Eye of the Coven: Season 2

Season 2, Episode 3: She Will do Nicely

AUGUST, TWO YEARS AGO

NINA

Nina Veratos-DeSchade gazes out into the patch of the woods just down the street from her house here in Salem, Massachusetts. Trees of all different sizes stretch toward the slate gray clouds above, rain and thunder bound to roll in at any hour now. Her brother stands next to her holding open his Book of Shadows. He squints at the sky, despite the sun being scarce.

"Are you sure this is a good day to search for ingredients?" Nina asks her brother, the two of them starting for the entrance at the same time. The ground is wet and muddy from yesterday's late June downpour, green leaves stuck to the wet dirt.

"This is the perfect time for ingredient searching." Colin tells her, dropping his book into his messenger bag. He claws a hand through his cocoa brown hair, glancing up at the rain clouds above them again. "The potion calls for wet leaves, remember?"

"Yeah, because there aren't leaves back home." Nina says sarcastically, a wave of fog up ahead, threading through the trees sprouted out from the earth. The lucky potion calls for a bunch of nature, the luck needing to come from the earth itself.

"We need thorns, too." Colin recalls off the top of his head. "From a bush. And berries."

Nina found out everything she needed to know from Colin. Some of her fondest childhood memories are the two of them staying up late, him teaching her all sorts of potions. He had a box filled with random ingredients she often wondered how he managed to get. How does one get salamander eyes? Or bat wings? Or horse tail hair? He told her about a magic shop in Essex that's disguised as a place that sells lotions and candles and other mortal things. He still had yet to take her there.

"I know where a berry bush is." Nina volunteers. She came here by herself during the spring where she used sticks and twigs and leaves to morph together into a dream catcher. Transmutation is her specialty. It came to her as easy as walking did. Perhaps her father being a sculptor influenced her powers, she's never really known how specialties are given. Perhaps that's what she will be learning during her first semester at Quarta Luna in October. "It's by the creek."

"The creek?" Colin's brow furrows. "I didn't know there was a creek here."

"I'll get the berries, you get the thorns?" She offers.

"Sure. Just be safe, okay?" Colin glances at the rolling fog inching closer. "That fog doesn't seem to be the light kind."

"I'll meet you at the mark in no time." She promises before they parted ways.

The mark is a large tree with a twisted trunk set right in the middle of the woods. The jumbled roots roll out from underground, and the branches hung so low they nearly reach the floor. It's a big enough tree for one to see from almost anywhere in the woods. But with that fog covering pretty much the entire area, it could turn out to be harder to catch a glimpse of.

Nina pulls her lead gray jacket tighter around her as she ventures off further into the woods. Wet leave somehow manage to crunch under her red combat boots. Maybe it's the fallen acorns. Within several paces, Nina is able to hear the running water of the creek up ahead. Pine bushes with red berries so light they may as well be pink cling to the ends of branches. Nina grabs a handful of berries, the juice oozing out and staining her palm. She doesn't mind. She kind of likes when her hands got a little dirty from hunting for ingredients. It makes her feel like a real witch-- as if her powers don't already do that for her.

Nina scoops up some acorns to drop into her pouch, along with a large pine cone for her altar. By the time she pulls her pouch strings tight, the fog around her has settled so heavily that she can barely see two feet in front of her.