“Elementary teacher.”
“Right.” She pointed as she scooped the set scones onto a plate and placed it at the center of the table for us all.
Quietly, Ana and Gertie took one. Ana picked up a few before settling on the one with the most blueberries inside. Then Ana leaned back in her chair, looking between the two of us like she was getting ready for a show and didn’t want her breakfast treat to be involved.
“I’m not quite sure that I understand what you are saying, Celeste,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “It almost sounds like you are saying that I wasn’t good enough for Ryan.”
Though, of course, I wasn’t.
She shrugged with a hesitant smile. “Wrong fit, is all.”
Wrong fit.
I imagined reaching up and holding her cup to her mouth until her dark, soulless black tea spilled down the front of her blouse. But wasn’t that what I’d basically told Ryan? We were the wrong fit. We didn’t match up.
He deserved someone who matched him.
My forehead creased as I studied the chipped edge of my teacup.
“I know that you offered Lu to take over the one task of the Samhain ritual coming up in a few weeks as well, Gertrude, but I figured that, with all of this going on, Estrella could surely pick up the slack. We understand, of course.”
Oh, of course. How kind. How thoughtful.
I wanted to roll my eyes more than they already did, taking half my head with them.
Ana must’ve caught them because she snickered.
Gertie gave a small shake of her head, not looking up from her plate. “I don’t think that will be necessary.”
“Still,” said Celeste, “Estrella will soon need to be a more active part of our little coven and begin to understand the ins and outs of things.”
I couldn’t stand it as she continued to go on.
All this time, all I’d done was mess things up. There was only one thing left, and I could have it, and I wanted it, and I should have accepted it from the start. It shouldn’t have taken Celeste and her whiny disposition for me to come to my conclusion of what I planned to do next, but now, it didn’t matter. I gritted my teeth as I turned my gaze back up from my tea, a retort no one had asked for sitting on my tongue.
“Truly, Celeste, let’s not get ahead of ourselves when we are here for a calm morning. We are showing support to a sister, as we have all shared support with each other in the past,” Gertie assured.
“Right. I understand. I just figured, why not bring it up early?”
“Because I’m taking over the house,” I said finally, cutting off her “benevolent” tirade. My tone was a Venus flytrap of conversation. Sound halted in an instant.
Celeste’s eyes met mine. “What was that?”
Gertie cleared her throat, her own eyes stuck on me. They widened, as if in warning, as if she could feel my mood turning from ennui to complete frustration. “I believe what Lu is trying to announce is that she has taken time to consider and has decided to take me up on my request. I asked for her to be next in line as high priestess here in the house and in Barnett.”
Blinking, Ana was the first to recover. “Well, I’m not surprised.”
That seemed to make one of them.
“Congratulations, Lu,” Faith whispered, a small smile bridging the gap as she lifted her cup for another sip of her own herbal concoction.
Celeste appeared catatonic. “This is up for discussion.”
“It isn’t,” I corrected her.
I would correct her a hundred more times if she would look at me for once like I was more than a grain of salt sent to make her recipes go awry. I was more than that, and all this proved it. I was meant to be here, whether she ever accepted me as a part of this mismatched coven or not.
“Of course it is. This is a coven, not a dictatorship.”
