Page 48 of Best Hex Ever
Normally she would travel up to Little Hathering, where she and her mother performed their ritual in the courtyard of the house. That’s how they had always done it, ever since she was a child. The house would, of course, dress itself like some kind of opulent glade, and she would feel the heat of the fire, even if it was all a glamour conjured up for their amusement.
Since Dina had met Immy and Rosemary, they’d joined the ritual too. All women were witches on Halloween night.
If the woods had felt thick with magic before, tonight they were practically pounding with it. The pulse of magic ran through Dina’s body like a second heartbeat.
She strode through the long grass, relishing the feel of the cold earth against her bare feet. This is what Samhain was all about. Connection. Chance. The veil was at its thinnest—anything was possible tonight. Dina had never felt so acutely like she was in the exact right place at the right time.
“Aywa, are you going to stand around all night?” her mother shouted at her as she approached. Dina had changed out of her evening dress into something lighter and more billowy. In this case, she’d opted for a light blue gondora. The kind that she only wore in the height of summer when she was pottering around and cleaning the house. It billowed against her skin, barely there. She should have been cold, but there was too much magic burning through her, and the blaze of the fire was strong.
Immy had gone for some kind of Victorian nightdress, while Rosemary had opted for a loose black T-shirt and jogging bottoms.
“It’s different tonight, can you feel it?” Dina asked.
“Mmm. It’s this place. It has a weight to it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some kind of holy site, or some saint’s bones buried around here somewhere,” her mother replied. Nour stood before the bonfire that towered over them both. Dina noticed her mother wipe a single tear from her eye.
“Mama, what is it?”
“I’m okay.” She sniffed. “Just remembering doing this with my sisters. We always went out to the broad bean field for nights like this. There was just something about being on our own land, all together. I’d never felt so powerful.”
Her parents had taken her to Morocco lots of times since then, and her mother’s spirit always seemed to quieten when they were there. Dina couldn’t imagine how hard it must be, to feel homesick but not want to go home, for fear of the pain the memories would bring. She pulled her mum into a hug, smelling the rose-scented shampoo she used.
“I can feel them tonight though. They’re here with us, celebrating. I think it’s this place—it’s full of ghosts.”
Dina nodded.
“I felt something in the woods too, but I couldn’t place it.”
“Did you say full of ghosts?” Rosemary asked. “Because you’re absolutely right. I’ve seen so many around tonight. I don’t know if it’s this place, or if it’s Halloween, but they’re…brighter than usual.”
Sometimes Dina forgot how normal it was for her friend to see the other side—she imagined this was a little like how others felt when she showed them her magic. Thankfully, Scott hadn’t freaked out after her stunt with the moonlight. In fact, she recalled the way his gaze had softened, the way he had exhaled slowly when she’d shown him her magic. Almost as if he’d been relieved.
She still wasn’t entirely sure what had come over her earlier. Deep pulses of magic had thrummed from the forest floor to the full moon above, pushing for freedom against the fibers of reality, and Dina had needed to set them free just as much as she needed to breathe. Her intuition told her she was safe with Scott, and if she was honest, she wouldn’t have been able to stop herself. A big part of her wanted Scott to see her for who she truly was, magic and all. She wanted to be her true self around him, no more hiding. The idea that this was a weekend fling felt more and more fleeting. It was all too easy, surrounded by magic and moonlight, to forget about the hex. It was so much easier to pretend.
“I hope we haven’t missed any of the witchy stuff.” Immy traipsed toward them, the hem of her nightgown soaked in mud.
“Did you buy that from an antique shop or something?” Dina asked.
Immy swished in her dress. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s a burial dress. So someone must have died in it and then a gravedigger robbed them of it. Isn’t that cool?”
“I don’t understand you children,” Nour sighed.
Dina chuckled. “I hope you know you’re insane, Immy.”
“I hope it’s all right that I didn’t wear anything flowy,” Rosemary said, looking at the billowing dresses they had all chosen.
Dina grinned. “As long as you can dance in it, it doesn’t matter what you wear. Or you could go naked.”
Nour cleared her throat and locked eyes with each of them, the weight of her magic settling over them like a warm blanket.
“Summer is gone, soon winter will be here.” Nour handed each of them a black Babylon candle. “Tonight we will celebrate the last of the light, and we will remember those who have left us, and those we still hold dear. Tonight, we will hold a light in their memory, so that as we dance, they will dance beside us.”
“Dina, did you bring the music?” Nour asked.
Dina put her portable speaker and phone down on the ground. “This bad boy is fully charged, so we don’t need to worry about the music cutting out this time.”
“Has that happened before?” Rosemary asked.
“Yeah, just once.” Dina winced. “Do we have any requests?”
