Chapter 27
Gwen
My cabinmates were on me like they were the Secret Service for a whole twenty-four hours, so it took longer than I would’ve liked to break away from the ongoing celebrations and find Sabine.
I finally managed to sneak away the following evening when I spotted her walking back from the latrines with a sour look on her face.
That look morphed into something more contemplative when she spied me walking across the moonlit field toward her.
When I closed the distance, she reached out, and I thought she was going to lean in to kiss me, but instead she reached for the medal still hanging around my neck.
I quickly closed my parted lips and tried to play off my kissing face as an awkward smile.
“Congratulations.” Sabine said.
The shadows of the oak tree folded around us, obscuring our faces from the moonlight. She rubbed her thumb over the shimmering gold medallion before lowering it back to my chest.
It hung surprisingly heavy around my neck. I should’ve taken it off, but my cabinmates had insisted that I wear it again today. They all had bragging rights now that Flower Moon cabin had won gold in archery.
“Half the camp has them,” I said with a wave. “It’s no big deal.”
“It is a big deal,” Sabine countered, threading her fingers through mine. “Listen, I was thinking.”
My gut plummeted. “Thinking” in this context was never a good thing. “Is . . . everything okay?”
Sabine pushed on as if she were forcing the words out. “I was thinking at the end of the summer, you should stay.”
“Stay?”
“Come live in Maple Hollow,” she said. “Join the coven. I know it’s not some big marketing corporation, but I know there are some locals who could use a social media manager, and you could live in one of the coven-owned apartments while you figure out what you want to do and—”
I closed the distance and kissed her. I couldn’t contain myself anymore, not when my heart was leaping out of my chest. It was the sweetest, softest kiss too, one that would linger in my mind for a long, long time.
My favorite way to quiet Sabine’s storming thoughts.
I breathed in her sweet and spicy scent, like jasmine and cloves, a heady mix that had me lifting my hands and delving them into her hair, wanting to deepen our kiss.
Sabine moaned into my mouth, and I leaned into her, the two of us stumbling until her back was propped against a tree.
We broke apart to laugh, our foreheads pressed together.
“I think I’d really like to come live in your town with you,” I whispered with a smile.
Her eyes saddened, and I panicked. Had I taken it too far? Had I made her nervous?
“I don’t mean live with you, live with you, like, move in with you,” I stammered. “I mean, I’m not sure if that’s what you meant, but I’m totally chill. I just—”
“It’s not that,” Sabine said, pushing off the tree trunk and taking a step away from me.
I felt that distance like a pair of scissors cutting the delicate thread tying us together. I knew then what she was going to say before she even said it, and my cheeks burned with embarrassment for being so excited.
“I’m not going back to Maple Hollow at the end of the summer,” she said, her voice tight. “I’m moving to New York, like we talked about. Starting a new chapter in my life. It’s time for me to make my own way in the world.”
“Then I’ll come with you,” I said, brows knitting with confusion. “Unless you . . . don’t want me to?”
“But you just said you wanted to move to Maple Hollow,” she countered. “I think you should. I think you’d be really happy there.”
“I think I’d be happy with you,” I choked out.
Fuck, was this what heartbreak felt like? Like someone was ripping my rib cage apart?
I rubbed a hand across my sternum as I moved toward Sabine, but she just retreated another step, and tears welled in my eyes.
“So you think I should live in Maple Hollow?” I asked. “Without you?”
“I do.”
I hated the emotion clouding her face. How dare she get upset! She was the one ruining this. She didn’t get to act like she was doing the noble thing when she didn’t know what I wanted at all.
“If you didn’t want to be with me, you could’ve just said that,” I gritted out, wiping my eyes before the tears could fall. “You don’t have to pretend it’s what’s best for me just to let me down easy.”
“That’s not what I’m saying—”
“Yes, it is!” I shouted, balling my hands into fists. The bush next to me disappeared and was replaced with a dozen motherfucking toads. “Goddamn it!” I stormed away to the soundtrack of confused croaking.
“Gwen!” Sabine called after me, but she must have been blocked by my warty army. “Damn it, hop out of the way!”
“Don’t follow me,” I growled, quickening my pace until I found the edge of the camp. Only then did I look over my shoulder.
Tears poured down my cheeks when I realized she hadn’t followed.
What did I expect?
We’d only known each other for a few weeks.
All this magic stuff was new and exciting.
The thought of living in Maple Hollow, surrounded by people just like me, made me emotional.
I wanted to know what it felt like to belong, and I’d just assumed that Sabine would be part of that new community.
But she was leaving me behind—and alone.
I sobbed into my hands. It was ridiculous to feel this terrible after the end of a relationship that had barely started, but I’d never felt so seen by anyone else.
Every boy I’d ever dated, even the sweet ones, had been laser-focused on how quickly he could get my pants off.
Sabine, on the other hand, had seen straight into my mind from the jump.
She’d seen my potential and pushed me to learn how to harness my magic and encouraged me to be me.
A small part of me wanted to go find her and yell at her, but my only true grievance was that she’d encouraged me to explore this new part of myself and given me confidence when I’d needed it.
And I was upset that she wanted to explore a new chapter of her life without me when being together felt so damn good.
I let my emotions flow for a long while, feeling Sabine’s searing rejection while coming to terms with the realization that perhaps we were the right people for each other . . . just at the wrong time.
I could practically hear my mother saying that if we were meant to be, we would be. I’d heard the phrase religiously growing up, and she was always right in one way or another.
What would my mother think if I moved to Maple Hollow after the summer?
That question sat in the pit of my empty stomach.
I needed to stop by the mess hall and grab a snack.
I’d used the last bit of my energy on crying, and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed with a tub of ice cream and rot.
But I would have to settle for frozen bananas covered in bittersweet chocolate and cocoa nibs.
I wiped the last of my tears from my cheeks, took a deep breath, and let the fresh air fill the void that had opened in my chest. Lake Nevermore was glassy and still, and the humidity hung in a heavy haze over the cool water.
Fireflies danced off in the distance, and I could smell the funky mix of extinguished campfires and algae.
Walking back to the Flower Moon cabin, I promised myself that I would get through the last bit of camp and throw myself into learning as much as I could before the end.
Because if the Maple Hollow coven was going to lose one witch and gain another, I wanted to show them that I was worthy of a spot amongst them.
And maybe all of that focus and magic and energy would leave no space for thinking about a redheaded witch and the aching hole in my chest.
Maybe.