Page 10 of SIN Bone Deep

“If you wish it…”

“I do,” I said immediately. “I do.”

“Nyx!” Fennel had come closer, and her tone was sharper.

I turned back to Ender… And he was gone, lost into the shadows as if he had never been there.

“Here,” I stepped out into the light.

“What were you doing hiding back there?” Fennel’s frown was visible even through the veil.

“I… I… ah…” I could offer no excuse other than that which I held, and I offered them to her.

“Oh!” Fennel’s hands closed around mine, and through the mesh of the veil, her eyes lit as she divined the content of the letters. “Wonderful. Congratulations! Well done! We need to show Callista and Nova!” She declared and released me, turning towards the door.

I glanced over my shoulder at the shadows, seeking Ender within them sensing his eyes on me, before following Fennel out into the daylight.

I dwell in the shadows of her day,

I haunt her footsteps like the monster I am,

Her time shortens with every tick of the clock,

And yet I do nothing to prevent or stay,

The slaughter of this innocent lamb,

Her sacrifice made to the needs of my…

I dare not finish this thought.

FIVE

When the wind comes from the South, love will kiss you on the mouth

- The Wiccan Rede

“We’ll prepare some charms for you to wear,” Fennel opened a jewellery box onto the kitchen table. “Something to ward off the lingering darkness of that place.” She held up a pair of earrings. “Something like this perhaps?”

“Lay them out on the table and let the girl pick for herself,” Callista looked up from marking the list of appointments into her diary. “There is an orientation day next Monday, Nxy,” she told me. “I will, of course, accompany you. The uniform shop will be open, and you can get fitted whilst we are there.”

“Lovely,” I pulled a face although the uniforms weren’t terrible. Grey slacks or skirts, a matching blazer with red details on the pocket and trim, a red jumper, a white shirt, and a red tie, cravat, or scarf. The local school had not had a uniform so having to wear the same thing every day would be a new experience for me.

“Uniforms exist to oppress the wearer,” Fennel agreed. “To teach conformity, and to suffocate creativity. Here,” she had spread the jewellery over the tabletop. “Select what speaks to you.”

I closed my eyes and hovered my palms over the tangle of trinkets, the relics of many generations of Vossen witches. Almost immediately I could feel the heat of one item pulling my hand towards it. I picked it up, opening my eyes to examine what I had chosen.

It was a brass locket, the edges still gold toned but tarnish darkening around the skull that grinned from within weaving filigree. A clear stone was set above and to either side of it. I opened the locket with my thumbnail. A yellowing image of a man, the details faded with age, was pinned beneath a fragile layer of glass on one side, whilst another held a swirl of dark blonde hair.

“It’s a memento mori,” Fennel said quietly. “A reminder of your own mortality, but also a way to remember the dead. This one is from the Victorian era from the design. We would have to look up in the family Grimoire whose it was.”

“Someone’s lover?” I guessed touched by the sentimentality behind that little lock of hair.

“Most likely,” Fennel agreed, her voice wistful. “Vossen women have never been lucky in love.”

“Or someone’s son,” Callista said more crisply peering over the rims of her glasses.

Whatever else might have been said wasn’t, as Nova chose that moment to return home, the front door snicking shut quietly, but heard in the kitchen clearly none-the-less - which made me wonder if the Aunts had cast some sort of spell to make it so, as I had no memory of the sound ever having travelled so well through the house before

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