Alex groaned on the route to school. He was shoved into the back of the tiny Yaris with bags all around him.
“What's wrong, Alex?” I asked, looking at him in the rearview mirror; he looked grumpy.
“How long are they staying with us again?”
I chuckled as Quinn and Seri stopped chattering to look at him.
“Too much oestrogen, huh?” I teased, and he groaned once more.
Quinn replied to Alex’s question, “Hmm, I don’t know, that bed is so comfy. I might have to move in permanently,” she hinted.
Alex whined in protest and, crossing his arms, grumbled, “I’m glad I’m not here for the next two weeks.”
The bell for lunch rang out. Leo waited for me, and we walked out of the classroom together. As we headed to the cafeteria, I was ambushed.
Quinn and Seri hooked their arms around mine and hurried me further down the corridor, missing the cafeteria doors.
“We will be right back!” Seri sang loudly.
They turned down the next empty corridor and huddled around me. My eyes flitted between the two.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“Spill,” Seri replied.
“Spill what?”
Quinn huffed, “Are you serious? The date dummy!”
I decided to mess with them, “It was awful,” I wailed dramatically.
They were stunned in silence before looking at each other.
Seri speculated, “Yeah, looked like it, seeing as though you were kissing face and that.”
“What do you want me to say? We had dinner; we had a great time, and we went home.”
“And…” Quinn drawled out, rolling her hand in the air.
“And…?” I mimicked.
“Are you a thing…?”
I looked off to the side. I could not stop the blush rising, and I quietly confessed, “Yes.”
My poor ears were in pain from the shrieking; after a few moments, they quietened down, and I queried Quinn.
“What about you and Devan?”
“I haven’t talked to him yet,” she faltered.
“Not even a text?”
She shook her head; no. Seri typed away on her phone as she walked towards the cafeteria; my phone buzzed. A new message was sent to the group chat, and one person was added.
Seri’s message read, ‘Devan, Quinn needs help! She’s stuck in the janitor's room!’
Quinn looked confused until Seri jumped and grabbed her arm.
“Lexi, help!” Quinn cried.
Instead of helping Quinn, I took her other arm and helped Seri.
“Sorry, Quinn. You two need to kiss and make up!” I encouraged.
She whined, “Fine, but please don’t actually lock me in the closet!”
We both laughed. If we didn’t put her in there, she would run away!
Later that evening, Leo’s parents, Noel and Cynthia, visited and asked to speak to Mum and I.
“Is something wrong?” Mum politely asked.
“We aren’t sure,” Cynthia said.
Noel’s hand came to rest on her shoulder reassuringly, and she looked up at him.
“We didn’t want to alarm anyone in case it was nothing,” Noel started, “I saw my ex-wife last night. She stood over Cynthia while she slept and left this,” he finished, encouraging his current wife to share.
Cynthia turned and, pulling off her black cardigan, revealed a luminous green etching on her skin; it was buried deep and looked like an unhealed, jagged cut.
“What worries me more is I haven’t felt our baby move or their essence since I fell asleep…” Cynthia worried, tears threatening to spill over.
“May I touch?” I asked, staring at the glowing green.
Cynthia nodded and cleared her throat.
Hovering a handover, I warned, “Please tell me if this hurts.”
I allowed my magic to pour over it. I couldn’t feel anything. No signature, nothing. Inspecting it closer, I noticed my magic sinking into a particular etching in the skin, revealing words.
‘A concealment?’
Taking a deep breath, I whispered, “Remember me…?”
Then, it flooded the room. Cynthia's skin was crawling with lines crisscrossing all over her shoulder and back. It was concealed. Thank gods, Leo told me how to unlock them.
Examining the green lines, I vaguely recognised them from my father’s book of spells, “Give me a moment. I think I have seen this.”
Grabbing my book of shadows, I flicked through the pages under ‘Hexes and Curses’.
I asked further to narrow down what we were dealing with, “Tell me everything – did you hear any words? See anything?”
“I was gone for five minutes. I heard no words. No chants. I thought I interrupted her as we couldn’t feel anything wrong. Goddess, were we wrong.”
“It seems like she cut into you…?” I asked Cynthia.
“I was out cold, never felt a thing,” she replied.
“My ex was a fan of athames…” Noel trailed off.
“Is her magic usually green?”
He shook his head, “No, but it is possible she gained powers from something… or someone. What she and the coven were doing was extreme, and I didn’t want my boys around that,” he stated.
I touched the lines once more. They bent to my touch, repelled by my hand. I noticed they were knotted together and counted ten strands.
