Not yet, anyway.
Inhaling deeply, I grabbed the rope, squeezed my core, closed my eyes, and swung. I tried to wrap my legs around the bottom of the rope, but its loose nature made it difficult. It didn’t matter — a second later I was on the other side anyway, standing on a platform, heaving and panting to the sound of cheering coming from below.
Only two more obstacles to go, and I was finished. I could do this. I could totally do this. Spurred on by the crowd below, I glanced up at the next challenge, and a small, indistinguishable sound escaped my throat.
In front of me were a set of monkey bars, only they weren’t like the ones at the playground that I used growing up. These ones moved. They were individual green bars, floating around from side to side and up and down like I was in a real-life Pong game or something.
“Uh, I’m not sure I can do this,” I muttered to myself.
“You can do this!” Scarlett called out as if she could read my mind. I took a deep breath. I inhaled deeply. Time to focus.
My eyes settled on one bar in particular. Standing on the edge of the platform, I waited for it to come close enough to grab it, and when I spotted my opportunity, I launched myself with all the power I had in my legs and reached forward. My fingers curled around the bar and my body’s momentum swung me forward and back a couple of times before I finally settled down. I had done it. I was on the monkey bars. This one was moving from right to left, and I quickly realized this was set up so I couldn’t just hang on and hope this bar got to the other side on its own. I was going to have to jump from bar to bar until I reached the platform on the other side, which was going to be at least five or six moves.
That was fine. I could do it. Again, I focused on the next bar and watched its pattern. When it came close enough, I jumped and grabbed it. I hadn’t accounted for the momentum of the previous bar, and I almost missed it, but at the last second I grabbed hold of the metal and hung on for dear life. Two down, just a few more to go.
I spotted the next bar I wanted to grab and jumped easily, my hands gripping the bar, and focused on the next one. My arms were burning now, my muscles not used to having to carry my weight and propel me forward. I jumped to grab the last bar but I just didn’t have the energy to do it, and instead of flying gracefully through the air and catching the last bar, I plummeted toward the water below.
Someone was screaming somewhere, and it took me a second to realize it was me. My eyes were focused on the blue water when suddenly a gray shape took form. It was the shark. Bile rose in my throat as it spotted me, opening its jaws wide, and as I realized the last thing I was going to see was the red interior of its mouth, it suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke. I hit the water a second later, my muscles contracting at the sudden temperature change.
I kicked my feet upward until I reached the surface, gasping for air, my heart still beating at a million miles a minute, more or less.
“You were so close!” Scarlett called out, rushing over to help me out of the water. I held out an arm and she yanked on it, dragging me back out onto the grass as I coughed and sputtered.
“Well done! That was a valiant attempt for your first try,” Patricia said, clapping her hands.
“I agree. You almost made it,” Mercutio added. “Come on, now, why don’t you move over here and rest for a bit, and you can watch the others.”
My head spun a bit; I wasn’t quite recovered from my adventure, so I let Scarlett and Mercutio guide me to a nearby rock, where I sat down, grateful to be back on solid earth.
CHAPTER 15
A t some point, my hair had plastered itself to my face, so I moved it out of the way and watched as the other witches all took their turn on the obstacle course. Every time one of them finished, they came over to where I sat and hung around with Scarlett and me, which I thought was very nice of them.
“Good job,” Jess said when she finished, her skin covered in a thin sheen of sweat. “The first time I tried I fell off the floating plates. You made it way further than I did the first time around.”
“That’s a good workout, isn’t it?” the second witch asked me as she trotted over.
It was funny; I hadn’t really realized I was working out at the time — apart from the times when my muscles were so painful I thought I was being stabbed — but now that I sat here I realized I was breathing hard and that most of the muscles in my body were starting to feel tight and sore.
“Yeah, I guess it was,” I said with a nervous laugh.
“It’s what I love about Eye of the Wolf,” Jess explained. “Before I’d just go to a normal gym and run on the treadmill. And sure, it’s not too bad, but running isn’t the most exciting form of exercise to begin with, and I found myself just counting down how long it would be until I could stop doing it. Whereas not only are Mercutio’s obstacle courses always exciting, but you almost forget you’re exercising since you’re so focused on just getting to the end. He changes them a lot, too. He’s got dozens of obstacles and he switches them up all the time. All he needs is one witch to show up and cast the spell to make the course appear, but he designs them. And if you feel like you’re not getting enough of a workout, you just need to tell him and he can either make harder obstacles for you, or you can do multiple laps of the one that’s set up.”
I laughed. “Well, I didn’t even make it through one lap of this one, so I don’t think that’s for me.”
“That’s right, it’s your first time,” Jess said with a kind smile. “No one expects you to crush it on the first try.”
“Scarlett did,” I said, and Jess nodded.
“Yeah, that was really cool. You’re a natural,” she said, and Scarlett waved her compliment away.
“A lifetime of getting into trouble means I’m pretty good at getting out of sticky situations,” she said with a laugh. “It was really fun, though. I enjoyed it.”
