But the woman didn’t go away. She sat down, trash crushing beneath her, deciding—incorrectly—that Lily was a person worth sitting in the middle of a disgusting alley for.
That, Lily decided, warranted a glance. She lifted her head up, peering over her knees. The stranger stared at her, concern flashing through her hazel eyes.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” the woman said, and Lily laughed, because that wasn’t what she was worried about.
“And you’re not going to hurt me.”
That was enough to make Lily take her head fully out of her hands.
“My name is Katherine,” the woman said. She looked like Lily’s English teacher from last year, the one who let her write her final essay onLittle Womeneven though the class was supposed to be covering John Steinbeck. “I’m here to help you.”
“Can you take it out of me?”
Lily’s heart fell as Katherine shook her head.
“But I can help you get to a point where what happened to your brother won’t happen to anyone else,” Katherine said softly. Lily ran her hands through her hair, picking at the knots that had developed as she fled. She wanted that more than anything, but she didn’t see how it could be possible. Not with the strength of the fire still burning in her.
“I don’t think I can keep this in. It’s too much.”
“I know it feels that way right now.” Katherine reached out, gently pulling Lily’s fingers away from the tangle she’d been trying to rip apart. She rubbed her thumb along Lily’s palm, and Lily’s breathing calmed. “But I promise, you can learn how to control it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I controlled it. I thought my magic was going to eat me alive, but it didn’t. I’m here, talking to you.”
Magic?Lily’s brain stuttered on the word, the rational part of her saying that magic didn’t exist, that that couldn’t be what this feeling was. But the burning in her stomach danced when the word was uttered, glad to be called by what it was. There was power in being named.
And Katherine had learned to control it. Her… hermagic. She was here, and she was alive, and she didn’t seem like she was on the verge of falling apart.
Maybe Lily’s life wasn’t over.
“Please,” Katherine said. “Come with me.”
Lily paused, hope warring with fear. Fear that told her to stay here, to let the pavement grow around her and take her, until there was nothing left but a bump in the concrete. Hope that screamed at her to go, to take the chance to find a way to live in this new reality.
She chose hope.
“Okay.”
CHAPTER SIX
Lily sat silently in Katherine’s passenger seat, watching the city fly by outside the window. Her city. She’d been born here, grown up here. She hadn’t even left the state of California until last year, when she and her mom had flown to Pennsylvania for a second cousin’s wedding. She’d been shocked at how spread out everything was.
In Los Angeles, everyone was on top of each other. She could see down every street they drove by, could watch as people walked their dogs, threw out their trash, checked to make sure their cars were parked close enough to the curb. Scenes she’d watched every day for her whole life, and suddenly she felt like she didn’t recognize any of them.
They hadn’t spoken since they got in Katherine’s car, the silence punctuated only by the occasional instructions from Katherine’s GPS. They merged onto the highway, and the side roads vanished away, replaced by the spinning sameness of the city at ninety miles an hour.
“I’m taking you back to my place,” Katherine offered. “Tomorrow we’ll go to Aestas.”
Lily knew she should respond—ask what Aestas was, what she would do there—but she couldn’t muster the words. Her brain was like the world flying by outside, so many thoughts fighting each other for space that it was difficult to grab onto one individually.
“Aestas is my coven. I’m a witch. Just like you.”
Lily let out a short laugh. That, at least, crystallized as absolutelyridiculous. Lily was still coming to terms with the idea that this power might be magic, but having magic didn’t make her a witch. Witches were for money-grabbing tourist traps and cheesy TV shows.
“Right. I guess I missed your pointy hat and broomstick.”
“We’re not those kind of witches,” Katherine said. Lily laughed again at the idea that this woman was delusional enough to have types for her imaginary creatures. “You’re not going to catch any of us cackling, and we don’t use wands or anything.”
