Page 43 of In the Light of the Moon

With no plan besides touching the plants and trying to influence the red and green fruits to ripen, I plopped down in front of the wooden trellises. The first premature tomato I touched began to immediately grow and darken. The plumping fruit pushed back on my finger while it rapidly fattened, and an excited yelp shot out of my throat.I’m doing it!

I looked to the kitchen window above and yelled for my grandmother to come and see, ecstatic that this was going so well on my first try.

Until a wet, squelching thud turned me back to the plant to find my ripening fruit brown and oozing into the soil below.

“Well, fuck.” I shouted back up at the window, “Never mind!” Frustration bubbled and threatened to come out in more curses, and maybe tears, but I fought the battle to swallow it down and eventually won.

I tried again, this time getting the green tomato to stay full and ripe, but as soon as I removed my touch, it over-ripened and died like the last one. Again, and again, I worked through fruit after fruit, stalk after stalk, until I was able to dial the spigot of my power so that I could give just enough for the plant to mature and then leave it in that state.

Sweat trickled down my temples and collected on my lower back, even after I tossed my sweatshirt to the side. Over and over, I worked until all the tomato plants that were still alive stood mature and full.

It must have taken hours, because Granna came round the side of the house to check on me. With an impressed frown, she crossed her arms, inspected the plants, and nodded. “Finding your footing, indeed.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Sylvie

My thoughts were still a jumble from Granna’s lessons, but now, my stomach was all aflutter with the prospect of my first overnight with Orion. The volume of my heavy metal music was turned low as I tried to calm myself for whatever was about to happen. The GPS got a little wonky the closer I got to his house, just as he said it would, and I called to mind the directions he’d texted me. Just as Google blanked out completely, I spotted the mouth of the gravel turnoff. I left the paved road, driving slowly with my tires crunching further away from town.

In all my years of visiting Antler Pointe, I’d never really left the downtown or immediately surrounding area. Besides traipsing around the forest, of course.

The road to Orion’s house cut through a thin layer of trees, with the wood darkening to my left and right. The days were getting shorter, and though it was only just five in the evening, the sun was already almost set. The sky was a deep, pretty pink that matched the dress I’d chosen for tonight, and as I spottedlights in the distance, my stomach lurched again with excited nerves.

Was the overnight bag in my trunk too optimistic? Maybe, but it also represented the possibility that this night would go in the direction I hoped. To hear Josie say it, my spending the night with Orion was an inevitability. When I called her for input on what to wear, it was difficult to not immediately vomit all about the assertion Granna made about her abilities. And when I tried to focus the conversation on my anxieties about tonight, her predictions just made it worse.

“He’s already in love with you, Sylv. It’s almost painful how I can already see you living in a cozy wooden cabin with him and your two kids.”

“J-jesus, Josie, two kids? We only just had sex. I don’t think you have to worry about kids for a long while. If we even get to that point.”

I followed the curve of the road, coming around the bend toward a clearing up ahead, and replayed her words over and over. I’d never told Josie that Orion said he lived in a cabin. If her seeing, as Granna called it, had any merit, this date felt like a preordained step toward the future Josie saw for us. I made a mental note to ask Granna about the extent of seer abilities and to figure out a way to approach Josie about her powers that she may not even realize she had. And then ask her if she wanted to start a coven. Easy.

My brow wrinkled as I began to second-guess myself on that one, but the sight of… the most breathtaking home I’d ever seen quickly took up all my attention.

This is where helives?

The narrow road led right to what was indeed a cabin, but instead of the logs I’d pictured, the facade was made of smooth wood painted a deep, almost black, green.

The porch lights were on, and as I pulled up beside the black car I recognized as his, I had to consciously force my mouth closed. It wasn’t a big house necessarily, but it was a lot larger than I thought it would be. A stone chimney stood on the left side of the house, and when I stepped out of my car I—is that alake?

Petrified. The flutters in my stomach had turned to a gnawing sensation, though there really was no reason for me to be terrified. But… ifthiswas where Orion lived, I couldn’t just ignore anymore the fact that he was just so well put together. For goddess’s sake, he was a fucking professor who lived in a paradise in the woods that he somehowbuilt, and he wanted to dateme? A two time college dropout that just quit working at a failing pizza place?

Just before my panicking made me do something stupid like cry or get in my car to turn around, the front door opened, releasing a wash of warm light. And stepping out of that light, in a simple gray shirt and dark jeans was Orion.

Though he didn’t smile much, I could see the flush bleeding into the tops of his white cheeks, and the panic left me like a gust of wind.

With his hands still stuffed in his pockets, Orion bounced down the wooden steps and headed toward me. As he drew nearer, I saw the light in his green eyes, the upward tilt of his lips, and all my energy released in a big, relieved grin.

He stopped advancing, face dropping to an expression that made my insecurities flare. His hands drew from his pockets, thumbs tapping on his fingers, and his stare was almost… reverent?

“Um, hi.”Hi?This was the same man that fucked me with abandon just one hallway down from a department event. Steeling my spine, I pushed forward, my chunky heels wobbling on the stones. My walking seemed to jerk Orion out of whatevertrance he was in, because he lurched forward, catching my elbows to steady me.

“Sylvie,” Orion’s low, husky voice soothed the rest of the unease that had been creeping up, and it was as simple as breathing to let him pull me in. His solid arms twined around my back. My face smooshed into his shirt, his chest warming me immediately. This was perfect—he was perfect.

“I’m sorry I’m a little late,” my words were muffled against his body, but he didn’t seem to mind about either thing.

“I don’t care. You’re right on time,” Orion’s usual grumble was turning into a freaking lullaby, the reassurance smoothing over my anxiety and insecurities once again. It was something I felt self-conscious about—the frazzled-ness. But he never seemed to mind.

I took the opportunity to explore his torso a bit, tentatively running one hand up his side, the other up his spine. A low, contented noise vibrated my ears, and I fought back a giggle when I realized thathedidn’t realize he was doing it. I put my fingernails into the movement, giving him light scratches that left trails of goosebumps in their wake. His thin shirt could’ve been painted on, and my mind warred not with my desire to rip it off of him but with what I wanted to do with him afterward.

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