Chapter 25
Sabine
Iwatched Gwen celebrating with the Flower Moon cabin, watched the way her friends raised her up and carried her around without using their levitation spells. It was like a montage at the end of a sports movie, and Gwen practically glowed with the accolades.
Astrid stood off to the side of the archery range, scowling, with only two of her closest friends beside her.
Gwen had been the underdog of the summer, and now she was suddenly the MVP.
I tried my best not to make it obvious, but I was brimming with pride for Gwen and delighted over Astrid losing. Seeing the coven princess being put in her place after all these years felt a little too good.
But then, I noted the look on Gwen’s face—the way she needed that praise from her new friends so badly, though she’d never admit it. A homecoming long overdue. Something flared in my chest at the way she looked like she knew she finally belonged.
A boulder of guilt formed in my stomach as her eyes found mine. She was beaming, and I forced myself to smile back at her even as emotions hammered through me and tangled into a massive knot.
I knew then what I’d suspected back in the haunted forest, the nagging thought that had been growing week by week: She wanted to stay.
Gwen wanted to be a coven member. She’d found her place, her home.
I could see her strolling through the streets of Maple Hollow in a chic peacoat and chunky heels, ordering spiced cinnamon mochas at Witch’s Brew Café, getting a quaint job at one of the local coven businesses, every resident knowing her name.
And she might leave it all to come back to the city with me if I asked her to because I knew I was becoming important to her too.
I might be the one to tear her from her happy place before she even had a chance to see it.
I couldn’t do that to her.
The thought twisted like a knife in my gut. I wanted to get out and she wanted in, and we would never find a way to reconcile those two things. And if I came back next summer, maybe we’d have another heated fling, only to have our hearts broken all over again.
Whoa. When did we get into heartbreak territory?
“Oh boy,” Iris grumbled as she sidled up next to me. She wore her hair in a messy bun, a bandana tied around it in the olive, orange, white, and mustard SCUW colors. “You look like you fell off your broomstick into a cauldron of electric eels.”
I shot her a look. “That is oddly specific.”
“Don’t ask me how I know.” She crossed her arms. “Spill.”
“I’m just thinking.”
“About?” she asked, wheeling her arms, hoping I’d cut to the chase. “You know mind reading isn’t my affinity. Come on, Sabi, share with the class.”
“I . . .” And curse the moon if that word didn’t come out all choked and garbled like I was going to cry.
What was I going to say?
That I was falling in love? That I was going to lose her? That I wished I didn’t have to give her up and could just be selfish?
“Oh shit.” Iris immediately hugged me, shielding me from the celebrating throng of witches. “We need wine for this, come on.”
She grabbed me by the wrist and tugged me onto the forest path toward the staff cabins.
We passed by the firepit, then the mess hall.
I eyed the back door of the building for a long moment, but Iris was on a mission and didn’t notice my slowing feet.
She dragged me in the direction of Dagmar’s cabin, and my brows pinched.
When Iris spotted Hera standing guard on the cabin railing, she conjured a mouse and threw it past her without missing a beat.
The bird flew off without hesitation, and I had to wonder how many times my sister had distracted the camp director’s familiar.
“It’ll be okay,” Iris said as she used her magic to lower the window and float a bottle of priceless wine out. “Witch wine solves everything.”
“Didn’t Jordyn summon the ghost of her ex-girlfriend the last time she got drunk on witch wine?”
Iris waved away my protest. “And look how that turned out! She found the love of her life.”
I didn’t have the normal gusto to fight my older sister on this one. Instead, we sat on the cabin steps and I spilled my heart out to her. I told her everything that had transpired between Gwen and me. Worse, I told her what it made me feel.
“There’s no right answer. I’m sorry, Sabi,” she said. “Selfishly, I think you should just stay in Maple Hollow for one more year and do another summer at camp since Astrid will inevitably rat you out to Daggy.”
“She hasn’t yet,” I said with a shrug.
“Probably biding her time,” Iris muttered. “Sharpening her weapons for the perfect time to strike.”
“You sound like you know from experience. Have you ever . . . ?”
“With Astrid?” Iris gagged. “Ew, no. She’s eight years younger than I am.”
“What, so seven years is your cutoff?”
Iris chuckled. “Yeah, I think I’m going for the older types now.”
“Like several-hundred-year-old-demon older types?” I suggested, giving her a knowing look.
“Hey,” she scoffed. “This was supposed to be about you.”
“I’m very sneaky.”
“Why can’t you just stay one more year and see if things with Gwen turn into something?
Witches live long lives. You’ve got plenty of time to gallivant around New York later, and I’ve never seen you look at anyone the way you look at her.
You seem lighter, happier, and you were already a freaking little granola sunbeam, so that’s saying something.
You volunteered to lead the hiking trip yesterday, for moon’s sake! ”
My laugh was short-lived as I shook my head.
“I made a promise to myself that this was my last year in Maple Hollow, and I meant it. I’ve been dreaming about this since I was ten.
