Chapter Nineteen
SILAS MOON
I’m personally offended that we’re studying wolfsbane in class tomorrow.
MAYA
It’s not like you have to drink it.
SILAS MOON
What if you had to make a potion that stripped you of your magic???
MAYA
I’d probably be happy to know what to avoid.
SILAS MOON
I need you to agree with me so I can continue my potions hate.
MAYA
*Unnecessary hate?
SILAS MOON
If you weren’t my lucky charm, I would block you.
MAYA
‘Heart emojis?’ Raven asked, her chin dipping to rest on my shoulder. We were in her bedroom – I was sitting opposite Sofia who was painting my nails. ‘You’ve progressed fast.’
‘We’ve been studying together,’ I said, feeling my neck go warm. Raven joined us on the bed, taking a seat beside Sofia, so I faced them both. ‘And – you know – we – we just started talking more.’
‘About?’ Sofia asked, as she painted my nails with the Maple Falls High colours for Silas’s upcoming game.
It hadn’t been that long since our first study session, and a week since I perfectly cast the protection spell, but we spoke almost every day. We hung out at school; we were almost constantly in each other’s orbits. It felt like our relationship was progressing fast, but it felt genuine.
‘Everything,’ I said, but it wasn’t the entire truth.
We talked about most things, but I didn’t tell Silas everything.
I didn’t ever tell him if I was feeling strange with Mum, or if something was really bothering me.
I couldn’t. It was too early, and I wanted to be his lucky charm, not someone he needed to look after.
‘And is he everything you imagined he would be?’ Raven asked, curiously.
‘He is.’ I nodded, and I couldn’t fake the wistfulness in my tone. ‘He’s kind and funny, and genuinely so sweet.’
The door opened with a bang, startling me and Raven and Sofia, revealing Orion in the doorway. The nail-polish bottle went flying. Without really thinking, I muttered a spell: Spill, splash, make sure you make that catch.
The nail-polish bottle stopped in mid-air, just before a droplet of vivid red was about to hit the surface of the carpet.
The room was full of dead silence. Not because the spell was complex, or because I had done some great feat of magic, but because I had done it effortlessly.
‘Guess I’m not such a bad teacher after all,’ Orion said, breaking the silence with so much smugness that I couldn’t help but throw one of Raven’s pillows at him.
He caught it deftly, but he was smiling. The animosity from yesterday seemed a distant memory. The way Orion was looking at me now, with something akin to pride in his eyes, kicked my heartbeat up a notch.
‘That was amazing,’ Raven said, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. ‘For that, you can get extra maple syrup in your popcorn.’
‘Does she want extra maple syrup in her popcorn?’ Sofia asked, mild disgust in her voice. We’d quickly discovered she was much more of a savoury person.
Raven mock gasped. ‘Who doesn’t want maple syrup in their popcorn?’
‘People who value their teeth,’ Orion offered, and Sofia nodded in agreement.
‘Rich coming from the guy who literally carries enchanted toffees in his jacket pocket,’ I said, a smirk curling around my mouth at the fake outrage on Orion’s face.
‘I told you that in confidence,’ Orion said, and then he folded his arms over his chest. ‘I liked you better when you were nicer to me.’
It was said in jest, but it struck a chord, nonetheless. ‘Guess you lost that privilege a while ago, Hawthorne,’ I said, equally light and airy.
No one else seemed to notice the tightening of his jaw, or the way his mouth curved down ever so slightly. I wished I didn’t notice it either. Being able to forget these minute details of Orion would make my life a thousand times easier.
‘I’m going out,’ Orion said, cutting off the conversation. ‘And Mum wants you downstairs.’
‘And where are you going?’ Raven asked, as she hopped off her bed and joined her brother in the doorway.
‘Dinner with friends,’ Orion replied shortly. But he glanced at me, and I knew who he was seeing. I kept my face straight, not letting him see anything. ‘You three staying in?’
‘Maybe,’ I cut in, because envy was something that always loosened my tongue. ‘We might go streaking down Golden Shell Beach.’
Orion barely missed a beat. ‘The Kraken will be delighted.’
