Page 23

May

The air around us crackles with excitement—or maybe it’s magic—as the other witches welcome me. There’s tiny Taylor, who shoots me an impish grin that goes perfectly with her messy brown bob; shy Grace, a tall blonde whose strong arms wrap me in a tight but quick hug; sweet Olivia, who smells of cinnamon and baking, a smudge of flour still lingering on her tan cheek; curvy Selena, with the most beautiful, melodious voice; and redheaded Ashley, who squishes me against all of her soft plumpness, as if we’re already the best of friends.

“Naomi’s told us so much about you,” Ashley says as we all settle on two logs pulled close together. “I can’t believe you got the ability to read minds!”

“It would be a lot cooler if I knew how to use it.” My lips twist into a wry grin.

“Oh, god, yeah! Those first few days of trying to learn your power are the worst!” Ashley giggles. “I got the ability to fly, and do you know what happened to me?”

I shake my head.

“I immediately got stuck in a tree! Dravarr had to climb up and get me.”

“That’s not the best part.” Naomi grins and elbows the redhead. “Go on.”

“I was wearing a knee-length dress. You know, one of the kinds with the really flaring skirt.” She mimes the shape with her hands. “It rode up around my waist. He could see everything ! Thank god I had on my best pair of pink panties.”

We all laugh.

They each tell me stories of their magic messing up. Taylor’s telekinesis kept knocking her into Krivoth. Grace made a Ferris wheel! Selena couldn’t stop laughing as she told me how she stripped Sturmm naked to study him like an anatomy lesson. And Naomi teleported Wranth all over the place, even taking him to Ferndale Falls.

“There we were, an orc standing in the middle of Main Street in broad daylight,” Naomi says. “Hannah thought he was a cosplayer. He was so offended.”

I turn to Olivia. “What about you?”

She holds out her palm, and a paper cup appears. “Oat milk cappuccino with cinnamon? Decaf, since it’s late.”

I snatch it up and take a big gulp, the sweet cinnamon and milky espresso flowing over my tongue in a burst of flavor. It’s so good I groan. “How did you know I love these?”

“I asked Naomi what your coffee favorite drink is.” Olivia gives a little shrug. “I didn’t have any big mistakes with my magic. The funniest thing might have been trying to get Rovann to drink coffee. The face he made!” Her mouth stretches into a look of horrified disgust, and she smacks her lips like a little kid forced to eat Brussels sprouts.

“They all hate it,” Ashley says as we all laugh. “They think it’s way too bitter.”

“I had to conjure him so many chocolate croissants to make up for it.” Olivia glances to where all the orcs stand at the edge of the pond, a fond look on her face.

We all look over. Aldronn should blend in, his linen shirt and leather pants the same as the rest, his sword a match for the ones that hang from their hips. But they’ve arranged themselves around him, his air of command obvious even from a distance.

“Okay, but for real, you guys,” I say, turning back to the women. “Any tips for this whole magic thing?”

“Practice,” Taylor says. “It’s like playing a video game—you try over and over until you can level up.”

“For me, I had to figure out what my magic was,” Grace says. “I can conjure, but for some reason I can only conjure carnival items or…” She breaks off, her eyes dipping to her feet as her pale cheeks flush a bright pink.

“Or sexy things!” Selena crows, bumping her shoulder against the blonde. “Our friend here conjures the best lingerie you’ve ever seen!”

Grace looks up and grins.

“Mine works on intent.” Selena leans forward and stretches out a hand to me.

When I clasp it, magic tingles through me in a curl of comfort and warmth like a cat tail wrapping around my calf. The last lingering bits of headache fade to leave me completely pain free for the first time in days.

“Oh, that’s amazing!”

She grins. “I always wanted to heal people and was a med student. Some of that knowledge helps me see what my magic needs to do.”

“I don’t think any of my college classes are going to help with this.” I shrug, palms up. “Somehow I missed Telepathy 101.”

“Teleportation wasn’t exactly part of my English degree, either,” Naomi reminds me. “But like the others said, the thing that works for me is intent. To control my magic, I either need an anchor to a new place or I have to be able to clearly picture where I want to go.”

“So you’re saying I need to focus?” I frown. “Shit. That’s so not my strong suit.”

