Chapter 7
Gwen
Sabine pointed me to the Flower Moon cabin before she had to report to the mess hall. I stared at the delicate wildflowers rambling all around the sign like something out of a cottagecore wet dream.
I glanced longingly across the path to the more gothic and macabre Blood Moon cabin, wishing I’d been assigned to that one instead.
Each of the cabins seemed designed for a completely different kind of witch.
Some were spooky, some were elegant, and some were covered in garlands of herbs, while others had astrological symbols painted on their exterior walls.
Would it be weird for the new girl to take a tour of all the cabins? I needed to cure my FOMO.
A breeze rustled through the trees, bringing the slightest bit of relief from the sun.
Hopefully, I’d learn whatever magic trick Sabine had used on her water bottle because I was not equipped for the summer heat.
I smiled to myself and plucked a petal from the string of dried daisies hanging from the wood sign and sighed, remembering the gorgeous witch with auburn hair and freckles.
I’d never thought cargo shorts and Converse were a turn-on, but I had a feeling camp was going to change my mind.
If Sabine had told me she was part fairy, I wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised. She was the epitome of a woodland sprite. Sabine seemed like an earthy, wildflower kind of witch, whereas I could see myself all in black, mixing potions or casting hexes.
I wondered if they’d teach us those . . .
I pushed the door open, meeting the eyes of my seven perplexed cabinmates.
I remembered some of them from the rec center, but others were brand new to me.
They all wore a similar uniform of green T-shirts, shorts, and either Birkenstocks or sneakers.
All of them were wearing friendship bracelets, and I was grateful to Sabine that at least I had one of those now.
I’ll stay if you stay.
I heard her warm voice echo in my ears as I toyed with the bracelet. I liked the idea that even without my phone—which she had rudely confiscated—this bracelet meant that I could always call for help.
“Gwen! Hey!” a familiar voice called as Faith pushed her way through the other witches to get to me. “I saved you a bed in my bunk!”
She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. I saw the welcome packet and T-shirt that she had collected for me sitting on the nightstand.
“I hope you don’t mind that I took the bottom. I like to feel more . . . confined when I sleep.” She gave me a toothy grin.
“Right. Thanks.” I gave her a nervous smile. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Faith waved away the statement. “Of course I did, silly! It’s what friends do.” She picked up the shirt and tossed it to me. “I was looking for you everywhere and figured you’d have to come back here eventually.”
Did being friends with a half-vampire witch mean I’d be lightly stalked all summer?
At least I had two people looking out for me, right?
The other girls resumed unpacking and chatting amongst themselves while I stood at the threshold of the cabin, staring at the large built-in bunk beds.
Some had already decorated theirs with fairy lights and strings of photos from home.
Only a couple remained bare. I offered a sheepish wave to the throng of wary witches, feeling too much like this was some sort of exposure therapy.
They all seemed vaguely suspicious of me, but not as outright hostile as Astrid had been.
Faith reached across her bed and pulled out a black tote bag.
She rummaged through it for a moment and took out a bottle of sunscreen and a pair of sunglasses.
“I have about a dozen bottles of this stuff if you need it,” she said, rubbing in a thick bead of the bright white lotion over her arm.
“I get burned to a crisp if I don’t slather it on. ”
I had a million questions, but before I could scroll through them all, she perched her glasses on the long bridge of her nose and said, “Hurry up and get changed. Once the sun sets, you’ll want a hoodie.”
Our other cabinmates started gathering their light layers and headed out the door.
“Where are we going?”
“There’s a weekly itinerary in your welcome packet, but you’ll have to read it when we get back.” She pulled a lip gloss from her pocket and glazed it onto her bare lips. “Right now, we’ve got to get to the first-night welcome campfire in five minutes.”
“You can go on ahead, if you want,” I said, looking around to find that half of our cabinmates had already left. I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I guess I’ll introduce myself to them later.”
“Nah, I’ll wait with you. We’ll have loads of time to get to know everyone tomorrow.”
I plopped my duffel at the foot of the bunk she’d volunteered to share with me and held the T-shirt up to get a better look at it.
“Where were you?” Faith asked, crossing her arms and cocking her hip. “I was worried.”
I laughed. It was sweet. She didn’t know me well enough to worry about me, but she was already acting like a big sister, despite being nearly three years my junior.
I appreciated how eagerly she’d taken me under her wing though.
I wasn’t the best at putting myself out there.
In the past, by the time I opened up to any new friend group it was time to move on to the next city.
“I went for an impromptu walk,” I said defensively. “Then got a little lost. But a counselor found me and walked me back to camp.”
