all this with a curt " none" and I'd accepted it as I don't feel like talking to you .

Before Julian had let me out at Mady's, I had used the time to read Professor Copeland's book.

From what I'd understood, it was about a group of young students whose mission was to bring their families together, so they formed a secret alliance.

It was easy to get into and the author, whose name I still didn't know, had a relaxing writing style. It really wasn't bad, but I was barely on page 30 of 400.

I sat on the couch with my professor's book and successfully blocked out the fact that he was a werewolf.

"Et voila!" Mum came into the living room with two heavy plates, a smile on her lips that I had missed a little.

How could she be in such a good mood with all she knew and after the torture last weekend?

I still hadn't forgiven her for lying to me about being sick. Especially because there really were people out there battling cancer.

"You can read on later. For now, I have something for you that I'm sure you won't be able to say no to."

With reluctance, I placed the book on the table next to me and moved so that Mum could sit down on the couch.

She handed me a knife and fork, as well as the plate full of pancakes, which smiled at me with their roundness dripping with maple syrup.

"At least maple syrup is cheaper in Canada," Mum laughed, plopping down on the couch next to me with a carefree expression.

"Can witches even get cancer?"

Mum made a face because she knew what I was indirectly criticizing her for.

"We're bound to a human body. Of course, we can get sick, just like anyone else."

"Can't illnesses just be magicked away?"

Mum looked up from her plate.

"It's not that simple." She put a piece of pancake in her mouth and finished chewing before continuing. "Healing diseases is one of the gifts of the Earth or Water Quatura. And even though there are many Earth Quatura, only a few have mastered this gift."

"So, there are several types of witches?"

" Please try to use the word Quatura when you're in Moenia, okay? I don't mind it, but the others do."

Mum had explained to me over the phone what the witch house was called where the Blairs lived above this underground temple, and as if that wasn't weird enough, it was a rule, no matter how close someone was to you, to call them by their first name.

I'd told Mum straight away that she couldn't force me - not even in exchange for blueberry pancakes - to call her Diana .

That must have been her inspiration for our Saturday dinner today. Something we were now going to make a tradition of, as much as possible. It was my mother's pitiful attempt to overshadow all this crap with normal human activities .

"There are four types of Quatura. Most of us, about 70 percent, have the gifts of the earth. Just like you saw with Amara. This means that they are able to combine plants and minerals in such a way that they become effective."

"So, they make potions?" I asked with sarcasm, and Mum laughed.

"Something like that... Only we call it something else. But more on that later. Because that's not all. Quatura of Earth can also shape materials, influence biological processes, or use plants to work healing magic, for example." I immediately thought of Amara, who had nursed up Mum's plant. "These Quatura are the ones who perform the temple service, lead the rituals, and are often the Domini of a Circle."

Mum called these cults, which apparently existed all over the world, Circles , and the idea that Grace and Julie had grown up there sent shivers down my spine.

Mum speared a thumb-sized blueberry onto her fork and popped it into her mouth.

The food was so damn delicious, but I had completely forgotten to continue eating.

"Tell me about the others," I prompted her, cutting my pancake pile into four even pieces.

"Fifteen percent of the Quatura are guardians of water. They can shape and use water, but they can also communicate with creatures in the waters."

I looked up from my plate.

" Mermaids , then?"

Mum sighed. "They were actually Quatura of the water who practiced by the sea back then. You must know that they can breathe underwater." I looked at Mum in amazement. "They use the water to heal, but they are very private souls. They're often consulted when there's a problem with the weather, but otherwise, they tend to stay on the seaside of the island here, where their powers are stronger."

Blairville was located on a slightly larger peninsula that jutted out into the sea and was therefore, perfectly isolated from the outside world. The best place to found a cult.

"Another twelve percent of the Quatura have the gift of air. But it's actually more like telekinesis, you know?"

She moved her finger, and suddenly, my plate of pancakes rose into the air, only to fly to Mum, who handed me one of her pancakes and let the plate fly back into my hands.

"What the..."

"Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous. We're being trained to protect the temple, to ward off possible supernatural enemies."

Of course , she was still one of the people who put themselves in danger. I wondered if she had ever fought the wolves, who were obviously one of the Quatura's enemies.

"What's the fourth element?"

Mum looked at me for a moment as if she didn't know what to say.

"It's a very rare and dangerous power. That of fire."

It didn't sound any more dangerous than being catapulted around by Vivienna or her mother.

"Only three percent of Quatura have this gift, which makes them very rare, but also very powerful. The dangerous thing about them is not the fire itself, but the source of their gift."

I looked questioningly at Mum, who placed her half-full plate on the coffee table. If she didn't want it anymore, I would eat it.

"All Quatura use their gift to control elements that are already there. A Water Quatura uses the water. That would hardly be possible in the desert. A Quatura of the earth uses the plants and rocks around her, and the Quatura of the air also need certain conditions."

It all sounded terribly complicated. I wondered if she had grown up with it. More and more questions arose in my mind.

"What about the Fire Quatura?"

