Page 60 of In the Light of the Moon
Now I was realizing how Granna felt. When I’d shown her the little trick, it had been to entice her to keep going. For her to have something to look forward to. “Well, Ihavebeen working at all this for a long time. And even if you can’t light candles, you can literally see into the future. If you don’t have any otherpowers, I would count your seeing as pretty fucking cool. All I can do is talk to mushrooms and sometimes spiders.”
Josie pouted and pushed the candle across the table, as if she couldn’t stand it being close to her anymore. “I guess. Though, you’re talking like that’sallyou can do, Sylv.”
“You’re both right. Seeing is a very rare gift, Josie. And don’t you feel much better now that you have multiple measures to safeguard your mind?” Josie grunted and glared at the white candle that stood unburned in the brass candleholder. “And you are far too powerful to reduce your abilities in such a way, sweetheart.” I blew a raspberry in response and stood to check on the bread in the oven.
I gently nudged Granna with my hip, and she stepped away while holding a steaming spoon to her lips. I peered into the little window to see inside the oven, and, satisfied with the dough’s rise so far, I straightened and leaned against the counter.
Granna was adding more salt and pepper to the stew that already smelled of garlic and thyme, and I fished my own spoon out of a drawer so that I could taste. My teeth sank into a tender chunk of potato, and my mouth watered even more at subtle hit of acid amongst the savory and hearty.
“This is good, Granna.”
“Not good enough yet,” she murmured while hunting through the army of tiny spice jars she had on the counter.
Josie came over to test the stew for herself, and after a series of downright filthy moans at the taste, she retired back by the bay window to read through more of The Book. “See, it’s great! And the bread will be ready in just a few minutes. Stop messing with it.”
“No, I want it to be perfect for him, and it’s not there yet.”
“Gah, fine, keep fussing,” I pulled out the oven mitts and put them on. “But, there’s no one here to—” what Granna said mademe stop, and my face screwed up in confusion. “Orion’s not coming over, Granna.”
She waved a hand while adding a pinch of cayenne pepper, “I know that, sweetheart. Though I’m surprised you tore yourself away from the boy for a whole evening.”
Josie snickered from the corner of the room, but sparks of dread were prickling on the back of my neck. Before I could say anything, Granna muttered under her breath, “Only have a few weeks, and not anywhere near prepared. So much to do, so much to do.”
My throat clicked with a swallow that felt like a rock tumbling down my dry throat. Among all the good and exciting that’d happened after Samhain, Granna’s slips were popping up more and more. “Who are you talking about then, Granna?” I lowered my voice, tried to make it calm and soothing. I snuck a glance over at Josie whose attention was still directed at the book in front of her.
Granna tsked after another taste of the stew was deemed unsatisfactory. “Of course I’m—” she stilled with her hand hovering over the little bowl of salt. Her eyes darted up to me, and they weren’t glazed or faraway. They were sharp and present.
At first, her lips pressed into a firm line, but I watched her gaze swim over my face, and my stomach dropped with the glistening of tears in her eyes. Her gray brows turned up just before she clenched everything shut. Granna’s thin chest heaved with a deep inhale, and when she opened her eyes, her face was smoothed. She pushed back from the stove and began rifling through a cabinet for bowls. “It’s ready, girls.”
The somberness that’d come over her seemed to linger, though. We dished up the bowls, I cut the bread, and Roz arrived in a trail of crimson, chatty fire. She wasn’t a witch, but she wasGranna’s oldest friend, and we drank the wine she brought while eating the stew and bread I baked at the kitchen table.
“… and I am still spittin’ mad at Chief Thompson for treating you the way he did, sweetie. I saw him in town today and gave him a piece of my mind. You should’ve seen his face!” Roz cackled, her southern accent spilling into her words. She smacked a playful hand on Granna’s shoulder for good measure.
Granna glanced at Josie and I above her glass of wine, “What they should do is focus on catching who—or what—killed that girl. Matter of fact, the bodies of the other two that are probably dead, too. I’m sure you’ve heard about the dressing down I gave both him and his stupid son. He’ll be staying away from Sylvie if I have anything to do about it.”
Roz nodded, and the fluffy spikes of her short hair bobbed, “Thatandyour boyfriend almost beating the boy in front of his father. Ha! I wish I could’ve been there.” That got Josie cracking up with her, and Granna and I both joined in with snickers of our own. I still hadn’t seen Kara again, but I tried to hope that it meant she had moved on and was no longer stuck.