“Lost?” Faith leaned closer. “What was this counselor’s name?”
“Sabine?”
Two of the last girls heading out the door stopped and turned, the name catching their interest. “Sabine Stonewood?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Is there more than one Sabine at S-C-U-W?”
“It’s pronounced skew,” the taller girl with ash-blonde hair said. “Too long to spell out every letter.”
I was about to defend my version of the Summer Camp for Upstanding Witches acronym when the smaller witch with short coils of dark hair said, “Wait, so Sabine rescued you from the woods?” She waved her hands with excitement. “Talk about swoon! I’m getting lost in the woods tomorrow.”
“I’m guessing Sabine is the hot catch of the staff this year?” Faith surmised from studying their faces. “It’s usually her older sister, from what I’ve heard. Not to mention, they’re cracking down on mingling. Staff and campers will face dire consequences if they’re caught.”
“Really?” I cut in, surprised. They all looked at me, smug in my exuberant protestation.
“I mean, I’m not interested in her,” I clarified thoroughly enough to make it obvious that I was into her.
Who wouldn’t be? “But I thought we were all basically the same age, give or take a couple of years. We’re all adults, so why is it a big deal? ”
“Imbalance of power, favoritism, inappropriate work behavior . . .” Faith shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s in the SCUW handbook.”
“There’s a handbook?”
“It’s on your bed,” she chided.
“Okay, okay,” I said, pulling my new T-shirt on over my crop top. “So, what’s the TL;DR on Sabine?” I asked the girls who had strayed from the doorway to join our conversation. “And what are your names? I’m Gwen,” I awkwardly added.
You’d think I’d be better at introductions, given how much I’d moved.
“Celeste,” the tall one said, then gestured to her friend. “Ivy.”
Ivy gave me a wave.
Celeste turned back to me. “Okay, so.” She leaned in as if she were telling me the best gossip. “Sabine is obviously very hot, like probably the hottest witch in Maple Hollow, other than Astrid Cunningham.”
My lip curled at the name, but they didn’t seem to notice.
“Even Astrid can’t nail her down,” Ivy added in a conspiratorial whisper.
“Maybe she doesn’t date witches,” Faith suggested. “I, myself, am more of a vampire girlie.”
“You only date vampires?” I balked. “Don’t they, like, suck your blood?”
“Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.” Faith brandished a finger at me. “A little consensual bloodplay is fun. I could see myself settling for a werewolf or zombie, as long as they have a good bite.”
I blinked at her, scanning her from her pigtails down to her white Vans with bow socks. There was no way this cute, coquettish witch just said “bloodplay.”
“Sabine is for all the girls,” Celeste replied, saving me from asking for more info about Faith’s kinks. “She’s dated a few of the traveling witches who come to town for the fall. Oh, and one local swamp monster—the coven was not too thrilled about that.”
“And she had that fling with that succubus last summer, remember?” Ivy cut in.
“Wow,” I said tightly. “You guys really do know everything about everyone.”
Celeste nodded. “Small towns.”
I thought back to my conversation with Sabine.
No wonder she craved anonymity; everyone at this camp knew about her sex life.
No one kept tabs on me, which was both a relief and a bit lonely all at once.
I was an only child and we’d moved a lot, which meant the word “community” meant the three of us.
As I’d gotten older, my shyness had morphed into gruff nonchalance.
I’d always been treated like a lone wolf, so I’d become one.
The only group I even wanted to participate in now was the Sinclair Society.
It would be perfect: skip the friend-making nonsense and just join an organization that forced people to be my friends.
Yep, perfectly healthy.
“I would advise against trying to snag the white whale,” Celeste added with a wink. “Astrid has Sabine in her crosshairs, and she won’t appreciate one of us getting in the way.”
“Has anyone stopped to ask Sabine what she wants?” I asked, and they all laughed. “What?”
“You’ve already got heart eyes for her, don’t you?” Faith asked. “Insta-love at its finest.”
“I do not,” I gritted out.
“Sure,” Ivy crooned. “Come on, new girls, you’re sitting with us.”
I followed them out, clenching my jaw to fight back the urge to protest further.
I didn’t blame these other witches for thinking Sabine was the catch of the summer, but she was so not my type.
I dated people with sleeve tattoos and face piercings and hair every color of the rainbow, not earthy witches.
I definitely wasn’t thinking about the way her eyes had snagged on my mouth for a split second, or what she wore under those cargo shorts, or whether I could steal my phone back so I could look up granola recipes and buy matching Hydro Flasks.
Nope! I wasn’t into Sabine Stonewood at all.