Page 1 of A Heart On A Sleeve

Where It All Began

“Cucumber, shoo. Go on. Out!” I’ve been working the buttons on my petticoat for the last few minutes, racking my mind for anything else I might need, and this stupid cat won’t leave me alone.

He’s not very bright. I found him munching on John’s garden, and I rescued him despite the many protests from the man whose radishes I saved.

I guess that makes me not very bright, too.

I’m startled by a loud rap at the dilapidated cottage door, and it takes me a minute to gather my thoughts.

I’m not expecting anyone, we are supposed to meet at Proctor’s Ledge—one last chance to bid our sisters goodbye, and an attempt to ensure we aren’t spotted sneaking off.

I haven’t finished readying myself for my adventure.

My stomach sinks at the thought that I’ve come so close but maybe I’m too late.

Moving nimbly toward the small window, I peek at the front porch.

Surely they wouldn’t come to take us at night, we didn’t do what they’re accusing us of.

Not completely, anyway—I do have the gift, but I’ve never used it to cause harm.

John waits patiently, raising his strong, callused knuckles to knock again.

Rushing to let him in, I sweep the door open quickly, and he slides inside kicking it closed.

“Irina, I . . . I can’t just leave.” My heart bottoms out low in my belly as I try to wrap my head around the words he’s saying.

A sweeping tingle races up my spine burning each nerve ending as it goes.

It’s a tell tale sign of bad luck—at least for me.

“What? We have to go.” I dismiss his statement. John and I are in love. Meant to be together—create a life together. I can’t do that here, and he knows it. I begin to pace—one step, then two, before turning and repeating the motion.

He stops me by placing his hands on my arms and looking deeply into my eyes. “I love you. I will not let them take you from me.” He runs his fingers through my long golden locks. “You have to stay, for me, for us.”

I press up onto my toes, placing a kiss on his lips.

I know it’ll be the last. “John, no. There’s no way.

” I shake my head in disbelief. “You saw what they did to Trudy.” When he stares at me blankly, my mind corrects that statement: he saw what he allowed them to do to Trudy.

He knew her, he knew my sister was good, nary a mean bone in her body—he still let them take her.

The pain of that decision has plagued my insides like a festering wound that refuses to heal.

But instead of eradicating the problem—John—I keep smoothing it over, and hoping it’ll eventually be so covered up I’ll forget.

My sisters don’t like him, don’t approve of him coming with us.

This is exactly what Josephine warned me about.

She knew it would happen, and I refused to listen.

How could he be so blind ? Staying wouldn’t mean only the same fate for me.

They’d hang us both if they knew what we meant to each other.

He runs a hand down his face, combing through his jet black beard with his fingers. “I won’t abandon my family. Choose us, stay with me, and live honestly.”

If I stayed, it would be the furthest thing from living a truthful life. I would have to hide who I am. I’d have to bury my heart so deep it would never see the light of day. Although my dreams are scattered like the leaves that dust the ground outside, I know my choice. “I can’t stay. I refuse.”

For a moment, everything is still. Even Cucumber sits patiently, like he’s waiting for us to find a way through this impasse.

But there is no way out of it. We both know it, yet neither of us wants to make the first move.

The last embers on the fire burn out, an owl hoots in the cold night air, and in the stark blackness that envelops me—John walks away.

“We’ve been trudging through this forest forever, can we please take a break?” Beth whines. She’s the youngest of us at no more than ten plus three. She’s also the most powerful.

“Just a little while longer child. We need to be sure they didn’t follow. When we didn’t show, they probably started searching,” I explain unnecessarily. She knows how this works. We’ve watched our entire coven picked off one by one over the last six moons. Our time was coming, John told me.

At the thought of him, a sharp pang buries itself deep in my heart.

I never considered him not joining me. It wasn’t an option after everything I’d swallowed, everything I chose to overlook—until it was.

When I showed up alone, my sisters weren’t surprised.

But they didn’t rub my nose in it. Instead, they looped their arms through mine, and carried me off—broken and numb.

“I see it. I see the place I dreamed about.” Josephine grabs our arms, tugging us forward more swiftly now. “I knew we were close. Mother guided us.” My oldest sister has dreams, premonitions, really. She knew where to go because she’s seen it countless times over the last few months.

When the water is to your left, walk until you pass our place of rest, but don’t look back. Keep going until the new moon shines like golden drops on the roof. The plan is foolproof.

As we step over fallen leaves and crunch branches with our shoes, a small cottage appears.

It’s covered in moss and ivy, nearly invisible to the untrained eye.

We rush toward it, desperately working to gain shelter.

Pushing through the haggard door, the possibility of a beautiful new life blooms before my very eyes.

It’s small and abandoned, but everything we need is here: a place to cook, a chair to rock in, and best of all—a cauldron.

Beth slips to the floor in exhaustion and glee; happiness radiating off of her in waves.

Josephine sets her pack down on the wooden table, untying it, and retrieving her spellbook.

I lock eyes with Beth, both of us snickering over how responsible she is.

We want to relax, and she is getting right to business.

Approaching, I cautiously glance at the pages as she turns each one thoughtfully. “What are you searching for?”

Jo doesn’t look at me when she responds. “Mother said to find the one that will protect us.” Her fingers delicately trace the words on each page, searching . . . more searching . . . and then, she stops. “I’ve got it. It says here we must name this place. We must set boundaries.”

“Come on, Beth.” I nod my head toward my sister, motioning for her to come help as Josephine quickly jots down our chant.

When Beth joins us, we link hands with the book in the center of our triangle and read the words she has scribbled aloud.

“From east to west and north to south, where the ocean meets the coast, and the trees dwindle out. We name this land the home of Mage. It’s hollow our shelter, and its abundance our liege. May we spend our days free to roam and free to do as we please.”

The three of us, in perfect sync, repeat the phrase two more times. But as we finish the last of our chant, I belt out, “Never again will we wear our hearts on our sleeves.”