=::= Bethany's PoV =::=

"Look," Tally said as she held her phone out for me to see. "Like I said it's called a silver fox, not a black fox. It's basically just a colour variant of the red fox."

She had a wikipedia article on her phone, with a picture of a dark grey fox with darker ears and a dark tail, and white tip at the end of the tail floof.

I shrugged, "That one looks grey, but I can see how it'd be called silver. Your hair and fur is all black, except at the tips of your ears and tail. So why not just say black fox?"

My girlfriend made an exasperated noise and rolled her eyes, "Because that's not what they're called."

I smirked and shrugged. She hadn't figured out yet I was just teasing her about what kind of fox she was. "So ok, there's black foxes, silver foxes, and red foxes. What other kinds are there?"

She took her phone back and started tapping on the screen again as she muttered "I just said there's no black fox."

A moment later she held her phone out again and announced "This one's an Arctic fox."

It was another wiki article, with a picture of a pure white fox sitting in the snow.

"Wow," I said quietly as I stared at the image for a few seconds. "That's actually really cute..."

A half second later I added, "Not as cute as the black fox though."

"Nice save sis," Jenny remarked from the seat in front of me.

Tally didn't comment as she took her phone back, but her cheeks were pink and she had a happy little smile on her face.

All four of us had been in the mini-van for the past half hour. Mom was driving, Jen was in the passenger seat, me and Tally were in the second row. We were out in the country now, driving past rows of grapevines.

It was almost half past nine and I was positive we were nearly at the coven's place. I hadn't been there in about two and a half years, it was the winter holidays when mom took us all to visit her coven friends. That was before I got all my Liz memories back, when I was still in my shy quiet confused phase.

Thinking about that brought up some difficult memories and emotions, but mom spoke up before I could get too deep into that stuff.

"We're just about there. I hope I don't have to remind you girls to be on your best behaviour? Jenny I'm talking to you in particular. This is serious business."

"I know," Jen sighed. "I'm sorry."

Ms. Watson shook her head slightly, then she turned the mini-van left onto a side road.

A half minute later we turned left again onto a long drive. There were rows of grape vines to the left, and a bunch of trees on the right. We drove past the winery building on the left, then the spiritual retreat in the trees on the right. And finally we pulled to a stop beside a large black SUV parked alongside the big modern house.

As all four of us emerged from the van I could tell Tally was anxious again. I was too, but I tried to act brave. I held her hand as we all walked up to the front door together.

The door opened before mom could knock, and a full-figured woman with shoulder-length wavy brown hair was there to greet us.

"Hello Maria, hello girls. Come on in."

Mom smiled to her, "Good morning Samantha."

Inside was like I remembered. The main floor was a large open-concept space, with a big modern kitchen at one end, then a large dining area with a big table and a dozen chairs. A large living-room area was organized to face towards the big bay windows that covered the front of the house, with a fireplace in the middle. And at the far end was a den or family-room space, organized to face a big TV on the wall.

The back wall was all made of stones or rocks, as if it was part of an older structure or something. There was a staircase in the middle that went up to the second level, with a gallery hall that stretched across the full length of the house. The front half where we stood had high vaulted ceilings. There were a couple doors in the stone wall that led to the back half of the main floor. I knew there was a washroom back there but I couldn't remember what else was there.

Sitting in a large easy-chair in the living-room was the other coven leader. I couldn't remember her name, but I recognized her by her long straight black hair and her pale skin. She was dressed all in black like I remembered, but the biggest difference from before was right now she was very pregnant.

And seeing her brought up some of my older memories, from when I was Liz. Those memories were darker, and they left me feeling even more uneasy.

Finally there was a third person here that I'd never met before. A toddler was sitting on the floor near the pregnant lady's feet, playing with some toys. Though she'd stopped playing and was staring wide-eyed at us four strangers.

Mom addressed the pregnant lady, "Hello Nicole!"

"Hi Maria," she responded. "Come on in, make yourselves comfortable. Fiona, will you say hello to our guests?"

The child looked to be about two years old, perhaps a tad older. She was obviously shy, and instead of saying hello she turned away and hugged herself against her mom's legs. And that brought back memories of when Amanda and Jenny were that age. Jenny was especially shy when she was that young. It was hard to believe how brash and bold she'd become as a teen.

Between mom and Samantha, Jen and me and Tally were sort of herded onto a large leather sofa together. Nicole was to our left, and mom ended up in the other big leather chair to our right. We were all offered drinks, me and Jenny got cans of cola while everybody else got bottles of water. Except the little girl, she was given a sippy-cup half full of juice.

Finally Samantha pushed another chair over from the den area to sit next to her wife, and Fiona climbed up on the larger woman's lap while she continued to hide our face from us.

Tally and I were still holding hands, and my girlfriend's big floofy tail was wrapped around so it rested between us on the sofa. We were close enough that I could feel it pressing against my thigh, which was kind of nice. I actually had to resist the urge to start petting and playing with it again.

There were some more pleasantries and small-talk, the two coven leaders asked us how school was going and stuff, mom asked them how Fiona was doing and when Nicole was due. The answer to that was only three weeks, which looked about right.

Eventually the friendly part of the visit came to an end. Samantha gently shifted Fiona onto Nicole's lap, then she got on with the real reason we were here.

She fixed a hard look on my sister and stated, "Jenny you've put us in an awkward situation. While you aren't technically bound by the coven's rules, your mother is. You've personally benefitted from our magic. As I recall, it's almost exactly four years since Maria used that magic to help you? Since then you've been exposed to it quite a few times, experienced more benefits. You've even been offered the chance to join us and learn magic yourself, when you were old enough to do so responsibly."