“Do you want to come with me and go for a second round?”
Scarlett looked over at me, as if waiting for permission, but I waved her on, laughing.
“Go, go. Don’t let my wet butt stop you. If you want to do it, go do it.”
Scarlett grinned. “I’ll be back soon.”
I smiled as I watched my cousin and Jess running back toward the cargo net together. I was completely spent, physically, and it was nice to see the others going through what was frankly a very entertaining course to watch.
Another witch arrived, just as soaked as I was. I didn’t see where she’d gone out, but she was laughing happily as she came by.
“Good, I’m not the only one who fell in,” she said as she plopped herself down next to me. “I’m Breanna.”
“Mina,” I replied with a smile. Breanna’s short black hair was plastered to her head, and her mascara had been wiped off when she got out of the water, giving her a serious case of raccoon eyes. But her smile was infectious, and I liked her immediately.
“You got pretty far for your first time. Further than me, and I’ve been doing this for a while. It’s so much fun. I hate that fake shark, though. He messes with me, mentally.”
“Right? I knew he couldn’t be real, but I actually thought he was going to eat me.”
“Exactly! Mercutio put him in there on purpose. He says that exercising the brain and learning to work out with adrenaline pumping is just as important as working the rest of your muscles. Frankly, I think he’s full of it and just likes to watch us fall into the shark’s mouth before it disappears. But maybe that’s just because I fall off the obstacle courses more than most people.”
“What’s he like, Mercutio?” I asked Breanna, and she grinned.
“Oh, he’s fine. He’s a little bit crazy, even by shifter standards, but he has a heart of gold. He’s also super into non-traditional exercise. He’s also the only vegan shifter I know.”
“Really? A vegan wolf?” I asked, raising my eyebrows, and Breanna laughed.
“Exactly. Weird, right?”
“Well, I’ve never heard of tha
t, but then again, Mercutio is also the only shifter I know, so I guess as far as I’m aware they have a one hundred percent veganism rate.”
“Good point. But no, I don’t know any other shifters who don’t eat meat. They’re very much carnivores.”
I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask Breanna about Mercutio. “Do you know if Mercutio knew Thomas at all?”
“I think they met a couple of time,” Breanna said. “Linda mentioned it, once. Mercutio hurt himself doing something here and Thomas had to make the potion to fix him up. And Thomas would come by here from time to time if his shift coincided with the end of the workouts and pick Linda up. He’d say hi to Mercutio, but that was it, as far as I know.”
“So they didn’t know each other well?”
“Oh no, certainly not. Linda was here five days a week, but she always came by herself.”
“What kind of relationship did they have?”
Breanna flashed me a conspiratorial smile. “Are you asking me if I think Linda was cheating on Thomas with Mercutio? Well, there’s no chance of that. Thomas and Linda were devoted to one another. The way he looked at her, you just knew he would do anything for her. And she always talks about how much good Thomas is doing in the community, and how he’s making life better for everyone in town. They were truly the town’s golden couple. Between her working to educate the next generation of witches and wizards and him being a Healer, they were the perfect couple. Everyone thought so. I can’t believe Thomas is gone.”
“So they were both very well-respected, too.”
“Oh, yes. I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about either one of them.”
“Thanks. It’s just…I was there when it happened, and it’s such a shock, you know?”
“It must have been. I can’t imagine,” Breanna said with a sad shake of her head. “I’m sorry that had to be your introduction to life in Fairy Falls. I swear, that sort of thing normally never happens here.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Luckily, everyone has been incredibly welcoming.”
“We’re all about love and kindness here in the coven of Venus,” Breanna said warmly. “But we’re also a thunder coven, so if anyone crosses us, or the people we love, we’re ready to fight for them.”
“Good to know,” I said with a gentle chuckle. “I didn’t realize the whole coven was all about love. Do you have problems with witches and wizards from other covens coming here and trying to get love potions, and things like that?”
“No,” Breanna replied, shaking her head. “Love potions that force someone to fall in love with them don’t exist. They can’t. Magic has a lot of power, but it also has limitations. It can’t force someone to change their feelings about another paranormal. It also can’t be used to force someone to say or do things that they wouldn’t ordinarily say or do.”
“So completely different to what we think of in the human world when we think of using magic for love,” I said. “There, it’s about getting people to fall in love with us, that sort of thing.”
Breanna shook her head. “No, that’s not true love at all. True love involves accepting that sometimes your feelings won’t be reciprocated, and that in giving the person that you love the agency to choose not to love you back, that’s an act of adoration and respect in and of itself.”
I nodded in understanding, and Breanna continued. “Love in the coven of Venus takes many forms, but the most important teaching is that the most important person to fall in love with is yourself.”
“I didn’t realize that.”
“Oh, yes. Loving yourself is the most important act of love you can have. It’s only once you love yourself and learn to take care of yourself that you can do the same with someone else.”