“Give yourself a break. You’ve only had your magic for a couple of days, and most of those were spent messed up by the goddess frying your powers.”

“You know, Aldronn said the same thing.”

Naomi narrows her eyes at me and pokes my shoulder. “Maybe you should start listening.”

“I’ll try.” I grin. “But he’s an authority figure, so no promises.”

She laughs, then explains to the others, “My friend here is a bit of a rebel.”

Naomi launches in to the story of us being lab partners back in high school chemistry, setting the stage for one of my more flashy misadventures. “Mr. Drexler pulled out this lump of gray metal about the size of a grape and started cutting little pieces off it. Then he said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t drop the entire piece of sodium into the water,’” she says, mimicking the teacher’s constipated tone perfectly. “I knew exactly what this one was about to do.” She hooks a thumb toward me, her brown eyes sparkling with laughter.

“What can I say?” I shrug. “When he said it like that, I had to know what would happen. For science.”

“I reach for her, but I’m too slow,” Naomi says, miming her hand falling short. “May dashes to the front of the room, grabs the entire lump of metal, and tosses it into the tank of water. Boom!” Her hands explode outward, fingers flung wide and wiggling like jazz hands on a caffeine bender.

Everybody gapes at me

“Worth it. I learned so much about chemistry that day.” I pause for a beat. “Mostly that it isn’t the career for me if you’re supposed to spend all your time not blowing things up.”

We fall against each other, laughing.

We continue talking until the sun dips enough that the mushrooms start to glow like carefully placed spotlights all around the waterfall.

“Oh, it’s so beautiful!” Ashley says.

“I haven’t seen mushrooms like those before,” Naomi says. “I guess there’s always more of Alarria to see.”

Starfall and the others return, having found the mug and spoon I dropped but no further clues about the Moon Goddess. Sheevora retreats to a quiet spot in the glen, her quill flying across the paper at a furious speed. Fae night sight must be loads better than human, because I sure wouldn’t be able to write in such low light.

The falling dark also brings out the pixies. The tiny dots of blue fireflies emerge from the forest, making zigzags to avoid the orcs standing guard.

“Almost Pizza,” their leader cries out as he gets close, “we have come for the pizza made of potatoes.”

“Sorry, guys,” I say, spreading my empty hands wide. “No potato pizza tonight.”

“Potato pizza?” Olivia leans close.

I whisper out the side of my mouth, “More like a mashed-potato pancake.”

“Ah.” She nods. “I do the same thing for my pixies with circular hash browns.”

At their little whistles of disappointment, I raise my voice. “Don’t worry. I’ve got something even better.” I wave my hands at Olivia in a ta-da gesture and pronounce the word with all the pomp and circumstance they always give it. “This is Pizza!”

“Pizza!” they shriek in unison, their combined voices ear-piercingly loud. The flock descends around her, circling her head in an excited frenzy, like someone tossed a string of blue Christmas lights into a mini-tornado.

Ashley, sitting beside her, scoots quickly out of the way, plucking a couple of tangled pixies from her red curls.

“Hello!” Olivia takes their excitement completely in stride, smiling at them. “Yes, I am Pizza.”

“Pizza!” they chorus.

Then the leader swoops down to hover in front of her face. “We have heard of the famous Pizza, who showers the southern flocks with gifts of the tastiest food. Please gift us pizza as well!”

Olivia stands and walks over to one of the empty logs. When she points at it, three personal-sized pizzas pop into being, each with different toppings.

The pixies dive, the food disappearing under a flurry of glowing blue wings.

“Those are three different types of pizza,” Olivia calls out. “You should share, so everyone gets to taste them.”

The pixies start ripping off hunks of pizza and lobbing them at each other in the world’s tiniest food fight. They make a game of it, throwing high so the receiving pixies fly up into the air to snap up the morsels with their mouths. And their mouths… god, it’s almost like Shadow’s smile. The pixie mouths stretch open until they’re almost as big as their heads.

“By the goddess, that’s disturbing,” Starfall says, having come up behind me.

“I think it’s cute,” I say, unable to look away

She taps the top of my head with her horn. “You would, wouldn’t you?”

