Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The early morning light was just starting to creep through the gap in the Bluebell Suite’s aggressively floral curtains when Ramona woke. Gray and thin, the kind of pre-dawn light that made everything look washed out and unreal.
She was warm. Unreasonably warm.
Zara was still asleep beside her, one arm draped across Ramona’s waist, her face pressed into the pillow.
Her hair was a complete disaster, which Ramona found unexpectedly satisfying, given how precisely styled it usually was.
The shadow-tail was gone, dissolved back into whatever ethereal plane it lived in when Zara wasn’t actively falling apart.
How gorgeous and strange and perfect this creature was.
She’d never been so taken care of in bed before.
Her past lovers, Simone and even before, had been fun, but something about Zara felt different.
Deeper, like Zara knew exactly what she needed even before she did.
Could that have been an effect of the tether?
Ramona watched the demon for a moment, then carefully extracted herself from the tangle of limbs and sheets.
The cold air hit her skin immediately, making her shiver.
She grabbed Zara’s discarded shirt from the floor — still warm, because of course it was — and pulled it over her head while making her way to the bathroom.
She paused at the window on her way back to bed.
The view was less romantic than she’d expected.
The parking lot. A dumpster. A family of raccoons engaged in what looked like a territorial dispute near the trash bins.
No fox, though. She didn’t know why the realization felt disappointing — they were two hours outside of Fernwick.
How in the world would the fox be able to travel that far and find her?
“Ramona.”
She turned. Zara was awake, propped up on one elbow, watching her with an expression that was softer than usual. Sleep rumpled. Human-looking, almost.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you,” Ramona said.
“You didn’t.” Zara sat up, the duvet pooling around her waist. She didn’t bother covering herself, which was… distracting, to say the least. “Can’t sleep?”
“Just thinking.” Ramona leaned against the windowsill, pulling the blazer tighter. “About the ritual. About everything.”
Zara was quiet for a moment. Then she patted the mattress. “Come back to bed. You’ll freeze.”
Ramona hesitated, then crossed back to the bed and slid under the covers as she removed Zara’s jacket.
Zara twisted to glance at her HellBerry, and that’s when Ramona saw the ink on Zara’s back clearly. It wasn’t a tattoo. Not exactly. Black, swirling lines moved in a hypnotic, rhythmic pulse over Zara’s shoulder blades and down her spine. They shifted like ink dropped into a glass of water.
“Zara?” Ramona traced a moving line with her finger. “What’s this?”
Zara’s arm came around her immediately, pulling her close. The heat was still there, that supernatural warmth radiating from her skin like a banked fire.
“All demons have markings,” Zara said.
“And your markings move?” Ramona asked.
Zara nodded. “I think I was born with them. I’ve had them as long as I remember.”
“Do you feel them?”
Zara shrugged. “Only when they’re touched. They’re incredibly… sensitive.”
Ramona raised a brow. “Noted.”
They lay in silence for a while. Ramona could hear the raccoons outside, chittering aggressively at each other. The radiator clanking. Zara’s steady breathing.
“The last time I cast magic like last night,” Ramona said quietly. “Real magic. With actual stakes. It was the night of the incident.”
She felt Zara go still beside her. Not pulling away. Just listening.
“Simone and I had been married for two years,” Ramona continued, her voice flat.
“We worked together at Thornwood, but in different departments. Kate was my best friend and in our coven. I introduced them, and they became friends. I didn’t think anything of it.
” She stared at the pattern of the wallpaper on the opposite wall.
“They’d been having an affair for six months before anyone told me. ”
“Six months,” Zara repeated softly, shaking her head.
“Everyone knew. The entire coven. My colleagues at Thornwood.” Ramona sighed. “I was the last person to find out. Someone finally told me right before the autumn equinox ritual. The big one. The one the whole coven does together.”
“And you were supposed to participate.”
“I was supposed to lead part of it. I’d been preparing for weeks.
” Ramona’s hand found the edge of the duvet, gripping it.
“I should have walked away. Should have gone home, dealt with it later, done anything other than show up to a major ritual while I was—” She swallowed.
“I was devastated. And humiliated. And so fucking angry I could barely see straight.”
“But you stayed.”
“I stayed. And I decided to hex Kate.”