“From its appearance, it seems like she did succeed: viridi invidia—English name; Green Envy. Potent magic. If she practises what you’re saying, it would have been easy for her.”
“Within a few seconds, strings of hexes can be knotted together and placed. With five minutes, she could have easily put a powerful hex and concealed it.”
“It isn't known that well. It takes much preparation and is very taxing to the person casting it. It can also easily be deflected back onto the caster. Perhaps that is why she waited till you were alone and sleeping," I explained, turning the book around to show them.
“The hex can target anything: Bad luck, family, health, your baby, you name it.”
Cynthia began to cry uncontrollably at my words.
“Can it be removed?” Mum asked me.
“Yes, but it will be difficult and long… Preparation needs to be done. It may take the whole coven, depending on what we are dealing with… but I won’t know until I remove it.”
“I’ll phone Nixon,” she grimaced and got up to call him.
“Is there anything we can do for now?” Noel asked while consoling Cynthia.
“Hm, not that I can think of. If you don’t already, get a check-up and have regular checkups for your baby. If you cannot feel them – either they are protecting themselves, or they are the target.”
“And let me know if you have anything strange or unusual happen. Including dreams…” I advised.
I closed the book and placed it back on the bookshelf.
One thing was for sure. I would not be able to remove the Hex with this locks entirety. Using this to my advantage felt horrible, but perhaps this was the leverage I needed to regain my powers. Guilt eats away at the conscious. I shook my head to get rid of my thoughts.
Walking out, I found Seri and Quinn in the back garden, admiring the plants and new seedlings popping through the ground. Seri would be back at home tomorrow with her dad.
Opening the back door, I could hear them chatting amongst themselves and sneaking up on them. I made them jump.
“What are you talking about?” I asked loudly.
“Geez! Lexi!” Seri exclaimed with a hand over her chest. I playfully laughed.
Quinn spilled the beans, “Devan is messaging me again.”
I gave her a knowing smile, and she added, “And Lathen…”
“Yes?”
“He’s not talking to me after seeing us this morning.”
I stayed quiet and sat on the grass, “Things happened all at once… Our argument, the memories, then Leo and I... I’m not surprised he is hurt.”
Quinn and Seri joined me and faced each other.
“He told me you slapped him out of nowhere.”
I instantly looked up at Quinn when she spoke.
Shocked, I asked, “I’m sorry. What?”
She spoke slower this time, “He told me you were arguing, and you hit him over nothing.”
I stared, taking in her words, “That’s not what happened,” I said quietly, her head tilted slightly.
“He tried to profess his… feelings for me. Things got heated, and he couldn’t handle the truth that I did not like him that way. I didn’t expect it… he kissed me. Then, I slapped him,” I stated calmly.
Quinn's eyebrows rose, “Well, he left that info out.”
“In all honesty, Quinn, you played a part in this also.”
“What do you mean?”
“Since we broke up, you’ve been trying to get us together and encouraging him more than once to get me back.”
She said nothing for a moment, “Devan said that too,” she murmured and quickly added, “I liked you two being together. I thought we would feel closer together and that you were afraid or something.”
“Especially how he put it,” she realised, “I never talked to you about it… and well…”
She sighed, “My dad kept asking for updates about you two and wanted you together. I thought that meant the whole coven wanted you two together, and so,” she babbled.
I touched her knee, interrupting her, “Your dad was asking?”
She nodded huffing, “I need a break from him… I don’t even know the difference between my thoughts and him putting them there,” she put her head to her knees, “Especially after finding out the whole memory thing.”
I felt pity for her. It seemed she struggled to trust her dad, herself and everything she thought of and believed in.
“You can stay here as long as you want. You know my mum doesn’t mind, and I will help you with anything I can,” I said to her.
“How are you both feeling after Saturday night?”
“I’m feeling great. I still can’t remember anything,” Seri said, stretching her legs.
Quinn admitted, “I feel a little weird still. I keep having weird dreams about Star Gazer.”
I asked her for more.
“In the dream, I walk away from Star Gazer, towards the park, and I just walk through it… alone. There’s no one else. But! I do remember, we had drinks and obviously a dance. The next thing I know, I wake up in the toilets.”
Seri responded, “We might have to go to Star Gazers. There must be a reason you keep having the same dream.”
“Well, the Easter break is coming up. Road trip?” I suggested.
“Once the whole Lathen thing is sorted, I’ll try to talk to him tomorrow,” Quinn finalised.
