"Three members of The Covenant are in Salem-"
Cassidy sat forward, her face paler than seconds ago as her eyes took on a serious and wide glint. "You got the attention of The Covenant? Shit. What the fuck did you do? Summon a demon from hell?"
Tilly frowned. "Can we do that?"
She shrugged. "Anything is possible with magic. But those witches are no joke. You know they track major magic and any dark magic used, right? They have like this weird connection to the earth that like...tells on witches. And those witches are serious bitches."
"Common ground of agreement," Eloise praised.
"Okay, so how did you avoid them? You weren't exactly Glinda the good witch."
With a roll of her eyes, she settled back against her seat. "Great dress, though."
"Very true," Tilly agreed with Cassidy.
"See? Look at us getting along," Eloise nodded with a cajoling smile. "Come on."
Cassidy gave them a blank stare, the silence stretching out as she made them wait. Finally, with another sigh, she placed her hands on the table.
"There are ways to block them. Just like breaking the law, if you're smart enough you can do it without a trace to yourself."
"Can you teach us?" Tilly asked.
Eloise's head swiveled to look at her in shock and Cassidy watched with amusement as the friends communicated silently with wide eyes.
"Hey," Cassidy leaned forward again with curiosity, "aren't you the one that they said was boring and had no weird baggage?"
Tilly frowned.
"We did not say she was boring," Eloise replied. She gave Tilly a conciliatory smile. "We were trying to buy time and talk about all of our weird backgrounds and couldn't think of anything for you," she explained.
"You don't seem boring. I mean, you have half-green hair, so there's trauma there somewhere."
"Well, I am not boring. And I wouldn't call it trauma."
Cassidy gave her a disbelieving raise of her eyebrows. "Never did I know a woman who dyed her hair without a relationally broken catalyst."
Tilly did not respond.
"Trauma dump or I end this conversation," Cassidy bartered.
"God, you're twisted," Eloise mumbled.
"It's fine," Tilly said. She looked at Cassidy's cocked head, waiting. "I hid a previous marriage from these guys that I don't like to talk about. I mean, he cheated, would rough me up a bit, I'd hide in the coat closet. He threatened to kill me if I left him."
Cassidy's light eyebrows rose as she spoke.
"And I'm pretty sure my older sister is a narcissist. My mom wouldn't let me feel anything, or show that I was feeling anything, ever. And I wasn't aware of what a good relationship was until I moved here. And I struggle with insane anxiety-like my nervous system does not know the difference between being chased by a bear and figuring out how to interrupt a conversation when I need to use the restroom."
Eloise's eyes widened. "You get anxiety when you need to pee?"
"Well, only in social situations or like, when at work and I'm in a meeting or the middle of a radio session. Or like, when a guest at The Blueberry House is talking to me."
As she rambled the other two women listened with rapt attention; Eloise with a look of empathy and Cassidy with shock.
"Okay, I get it. You're fucked up," Cassidy finally said with a smile.
"Well, I wouldn't say-" Tilly started but Cassidy cut her off with a wave of her hand.
