However, not even my interest was enough to bring me to visit. It felt disrespectful to potentially disrupt this town again. While I’m cautious with my magic, I’ve never questioned my perception before, but something is off about being here—and I don’t only mean my family’s history.
“Let’s walk,” Sybil says in a hollow tone. With Echo now perched on her head, she starts walking at a rather brisk pace.
Taking a deep breath, I look up at the sky, hoping the Universe can give me some inkling of why we are here, and follow after her.
In a few strides, I catch up and hold my arm out, letting her loop hers through for balance. Whisper silently slinks into the spot on the other side of her, offering more protection.
We don’t have a bond with each other’s familiars—as far as I know, twins have never shared a familiar—but they do take a special interest in our collective well-being. Since Whisper has constant access to my emotions and magical abilities, he feels my pride and worry for my sister almost as strongly as I do.
For half an hour, we walk through the main square of the town. It’s more lively here than toward the outskirts, where a lot of the houses are abandoned and the businesses closed down.
Today is the spring equinox, and that fact seems to bring most of the town out of their homes. There are vendors that moved to the streets rather than the confines of their store fronts. Everything from produce, elixirs, textiles, and even furniture can be found along the main square. Children run around the community garden, giggling as they chase each other. Adults shuffle in and out of the two local bars, guffawing in celebration of a new spring season.
It’s lively, yet it feels slightly out of place.
Junimere isn’t the most modern or bustling town itself. We’re not close to any major cities, and the population is a mix of magical beings and humans. There are charms in place to keep tourism to a minimum, but the crowds aren’t unfamiliar.
Briarhollow feels stuck in time.
Lost in my own thoughts, I’m distracted until Sybil comes to an abrupt halt in front of a tall, white stone structure. It’s one of the most well-taken care of buildings in the entire town. The paint looks relatively fresh, and the cement steps have been repaired recently.
My eyes catch on the sign above the large double doors:Briarhollow Town Library.
That explains everything, and I shouldn’t be surprised. There are different ways to create a magical community. Some witches prefer to live in normal cities and blend in. It’s become more common in recentdecades, but many magical families prefer the safety and acceptance of living where their powers aren’t a secret. The magical towns are cloaked in protection charms and glamour spells, allowing us to live without hiding, and keeping humans oblivious.
One of the most common ways to do this is by having three designations.
A mayor, to represent the soul of the town. This role is often given to vampires since the process of transferring the town’s magic to someone else is tedious. Having someone who is immortal adds extra stability to the town.
Next is the heart of the town—usually a home of some kind. Sometimes it is the first to be built in the town, other times it can be a place that houses many people—like an inn or tavern. It can vary, but it’s common for a family of Hearth Witches to be the owners of the building.
And finally, the library represents the mind of the town. It’s where the town’s history is held, where residents go when they are searching for answers, and where local leadership hold private meetings. I’ve only known of Divination Witches to be the librarians, but there aren’t any official rules about that. It’s a natural calling for most to acquire and protect as much knowledge as they can.
Sybil, however, is not one of those Divination Witches. We spent our teenage years working part-time at the Junimere Town Library. I enjoyed it for the most part, and my experience there is what convinced Briarhollow’s librarian to send me the books. My twin hated every minute of it—being stuck inside with dusty tomes and always at people’s whims of knowledge. So it’s shocking she would bring us here of all places.
“Bil,” I start gently, “Are you su—”
She slips her arm out of mine, turning to look at me with more awareness than I’ve seen in days. “Why do you keep questioning me and my magic?” she snaps.
Tilting my head, the guilt already souring my gut, I tell her, “I don’t mean to question you. I promise. I’m just confused.”
Some of the anger fades from her features but exhaustion replaces it. “I’m confused too, Archer. None of this—” she puts herpalms to her head and squeezes lightly, “—makes sense. Every second that passes, my visions get murkier. It’s never been like this.”
“Then let’s leave,” I offer. I predict her answer before she shakes her head.
“No,” she insists. “We can’t. I don’t know why but we just…can’t.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to insist we go back to Junimere if it means she and her magic are safe. Even if she can’t read my mind, she knows me well enough to suspect I’d give up everything to protect her.
“I don’t think leaving Briarhollow would fix what’s going on, Archer,” she tells me quietly . “My magic has been unstable recently. You’re aware of this.”
I do.
“And you’ve always had a complicated relationship with your magic,” she says. Not that I need the reminder. It’s hard to be proud of my magical abilities when they basically make me a master manipulator. It’s why I rarely use many of my gifts.
“Maybe we both will find what we need here. You want to learn what happened to the Divination Witches in our family. Where better to do that than here?”
She’s looking at me with desperate eyes. She knows how to sell me on staying here, but it’s not just about my feelings and magic. She has just as much of a say in the decision as I do.