Samantha sighed and continued, "Our most important rule is to keep the secrets. Especially now that the world knows magic is real. Two or three years ago if someone accused one of us of witchcraft, we could laugh it off and ignore them. Nowadays people could take that sort of comment a lot more seriously."

Jen looked and sounded suitably remorseful as she apologized, "I'm sorry ma'am. I wasn't thinking, I was teasing Beth about something and blurted it out before I remembered Tally was there. And when it seemed like she wasn't going to forget about it and kept asking for an explanation, it felt like the best thing was to just tell her? I thought that would be ok, she doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd spread it around."

The two witches glanced at each other, then Nicole took over.

She addressed my girlfriend, "Tally, we understand this is probably a bit overwhelming for you right now. Maria's already told us things have been difficult for you the past few days, and I'm sure you're still adjusting after using that spell on Sunday morning. Can we trust you to keep secret everything you've learned about Maria and ourselves?"

I felt Tally tense slightly when the pregnant witch started talking to her. She was still anxious, probably even more than ever now that she was the centre of attention.

She gulped but nodded, "Yes ma'am. I swear I won't tell anyone any of this stuff. I was only curious because of what Jenny said yesterday afternoon, otherwise I wouldn't have kept asking more questions about it."

"Thank you Tally," the goth responded with a smile. "Maria mentioned you also asked last night if you could become a witch yourself, if you could join our coven?"

My girlfriend's cheeks were bright red and she gulped again. "I um, yes. It just sounded really cool..."

The two witches exchanged another glance, and Samantha took over again. "Jenny, Bethany, it's been nearly three years since you were both told you'd have the opportunity to join us when you were older. We'd been thinking eighteen was an appropriate age, but we've had younger witches in the past. Amanda and Sadie for example. Are you two both still interested in becoming witches when you're old enough?"

I glanced at Jenny then Tally, before finally nodding "Yes ma'am, I think I'd like that? Especially since mom and Amanda and Sadie are too, it'd be nice to be able to do that stuff with them."

Jen agreed, "Me too. And I swear I won't tell anyone or talk about it or anything. Like I said, it was a mistake yesterday, I wasn't thinking..."

"Maria," Nicole gave mom a questioning look. "You know it'll be your responsibility to handle most of their training? Or perhaps you can enlist the twins as well, they'll be able to share the methods Zoe used to teach them?"

Mom nodded, "Of course. Sadie and Amanda both volunteered to help teach their younger sisters, when the time came."

Nicole smiled, then she looked at the toddler still perched on her lap and asked, "Fiona honey, why don't you go sit with mommy now? Mummy needs to do some work."

The shy little child nodded, she was still clutching her sippy-cup in one hand and one of her toys in the other, but she climbed from one lap over the arms of the two chairs and into the other lap. And she did it all without looking at the rest of us. I felt myself smiling as I watched her, once again she reminded me of when Jenny was that age.

"Jennifer, Bethany, and Tally," Nicole addressed the three of us. Her voice was suddenly firm and commanding, it sent a slight chill down my spine and I felt Tally tense up again. "Do the three of you swear to uphold the coven rules and keep its secrets?"

I gulped but spoke up first, "I swear it."

"Me too," Jenny added. "I swear it."

My girlfriend was obviously still anxious and shy, but after a few seconds she finally nodded "Yes ma'am. I swear it."

There was a flare of unnatural blue light in the pregnant woman's eyes, and seeing that made my heart skip a beat. It sent me back to that night three years ago, the last night of my life as Liz. Nothing bad happened this time, but I felt a warmth on the inside of my right wrist.

"Welcome to the coven," Samantha said with a slight smile. "Maria will get the three of you started on your training, though I expect that will have to wait until after school."

Her expression became more serious again as she looked at my sister and added, "You're now bound by our rules Jenny, so do keep that in mind."

Jen blushed slightly but nodded. Me and Tally stayed quiet, but I glanced down at my wrist. There was a new tattoo there, it was about a half-inch square and it depicted a magic glyph in black ink. I knew it was an initiation mark, but I wasn't entirely sure how I knew that. Maybe it was just intuition or something.

Mom spoke up next, "On that note, I really should get the three of them back. Is that all for now?"

"Yes Maria," Nicole said. "You can fill them in on the details in the car, and we'll be in touch to coordinate the next coven meeting so we can introduce them to everyone else."

I had about a dozen questions, and from the looks on Jen's and Tally's faces they did as well. It seemed like mom was in a hurry to get us back to school though so we wouldn't get a chance to talk more here.

Except there was something I wanted to say, and before mom could start rushing us out the door I got to my feet and moved to stand right next to Nicole. She gave me a questioning look, obviously wondering what I was up to. I knew everyone else would be wondering that too, but I ignored the others for a moment.

I leaned even closer then whispered to her, "I'm very sorry I shot you three years ago ma'am, and I'm very glad you're ok."

Nicole looked slightly surprised but she responded, "Apology accepted Bethany. It's water under the bridge, none of us hold that against you."

"Thank you," I replied quietly. "Um, do you know what happened to Janice?"

The goth witch frowned for a moment, then shook her head. "No. I can try to find out though, if you like?"

Still whispering I asked, "If it's not too much trouble? I suppose I just want to know if she's ok, that's all."

"I'll see what I can find," Nicole replied.

I thanked her again, then moved to join mom and the others. They were all waiting by the door and mom was obviously impatient to get us back to school.

We all said our goodbyes and stuff then mom marched us out and into the mini-van, and within two minutes we were back on the road.