Zara said nothing. Her thumb traced slow circles against Ramona’s shoulder, grounding and steady.
“It was supposed to be small. Petty. Make her trip and fall during the ritual, or something. Maybe give her warts all over her face. I hadn’t decided.
Something everyone would see. Something that would make her feel as humiliated as I felt.
” Ramona’s jaw tightened. “Childish. I know that now. I knew it then, probably. But I was so angry, Zara. I wanted her to hurt, too.”
“What happened?”
“I cast the hex during the ritual. With the entire coven’s energy channeled through the space.
With the protective wards at full power.
With everything aligned.” The words came out clinical.
Detached. Like she was watching it as a memory from far away.
“My magic has always been off, you know? Since I was a kid. Spells that should have been simple would go sideways for no reason. I thought I was just bad at it. Sloppy. Everyone else at Thornwood could cast without thinking. I had to work twice as hard just to get halfway there. Honestly, I was only admitted to Thornwood because of the Greenbriar name and who my mom is, but I worked so hard to prove to everyone that I was meant to be there. And even then, sometimes things would just… break.”
She pulled the duvet up higher, suddenly cold despite Zara’s warmth.
“I don’t know why it happened the way it did that night.
I still don’t. My magic just… completely broke.
Like something inside me shattered and everything poured out at once.
” Ramona pressed her forehead against Zara’s shoulder.
“The hex didn’t just hit Kate. It exploded.
Wild magic — uncontrolled, undirected, fueled by the ritual’s own energy.
It blew through the entire space like a shockwave. ”
“How bad?”
“The High Priestess got donkey ears. Kate got a stutter that made her sound like she was speaking backwards. Two other coven members got temporary afflictions — one woman’s hands turned into lobster claws for a day, and one briefly transformed into a bird.
” Ramona’s voice cracked. “Not for long, but long enough. Thankfully, my mother and Iris weren’t affected. ”
“Intense,” Zara breathed.
“The protective wards around Thornwood went down completely. The building’s magical infrastructure was destabilized for weeks.
” Ramona’s fingers curled against Zara’s skin.
“The Magical Council launched an investigation. Everyone thought the High Priestess’s ears were permanent.
For three days, the entire magical community believed I had permanently cursed the High Priestess of the Thornwood Coven. ”
“But you didn’t.”
“Iris figured it out. She figured out how to reverse it. She’s good at what she does.
She fixed the High Priestess. Fixed everyone.
” Ramona paused, taking a deep breath, the guilt of the memory still heavy in her chest. “And she told the Council it was an accident. That I wasn’t dangerous if I didn’t cast. She convinced them not to strip my magic entirely.
But they fired me from Thornwood. Expelled me from the coven.
Put me on probationary status with the Magical Council. ”
Outside, the sky was getting lighter, the gray dawn turning slowly toward actual morning.
“And everyone was terrified of me,” Ramona said quietly.
“And I couldn’t even argue with them. Because I didn’t know why it happened.
I still don’t. I moved to Fernwick, where I could start over, and I feel like I’m failing at every turn.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Zara.
I just know that every time I try to do real magic — magic that matters — something inside me breaks, and other people get hurt. ”
Zara was very still beside her. Ramona could feel something through the tether — something sharp and carefully controlled, like Zara was holding back a flood.
“That’s why you stopped casting,” Zara said. Not a question.
“What use is a witch who can’t cast without destroying everything she touches?” Ramona’s laugh was hollow. “So I hung up the proverbial witch hat. Took the job at Mystic Moon. Sold crystals to non-mages who didn’t know enough to be afraid of me. Tried to forget that I’d ever been anything else.”
She gestured vaguely toward the window, toward the parking lot and the raccoons and the world beyond.
“And last night I was desperate to prove that I could still do it. That I wasn’t completely useless.
That I could handle real magic without—” Her voice broke.
She pressed her lips together, furious at herself for crying, for not being able to get through a single confession without falling apart. “Without hurting anyone.”
“But you didn’t hurt anyone,” Zara finished softly.
Ramona nodded. “I did temporarily get struck by something like lightning, if memory serves.”
“That could have happened to anyone,” Zara said, turning onto her side. She kissed Ramona’s bare shoulder. “I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of your magic.”