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“For days, I’ve been trying to figure this out, and then I realized you’re the missing piece. Your help, at least,” Remi tells me as she shows me to the living room she’s taken over. She plops down onto the couch and reaches for a textbook. Curious, I take a seat beside her as she grabs a pencil and scribblesaway on the notebook before twirling it in her blond hair. Looking up at me, she asks, “If you were to swap the coins with a rare element like gold or silver during a tracking spell, do you think I could find someone I’ve never met?”

One of the first spells we learn when we come into our magic is a simple tracking spell. While it's basic, it's very handy to have in our arsenal. While we technically don’t need an element for the spell, if we include one, we can track over larger distances. Typically, a regular coin is used, but in this situation, Remi might be on to something.

Rubbing my chin, I muse, “Gold is probably a better match from a composition perspective. The more complex the element is, the more complex the magic should be. Skip the incantation. It does nothing for our magic. It's the practice, ability, and elements that power the spell. Why do you ask?”

Remi looks back down at her notebook and makes another note before she answers me. “I’ve overheard your discussions. I know Supernaturals are disappearing, and humans disappear everyday. If I make this tweak to the tracking spell, we can do some good with our magic and help the police find missing people.”

I left Remi with a promise that she would only practice in private while I tried to figure out what to do with this information. The predicament is if we’re seen trying to do good, then someone else will challenge me for leadership rights. Humans have treated us with nothing but disdain from the moment they knew about us. Hecate’s escape from Europe proves that, which is why we’ve taken the approach of secrecy in our current business dealings. If someone challenges me for power because I suggest a change that threatens this, and I lose and die, the twins will die too. While it seems extreme, our families have always worked that way. Removethe threat to our existence, even if it’s from within. If someone were to beat me, they wouldn’t want to risk the twins coming for them in revenge.

But would I die, though?

It's possible. I’ve always suspected the three of us are different. The twins have a gift for creating spells, something our people haven’t seen for a long time, and my magic endurance is a lot better than the average Sorcerer. In fact, I can do spells without elements for a longer period than most Sorcerers could. These things haven’t been seen since Hecate’s time, according to the records we have.

The final Sorcerer steps away from their offering at the yew trees, and something about the tension makes me look up. It's Jon, Katalina’s father. In that moment, everything feels frozen as I can see him waver between attacking me and respecting Hecate’s night. His grief comes out on top as he storms towards me amid the gasps of the Sorcerers, and Jon raises his hand at me.

By now, everyone knows what happened to Katalina, and they understand it. When our principles are secrecy and loyalty, what Katalina did is far more dishonorable than my execution of her. But I understand Jon’s grief.

Beating him to the punch, I cast my own spell lazily from my spot on the circle, and I freeze Jon into his position. Sighing loudly, because for my first time leading the night of Hecate, I had hoped it would go smoothly. “I take it you thought I wouldn’t go through with it?” I ask Jon. He mumbles something, and I realize I froze his mouth too, so I wave my hand to undo that portion of the spell.

“You killed her! Like a monster!” Jon shouts at me, and I put the magic back where it was, deciding it was better when his mouth was frozen. “NoJon, I executed her because Katalina went against the principles of the Sorcerer empire and Hecate’s ways, and you knew that. Now, you’re following in her footsteps by dishonoring our mother on her special evening.”

Pausing for dramatic effect, I look around the circle of Sorcerers to see I have their attention. I don’t want to execute everyone who disagrees with me, but when placed in a position of kill or be killed, what choice do I have?

“I don’t want to harm you, Jon. I’m going to let you go, and I will ask that you and your wife excuse yourself and go mourn in private. I would hate for your wife to lose two family members in the same week. The next spell I use won’t be as harmless.”

Releasing the spell, Jon regains the movement in his limbs and rubs his arm before he gives me one more glare, and he and his wife leave the garden. Turning to the rest of the Sorcerers, I say, “Come, let's eat.” Remi and Reece take that as their cue to lay out the picnic blankets, and a few of the younger Sorcerer children help them.

