4 Quinn
Quinn
Four years before the fall
We’re all thirteen, but I’m the oldest. Sophie is the youngest, and Joey and Elena are in the middle.
That’s the order we’re walking in now. The trees are watchful around us; their trunks lean and are bone white with small black knots like eyes.
My mom leads our group, followed by Joey’s mom.
The six of us are silent except for the crunch of the leaves beneath our shoes, but inside I am on fire.
The moms kept us up until midnight last night, telling us everything about the magic.
We sat around the kitchen table with mugs of hot chocolate, switching between quiet shock and fits of giggles.
It didn’t seem real. It couldn’t be. They told us there was magic in the trees. And that it was going to be ours.
“You four have been chosen because we have decided you’d make the best stewards of the magic,” said my mom.
She wore a headscarf printed with red roses and dangly earrings that swayed as she spoke.
Joey asked what stewards meant, and we all listened carefully.
“You will wield the magic,” my mom explained.
“We will show you the spells. But you will also protect it. This is crucial. You will be the protectors of the magic. It’s a huge responsibility. Are you prepared for it?”
We all said we were, of course. Then Elena made a joke about our periods giving us blood power, and Joey’s mom laughed. “It is amazing,” she said. “You girls will love it. Just don’t get carried away.”
My mom looked at her, then at us. “Look, I know it sounds fun, and it is. But it is extremely serious too. A long time ago, someone died trying to keep the magic from falling into the wrong hands.” That silenced us.
“It’s why we have a formal initiation process.
It’s why, back then, they established the five rules—to help keep the magic safe.
” She stood to pour us more hot chocolate.
“Above all, you must follow the rules. They’re for your protection. ”
They told us stories about the group of girls they were initiated with back in the eighties.
There was my mom and Joey’s mom, of course, and Elena’s mom, who stopped practicing magic to become born again, which I didn’t really understand, because how can you be born twice?
And then there was a woman named Tammy, but she moved away years ago.
I couldn’t believe it. Why would someone choose to stop doing magic?
When they were done explaining, we were allowed to ask questions. And we had about a thousand. It took until our hot chocolate was cold and our heads drooped toward the table, but they answered every single one.
The ritual has to be done at dawn, they said, so we only got five hours of sleep last night.
But I am wide-awake. I can tell the other girls are too.
Elena jokes loudly as we walk, trying to make Sophie snort-laugh, and Joey looks like she’s going to puke from nerves.
I’m lightheaded with excitement. Finally, we come to a stop at the end of the trail.
It’s still pretty dark, so it’s kind of hard to see, but I can just make out a circle of stones sitting at the center of a ring of aspen trees.
My heart races, and Joey wipes her palms on her pants.
I catch her eye and see that she seems to be thinking exactly what I am. This can’t be real, can it?
They jostle us by our shoulders into place, the four of us pressed together, back-to-back inside the spell circle.
Joey’s mom places The Book of Aspens on the ground in the middle of us before taking her place inside the spell circle with her arms above her head.
My mom does the same, and she tells us to hold hands.
Surrounding us as best they can, they both close their eyes, and so do we.
Within seconds, I feel something tickling me, like fingernails sliding over my skin, only it’s on the inside of my body.
My mom drops to the ground suddenly. At first, I think she’s fallen, but when I look down, I see her leaning between my feet and Sophie’s.
She begins to read. Her words are musical.
I don’t understand what she’s saying, but I know she is casting a spell because she told us this is how it would happen.
The tickle inside me grows. It becomes a fizz that bubbles through me like Pop Rocks—pop, pop, popping beneath my skin.
Up to my hair and back down to my heels.
Out to each fingertip, passing directly through my heart.
I hear one of the other girls gasp and another one release a breath of a laugh.
It makes me feel so strong, so excited that my friends are here with me, knowing that they are feeling this too.
And then, just like that, the spell is finished. The words stop, and the Pop Rocks fade. They don’t leave completely, though. I can still feel the faint crackle of them in my blood, and I secretly hope the feeling will last forever. We unclasp our hands and spin around to look at each other.
“Was that it?” asks Elena. Sophie starts to laugh. Soon, the rest of us join in, and the spell circle is filled with our sudden, uncontrollable giddiness.
When we have recovered, the four of us circle up again, and Joey’s mom guides us through some practice spells.
We take turns giving it a go. Sophie reads too quietly, and Elena too fast. Joey is frustrated with her pronunciation and starts over.
It takes all morning for us to get the hang of it.
Until I finally do a perfect illusion spell, turning a golden aspen leaf green.
It’s such a small spell, but it is the best feeling I’ve ever had.
We all stare at the leaf like it’s the start of our new life. Because it is.