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8
Lena
Miri is standing on her tiptoes, peering down into a large black cauldron. She’s patiently stirring the potion we’ve been working on for the last two hours with a large wooden spoon.
“The whole witch brewing her potion is a little on the nose, don’t you think?” Ruby gave up helping ages ago. She found a stack of magazines somewhere and has been flipping through them. They’re old Architectural Digest issues from the eighties.
“I’m not a witch. I’m a fairy.” Miri smirks as she crumbles some dried lavender into the mixture, cackling when it bubbles and changes color. “It’s done.”
Ruby tosses her magazine aside and rounds the island so she can look down into the pot. “We’re not going to grow warts and get hair in weird places, are we?”
“Afraid of your glamor being revealed?” I poke Ruby in the side, and she hip checks me.
“This beauty is all natural.” Ruby flips her obviously dyed purple hair, and we all laugh.
The potion is a murky brown color, and I’m really glad we don’t have to drink it. Miri ladles equal portions into small glass jars. “I should be able to save the rest and the guys can do this at some point, too. I just didn’t want to invite them today.”
“Well, girls rule, boys drool.” Ruby picks up one of the glasses and shoves her nose into it, coughing as she abruptly pulls her face away.
“Ruby, I swear you’re like a little kid. I bet you stuck forks in sockets and touched the stove when you were little just because someone told you not to.” Miri shakes her head.
“No one tells me what to do.” Ruby shrugs, and if that doesn’t sum her up in one sentence, I don’t know what would. The opposite could be said about me. I basically do whatever someone tells me to. I don’t like to mess with the status quo. I’m a good little girl who follows directions and does what she’s told.
A flash of the other night with Archer hammers into my mind, and my skin heats immediately. A flush crawls up my neck and cheeks as I remember exactly how much I enjoy following directions. I grab the jar of potion, turning to face the island as I push my glasses up on my nose.
“How much blood do we need?” I move back to the book. Books are always saving me. My escape, my getaway, the comfort I ran to as a child. No one could touch my imagination, or take away the worlds housed between the pages of a book. Sometimes, besides Rhys and my friends, it was all I had to get me through the nights.
“Just a drop. Here, I have a needle.”
“We should probably put on some music and dance around the island.” Ruby leans over me to grab a needle from a small pin cushion Miri’s holding out for us.
“We’re not witches. It’s Fae magic,” I remind her.
“Semantics.” Ruby dives right in, jabbing her finger and holding it over her jar. I follow suit, biting the inside of my cheek at the brief pinch. Miri does the same, and we all wait until a bead of blood collects and drops into the potion. Ruby’s is the first to go.
“Whoa,” she exclaims, and Miri and I both make sounds of surprise. The liquid in her cup flares a bright, vibrant red, the color almost exploding around the room like a firework. Miri’s potion changes next, another spectacular explosion of light, this time glowing a shimmering silver.
“Oh, pretty.”
My potion changes last, gradually growing brighter until it’s a blazing white that I can’t look at directly. It’s nearly blinding. Then all the color fades. This time there’s no explosion of color, it’s like the opposite happens, and the mixture folds in on itself. The liquid expels a big bubble, like it’s burping, and the color changes to the darkest black.
The three of us stare at my glass in silence for a minute.
“Well, that seems ominous.” I frown at the glass and pull the book toward me to look at the descriptions of the colors and their associated magic. Clearing my throat, I read off the passage for silver. Since we already know what Miri’s supposed to be able to do, it makes sense to compare it with what the book says.
“Silver represents alchemy, a superior ability to create potions and magical mixtures. No surprise there. Oh, it does say that you are also able to produce simple incantations and spells.” I run my finger down the page to a note at the bottom. “It says here, that all Fae have a natural ability to do simple incantations and spells. Also, that the elements, along with the sun and moon help to recharge and replenish magic.”
“Huh, well, that’s new information.”
“Basically, we have to be out in nature to get a juice boost?” Ruby scowls like that’s the last thing she would want to do.
“I doubt it means you have to do manual labor out in the sun.” I shake my head at her and search the page for the color red.
“Red represents Conjuring. Those with this affinity can cast spells which summon items, spirits, or creatures, and can banish these same things as well. Individuals with this magic are especially gifted with ritual magic, whatever that means.” I cough on the last line on the page. “They may be gifted with telekinesis.”
“Wait, what? Does that mean I can read people’s minds?” Ruby grabs Miri’s face with both hands. She squishes her cheeks and stares her down with squinted eyes.
“That’s telepathy.” Miri slowly peels back Ruby’s hands. “Telekinesis is… like, bending spoons or whatever.”
