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“Hmm?” My confusion lasts for only a second, when my gaze is pulled to her lips, where the pillowy pink flesh is tortured under white teeth.

Her chest rises with a sharp inhale, her cheeks turning a bright pink.

“Aww,” I chuckle, a grin showing itself without my permission, “Does my other good girl need some praise as well?”

Meri’s entire face turns red, her speech fumbles off her tongue but no words are made. I close the distance between us, pressing my forehead to hers while wrapping my arms around her waist. “You did so good baby,” I whisper in her ear, a squeak of a whimper seeping from her closed lips. “I’m so proud of you, my little plant witch.”

The last word makes her gasp, her cheeks dimple but only for a second, because she tries her best to force the smile down.

“I don’t know who it was who made you feel that you couldn’t smile, or laugh, or be yourself without feeling self conscious about it, but that ends now, with me. You got it?”

Her response is a breathy little agreement against my ear, “Got it.”

Changing the subject is the last thing I want, not when she’s so hot and bothered by just my words. I’m desperate to see what other reactions I can elicit from her, but there’s too many pressing things that still need our attention. “We need to get rid of your car and his before your father realizes you’re gone.”

She stares out into the forest, her eyes gloss with tears, “He’ll notice Williams’ absence first.”

I shake my head, wishing there was a way to go back in time and undo the damage her family has done to her self esteem. “Because he’s an idiot. Let’s go sink his fancy car in the bottom of a pond half a state over. Maybe you’ll feel better.”

She finally breaks a smile that feels genuine, “What do we do with him then?”

I shrug, “I don’t know, the guy sure looks like plant food to me.”

“I’m serious!” She laughs, shoving me playfully.

“Me too, you said she needs nutrients right?” I ask.

“Yes…” Her eyebrows furrow, a wrinkle forming between them.

“So, let’s make fertilizer.” My grin is malicious, because when it comes to well-dished vengeance, nothing feels better.

I was barely fifteen the first time my mentor brought me to this cabin,a place any witch could escape to, she called it. It had been in her family for generations, and she, unwillingto continue her bloodline, felt I was the next best thing. Back then I was just a teenager, pushing down the pain of losing my parents in a car accident. I floated around, hoping to avoid social services long enough to stay out of a foster home until I could turn eighteen.

“How did you meet her–your mentor?” Meri asks as I walk her around the back of the property toward the vegetable garden.

The clearing that was once a defined ring around the property now has become overgrown and unkempt from time and lack of human attention. The surrounding forrest threatens to take over, saplings growing too close to the garden boxes. Their roots threaten to damage years of hard work, a dismissal of the blistered hands that made this place what it now is.

Even if it could use a little more of that human attention again.

“Vewra found me panhandling in front of a candy store, trying to convince any passersby to pay five dollars for a tarot reading.” She asked if I was scamming to survive or if I was surviving from scamming, I didn’t understand the question then, I’m still not sure I do now.

“She saw the loneliness in my soul that night, that’s what she used to say at least. From that day on she became my mentor, teaching me everything she knew, from setting up altars and manifestations all the way to hexes and uncrossings.”

Meri says nothing, only waits for the rest, “I was the annoying responsibility she didn’t mean to get stuck with. There wasn’t a mom-ish bone in Vewra’s body, she was more of a big sister-type, you know? But I put the burden of parenthood on her.” I take a breath, feeling the pain of her memory resurface like an old tattoo raising up on my skin.

“I’m sure she didn’t think you were a burden, she took you in because she wanted to.” America’s voice is too soft, too caring,too full of kindness for me to do anything but break apart from it. She’s stopped walking but I’m still going, “Hey,” her fingers wrap around my wrist, keeping me from going on. “You had someone who picked you, who chose you and chose to love you and I think that’s really special.”

I wipe the tear with the back of my hand before it has a chance to fall, “I’m sure she only meant for it to be temporary, but I couldn’t take the hint. She’s the one who had the dream for The Portal you know? I tried after she died, but I couldn’t even get that right.”

“Runa.” America’s grip on me tightens. “She loved you, I know because she wasn’t your blood and she stuck by you. It wasn’t out of obligation. Don’t spoil the memory of your time together by putting words in a dead person’s mouth.”

It’s the most serious I’ve seen her yet, but I’m grateful for it. I hear what she’s actually saying, and for once, I’mlisteningto the real message.

Vewra was magic herself, she was witchcraft incarnate, she was the divine feminine, she was karma, she was … my friend.

And she left me her home, to become mine.

Now ours.