by Jen McConnel
Suddenly, I froze in my tracks. There was a faint rustling noise coming from the kitchen. I paused, praying that it was only my overwrought imagination. As I stood there, my eyes adjusted to the dark and I began to count slowly, the way I used to during thunderstorms. One, two, thr—
I heard it again. There was definitely somebody in the kitchen. Creeping around the corner, I tried to still my frantic heart. The blue streetlights outside cast strange shadows, and everything in the familiar old kitchen suddenly looked alien and threatening. Unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, there was a vaguely human shape seated at the table. Had Hecate changed her mind and decided to go after me despite my patron? I drew a deep breath and flicked the light switch, flinging my hands up in preparation for a protection spell.
Rochelle laughed softly. “Turn the lights off, you idiot. Do you want your parents to know you’re back?”
My mouth hung open. “What are you doing here?” I flicked the switch after she lit the stub of the white emergency candle that still sat on the table. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the sharp glow.
She shrugged. “Waiting for you. Your mom called my house when you took off, guess she thought you might have been with me.”
“What did you tell her?” I grabbed a chair and sank into it.
“That we were having a slumber party, that you were pissed and you’d call them in the morning.”
“Thanks.”
She cocked her head to one side. “Where were you, really?”
I hesitated. I’d gotten so used to keeping secrets since I became a Red Witch, I’d almost forgotten how good it felt to confide in my best friend.
“Atlanta.” Rochelle arched an eyebrow, so I continued, “I went looking for Aphrodite. I thought she could help me.”
“Why Atlanta? I mean, can’t the gods come and go wherever they want?”
I struggled to put my confused thoughts into words while Rochelle stared at me, unblinking. “I thought that if I could find Aphrodite anywhere, it would be in the city named after one of her devotees.”
“But why not just summon her here?”
“Because I hoped she could protect me from Hecate if we were on her own turf.”
My best friend whistled. “Dang, girl, I’ve never talked to any goddesses, and here in one week you’ve chatted it up with two!”
“Four, actually,” I interjected without thinking. “Persephone and Pele have both been here, too.” I shuddered as I remembered Pele’s request for sacrifices.
Rochelle looked stunned. “What do they all want with you?”
I sighed. “Red magic. It turns out that being a Red Witch means I have power over the forces of chaos. Pele wants me to kill people for her, and Persephone … well, I’m not sure what she wanted.” For some reason, I didn’t want to tell Rochelle about the pomegranate seeds. “And Aphrodite offered to help me find a middle ground that won’t require death and destruction.”
Rochelle scrunched up her nose. “But why would a love goddess care what you do with chaos magic?”
I shrugged. “I don’t totally get it, but I guess Helen of Troy was a Red, and I think Aphrodite feels bad that she didn’t help her more.” I held up my hands at the skeptical look on my best friend’s face. “That’s what she said! I just knew I didn’t want to face Hecate again without some kind of protection.”
“So, what, you have a patron now?”
I nodded, hoping that Rochelle wouldn’t tell me I was an idiot.
She shrugged thoughtfully. “I haven’t found the right god yet, but I think it’s a good thing for you.”
“Really?” I was surprised. Rochelle always complained about old-fashioned Witches, and I had just assumed she considered patrons old-fashioned.
She nodded. “I mean, you won’t be any worse off than you are now, right?”
I exhaled quickly. “Right.” I covered a yawn, but Rochelle kept talking.
“Red magic must be pretty powerful, huh, if so many goddesses have been paying attention to you?”
“I don’t know,” I lied, suddenly self-conscious about my magic. “But there are only three Red Witches in the world. It’s not that the magic is powerful,” I hurried, “but I think it’s just too much to unleash in large quantities.”
She leaned forward. “How did you even know about it?”
“I didn’t.”
Rochelle eyed me skeptically. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. When Hecate showed up, I panicked. I didn’t want to pick a path, so I said the first thing that popped into my mind.”