I can’t just go back on all the things I’ve wanted for myself, and I feel like if I don’t go now, I might never leave.
I’ll get stuck in jobs and relationships and commitments, and maybe those will all be good and meaningful, but I’ll always wonder what would’ve happened if I’d chosen the other path.
I don’t want to live the rest of my life wishing I’d made a big decision after chickening out. ”
“Goddess, you’re so stubborn. Talk about an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You’re the immovable object, by the way.”
“I gathered.”
Iris frowned as she took a long swig of wine. “You’d ruin a good thing just to be right.”
Before I could reply to her, Dagmar turned the corner. “Indulging in some more of my wine, are we?”
We both tried to leap up, but Dagmar’s hand flew out, freezing us to the spot.
“Trying to run from me? Really?” She dropped her hand, and we were forced back to our seats.
Sometimes, I forgot just how powerful Dagmar was.
“You think that would somehow help your case? Stand your ground and own it like a witch. I thought I taught you both better.”
Was that what she’d been teaching us for so long? I guessed she had in a way, but the only lesson I could remember was to always carry a stunning potion into the woods in case of bears—or worse, creepy male hikers.
Hera swooped soundlessly from the sky and landed on Dagmar’s shoulder, chirping at her witch in greeting.
“Traitor,” Iris gritted out, but the owl just snapped her beak at her.
“A word to the wise,” Dagmar said. “Don’t try to bribe a witch’s familiar. They’ll take your bribe and rat you out anyway.”
She scratched the feathers under Hera’s chin, and Hera leaned into her touch with what could only be described as affection.
“We’re sorry. We—”
Dagmar held up a hand, and I shut up. “You’re not children, Sabine.
If you wanted wine, I would’ve given it to you,” she scolded.
“And while I’m rather fond of a little trickery every now and again—I am a witch, after all—you made a grave error when you thought you could steal from me.
” Her eyes darkened. “There will be consequences.”
I dropped my head into my hands. “Not another year, please.” I groaned.
Dagmar let out a gruff laugh. “Has this summer really been that bad?” Her shoulders shook harder and Hera bobbed up and down.
“There is rule-breaking and there is rule-breaking, and this is the latter,” she continued.
“You two have your choices: latrine duty until summer’s end or participate in the end-of-year show. ”
“Latrine duty,” I said as instantaneously as Iris said, “Show.”
Dagmar laughed again, the sound low and grating.
“Done.” She turned and looked back over her shoulder.
Hera easily turned her head and watched us too.
“Enjoy your wine. And when you’re done, come join us at the medal ceremony.
I have a feeling some witches will want you to be there.
” Ice flooded my veins at that, but Dagmar continued, “Like the rest of the Harvest Moon cabin?”
“Oh yes, right,” I said with a half-hearted wave. “We’ll be there.”
Of course she was thinking of my campers and not of the witch I’d gone down on outside the mess hall. Fuck. This was getting out of hand.
I tried to act casual as she walked off. Iris didn’t seem to note my discomfort. “Why medals?” Iris grumbled. “That’s so human. They should offer hard-to-make elixirs or witch wine or something for winning. No point in a piece of metal.”
“They’re imbued with luck, aren’t they?”
“Are they?”
I frowned. “I honestly can’t remember. It’s probably just a camp rumor from long ago.”
We both laughed and passed the bottle between us again.
“Thank you,” I said, feeling grateful.
“For what?”
“For being my sister.”
“Well, I had no choice in that,” she taunted.
“For being my friend then.”
She gave me that look she always did when I knew she wanted to hug me. “I’ll still be your friend, even in the city, you know? I’m like a leech; once I grab on, you can never get rid of me.”
“Did you just willingly call yourself a leech?”
“Yep,” she said, leaning into me. We stared up at the starry night for a long time before she added, “Everything’s going to work out, you know?”
I let out a long breath, forcing the tension to release from my shoulders. Goddess, it really, really didn’t feel like it. “I wish I could be as sure as you are.”
Iris considered me for a long moment, took a swig from the bottle, then passed it back to me. “Have you any proof it won’t?”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. Do you have any proof that life won’t work itself out the way it should?”
“I . . . I guess not. But that doesn’t mean that good things are waiting for me.”
“As your wise older sister, I have to tell you that there are many versions of the future out there. And any number of them could be good or happy. You just have to decide which one you want the most.”
Her words played out before me: what my life might look like if I went to New York alone or with Gwen. What it might be like if I stayed in Maple Hollow for another year . . .
My stomach knotted, and I knew why.
One more year would lead to two, then another two for Gwen to finish her summer camp responsibilities.
By then, it would be too painful to ask her to leave with me, to tear her away from the family she would surely build inside the coven.
I knew how hard it would be to leave because it was killing me to think about it.
And the thought of leaving was just as painful as the thought of never leaving at all.
To never unfurl my wings and fly solo, even for a short time.
I couldn’t bear the thought, and I was starting to think there would be no ending this summer without my heart breaking.