I knew then what I’d suspected back in the haunted forest, the nagging thought that had been growing week by week: She wanted to stay.
Gwen wanted to be a coven member. She’d found her place, her home.
I could see her strolling through the streets of Maple Hollow in a chic peacoat and chunky heels, ordering spiced cinnamon mochas at Witch’s Brew Café, getting a quaint job at one of the local coven businesses, every resident knowing her name. And she might leave it all to come back to the city with me if I asked her to because I knew I was becoming important to her too. I might be the one to tear her from her happy place before she even had a chance to see it.
I couldn’t do that to her.
The thought twisted like a knife in my gut. I wanted to get out and she wanted in, and we would never find a way to reconcile those two things. And if I came back next summer, maybe we’d have another heated fling, only to have our hearts broken all over again.
Whoa. When did we get into heartbreak territory?
“Oh boy,” Iris grumbled as she sidled up next to me. She wore her hair in a messy bun, a bandana tied around it in the olive, orange, white, and mustard SCUW colors. “You look like you fell off your broomstick into a cauldron of electric eels.”
I shot her a look. “That is oddly specific.”
“Don’t ask me how I know.” She crossed her arms. “Spill.”
“I’m just thinking.”
“About?” she asked, wheeling her arms, hoping I’d cut to the chase. “You know mind reading isn’t my affinity. Come on, Sabi, share with the class.”
“I . . .” And curse the moon if that word didn’t come out all choked and garbled like I was going to cry.
What was I going to say?
That I was falling in love? That I was going to lose her? That I wished I didn’t have to give her up and could just be selfish?
“Oh shit.” Iris immediately hugged me, shielding me from the celebrating throng of witches. “We need wine for this, come on.”
She grabbed me by the wrist and tugged me onto the forest path toward the staff cabins. We passed by the firepit, then the mess hall. I eyed the back door of the building for a long moment, but Iris was on a mission and didn’t notice my slowing feet. She dragged me in the direction of Dagmar’s cabin, and my brows pinched. When Iris spotted Hera standing guard on the cabin railing, she conjured a mouse and threw it past her without missing a beat. The bird flew off without hesitation, and I had to wonder how many times my sister had distracted the camp director’s familiar.
“It’ll be okay,” Iris said as she used her magic to lower the window and float a bottle of priceless wine out. “Witch wine solves everything.”
“Didn’t Jordyn summon the ghost of her ex-girlfriend the last time she got drunk on witch wine?”
Iris waved away my protest. “And look how that turned out! She found the love of her life.”
I didn’t have the normal gusto to fight my older sister on this one. Instead, we sat on the cabin steps and I spilled my heart out to her. I told her everything that had transpired between Gwen and me. Worse, I told her what it made me feel.
“There’s no right answer. I’m sorry, Sabi,” she said. “Selfishly, I think you should just stay in Maple Hollow for one more year and do another summer at camp since Astrid will inevitably rat you out to Daggy.”
“She hasn’t yet,” I said with a shrug.
“Probably biding her time,” Iris muttered. “Sharpening her weapons for the perfect time to strike.”
“You sound like you know from experience. Have you ever . . .?”
“With Astrid?” Iris gagged. “Ew, no. She’s eight years younger than I am.”
“What, so seven years is your cutoff?”
Iris chuckled. “Yeah, I think I’m going for the older types now.”
“Like several-hundred-year-old-demon older types?” I suggested, giving her a knowing look.
“Hey,” she scoffed. “This was supposed to be about you.”
“I’m very sneaky.”
