Page 21 of Magic and Matrimony

“Hey, guys. Did you get here at the same time?”

Odie pops up behind Ava and signs hello. She doesn’t speak. I’m not sure what happened with her voice or if she was born that way, and it’s really none of my business. I’ve been learning sign language since we first met, and I’ve improved immensely in the last few months. I'm going to need to thank her for the clothes I borrowed at some point. She’s several inches tallerthan me and athletic, where I’m more rounded. Her long hair is platinum blonde, and she’s the most calming presence I’ve ever been around.

“No, we came together.” Ambrose grins at Ava like the little shit he is.

Half of my friends have coupled up and formed magical bonds in the last year. It’s been overwhelming. Everything has changed so quickly that it’s hard to process it all. Josephine, who used to be cursed to feel pain whenever touched, is now standing with Roman pressed to her back, his arms holding her to him. Ava steps back next to Bram, who throws an arm around her shoulder. Up until recently, Ava was cursed to be forgotten. If we went more than a few weeks without seeing each other, she would be erased from my memory. I realize now I haven’t seen her in over two weeks, and I remember her as clear as day. It's incredible. Finding their true love was powerful enough, but for that love to break curses that have been passed down for generations is something else entirely.

Bram and Roman are brothers who look similar, with their dark hair and glares that cut like a knife. They each had their own set of curses that have been cured, essentially by love. I’m happy for them, but I’m realistic. I can’t believe they found their fated bonds in the first place. Statistically speaking, two out of three of my best friends found their soulmates, and in all likelihood, I will die of my curse, alone and sad. That’s just how the math pans out.

Ava’s twin, Stellan, rounds out our group. Stellan is a big dude and uses his body to form a bit of space between us and the rest of the crowd. Thankfully, we’ve got a spot against the wall, so at least we’re only penned in by irritated people on one side.

Ava’s still looking at my hand where I was holding on to Ambrose. She cocks her head. “That’s a new ring.” She picks up my finger and looks at it. “It’s really pretty.”

Ambrose, the shit stirrer that he is, lifts his left hand and scratches his eyebrow. Ava immediately clocks the ring on his finger.

“I didn’t know you wore jewelry, Ambrose.” Ava’s eyes dart back-and-forth between the two of us. Bram squeezes her to his side, but his eyes are narrowed on us both.

“What am I missing?” Stellan tries to rest his arm on top of Ava’s head, but she pushes her brother away.

“Shall we tell them, snookums?” Ambrose chuckles, enjoying this far too much.

Why didn't I anticipate this? We knew we were going to see our friends tonight. Ambrose and I never talked about what we’d tell people, but we also never said we were going to keep the marriage a secret. Somehow, in my head, I convinced myself that this was just going to be a secret between the two of us.

“Snookums?” Josephine asks, her eyes wide as she stares at me.

“Piper and I got married. Anyone want to throw us a party?”

The reactions swing from astonishment to disbelief.

“You’re the one with all the entertainment venues in town.” Bram stares at Ambrose as if he has two heads.

“Oh right. Drinks on me, I guess. Oh, on us.” Ambrose grins down at me, but there’s a hint of irritation he’s trying to hide.

“How did this happen?” Roman asks.

“True love. Obviously.”

I pinch Ambrose’s side. He’s annoyed at his friends for some reason. He’s not poking fun at me, but it feels the same, regardless.

“Well, I don’t care how it happened.” Stellan radiates pure joy. He picks me up and squeezes me so hard in a hug, I think he fractures a rib. “Piper, you little sneaky witch. I didn’t think you had that kind of mischief in you.”

“It’s nothing like that, you guys.” I look around the room. There are a lot of strangers around us, but also familiar and nosey coven members. I spot Ambrose’s parents near the stage. His dad is looking at the crowd, bored, but his mother’s gaze is locked on us. “Let’s just get through this, and we’ll tell you everything later, okay?”

Lucida Ash, the leader of our coven, walks onto the stage. She’s in her late forties with long curling dark hair that's starting to gray at the temples. Her fashion sense leans toward the mystical, with flowing skirts, a multitude of necklaces, and bangles that stack halfway up her forearms.

She holds her hands up and the crowd momentarily gets louder before they quiet down. Everyone is so tense that all it would take is one shouted word, and I’m pretty sure this place would erupt into a riot.

“Thank you for coming tonight. I know you’ve all been anxious for us to find our new council and have been waiting to deal with the witches who tried to harm us at the masquerade ball last month. I’ve been studying how to fairly open up seats for the council. As you know in the past, it has been tradition to fill these seats with members of the founders' families.”

Previously, the council was almost exclusively made up of individuals from the founding families of Mystic Hollows. Or those with a lot of money and power in the community. In some ways, it makes sense to have powerful witches guiding us, because historically we’ve needed protection from outside forces. The problem comes in when there’s such a huge disconnect between the people leading and the rest of the coven. Our leaders stopped taking into account the needs of the coven as a whole, and instead sought only to better their own positions. The wrongs that the founding families have gotten away with over the years are disgusting, but because no one was there to check them and call them out when they were doing horriblethings, they were allowed to operate without consequences for years.

“We will be holding a series of trials to find our new council. These trials will help us find leaders who will embody the magic and values of the Mother, Maiden, and Crone.”

Murmurs break out among the crowd. In the past, the Lumen coven worshiped the Maiden, guided by the purity and innocence of light magic. Healing power like Josephine’s or empathic abilities, like Ava and Stellan have, are all gifts from the Maiden. Growing up, we were told the Tenebris coven had dark magic because they worshiped the Mother. It was said that the Mother desired obedience and punished witches when her needs weren’t met.

The Crone was a symbol of what happens when magic is abused. The loss of vitality because of a misuse of power.

But all of that was wrong. We learned that the Maiden, Mother, and Crone were just manifestations of power at different points in our life. They each still represent certain magical qualities, but none is good while the other is evil. They are simply aspects of our magic, of ourselves, that we have to learn.

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