"The fire lives in them." Mum spoke quieter than before as if we could be watched. "They create the flames through an inherent source of power and can do a lot of damage with it if they're not raised within a Circle and taught how to use it."

It sounded like she had some experience with it.

"Do you know a Fire Quatura?"

Mum looked at me. She seemed to hesitate. Again . So, I just asked my next question to take her mind off it. This strategy had worked well since last week to avoid conflict. And I only did it because I would soon forget all about this anyway.

"And what about the children? Do they have the same gifts as their mothers?"

Telekinesis wouldn't be that impractical...

Startled by this thought, I stopped chewing. I could hardly believe that – for a moment – I had found anything desirable about being part of this magical society. No. That would never happen, because I was ungifted.

Mum gave me a calm look.

"Mostly, yes, but there are exceptions, for example if the child's father comes from a Quatura family where other elements have been passed on. He doesn't have to have active elemental magic himself, and can be ungifted. Also, if other elements have already been inherited within the family line."

I couldn't help but think of what Alarik had told me. I felt sorry for all the sons who were simply given away because they didn't fit into the family without an elemental gift. Children who had to grow up like Larissa. Orphans.

Larissa really didn't have it easy, which is why I had never judged her for anything. She had to be better off here in Blairville, which was probably why she didn't want to go back.

"Would you have given me away back then if I'd been a boy?"

Mum looked at me in surprise, then laughed.

"What makes you think that?"

I looked at her seriously.

"You know what I mean."

"Bayla, you're a girl."

I knew what I was, but I also knew what I could have become.

"Mum..."

Her expression became more serious.

"No," she finally said. "I would have had a choice because I lived far away from here. But if the Circle had found out, it would no longer have been my choice."

How could these people have so much power? And how could Mum just accept it?

I had a feeling something was bothering her right now, but I didn't know what it was. I'd learned so many new things about Mum in the last few weeks that there was a huge gap between my original mother and the woman I'd met in Blairville. She used to have a life with me and a life here . Maybe I knew Mum, but did I know who Diana Adams was?

"Mum, you can tell me everything. Don't forget that."

I looked into her eyes. Into those in which there were just so many unspoken words, so much she could tell me.

"Now that I know about your old life here in Blairville, that you're a witch and that there are werewolves, I don't think anything can surprise me anymore," I tried in a different way.

The expression on her face instantly told me that this wasn't true, that there was much more to it than that.

The more I knew about her, the more I knew that I didn't actually know anything . And that felt like I was standing on a wobbly bridge with no railings.

"I'll lose my memories in a few weeks anyway."

One last attempt.

She looked at me with pity.

"Even if I don't believe it, Bayla. I hope it with all my heart." She sounded remorseful, sad. "I want nothing more for you than a normal life, away from this society, away from all these circumstances here in Blairville."

She looked down.

"Mum, if you want it so much, why did you move back here with me in the first place?"

"I had to, Bayla. The Circle doesn't give us a choice. I am a registered Quatura, and we aren't allowed to live alone for too long."

She looked at the ground, away from me. Her gaze lingered on the blue leather book with the gold engraving on the coffee table.

"Where did you get that?"

Suddenly, she didn't look so embarrassed, but tense.

"One of your old friends gave it to me," I joked, trying to lighten the mood a little. The exact opposite happened.

"Bayla..." She sat up straight, ready to take the book.

I quickly grabbed the copy and slipped it into the large belly pocket of my dark pine green Vanderwood hoodie.

Mum's eyes widened.

" Who gave you this book?"

"My English professor," I admitted meekly, without mentioning his name.

"What's your English professor's name?" she asked me tensely as if she had forgotten the letter from a few weeks ago in which he had already appeared once.

I was silent for a little too long. "Um..." And I hated that I was so bad at lying. "Professor Copeland?"

Mum's face filled with horror.

With my hands up, I jumped up and stepped back.

"I know you want me to stay away from the Copelands. But the professor is actually quite nice, and we had a conversation about books... And he said he knew you..."

My attempt to talk my way out of it had failed. I had only made it worse.

"Give me the book!" she said, demanding as if the professor had given me forbidden literature .

" No , Mum, it's a special copy, and the professor wants it back, and besides..."

" No , not besides . If he wants it back, he shouldn't have given it to you."

She stood up and came toward me.

"Mum!" I gasped, overwhelmed by her sudden change of mood.

"Bayla Adams! I said, give me the book! Now! "

I was startled by her harsh tone and the way she spoke to me. It was another one of those sudden personality changes and it upset me.

My headache came back.

I didn't know what to do, so I just let it out.

" No , Mum!" I replied in a sharp voice. I was sorry to have to talk to her like that, but she couldn't always dictate the world to me. "You can't always make decisions about me. I'm an adult, and you shouldn't care who I talk to and whose books I borrow!"

Mum was about to say something when the front doorbell rang.

"You have your life, so respect mine too!" I snapped at her, my anger growing.

Mum's eyes had become a little watery, and I immediately felt sorry that I had spoken to her like that. Ready to apologize, I wanted to go to her and hug her, but she just walked away, leaving me in the living room to open the front door.