“Just thinking.” Ramona leaned against the windowsill, pulling the blazer tighter. “About the ritual. About everything.”
Zara was quiet for a moment. Then she patted the mattress. “Come back to bed. You’ll freeze.”
Ramona hesitated, then crossed back to the bed and slid under the covers as she removed Zara’s jacket.
Zara twisted to glance at her HellBerry, and that’s when Ramona saw the ink on Zara’s back clearly. It wasn’t a tattoo. Not exactly. Black, swirling lines moved in a hypnotic, rhythmic pulse over Zara’s shoulder blades and down her spine. They shifted like ink dropped into a glass of water.
“Zara?” Ramona traced a moving line with her finger. “What’s this?”
Zara’s arm came around her immediately, pulling her close. The heat was still there, that supernatural warmth radiating from her skin like a banked fire.
“All demons have markings,” Zara said.
“And your markings move?” Ramona asked.
Zara nodded. “I think I was born with them. I’ve had them as long as I remember.”
“Do you feel them?”
Zara shrugged. “Only when they’re touched. They’re incredibly… sensitive.”
Ramona raised a brow. “Noted.”
They lay in silence for a while. Ramona could hear the raccoons outside, chittering aggressively at each other. The radiator clanking. Zara’s steady breathing.
“The last time I cast magic like last night,” Ramona said quietly. “Real magic. With actual stakes. It was the night of the incident.”
She felt Zara go still beside her. Not pulling away. Just listening.
“Simone and I had been married for two years,” Ramona continued, her voice flat. “We worked together at Thornwood, but in different departments. Kate was my best friend and in our coven. I introduced them, and they became friends. I didn’t think anything of it.” She stared at the pattern of the wallpaper on the opposite wall. “They’d been having an affair for six months before anyone told me.”
“Six months,” Zara repeated softly, shaking her head.
“Everyone knew. The entire coven. My colleagues at Thornwood.” Ramona sighed. “I was the last person to find out. Someone finally told me right before the autumn equinox ritual. The big one. The one the whole coven does together.”
“And you were supposed to participate.”
“I was supposed toleadpart of it. I’d been preparing for weeks.” Ramona’s hand found the edge of the duvet, gripping it. “I should have walked away. Should have gone home, dealt with it later, done anything other than show up to a major ritual while I was—” She swallowed. “I was devastated. And humiliated. And so fucking angry I could barely see straight.”
“But you stayed.”
“I stayed. And I decided to hex Kate.”
Zara said nothing. Her thumb traced slow circles against Ramona’s shoulder, grounding and steady.
“It was supposed to be small. Petty. Make her trip and fall during the ritual, or something. Maybe give her warts all over her face. I hadn’t decided. Something everyone would see. Something that would make her feel as humiliated as I felt.” Ramona’s jaw tightened. “Childish. I know that now. I knew it then, probably. But I was so angry, Zara. I wanted her to hurt, too.”
“What happened?”
“I cast the hex during the ritual. With the entire coven’s energy channeled through the space. With the protective wards at full power. With everything aligned.” The words came out clinical. Detached. Like she was watching it as a memory from far away. “My magic has always been off, you know? Since I was a kid. Spells that should have been simple would go sideways for no reason. I thought I was just bad at it. Sloppy. Everyone else at Thornwood could cast without thinking. I had to work twice as hard just to get halfway there. Honestly, I was only admitted to Thornwood because of the Greenbriar name and who my mom is, but I worked so hard to prove to everyone that I was meant to be there. And even then, sometimes things would just… break.”
She pulled the duvet up higher, suddenly cold despite Zara’s warmth.
“I don’t know why it happened the way it did that night. I still don’t. My magic just… completely broke. Like something inside me shattered and everything poured out at once.” Ramona pressed her forehead against Zara’s shoulder. “The hex didn’t just hit Kate. It exploded. Wild magic — uncontrolled, undirected, fueled by the ritual’s own energy. It blew through the entire space like a shockwave.”
“How bad?”
“The High Priestess got donkey ears. Kate got a stutter that made her sound like she was speaking backwards. Two other coven members got temporary afflictions — one woman’s hands turned into lobster claws for a day, and one briefly transformed into a bird.” Ramona’s voice cracked. “Not for long, but long enough. Thankfully, my mother and Iris weren’t affected.”