Every day, Orion checked in with me about Graham bothering me. I could tell that it was tearing him up that Graham confronted me during moments I was without Orion by my side. Each time we’d reunite after time apart, he would look over me with worry and settle at my neck for a long time, breathing and rubbing his face into my skin. Whoever killed Kara still hadn’t been caught, and if it was indeed a group of wolf shifters that’d done it, I didn’t think they’d ever be brought to justice. As far as I knew, the Chief could’ve been in on it.
The fungi hadn’t given me anything else of note about the Wolves in regard to Kara’s murder. Just that the White Wolf was around. That others walked the forest further away from our house.
I hadn’t said anything about wolf shifters to Orion, not wanting him to feel like I was pressuring him, but he was still acting more overprotective than usual. Every night I spent at his place, he’d set me up on the couch or in his bedroom and refuse my offers for help with… anything.
Granna and I went to a thrift store one Sunday, and when I showed up in Roz’s pickup truck with two rocking chairs in the back, he’d been frantic. They were too good of a deal to pass up, and my new job paid better than Vinny’s. I had money saved up and noticed he didn’t have any furniture on his front porch. The chairs were painted black, and as soon as I saw them, I knew they’d be perfect for his house. When he hefted them out of the truck bed with no issue, he gently chastised me for getting him anything and going to all the trouble. But I saw the way he carefully placed them on the porch, stepping back and positioning, then stepping back again to make sure that they were perfectly centered.
That night, we drank beer and rocked in the new chairs with the cold air whipping through our hair. It didn’t bother either of us, and when we switched to hot chocolate, I kept waiting for Orion to bring out a pack of cigarettes and smoke. But, he never did, and my exasperation for him worrying over me and the large secret sitting between us fell away with the setting of the sun.
I shoveled another bite of stew into my mouth and shrugged a shoulder. “He’s protective, and Graham thinks he’s untouchable.”
Roz clicked her tongue while dipping a piece of crusty, golden bread into the dish of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, “Don’t understand why Chief doesn’t rein that boy in. Lets him walk all over himandhis wife. It’s downright shameful.” She took a bite and continued talking with her mouth full, though she placed a well-manicured hand in front of her chewing, “Come to thinkof it, there’re quite a few who treat Graham like that. At first, people eyed him with pity for moving in with his philandering father, but then it just flipped! One day, I went in for a new screwdriver and caught Bill Ferrows talking to the boy and acting like the Chief wasn’t even there! And they used to be as thick as thieves, you remember that?” she looked to Granna who nodded.
What Granna couldn’t say, however, was that all the people she was mentioning were shifters in the same pack. Since I’d started noticing the scent of wildness that clung to Graham, the Chief, Jasper, Juno,andOrion, I started to parse through the different notes each time I saw one of them or any of the others in town. I hadn’t seen Graham or the Chief in a long time, but Jasper, his father, and Ana who worked at the library all had some note that I remembered being on Graham and his father. It made my nose wrinkle in a way that Juno’s and Orion’s didn’t.
“Okay,” Josie stuck her arms out and almost knocked over my glass of wine, “can we talk about something else? Preferably something that passes the Bechdel test?” Did it count as passing the Bechdel test if you were talking about men to explain the Bechdel test? Either way, the conversation turned into Josie explaining what it was to a surprisingly delighted Roz who asserted that she would make an effort to apply it to more of her interactions with friends, even after we explained that it started as a way to examine things like film and writing.
She waved that away, though, “Still, couldn’t hurt. Only conversations I can think of thatmightpass the test are mine with this one,” she jutted a thumb at Granna, “but that’s because she’s refused to date the entire time we’ve been friends! And spurned any advance that’s come her way! Time and time again, she’s turned heads or attracted some fella’s attention, and—” If Granna’s eye rolling and grumbling wasn’t funny enough, Roz’salmost comical slapping a hand over her mouth for immediately failing the test tipped Josie and me into near hysterics.
The rest of the dinner and the hours we spent even after we were too full to keep eating made me feel recharged. It was different than when I was with Orion, but it felt like something else I was missing had finally slid into place. Josie had been my best friend for over half of our lives, but to have her relate to and be part of my life inthis waywas better than anything I could have expected.
