Page 64 of Samhain

“Princess, why don’t you come over here, away from that window?” Lex said. “I’ll give you something prettier to look at.”

Miri sighed but rose to walk over and curl up in his lap, tucking her head under his chin. But some weird thing brewed between us; we’d all been strange since arriving. Miri couldn’t stop looking at the trees. Lex couldn’t stop smoking. Ivy couldn’t sit still. And me? Well, my skin had grown too tight for my body—like I’d used up all the good luck one person was supposed to have in their lifetime, and karma had come back around to bitch-slap me in the worst way.

Sleep didn’t come easy that night, knowing the next would be spent hunting down some fairy monster in the haunted woods. Sometime around 2 a.m., I rolled over and cracked my eyes open, my focus landing on Miri. She was back at the window, smoking a cigarette and staring out at the woods with that anxious crease between her brows. I extracted myself from Ivy’s limbs and slid out of bed, tiptoeing over to her. She gave me a small smile when I scooted into the alcove and took a cigarette from the pack.

“What’s going on, Juliet?” I asked, cupping my lighter so I could bring it to the smoke and inhale.

She shook her head, the moonlight streaming in through the window making her seem even more precious somehow, like porcelain or ivory. Leaning in close, she whispered, “They’re pulsing.”

I narrowed my eyes as I studied the seriousness in hers.

“The trees,” she said, holding out her hands so she could open and close her fingers. “I can feel them under my skin, the way I can with my plants.”

Realization dawned on me. Miri’s gift was organic. She said she could sense nature and give it her energy to make it grow. I’d bet those trees were like a live wire in her veins.

“Can I tell you something?” She grabbed my right hand with hers, vow to vow, our thumbs hooked around each other.

“Of course.” I inhaled on my smoke and kept my gaze on her.

“I’m scared,” she whispered. “This is unreal, and we’re going against something we don’t entirely understand.”

“I know,” I said. “But…with a bit of luck”—she tried to smile as I kissed her knuckles—“and some truth, and some telepathy, and some witchy plant shit, we might make it out of this alive.”

That made her laugh softly, and my work there was done.

“C’mon,” I said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Where’s that eternal optimism?”

She shook her head, biting at her bottom lip. “Remember when I told you about my car accident?”

I nodded.

“This feels like that, deep down inside,” she said, clenching her eyes shut as tears streaked down her cheeks. “Smythe said we were marked. He called it a group gift.”

“We’ll find out tomorrow, Juliet.” I cupped her face with my free hand and rubbed my thumb over her cheek, clearing away the signs of her distress. “It’ll be okay.”

She stabbed out the cigarette and immediately lit up another one. “I have a bad feeling about Samhain.”

“Well, you’d be silly to have a great feeling about it.”

She gripped my hand tighter, and even though I had a warm bed with my Weeds a few feet away, I sat there with my princess until the sun came up. She needed what she could only get from me—a soul friend, one who had already seen her at her worst, one who could handle her vulnerability with the gentle care she needed.

19

Miri

We waited until sunset before we headed out. The knots in my stomach were so tight, nausea rolled through me with every step I took. His warning rang loudly at the back of my mind. These weren’t friendly woodland folk. The magical beings we sought were powerful and dangerous, and if they had done this to us, what else were they capable of?

Still, like a moth to a flame, I couldn’t resist. The woods had been calling me since we got here, radiating with vibrance and temptation. I needed to find it.

“X, slow down,” Lex shouted from in front of me.

Ivy charged ahead, the light from her torch bouncing around on the grassy path, footsteps crunching on fallen leaves.

The last time we’d walked along this trail, the sun had been low in the sky, coloring everything in a dreamy peach-colored haze. Tonight, the moon reigned supreme. Full and bright, it cast shadows of the trees on the undergrowth, like demons out of my childhood nightmares. Their long tendrils stretched in either direction, pointing to our destruction and scaring me the same as it had when I was a child. It was another reminder we were in the wild, that the trees owned this land and so did the things that lived here. In this tale, we were the monsters.

“It’s over this way,” Ivy said, pointing to her left. “I’m sure of it.”

“Okay, well,” Lex cut in with a scoff, “I walked these trails for hours, looking for the ruins. I’m pretty sure I know them better than you.”

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