“Come to the water with me.”
I follow him into the shallows and kneel down next to him. The water laps over my knees, and I shiver. “What are we doing?”
“Do you remember the spell you used to pull in the tide?”
“Yes,” I say slowly, not understanding. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Try it now,” he says.
“What? Why?”
“Just trust me. Do the spell.”
I sigh and shake my head. I close my eyes and focus on the water around me, on the way it feels on my skin, and I call to my magic.
“Gentle tide, waters low, rise to us now, send us below.” I speak the words over and over, the same ones I used last time, but nothing happens. My magic doesn’t rise within me, and the water doesn’t change. It’s as if the sea has forgotten me.
“I don’t understand,” I say, opening my eyes, looking at Wolfe.
He takes off his silver ring and gently slips it onto my thumb. It’s heavy, with intricate carvings of waves and moonflowers adorning the metal. I let my fingers brush over it. “Try again,” he says.
I give him a questioning look but follow his instructions. I close my eyes and try to form a connection between the magic inside me and the water around me, and this time, my magic surges. I repeat the spell once more, and the tide rushes toward us, slamming into my chest and pushing me backward.
I cough as salt water enters my lungs, and I scramble to my feet. Wolfe is at my side, offering me his hand, and I take it, letting him lead me up the shore. We sit back down, and Wolfe dries our clothing.
“What just happened?”
“Do you remember the story I told you? About the first witch being born in a field of moonflowers?”
I nod.
“It’s true. We are all descended from her, and that flower is the source of our power. More specifically, all magic flows from that flower’s relationship to the moon. It’s what sustains our connection to the Earth and enables us to manipulate the world around us. In the absence of it, magic is not possible.” Wolfe reaches out and takes my hand. He keeps his eyes on mine as he slowly removes his ring from my finger and places it back on his own.
“This ring is filled with moonflower petals that I replenish every few days. This is the first time I can remember taking it off.” He says the words quietly, as if they’re special. Important, somehow.
“So your ring is what enabled me to pull in the tide?”
“The moonflower in my ring, yes.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. I use my magic every day to make the perfumes in my shop.”
Wolfe puts his head in his hands and lets out a heavy breath. “I really wish your mother had told you the truth.”
“I told you; she doesn’t know.”
He looks at me with an expression I can’t read—pity or sadness, maybe. He shakes his head. “It’s in the water supply.” He says the words plainly, void of emotion.
A shiver runs down my spine, and I hug my arms to my chest. “That can’t possibly be true.”
“It is. It’s actually pretty smart. They control exactly how much is in the supply—just enough to make low magic possible, not nearly enough to use high magic. They’ve all but ensured that high magic is eradicated.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
He sighs. “You know who it is.”
I shake my head, back and forth and back and forth. This can’t be true. It can’t be. “Let me get this straight. You’re telling me that the head of the council—my mother—has a private garden of moonflowers that she puts in our water supply to keep our magic going and that she has purposefully lied to our coven about it so dark magic is never used again.”
“It didn’t start with your mother, of course. But yes, as far as we know, it gets distilled into an oil that is added to the island’s drinking water. Moonflower is most potent in its natural form, which is why oil is used instead.”
I think back to every time I’ve practiced dark magic with Wolfe, and sure enough, he always presented me with a moonflower before we began. My whole body starts to shake, as if I can’t carry the weight of a lie this big, this sweeping. I’m overwhelmed by it, and my eyes burn and my throat aches as I try to keep it together in front of Wolfe.
What an incredible lie.
I put my head in my hands, not wanting Wolfe to see my undoing. I couldn’t make the pieces fit when I thought my mother didn’t know the truth, but everything makes more sense if she does. And of course she does. As the pieces fall into place, the ones inside me break apart.
I feel a soft touch on my back. His hand is still for a moment, then he moves it in circles. When I finally feel like I can speak again, I lift my head and take a long breath.
“I’m sorry,” Wolfe says, and there is no derision or superiority in his tone. He means it.
“Me too.”
I think Wolfe is about to reply, but he just looks out at the water. Finally he says, “They’re going to kill me for this,” more to himself than to me. He exhales, heavy and slow. “I want to show you something.”
“I don’t think I have the energy for anything else tonight.”
“Please,” he says, one of the few times he’s ever sounded gentle. “I think it will make you feel better.”
“I can’t go with you.”
“Yes, you can. Just give me this. After tonight, you never have to see me again. I promise. But you’re already here, and there’s something I want you to see. I think it will make a difference.”
“For what?”
“For you.”
When I look at him, I don’t see deceit or lies. I see sincerity.
“No magic,” I say. “I can’t do it tonight. I can’t.”
“No magic,” he agrees.
He offers me his hand, and I stare at it for the span of a breath before taking it. I follow him as he walks into the water. By the time it’s up to my waist, I’m worried.
“What are we doing?”
“Looking for a current,” he says, as if it’s obvious.
“A current?”
“Yeah. I’d have found it already, but it’s no longer the only current close to the island.” I don’t miss the accusation in his voice, but for the first time, I don’t feel like it’s directed at me.
“What do you need a current for?”
He looks at me then, beautiful in the moonlight. “To go home.”
The water is freezing, and goose bumps rise along my skin. I’m so cold, but I follow Wolfe even deeper. “I don’t understand.”
“I wasn’t lying when I said we can’t use the streets. The only way to reach the manor is through an ocean current that goes directly to our home’s shore. So we are technically using magic tonight, since the current itself is magical, but we aren’t the ones creating it.”
The water is up to my shoulders now. I’m so cold, but there’s also a thrill running through me at the knowledge that I’m being taken somewhere no one in my coven has ever been. No one even knows it exists, and I lean into the feeling because it edges out the pain of being lied to. It will still be there waiting for me once I’m home, but for now, I push it aside.
I know I should be terrified. My parents would never find me if something happened, but it feels vital that I go, that I learn about this part of my heritage. That I let myself be uncomfortable and see for myself the life that’s been hidden from me.
“Mortana,” Wolfe says, turning to face me. The water rolls and moves around us, but my feet are firmly on the sandy ground. I have loved this sea for as long as I’ve lived, and I will not start fearing it now.
“Yes?”
“I’m trusting you with this. Don’t make me regret it.”
I swallow hard. “I won’t.”
He searches my eyes for another breath, then nods. “Good.”
Suddenly, I realize I’ve never seen Wolfe in sunlight—the one time we met during the day, the sky was blanketed in dark clouds—and I wonder if he’s as beautiful at noon as he is at midnight. I wonder if the sun loves him as much as the moon does.
He steps closer to me, and we both drift up, moving with a wave that rolls through us.
“This is intense the first time you do it. I need you to hold on to me and not let go for anything. Do you understand?”