COVENS

Chapter Six

We traipse back into our cabin. The lights of the other cabins and the house are all out now. I sit on the ground leaning on my bed frame. The green light flickers against the old wood floorboards.

Clara is flipping through the potions book, looking for anything to help. Finally, she throws it down with a sigh. "Maybe the other cabins have something useful in one of theirs. All the books are different."

Ellis nods slowly.

"We should get some sleep..."

I look up. Clara is watching me, mouth screwed up with worry.

"What?" I ask.

"I don't know. Maybe try to stay away from Gammer Nettles. After all, she did say the future can be changed. Maybe if you stay on her good side..."

I shrug. Yeah. Who knows. Who's to say I should even trust something as shifty as a prophecy.

I eventually get into bed. I stare up at the ceiling, imagining my parents. They're probably asleep by now. Or Mum is up, sewing on the porch. She does that when she can't sleep.

What if I never see them again?

The thought hits me in the chest. I try to close my eyes, but it's a long time before sleep comes.

After breakfast, we sit in the damp field, turning daisies into frogs and back.

"Bli bli frosk..." I murmur, waving my hand over a tiny white flower. It pops and hisses, then a frog appears in the flower's place. It kind of boggles my mind. I pick up the frog, watching Nettles in the corner of my eye.

I've been avoiding her, hoping she won't notice.

I start bobbing my head back and forth and whistle a popular tune. The frog waves its legs and arms in a little jig.

Mildred laughs at my side. I grin, looking over at her.

"How'd you do that?" she asks.

I smirk. "I don't know... I guess they just like to dance."

Mildred chuckles. "Is it a spell?"

"I-uh..."

I notice Clara talking to Nettles.

"I tried to go out into the woods to look for ingredients last night, Gammer," Clara is saying. "-and I found I couldn't leave. It felt like there was a wall around the whole clearing!"

Mildred looks over, following my gaze.

Nettles nods, "Sorry, Clara. I should have told everyone. I put the wall up because wild animals come out in the winter. It isn't safe to go into the woods alone. There are wolves and bears, and worse things... Spectres, too."

"Oh." Clara seems to soften. "That makes sense..."

Nettles smiles patiently.

"What if we... We want to go home, though?" Clara asks.

Nettles' eyebrows lift. Her posture goes stiff.

"Just for Christmas, I mean."

"Oh," Nettles nods. "Of course. Of course you may go home for Christmas, and if you'd like to go out into the woods for ingredients, ask. I'll arrange a door for you."

The fact Nettles doesn't give permission to leave for good makes me screw up my eyes.

"Okay, thank you. Is there a spell for it?" Clara asks.

Nettles nods.

"Do you have spellbooks, then? I know we have potion books..."

I look back at Mildred, and she gives me a small smile. "What?" she asks, petting her fox.