Chapter Thirty-Nine Nora
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Nora
The best revenge is living well. The best living is making sure those around you live well too.
—Rules for Witches
The dinner could not have been more beautiful.
They staged it in the park across the street from the apothecary.
Long tables were set out on the wide green lawn, with bright, cheery sunflowers all over the tables, and orange and yellow candles set between them.
Soraya had indeed made the most beautiful cakes for the event, and there was other food catered by local female-owned businesses.
Nora, Soraya, and Daisy were all dressed in white dresses, glitter on their cheeks, which Nora had pronounced deeply uncool, and Daisy and Soraya had paid no attention to whatsoever.
Soraya had also supplied them with summery witch hats. Pointed and dramatic, but white with pink flowers.
“For cute adventures!” she’d said.
“And what would the leaders of your new church have to say?” Nora asked, looking in the mirror in the shop one final time before they stepped outside with baskets full of the last little bit they needed to bring over to the feast.
“Half of them are coming,” she said cheerfully.
Nora smiled.
Watching Soraya stay fiercely true to herself and her beliefs was inspiring. She had changed, but it was following her own conscience, never acting out of anger or bitterness toward the people who had manipulated her. She had kept it, as she had expanded herself.
Their guest of honor was Alexandra, who had just been discharged from the hospital and was already sitting at the head of one of the tables, with Madison to her left.
So many items had been donated for the silent auction that would happen after the feast, a fundraiser to help women in their area who had been victims of domestic violence. In honor of Alexandra.
They had already decided that Lady’s Mantle would have this event every year, for the Alexandra Stone Fund.
Which Alexandra was more than capable of organizing and overseeing, as the queen of committees.
When someone in their community found themselves pushed out of their lives, found themselves in the same position that any of them had been in, where they were forced to remake each other, relearn what living meant, there would be a whole network of people waiting for them.
A coven, waiting to help them unlock their magic. To unlock their joy.
Because sometimes the end was only a beginning.
That was the real lesson of the Death card, after all, loath though Nora was to admit it, since she had been bitter about that reading of hers for weeks.
It hadn’t only been about the ending. It had been about the new beginning. What better time to celebrate that?
There were quilts and baked goods, ceramics and crystals. A hand-drawn tarot deck, and so many other beautiful baked goods, crafts, handknits, and paintings in the auction, made by hand by the women in the community who raised an extraordinary amount of money for the cause.
It would help Angela, who was their first resident at the Lady’s Mantle Sanctuary. Well, the second. Soraya had been the first.
Now Soraya had a whole new life.
Nora looked around at all the women gathered together, and then at her two best friends. The friends who had walked her through the darkness right into this new light. Who had walked her into her magic.
She’d been doing finishing touches on her mural, and there was something that wasn’t quite right about it yet.
She suddenly knew just what it was.
It needed the three of them.
The mural was about community, after all.
They were her community. Her support.
Her coven.
The dinner was bright and glorious, and the spectacle of it being in the park brought other people to come and watch. Men and women who hadn’t heard about it before. Children. And yes, there were some who looked at it and decided it was evil. But most everybody could see the magic, all its beauty.
“Where’s Aggie?” Soraya said, looking around about midway through dinner, not seeing their mentor anywhere.
But Aggie did everything on her own time and on her own terms, so Nora couldn’t say she was alarmed.
The three of them left while there were still some diners lingering—the city had agreed to let them leave the tables out on the lawn for the night. Madison and Amberly had been sitting together talking about polycules. Amberly had broken off her engagement with Jonathan a few weeks ago.
“I need to get home. Zach has the kids tonight. Not that I’m worried but . . .”
“You just want to go jump him,” Nora said.
“Maybe.” Daisy smiled, touching the ring on her finger.
It was fast. But Nora understood. When it was right, it was right.
Right now, their lives were more than right. They were magical.
What Nora really wanted to do was go home and kiss Sam. Tell him everything. About how well the evening had gone and how much money they had raised.
“I’m staying with Declan tonight,” said Soraya.
“The boys are having some big Xbox thing at our house, and they’re going to be up all night drinking Mountain Dew and generally being menaces.
Anyway, I’m two minutes away if they need anything.
But they won’t.” Soraya paused for a moment.
“I think I’m in love with him. Like really in love with him.
That doesn’t seem . . . Does it seem weird, that we all found love again so quickly? ”
Daisy looked thoughtful. “What’s the point of being magic if you can’t have everything?”
Nora smiled.
She walked through the dark, empty apothecary, and stopped when she noticed a white sheet of paper on the table, with three tarot cards underneath.
“What’s this?” She picked it up and saw it was a letter written in Aggie’s handwriting.
“My three beautiful witches, my work here is done. This apothecary belongs to you now, where I know you will continue this work. To help others, to harness your own magic, and to bring joy and community to those who need it.” Nora’s eyes filled with tears. “She left us the apothecary.”
“What?” Daisy grabbed the paper out of Nora’s hand. “Daisy, I know you’ll do a great job with the finances. Soraya, your baking magic will be exactly what this place needs. Nora, your creativity will always keep it alive.”
Soraya took the sheet of paper and read the rest. “I left you each a card, to show you how far you’ve come.
The queens are the highest form of feminine energy in their suit, as you have all changed, evolved, and gone on this journey, and emerged stronger, more powerful.
Nora, my Queen of Swords. You are a sharp communicator, using words with precision and clarity.
The Queen of Swords is the author of the deck, as are you.
Soraya, Queen of Pentacles, my kitchen witch who knows how to balance her responsibilities with life’s pleasures, one who takes joy in creating beauty wherever she goes, sensual and nurturing, all in harmony.
Daisy, my Queen of Cups. Compassion, intuition, and love are her strengths, and they are yours too.
You see the divine in everyone and recognize it in yourself.
You remember to first treat yourself with compassion, so you can let it flow out to others.
My three queens, my dear witches, your time is just beginning. ”
“I can’t believe she’s just . . . gone.” Nora looked around the shop, which contained the same amount of things it always had but felt emptier somehow.
“I can,” Soraya said. “Because it’s just exactly what she would do.”
Nora couldn’t argue with that.
“She’s not gone, though,” Daisy said. “Because she changed us. She’ll always be here. Her and her magic.”
Nora took the letter and folded it, tucking it away, and they each took their cards. Then they walked outside onto the street, and Daisy locked the door of the apothecary, and they all stood there for a moment together, looking at this place, which was now theirs.
Then the three of them linked arms and walked down the sidewalk toward where they had parked.
Daisy tugged Nora’s hand, and they twirled underneath the streetlights, Soraya joining in. Daisy howled, shaking her hair and looking up at the sky.
“I call my power back to me!” Daisy proclaimed.
“I call my energy back to me,” Nora said.
“I call my magic back to me,” Soraya added.
Then they chanted together. “I am shielded from anything that would take my power from me. Nothing can harm me or take my light. I am safe. I am protected. I am powerful.”
“And,” Soraya added, “I get to have every beautiful and wonderful thing the universe has to offer.”
One thing Nora knew for sure was that if your life was going to implode over a guy, you needed to have friends, you needed to be brave, and you needed to find your magic.
She’d found hers.
Nora smiled. “And so it is.”