Phoenix shook his head and sank into a wooden chair. “Breaking this curse comes first.”
My jaw clenched. “I said it was nothing. A mere reaction, now drop it.”
The forest blinked under the harshness that dripped from my words. The rest of them silenced. All that was left was the forest waking in the night. Roots groaned beneath the cold soil, branches and leaves rustled. The forest was alive and moving, and I closed my eyes in its constant stability.
If not my loyalty to the Heathens, my shadow-blood coursing through my veins was enough to never question my priorities. After watching how the curse had destroyed our families, there was nothing I wanted more than to break it.
Twelve years ago, after Johnny’s death, we’d made the pact in the woods and sealed it with our blood. I ran my thumb over the scar in my palm as a reminder.
It was different than the rest of our scars.
This one meant something.
For the last twelve years, we’ve laid low, earned the town’s trust, became model citizens, played nice, gained access, sacrificed relationships. We did what our fathers couldn’t. And we were so close.
“What was that, Jules?” Beck finally asked as the fire burned at our feet, the four of us sitting around it in a circle.
The incident at Voodoos. The door had swung open. A fury-filled storm made of magic and intimidation had blown through the bar, and Fallon’s gaze had frozen with mine, covered me, comforted me, pulling me out of it somehow.
I dropped my head back and opened my eyes to the starless sky, watching as the smoke and sparks from the fire climbed the darkness toward the moon. “I don’t know,” I said through an exhale, the lie scratching at my throat.
“Let’s just let loose tonight. There’s something inside you, and you need to get it out.” Phoenix wanted to release his magic, release his anger. And he was using me as an excuse. “The running man, Jules. Be free like you used to, it’s been too long.”
“No one’s going anywhere.” I haven’t run the woods in twelve years. I wasn’t running now.
The others were quiet. Phoenix threw his bottle into the fire. The flames spiked into the sky between us, and the gold in his eyes studied me through the blaze. “You don’t control me.”
“Someone has to,” Zeph told him.
Beck shook his head. “We can’t. Jules is right.”
“No.” Phoenix laughed, standing and pointing at me. “That isn’t Jules. Jules left twelve years ago. I don’t know who the fuck that is anymore.” He shook his head and took off.
Beck stood, facing his retreat.
“Let him go. He’ll forget by morning,” I said through a sigh, bringing my beer to my mouth. I tipped the bottle and closed my eyes.
The Protection of the Order
“Under the Full Cold Moon, in the last month of the year 1803, snow blanketed the newly found land. Those who sailed through the choppy December waters were seasick and dehydrated from their strenuous journey across the Atlantic. An anchor of hope kept them forward, finding a place to be free. It wasn’t but a few miles back where a woman was forced to let go of her child, her coven ripping his dead body from her arms and tossing him overboard, his remains now belonging to the ocean. Her cries traveled along the sea, sank in its waters, and if you closed your eyes, you could still hear the mother’s weeping interlaced with the waves over two centuries later.
“From the west, Norse Woods Coven appeared through the forest. Tiresome, their paths made drag marks through the undisturbed snow. Five men, front and center, carried the weight of their coven, their deceased on makeshift cots, with a hollowness in their eyes. It had been days, weeks! since they detached themselves from those who they were carrying. It was the only way to get by—the only way to save those who were remaining. With their strength depleted, living off partridgeberries and the berries of wintergreen, they continued onward, putting more distance between them and the witch trials in the home they had left behind.
“And it was there, under a marble moon, when Sacred Sea and Norse Woods crossed with no fight left in them. The women from both sides attended to their children as the men built a fire in the center, which separated the land. They learned they were the same, both escaping a brutal fate. The two covens made a pact around the blazing fire and cast a spell that would forever protect this new land and shield it from their enemies around them—their peace treaty, their bind under the law of the Order. The elements were balanced, the covens balanced, bringing harmony and peace and a haven to practice their beliefs.
“It took all night into the morning—the Full Cold moon’s kiss lit a pinkish glow across the sky of the coldest night of the year—when leaders of the Order were assigned and the shield was complete. Both covens rested their heads, the fire a hot breath across their trembling flesh. The only sounds were the snapping of the firewood and the water breaking across the rocky edge.
“Yet unbeknownst to the covens, already hidden in the woods lived two scared and pregnant women. These women watched from the trees as these strangers scattered across their home, sleeping around a fire under their sunrise, afraid of what their arrival might mean. So, in the woods, they would stay.
“Until sixteen years later, when a curious and stubborn young girl who lived among the forest, white hair made of snow flurries, aquamarine stones as eyes, decided to step out …”
Chapter 7
Fallon
“Any dayabove ground is a good one, I’ll tell ya. But there’s something in the air that’s giving even me the heebie-jeebies around here. Maybe it’s the storm rolling in, so careful out there on the waters today, salty dogs. I know, I know, no storm will hold ya back. But hey, whatever floats your boat,”—he paused to chuckle—“And these are your Hollow Headlines with Freddy in the Mournin’. Let’s kick Saturday off with some good music …”Freddy announced, interrupting Gramps and my conversation.
Gramps mumbled, his jaws chomping at his dentures that were barely holding on. “It’s because tha window in yah room is facin’ east. Maybe yah should move to tha othah room down tha hall,” he replied, but I hardly believed my nightmare from last night had anything to do with the direction my window faced.