“That was dangerous: what if you’d said something that didn’t exist?”
I shrugged. “I just hoped it would throw her off and she’d leave me alone. Instead, I made a vow I still don’t understand.”
“What else do you think they’re keeping from us at Trinity?”
I looked at her in surprise. “Do you really think they’d do that?”
“They clearly knew enough about Red magic to kick you out after you declared.” She closed her eyes, thinking. “I bet they only teach us the watered-down stuff. Red magic seems way more powerful than even Black.”
“But why wouldn’t the teachers at Trinity want us to be powerful? Wouldn’t they want us to know as much magic as we can?”
Rochelle sighed. “Grow up, Lena. Why would they want us to be powerful? We’re easier to control if they spoon-feed us baby magic.” She sighed, tipping her chair back. “You’ll teach me some of the stuff you learn, right?”
I only hesitated for a moment, but I saw a flicker of anger pass across her eyes when I paused. “Of course. You’re my best friend.”
She smiled. “Forever.”
Rochelle left around dawn, and I made myself a cup of tea to take up to my bedroom. I cradled the steaming mug carefully as I padded up the stairs, but when I opened the door to my room, a gray ball of fur ran into me and I slopped scalding water all over myself.
“Damn it, Xerxes, what were you doing in there?” I set the cup down carefully and wiped off my hand. Turning on the light, I sucked in my breath to choke back a scream.
“That’s no way to greet your patron, Darlena.”
Aphrodite was lounging on my bed, eating one of my emergency chocolate bars. I narrowed my eyes at her, wondering why she was there.
“Why are you in my bed?”
“I’d expected to find you asleep and dreaming. I sent you home hours ago. Did you get lost?”
I shook my head. “My friend was here. She knew I was missing, and she wanted to find out where I was.”
Aphrodite looked at me hard. “What did you tell her?”
I closed the door, willing my voice back down to a whisper. “I told her what happened. You didn’t say I couldn’t tell anyone, and now that Hecate knows, I figured, what the heck?”
The goddess was silent, so I tried another tack. “Did you already think of something you would like me to do?”
Her face lit up as she smiled at me. “Yes.” She patted the bed and rose. “You should sit down. You’ve had a long night.”
I perched on the edge of my bed, clutching my half-empty cup. “Well?”
She clasped her hands and closed her eyes. “I want to help you, Darlena. I told you that already. And I decided that the best way to help you is to teach you. If you learn to control your magic, you’ll feel much better about being a Red.”
I nodded, relieved. I had been afraid she was here to demand that I start making people fall in love.
She smirked. “That will come later. For now, I just need to show you some individual spells.”
I gaped at her. My patron had just read my mind; clearly I was in far deeper than I had imagined. I’d have to watch what I thought around her.
“Can you cast a glamour?”
I blushed at her question. “No. I tried, once. It didn’t exactly turn out the way I thought.” The goddess looked hard at me for a moment, and I busied myself watching the steam waft out of my mug. I
tried to focus on the shapes in the steam, willing my mind to stay blank. She squinted once, but didn’t seem inclined to pursue my train of thought. I was relieved; I didn’t want to talk about that disastrous night with Justin.
“It’s an easy enough spell, once you know what you’re doing.” Aphrodite casually tossed the candy wrapper onto my floor and rose. Her red robes shimmered and looked almost translucent, and I blushed again, trying not to look too closely at her curvy frame. Even if she was wearing a glamour, my patron was by far the most beautiful woman on the planet!
She faced me, her head cocked to one side. I felt as if I were being examined under a microscope. I glanced down at the rumpled shirt I hadn’t had a chance to change. Surreptitiously, I brushed at a stain on my jeans. I kept my eyes down, ashamed for the first time to have sworn my craft to the patron of love. There was no way she had ever been a patron to anyone as ordinary looking as me.
“Actually, Helen was quite plain before I taught her the art of glamour.” She was reading my thoughts again, and I bit my tongue before I could snap at her. The goddess shot me a long look before she began to show me the spell.
