Under the Harvest Moon (Work In Progress/First Draft)

Chapter Two: Bottle Full of Stars

The sound of Theo's soft snores were comforting to Onyx in her otherwise silent home. She laid flat on her back in the middle of her tiny living room. The hardwood floor resonated her meditations. A rose quartz rested on her forehead while an amethyst lay in her open right palm and an aventurine in her left. Several hours had passed since Onyx began her self-grounding ritual. After meeting Jasper a week ago, she didn't know if she really ever would see him again, but she knew that if she did, she would likely he faced with the choice to practice magic. She didn't know what she would do.

The idea crossed her mind to call her mother, Astrid, but she was afraid of what her reaction would be. Onyx and her mother rarely speak, especially after the tragic plane crash that killed her father, Thomas. Thomas worked for the stock market on Wall street and it was on a flight home from a business trip to New York that he died when Onyx was only sixteen. Upon his death, his lawyer presented a will, something Thomas had prepared when Onyx was born, that left his entire investment fortune to his daughter. This drove a hard wedge between her and her mother because nobody could touch the money until Onyx turned eighteen, making those two years incredibly difficult for Astrid to manage alone.

A creak in the house stirred Onyx from her thoughts. She sat up, collected her gemstones into a glass bowl on her small, maple coffee table, and made her way into her quaint kitchen. Onyx sighed when she noticed the sun was setting and turned on the florescent overhead light. Theo stretched his long legs and yawned sharply before joining Onyx in the kitchen. 

"You're right, buddy! It's time for dinner," Onyx said to her shaggy dog while scratching his chin. She filled a bowl of kibble for him and made her way to where she left her cellphone plugged in next to her tiny electric kettle. She unlocked the screen to discover two missed calls and one text message from Jade. 

It read: "Guess who just walked into my cauldron?"  The timestamp showed that the message was received less than ten minutes prior.

"Jasper," Onyx whispered to herself. Knowing that he was likely still at Crack in the Cauldron, she hurried upstairs to change out of her sweatpants. Onyx frantically searched the messy piles of laundry in her room to find something cute to wear. She squeezed into black high-waisted skinny jeans and a cropped ivory cable-knit sweater. Onyx was satisfied when she saw herself in the full-length mirror in her bathroom after brushing her hair and adding a maroon beanie to her outfit. On the way out the door she assured Theo that she would be back soon and pulled on her rain jacket. 

The ground was dry so Onyx sprinted across the street and through the park without fear of slipping on the grass in her platform combat boots. When she was 30 yards from her cousin's shop, she stopped to catch her breath and straighten her appearance to casually walk the rest of the way to the store. She reached the door and, ever so naturally, pulled out her lip balm and began applying it as she walked inside. Jasper looked up from the cup of coffee he was holding in front of the fireplace and offered a wide smile. Jade was filling out some paperwork at the counter. She flirtatiously raised her eyebrows at Onyx and nodded towards Jasper, who was still patiently smiling at her. 

"Hey, Jasper. It's good to see you again," Onyx greeted him. He pulled out the chair next to him and gestured for her to join him at the table. She obliged and tossed her jacket on the back of the chair before occupying the seat. 

"Yeah I've been preparing for the harvest festival that my coven does every year. The generation before me is teaching my generation how to prepare the coven for each of the year-round rituals so that they can take their place as elders and use their powers in other ways," Jasper explained his long absence. 

Onyx wore a confused and somewhat awkward look on her face, giving Jasper a more clear idea of exactly how non-magic her coven was. Behind Jasper, Jade wore a similarly clueless look on her face, but she continued working. Jasper quickly cleared his throat, remembering that the girls did not know anything about magic.