The Kraken was a myth. No one really knew if one lived in our sea. Celine probably knew, but it’s not like I was going to ask her.
Raven cut through the tension with a roll of her eyes and tugged her brother out of the room. I could hear them arguing as they moved down the hallway. When their footsteps finally receded, I felt my phone buzz near my knee.
ORION-THORN-IN-MY-SIDE
If you three do stay out late, will you call me to pick you up, please?
I tried to feel warm at the show of his protective streak, but it was hard. The momentary lapse in judgement had me texting back before I knew it.
MAYA
I’ll call. Promise.
‘So, what happened there?’ Sofia’s voice pulled me out of my brief text exchange and back to reality. She was leaning against the headboard of Raven’s bed, while I sat on the end.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, trying not to sound too suspicious.
‘Well, it’s pretty obvious you’re not happy about Orion going out,’ Sofia said, bluntly. I spluttered, but she didn’t wait for me to form a sentence. ‘He’s definitely not happy you’re going out. So, I’m just going to ask: do you to have a thing going on?’
‘No, no,’ I said vehemently, panicked that Raven or worse, Orion himself, would come back and hear. ‘Orion and I have never got together. Ever.’
‘But you wanted to?’
‘No.’
Sofia stared at me. Unblinking. I didn’t need to read her mind to know she didn’t believe me.
‘Yes,’ I relented, the truth slipping past. ‘But you can’t tell Raven.’
‘I promise you, I won’t,’ Sofia said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘So, what happened?’
‘It was last summer,’ I began, hoping to wrap the story up briskly, so I wouldn’t have to endure too much of the walk down memory lane.
‘Raven was visiting Rose Glenn, and Orion and I were stuck in Maple Falls alone. I was over all the time, so we hung out more. And it was obviously Stockholm syndrome, because I started getting these feelings for him.’
‘Did you ever tell him?’
‘No! Do you think I’d still be sitting here if I did?’
I didn’t add that I had planned on telling him, but I’d never gotten to it. My plans that night had ended in complete disaster after all.
‘And it just fizzled out by the time Raven got back?’ Sofia asked, a crinkle forming in her brow. ‘So, why do you two have so much tension still?’
‘No, he – he caught me doing a forbidden spell at the end of summer, and he reported it to the Coven,’ I explained, a familiar hot shame crawling up my neck.
But Sofia didn’t look disapproving, only curious.
‘What forbidden spell?’ she asked, her eyebrows raised.
‘An eye-of-the-beholder spell,’ I said. ‘I was stupid. I just really wanted Ori– I mean, everyone, to like me, you know? And the spell was meant to make me look attractive in anyone’s eyes.’
‘I get that feeling of wanting to be wanted,’ Sofia said, and there was a genuine note to her voice.
My chest constricted at the understanding in her eyes. ‘Yes, well, the spell is forbidden because it changes you fundamentally. Orion caught me as I was casting it, lost his mind, and practically dragged me to my mother.’
‘I suppose it makes sense you being angry with him,’ Sofia said, with a little grimace. ‘Even if he was looking out for you.’
I paused, head tilting to one side to look at her. ‘You think that was him looking out for me?’
‘I mean, yeah. He always seems to do that,’ she continued, absently.
‘What do you mean?’ Sure, he’d been helping me with my spellcasting and even Silas, but that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with solving the curse.
‘Orion always seems to be there when you need him, you know? I know he’s probably super bullheaded, but it’s pretty nice to have someone in your corner.’
‘He only looks out for me because I’m Raven’s best friend,’ I said, but the words failed to ring true.
Sofia’s eyebrow raised in an ‘OK, if you say so’ gesture, and Orion’s voice floated in my head: You and I, Reverie, have always been something.
‘Do you think you’d forgive him?’ Sofia asked.
‘What?’
‘If Orion apologized for getting your second point, would you forgive him?’ Sofia clarified.
I never ended up answering her question because Raven came back, armed with two bowls of popcorn – one maple syruped and the other saltier than the sea for Sofia. We ended up not watching anything but talking the rest of the night.
It was perfect, and I could almost put Orion totally out of my mind.
But Sofia’s question still lingered.