She was right; it was simple. I hadn’t done a spell that required so little planning in a long time, and I wondered why I had screwed it up when I tried to glamour my voice with Justin. On my third try, I got it right.
Aphrodite clapped approvingly. “Oh, well done. Take a look!” She handed me a copper hand mirror, delicately carved with vines and buds. The face I saw in the glass was striking. I looked at least three years older, and my skin had flushed to a rich olive complexion. Instead of my usual dull hair color, the shiny hair that framed my face was so bright it looked like it had been expertly dyed. For the first time, I agreed with the people who said I looked like my mother. I stared at myself in wonder.
“How long does it last?” My voice was eager, and Aphrodite smiled indulgently.
“Right now, without practice, it will only last as long as you are absolutely focused on being beautiful.” The face in the mirror flickered, and I wavered somewhere between selves.
“Is there any way to make it last longer?”
She nodded. “The more you do it, the easier it gets. There are ways to tie off a spell and make it permanent, but I think we’ll wait to go over those until you get the hang of the simpler things.”
I felt my heart thrill at the possibility of forever altering my average appearance, but just as suddenly a shard of guilt pricked my fantasy. I set the mirror down quickly, not wanting to watch my features morph back into my normal appearance.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but what good does it do?” Aphrodite stared at me blankly. I swallowed and tried to smile. “It’s really cool, and I appreciate you teaching this to me, but it’s just that I’ve got all this power now that I’m a Red. Isn’t this spell sort of a waste?”
Instantly, I regretted my choice of words. Aphrodite’s smiling face had turned stiff, and the temperature in the room dropped considerably. I shivered, facing the goddess.
“You came to me for protection. You swore an oath to serve me. Would you break that oath on your first day in my care?” She spoke softly, but with each word, the goddess seemed to grow in size, filling my room. I shrank back in fear. I wasn’t sure if it was an illusion or not, but I really didn’t want to piss her off. Aphrodite was famous for her temper, and the last thing I needed was another goddess out to get me.
“That’s not what I meant at all! Of course I want to serve you.” Her size didn’t diminish; she continued to stare threateningly down at me. “It’s just that I want to do something with Red magic. I don’t want to cause chaos, but … isn’t there a way that I could work to harness chaos, to help people?”
The goddess laughed, and instantly she was the size of any average human. “Silly girl. Chaos cannot be controlled. Forget those thoughts and focus on learning the magic I will teach you.”
She kissed my forehead in blessing, and I felt energy gently caress my arms. “Now. You’ve had quite enough learning for tonight. Sleep, Darlena. I will see you again soon.” I started to hand the mirror back, but she shook her head. “Keep it. Mirrors carry the power of water, and they help us to know ourselves. You will need it, I think.”
She glided into the hall and I crawled into bed, too tired to even strip off my travel-stained clothes. Carefully, I set the mirror down on my bedside table. I tumbled into bed, my limbs heavy and my mind clouded. Right before I drifted to sleep, I realized what had bothered me about Aphrodite’s last statement: I had controlled chaos before. Perhaps my patron didn’t know as much as she claimed. With that dangerous thought, I fell into a deep sleep.
I woke up with sunlight streaming across the bed, but my mouth tasted like old socks and honey. I stretched groggily, and my hand brushed against the mirror Aphrodite had given me. I picked it up and began to examine it.
It sparkled too much to be copper, and I realized: it was actually finely hammered rose gold. The handle was narrow but fit comfortably in my hand, and the round frame was etched with roses and vines. I turned it over and almost dropped it.
Staring up at me out of the glass was my reflection, still wearing the glamour. Even as I looked, the magic began to fade and my features returned to normal. Had the mirror carried some residual energy from the spell, or had I really managed to hold onto the glamour while I slept? I checked the mirror again, but now my hair was its usual frizzy, dull auburn. My eyes still gleamed, however, and it was hard to look away from myself. That was odd. What had Aphrodite said about the spell? It should have only lasted for as long as I was focused on it, but I was pretty sure I hadn’t been thinking about the spell while I slept. I’d have to ask her about that the next time I saw her; maybe I’d done something wrong.
