Trial by Fire

They lapsed into silence while Rowan finished painting her hair with the dye and they waited for it to set. When Lily was done rinsing the dried dye out of her hair in the stream, Rowan made another more careful pass at trimming her hair with his knife. He took his time, making sure it was even and that it fell properly around her face. Finally he stood back and gave her a satisfied nod.

Lily’s hand shot up to feel her hair. Rowan had given her what felt like a bob. She scrunched her damp curls, happily noting that he’d had the sense to give her some layers so she didn’t have pyramid-head.

“How does it look?” she asked anxiously.

“I think it looks great short,” he replied, still studying her. “But I’ve always preferred you with your hair up, so I can see your long neck.”

Lily was thrown for a moment. Of course, he was referring to Lillian, but it was still strange to hear Rowan speak to her in such a familiar way when she’d only met him three days ago.

“And the color?” she asked, unable to hold his appraising gaze.

“It’s dark,” he warned. “Outlander dark, which works in our favor. If you don’t let anyone see your light eyes, we might be able to pull this off.”

They broke camp quickly. While Lily washed out the cauldron, Rowan took care to make sure all of her hair was burned before he buried the black walnut husks and the embers of the fire under a few layers of dirt. In minutes, it was as if they’d never been there. Lily looked over her shoulder as they left the campsite and headed back to Salem, conscious of the fact that they’d left no soda cans or ugly plastic wrappers behind.

“What’s wrong?” Rowan asked, touching her arm.

“Nothing. It’s just that in my world we’re so concerned with everything being clean. Everything has to come in its own package.” She gave Rowan a rueful smile. “And it makes such a mess.”

His nose scrunched up as he puzzled out the contradiction. “Being clean makes a mess?”

“Unfortunately,” Lily said, nodding.

“I don’t think you’re doing it right then.”

“No. We definitely aren’t.”

“I guess every version of the world is flawed somehow,” he said equitably. “Nothing’s perfect.”

Lily walked beside Rowan for a while, wondering if she agreed with him. If there were an infinite number of universes, didn’t that mean that one of them had to be perfect? And if one of them was a paradise, then did that mean that another one had to be hell? Lily wondered how many versions of the world were better than this. And how many were worse.

“Teach me something,” Lily asked, breaking herself out of her circular thoughts.

One corner of his mouth tipped up in a quizzical smile. “Like what?” he replied.

“Teach me how to control my reactions,” Lily asked excitedly.

“That’s going to take more than one lesson. But we can start if you’d like.”

Rowan spent the next few hours showing Lily how to discharge unnecessary energy before it became a runaway reaction. Lily saw little sparks of energy flying off her skin, like glitter. It was pretty, but it required so much focus. Rowan said that a willstone would change the energy effortlessly, and without making her look so sparkly. They worked their way up from bark dust, and after a few tries, she was able to manage her reaction to a nettle scratch without Rowan’s fingers on her wrist.

“It’s not puffing up too horribly,” she said, peering at the angry red line that traced an inch across her forearm. Lily sniffed. Her head was starting to get congested.

“You mostly did it,” he said encouragingly. He reached out and pressed his fingertips to her pulse point. The red line disappeared, and her stuffy nose cleared. He grinned at her.

“Why can’t I do it like that?” Lily asked with a pout. “What I need is a willstone.”

Rowan’s smile faded. He looked at the ground as they walked, his lips pursed together.

“What? Don’t you want me to have one?” she asked.

“It’s got nothing to do with what I want,” he said.

“What does that mean?”

“If you get a willstone, you’ll have to be trained. You’d be a menace if you weren’t.” He pulled his lower lip through his teeth.

“So train me,” Lily said. His head snapped around and he stopped walking.