“Is that really true, though? What about, say, most mothers? It’s said that they love their children unconditionally.” Of course, my own experience had been a little bit different, but I was well aware that my mother’s mental illness was the exception and not the rule.
“Of course,” Breanna said, nodding. “And most mothers do love their children unconditionally, but if they don’t love themselves first, they can’t take care of them as effectively.”
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, think about most mothers you know. They’re always run down, run off their feet, chasing their children, right?”
I nodded. “Yes, of course.”
“And they do that out of love, but they’re putting all of their energy toward their children, and none toward themselves. So they tend to get a little bit frazzled sometimes, or their tempers flare a little bit more than usual, or any other of the normal stress responses that paranormals feel when they’re put under strain and not taken care of. Whereas if they took even ten percent of the energy that they put into their children and put it toward taking care of themselves, they would be able to take even better care of their children while not feeling completely overwhelmed. The idea of the coven of Venus is that more love — for everyone — makes life better for everyone.”
I nodded slowly. “I think I understand what you’re saying. By loving ourselves first, it allows us to love others even more.”
“Exactly,” Breanna said. “It’s so easy to forget that we have to love ourselves. And that’s what the coven of Venus is all about: love in all its forms.”
I suddenly began to understand why maybe Mom didn’t feel like she belonged here. She certainly loved herself, what with being a narcissist and all, but she didn’t love anyone else. At least, she had never really loved me, and I’d never seen her show love to anyone else, either. I knew it probably wasn’t her fault — my therapist explained that doctors didn’t have a good grasp on exactly what causes narcissistic personality disorder, but it was widely believed to have a genetic component — but it couldn’t have been pleasant to live in a town where everyone was focused on love if the only person you loved was yourself.
“Ultimately,” Breanna continued, “almost everything in this world comes down to love. People have done great things in its name, and terrible things as well. People have mistaken love for hate, and love for passion. But in the end, almost everything comes back around to love.”
I thought about my life, back in New York, and how much of it was based on love.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, that’s not right. Not everything.”
“What situation are you thinking about?”
“Well, back in New York, I’m an executive. I’m striving to be made a partner in the advertising firm I work for, so that I can live the life I’ve always dreamed.”
“And what’s that life look like?”
“I want a nice apartment, with a view of the skyline. I want a big office. I want more employees working under me, and more responsibility. I want a bigger paycheck, and I want to be known as the woman who made it despite the odds.”
Breanna nodded. “Ok. Do you love advertising?”
I shrugged. “It’s ok, but I wouldn’t say I love it. I enjoy graphic design, and I enjoy the challenge of having my team design an advertising campaign that’s going to make my clients a ton of money and win awards. But I wouldn’t say I love them.”
“So you don’t love your job. But you want to be good at it, and you want to get promoted so you can have more money. Why is that?”
“I want to live a different lifestyle.”
“And there it is. You’re taking care of yourself through your ambition. Your hard work is your way of taking care of yourself and of loving yourself. The real question you have to ask yourself, however, is whether you’re doing it right?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, taken aback. “I really hope so. I know I might lose my job if I can’t get back to the human world quickly, but I’m doing whatever I can.”
“No, I don’t mean that. I’m asking if your goals are really the ones you need to love yourself. Will you really be happy when you obtain them? If yes, then great. Go for it. But if there’s a chance that living thi
s lifestyle you’re after isn’t your true passion, then you need to figure out how to bring love in your life that will truly make you happy.”
“These are the right goals,” I said firmly. “I knew this was what I was going to do since I was a kid.”
“Well in that case, I wish you the best of luck,” Breanna said. “I’m sure you’ll be very happy. If your form of love expresses itself in feeling accomplished as a professional and being able to buy yourself what your heart desires, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“What about you?” I asked. “What is it that you’re looking for in life? What do you consider to be the ultimate form of self-love?”
“I’m hoping to bring a child into the world,” Breanna replied, her face glowing. “I’d love to teach a little witch or wizard what I know about the world, and help to make it a better place. My husband and I have been trying for about a year, and no luck yet, but I’m sure our time has come. I have faith in the universe.”
“I’m sure it’ll happen for you. I hope it’s soon.”
“I hope you’re right,” Breanna replied. “And I hope your career soars to all the heights you dream of, and more.”
“Thanks.” I smiled at my new friend, grateful for both the lesson on the coven and for her support. It was true that I didn’t seek love by wanting to get married or having a family or anything like that. I would be happy when I got to the top of the career ladder. I just knew it.
CHAPTER 16
T ime flew by, and before I knew it the exercise class was over. I didn’t dare try a second round of the magical obstacle course, but as I walked like a robot toward the building — apparently my legs and arms were sore enough that they didn’t bend anymore — I figured that was probably a good idea.
“That was so much fun,” Scarlett gushed as we entered the building. She looked fine, like she’d just gone for a light jog. Her cheeks were a little flushed, but apart from that you wouldn’t have known she’d spent the last hour working out. Meanwhile, I looked like a swamp creature come up from the deep to feast on human souls.
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