Each family has brought a basket for the evening. We share with each other, which is another principle of the night of Hecate. Settled on the blankets under the stars, we begin our feast, Jon’s earlier outburst forgotten. We all talk like we used to and celebrate our goddess of witchcraft. I even see some children running around chasing each other like I used to do when I was that age. Impulsively, I lift my hand, and yellow magic weaves from the air as fireflies drift into the night for the children, and giggles fill the air as they try to catch the fireflies. A small smile creeps up on my face because the children’s laughter surrounding us, is how it should be.

As Sorcerers, we take our magical studies seriously. We come into our magic around ten years old, but even then, we don’t get to actually do magic for a long time. Instead, we study. It helps us to understand thebasics of magic, hone it, and then take advantage of the power this gives us when we’re an adult. That advantage as an adult is especially important since amongst the four Supernatural families, we’re the most human and the most frail. Sometimes staying alive is harder than it should be.

Except there is one catch. The bigger the magic, the more it drains us. Magic does not make us invincible. So we experimented with certain elements to bolster our magic and counteract the drain we experienced for the big spells. That’s why understanding the periodic table is so important for us; something as simple as salt or water could save our lives.

One of my ancestors didn’t take our studies seriously, and the size of the spell he attempted to make killed him. It’s a story we all learn about from a young age. Is is efficient motivation from our parents to study because none of us want to end up like he did. Our magic replenishes over time, but if we use too much magic at once without rest, it could have disastrous consequences. Because of this, most of us carry around a variety of one-use elements on us, so we’re always prepared.

Looking across the garden, Amelia beckons me over, and she knows she only has instructions to interrupt if it's urgent. Getting up, I go to her, waiting to hear what’s so important. Wringing her hands, she says, “Jude was looking for you, and she insisted its urgent. She mentioned something about examining bodies and desperate for help with a tracking spell to find the culprit.”

Turning to look at the twins and thinking about my predicament with Remi, I’m struck with inspiration. It looks like Hecate has answered my prayer, after all. Responding, I say, “Call her back. Tell her we’ll do it, but she’s going to owe us one.”

Chapter 17 | Famous Last Words

Jude

Being born a Rhodes, I knew I was never going to be normal. Between our family empire and what we can do, I never stood a chance. But, it was nice to pretend for a while at university. While the circumstances that got me there were shit, I will forever be grateful for the chance. I knew it wasn’t forever, but I thought I had longer than I did. Now, I have to keep reminding myself,“I don’t need frat parties and normal human friends, they’re overrated…right?”Maybe if I say it enough, I will believe it.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why I keep waking up in the middle of the night thinking I had forgotten to study for an exam. That part of my life didn’t get the closure it deserved, and truthfully, it probably never will. Now, my life has become dead bodies, magic, money and keeping it all secret from the humans.

“The police are here to see you, Miss Jude.” Looking up from my desk at Beau, I can see the concern on his face. That’s how I know this is serious, because police visits are frequent in our line of work. Normal even. For him to be concerned…I just hope it’s got nothing to do with that Children ofthe Christ guy Dad was torturing. I never asked what happened to his body, and I don’t want to know either.

Following Beau into the foyer, he introduces me to one of the detectives as he holds out his hand to me to shake. “Miss Rhodes, thank you for your time. I believe your parents are unavailable, which is why I’ve asked for you. This morning, a jogger reported a lifeless body a few steps away from your front gate. When we answered the call and investigated, we indeed found a body. Our coroner has confirmed the body was drained of blood, and the time of death was in the early hours of this morning.”

The police holds up an image of the body, and asks, “Do you recognise this person?” Keeping my reactions to a bare minimum, I confirm I don’t, and the detective continues to ask if I have any idea what the motive could be. Realizing he’s going to get nothing more from me, we part by agreeing that if I hear or think of anything else, I will call him using the business card he gave me. Except, I don’t tell him I do recognise the person in the photo. It’s one of Luca’s Undead.

This is why I’ve taken to getting up before sunrise to go swim. There is a moment just before the sun is high in the sky, when the predawn light is strongest, and I feel at peace and like everything is going to be okay.

Standing at the pool ledge, I let the Druid magic that I was born with take over my body so I can shift. Immediately, my view of the world becomes smaller but no less accurate as my instincts take over and search for potential predators, as is common with the penguin form. Realizing I’m safe for now, I only have one thought on my human mind.

Swim.