Crossing my room, I set the mirror on top of my bookcase, next to the athame Mom had given me. Seeing it sitting there reminded me that I would have to face the music with my parents sooner or later. I was glad Rochelle had lied about where I was last night, but that wouldn’t change the fact that I’d run away. True, Dad had sort of suggested it, but I hadn’t stuck around to say goodbye to Mom, and I wasn’t sure what kind of reception I’d get now. I ran a comb through my hair and changed my shirt, but I decided I would wait to shower until I’d gotten the confrontation out of the way.
I headed down the stairs and paused before stepping onto the main floor. No one came around the corner screaming at me, so I took a deep breath and called, “Mom, Dad? Good morning?”
“Morning, sweetie! We’re out back.” Their chorused response sounded far too cheery, and I slunk toward their voices with trepidation. When I reached the sliding glass door that led out to the garden, I paused to take in the scene.
My dad was sitting in the old wicker chair, holding a cup of coffee. Mom was beside him, on her knees in the herb garden. She was trimming back the rosemary with a small pair of shears. Her sun hat shaded her face, but she wasn’t wearing any gloves; Mom loves to feel the dirt as she works her plant magic. The image was so normal, so perfectly average, that I started to sweat. Who were they trying to fool? I eased the door open and stepped outside.
“There you are, sleepyhead. Did you have a good time with Rochelle?” Mom smiled up at me. Cautiously, I nodded. Dad set his coffee cup down and looked at me with a slight grimace, and I braced myself.
“You know I really don’t like you spending so much time with that girl. Has she made her declaration yet?”
Before I could answer, Mom jumped to my defense. “Oh, let it go, Richard. They’re best friends, and there’s nothing that says Black and Green Witches shouldn’t be friends.”
It took a minute for her words to sink in, but when they did, I asked, slowly, “Black and Green, Mom?”
She laughed. “Of course. You think we don’t know that Rochelle is going to follow the Black path?” She patted my foot with her dirt-covered hand.
“It’s been pretty obvious,” Dad hissed under his breath.
&
nbsp; “But you said Black and Green. What are you talking about?”
Dad looked up at me in concern. “Are you feeling alright?”
Mom rose, dusting off her legs swiftly. “She’s probably just tired. You know girls, Richard, they stay up all night talking, then pretend that they were asleep the whole time.” Mom kissed my cheek as she turned to go inside. “But I hope you aren’t too tired to remember your Dedicancy ceremony. Dad and I are so proud of you!”
As she went into the house, I looked at my dad. “What ceremony?” They couldn’t possibly know the details of last night, could they?
He looked up, surprised. “I think you do need to lie down! It’s all you’ve talked about for a month. You declared to the Green path last month, on the night before your birthday. I don’t think I want to know what you girls were doing last night if you can’t remember something as important as that!”
***
Shaking, I raced up the stairs to my room. I shut the door and looked around. The athame and the mirror sat side by side, right where I had left them. I dug through my backpack, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I found the three pomegranate seeds in the bottom. Clearly, I wasn’t the one who was going crazy. With that thought, my relief left me. What in the world had happened? My parents were acting as if the last month had never happened, and what was worse, they seemed to have a whole different set of memories than I had. It was like I had stumbled into some kind of alternate universe.
I grabbed my phone and texted Justin a quick question. “What path do I follow?”
My phone buzzed almost immediately.
“Justin,” I answered quickly, “tell me.”
“Calm down, Darlena. What’s wrong?”
“Just tell me what kind of magic I practice.”
Justin paused. “I don’t know if that’s something I should say over the phone. What if she’s listening?”
“Who, Justin?”
Silence.
“Can I come over?”
