Chapter 34 #2
“I didn’t mean to,” Posey said softly. “I was just standing here, thinking about how ugly that tree must have been, wishing there was something beautiful to balance out all the darkness. And then, well.” She gestured toward the garden.
“They just grew. I didn’t even cast. Didn’t speak.
Just thought about flowers, and they appeared. ”
“That’s…” Ramona didn’t have words. “Posey, that’s incredible.”
“It’s terrifying,” Posey corrected. “What if I think about the wrong thing? What if I accidentally grow something poisonous? Or invasive? Or—” She stopped. Took a breath. “But yes. It’s also incredible.”
Felix was grinning. “So the ritual supercharged all of us. Kashvi can see and channel ghosts. Gerald can fly like a tiny feathered acrobat. Posey can grow flowers with her thoughts.” He paused. Looked at Ramona. “What about you?”
Ramona held up her hand. Thought about light. A ball of pure white light formed above her palm. Steady. Controlled. Perfect.
No stuttering. No flickering. No explosion of chaos.
Simple magic. Working exactly as she intended.
“It’s clean,” she said. Her voice was thick. “My magic. It just works. Like it should have always worked.”
“Because it should have,” Felix said gently. “The curse is gone. This is who you always were underneath.”
Ramona dismissed the light, looked at Felix. “What about you? Did the ritual amplify anything for you?”
Felix stopped. Frowned. “Actually. There’s been something weird. With technology.” He pulled out his phone and didn’t touch the screen. Just looked at it.
The phone unlocked.
“Okay, that could be Face ID,” Kashvi said, rolling her eyes.
Felix kept looking. Apps opened. Closed. The screen flickered through menus without him touching anything.
“But that’s not,” Ramona said.
“It started this morning,” Felix said. “I thought my phone was glitching. But then…” He looked at Kashvi’s laptop. It woke up, opened a browser, and started playing a YouTube video of pigeons.
“Felix,” Kashvi said slowly. “Are you controlling my laptop with your mind?”
“Maybe?” Felix looked equal parts excited and terrified. “I think — I think the convergence point gave me technopathy, or at least amplified it. I’ve always been good with computers but this is…” The laptop opened six more tabs. Closed them. The volume adjusted up and down. “This is weird.”
Gerald cooed smugly, like he’d known all along that his human was special.
Cammie was being quiet. Too quiet. She kept glancing at her phone. At the door. At anything except the people in the room.
“Cammie?” Ramona asked gently, remembering the silver in Cammie’s eyes before she was distracted. “Are you okay?”
Cammie looked up. Bit her lip. “Yeah.” She smiled, sipping her coffee.
“Anything new?” Ramona pressed.
Felix, Kashvi, and Posey looked equally confused.
“Still just a boring human,” Cammie said with a shrug.
Ramona knew for a fact that wasn’t true, but it seemed as though Cammie wasn’t ready to say much more.
“The convergence point amplified all of us,” Kashvi said. “Made us more of what we already were. Or revealed what was always there.”
They sat in silence for a moment. Processing. Adjusting to their new normal. Ramona felt the loss of Zara like a physical ache. The silence where the tether used to be. But she also felt… different. Each of them were so different. Changed, amplified, powerful.
But still themselves. Still here. Still together.
“Where’s my mother?” Ramona asked. “Iris?”
“They wanted to give you some space,” Kashvi said. “They’re not here. They left this morning. Said something about last-minute Ostara Gala things.”
The Ostara Gala.
Tonight.
“Speaking of, I had an idea,” Felix said. His voice was too casual. Too bright. Definitely trying to distract her from the grief. “What if we officially became a coven?”
Ramona looked at him. At all of them. “What?”
“Think about it. We just performed three rituals in one night. Cleansed a corrupted convergence point. Broke a twenty-seven-year-old curse. Survived a ghost attack and came out of it with amplified abilities.” Felix gestured around the room. “We work well together. Why not make it official?”
Cammie smiled again. “I like this change. I want to be an honorary coven member.”
“Covens can have non-magical members,” Posey said quietly. “Support roles. Historians. Chroniclers.” She looked at Cammie. “Endless possibilities.”
Ramona looked around at her friends, her real family, sitting in the room with her.
An oddball group of outcasts who had come together and created change.