Back and forth, food flies, the pixies leaping higher and higher to catch the hurled bits. Soon the whole thing turns into a competition, the high screech of their whistles filling the glen. Pieces of pepperoni spin through the air like meat Frisbees, and whole black olives sail like little black footballs. The pixies in the middle, who have the five-cheese pizza, mold the mix of melted yellow and orange cheese into gooey spheres they send flying in both directions.

We’re all laughing, and I have to keep knuckling tears from my eyes, so I don’t miss anything. The orcs come over to watch with us, Brannik and Rovann whooping with delight, while the grumpier ones chuckle and grin.

Rune barks out a laugh, while Shadow’s sounds like a ratcheting purr, and the other grumpy unicorns drift close to get a better view.

Eventually, all the food disappears into those too-large mouths of theirs and the pixies look completely normal again. The leader whistles high and loud, and the flock gathers around him in a huddle that turns into an animated conversation full of piping voices and gestures so fast they look like someone hit fast-forward on a video.

“You totally have to do that with the pixies in the village,” Ashley says. “That is way too much fun.”

“You do know that as soon as I start it, they’ll want to do it every evening,” Olivia says.

“And the problem is?” Ashley grins back at her. “The village kids will love it.”

After one last set of really loud whistles, the pixies break apart. I get the feeling a lot was said in that short span of time.

“Thank you, Pizza, for your blessings of pizza.” The leader hovers in front of Olivia. “We have decided we like all the flavors and also enjoy this new game you have created for us.”

Olivia nods regally. “I have named it Pizza Ball.”

I bite my lip to hold in a giggle at the name. The pixies are so serious about all of this that I don’t want to ruin their special moment.

“We hope to play Pizza Ball again very soon.” He gives an elegant mid-air bow and flies to the waterfall, the other pixies following in a stream of flowing lights. They spread out and dance in the water spray, lighting it in a moving accompaniment to the glowing pink mushrooms.

“It’s so lovely,” Naomi says, her wide eyes reflecting the little lights.

I wrap an arm around her shoulders as we watch. “It is.”

When the pixies finish their showers, they come back and spread around the glen like blue fireflies.

Rovann picks up Olivia and spins her in a circle. “What do I have to do to get pizza?”

“I’ll make sure you pay up later.” She pats his chest and shoots him a knowing look, then turns her head to say to the rest of us, “Let’s eat!”

The orcs start a campfire for light pull and more logs over so everyone can sit.

Olivia conjures paper sacks of oats for each of the unicorns. When she offers Rune and Shadow haunches of meat, they decline, saying they want to try “biped” food. Someone rustles up pants for them, and they both turn into men, who almost look human, only their pointed ears and fangs giving away their fae origins.

Sheevora joins us, as well as any of the guards not on watch.

“Got a favorite pizza?” Olivia asks me.

“I love lots of types, but tonight I’m going to go with a mix of what the pixies had: pepperoni, Kalamata olives, and extra cheese.”

“Good choice.” Olivia claps her hands, and her crystal necklace glows. Pizzas on unbleached cardboard trays appear on each of our laps, the rich smell of garlic and tomato making my mouth water. I take a bite and almost die. It’s so good, the perfect blend of yeasty crust, herby sauce, and cheese-covered toppings.

Beside me, Aldronn’s got one topped with sausage and red bell pepper, and I reach over and snag a bite of his meat.

When he shoots me a mock scowl, I offer him a piece of pepperoni. His lips brush my fingers as he takes it, sending a shiver of awareness through me. He must feel the attraction too, because his thigh presses to mine the entire time we sit eating and talking and drinking ale, lit by warm firelight and surrounded by friends.

I lean over to whisper to Naomi, “Is this what Moon Blade Village is like?”

“It is.”

I eye Aldronn’s profile as he talks to Wranth, Dravarr, and Sturrm. He belongs here.

For the first time, I start to think that maybe I do, too. Not because this was Mom’s dream, but because this might finally be the place. My place.

The place where I belong. The place where I have something important to contribute.

Aldronn catches me staring, and I don’t turn away, searching for an emotional truth in his eyes. I try to call on my magic, but like always, it refuses to come when I want, offering no answers.

Because what I really want this to be? I want this to be the place where I have someone who loves me.