Had helped her when she needed it. She couldn’t think of any other coven members she’d rather have by her side.
She felt the tightness loosen in her chest, just barely.
The grief stayed, but something was standing beside it now. Hope, maybe.
“Okay,” she said. “Okay. We could be a coven.”
“Should we have a name?” Kashvi asked. Percival the ghost cat purred on her lap.
“The Exile Coven,” Felix said with a grin. “Since that’s basically what we are. Outcasts and exiles and people who don’t fit the Council’s narrow definitions.”
“That’s terrible,” Kashvi said. “Very on the nose.”
“I like it,” Posey said softly.
“So what do we do first as the Exile Coven?” Cammie asked.
“We could register with the Council,” Kashvi said. “Which means filling out approximately seven thousand forms and probably getting interrogated about our intentions and practices.”
“Or,” Felix said slowly. A small smile played at the corners of his mouth. “We could just show up at the Ostara Gala tonight and make them acknowledge us.”
Silence.
Then Ramona started laughing. “That’s insane.”
“It’s perfect,” Felix corrected. “Show up at the biggest magical event of the year. Make them acknowledge us as a real coven. Put them on the spot in front of everyone to celebrate the fresh start and endless possibility of spring.”
“They’ll hate it,” Ramona said.
“Good,” Posey said. There was an edge to her voice Ramona had never heard before. Anger, maybe. Determination.
“We’ll need outfits,” Cammie said. She was looking at her phone again. “The Ostara Gala is tonight. Like, in six hours. And it’s formal. Ball-gowns-and-tuxedos formal.”
“I know a place,” Kashvi said. “There’s a cool vintage shop in Thornwood not too far away. They have a whole section of formal wear. If we go now, we might have time.”
Ramona shook her head. “I don’t think I’m ready to go.”
Silence.
“What?” Felix said.
“I’m not in the mood, and I don’t particularly want to be recognized anywhere as a Greenbriar right now.
” Ramona’s voice was flat. That was only half of the reason.
The other half was the huge, gaping hole in her chest where her heart once was.
“You all go. Make your statement. I’ll… I’ll be at home. ”
“Absolutely not,” Kashvi said immediately.
“This was your idea—” Posey started.
“It was Felix’s idea,” Ramona corrected.
“You agreed to it,” Felix said. “You can’t back out now.”
“I said it was insane.”
“Same thing,” Felix argued.
“You should come,” Cammie said gently. “Zara would want you to go. Would want you to show everyone what you’re capable of.”
That hit like a knife. Ramona’s chest tightened. “That’s not fair,” she said.
“It’s completely fair,” Felix said. “Come on, Ramona. We’re doing this together. The Exile Coven’s first official appearance.”
Posey looked at Ramona. Her voice was soft but firm. “Please come with us. We need you there.”
“We’re not doing this without you,” Kashvi added. “You’re the reason we’re all here. The reason we even have a coven.”
“That’s not true—”
“It is,” Felix interrupted. “You brought us together. Your curse, your ritual, your fight. We’re not showing up at that gala without you.”
“Besides,” Cammie added, a slight smile on her face. “Your mom will be so mad if we crash her event.”
Ramona lifted a brow, considering.
“She might even disown you,” Felix added.
“I mean, that is very enticing.” Ramona smirked.
Eleanor would hate it. Would be mortified that her disgraced daughter showed up at a Magical Council formal event with a ragtag group of outcasts calling themselves a coven.
Ramona looked at all of them. At her found family. Her coven. The people who’d stayed. Who’d helped. Who were here even though Zara wasn’t.
The grief held firm. Still crushing. But underneath…
They were right. Zara would want her to go. Would want her to walk into that gala with her head high and her magic clean and show everyone exactly who she was.
“Okay,” Ramona said. Her voice was rough. “Fine. I’ll go. But if I have a breakdown in the middle of the gala, you’re all responsible.”
“Deal,” Felix said, grinning. “Now let’s go find you a dress that says ‘I broke a twenty-seven-year-old curse and all I got was this lousy formal wear.’”
“That’s not a thing dresses say,” Kashvi pointed out.
“It should be,” Felix said.
Gerald did a loop-the-loop in agreement.
Despite everything — despite the grief and the loss and the empty space where the tether used to be — Ramona felt the corners of her mouth lift into a small smile.