Page 119 of Bound By Fury

“Long before this strip of land was here, the mountains—and the ley lines within them—connected what we now know as the Americas to the western edge of Africa. When the lands split, so too did the lines, but magic and power, like stardust and people, are inextricably connected.

“You, Harper, feel such a strong affinity for Earnest, for the power lines that converge here, because you are of it, and it is of you. Of us.”

I stop breathing altogether.

“You… you’re like me? Was—was Gigi? My dad? Is my mom like us?”

“Slow down,” Maureen murmurs. “I promise you’ll understand soon enough.”

But I can’t stop the reeling in my mind. Stop myself from feeling anything but the fizzing of my magic bursting like fireworks inside me.

Maureen continues, “I’m sure you learned in the letter from your grandmother that we come from a people—from a person, a woman called the Mother. Through the Mother’s sacrifice, we became legend. Lore. Myth.” She pauses, and then, “We became witches of the Zodiac.”

“… What?”

My temples throb in time with my heart. What she’s saying should be impossible, but…

Of course.

It feels right even before I know what it means.

She reaches toward me. “Take a deep breath, don’t pass out.” She scoots closer and rubs her hands up my arms, humming quietly like she’s shushing a baby.

I picture a dozen women standing around a blazing fire, chants like a prayer falling from their lips.

I think of that moment in the maze when the cloaked figure called me little witch, and how I’d known, somehow, in my heart, they were right.

In the corner the gentle sound of flowing water pierces the silence between us, smothers my panting breaths as it runs over a bed of rocks in a small electric fountain, miniature fae sitting among bright red mushrooms.

“You know,” she says, “I never did have a daughter of my own to pass this knowledge down to. That’s the only way we’re able to keep our history alive when religious zealots and colonizers have such an affinity for making sure certain people forget who we are. Where we come from. Especially here, in this melting pot of a country. It’s much easier to abandon your identity when you were never too sure of it in the first place.”

The pit in my chest grows. I’m grateful to Maureen for doing this. For telling me. For taking the place of my grandmother. But holy shit, I’d so much rather be hearing all this from Gigi instead.

“But, what does it mean? To be a… Zodiac Witch?” I ask.

“As you know,” Maureen says, running her hand over her poof of hair and adjusting the large yellow stone on her finger, spinning it and spinning it before taking a deep breath, “the Mother was faced with an impossible decision. She had to figure out a way to save our people. It was told back then that there was power to wield, just as there is here.

“But to be gifted balanced magic, one must first give to the stars to receive their blessing. The Mother knew this would be the only way. So on the night of a star shower, when the innate power of our gods was a sticky, palpable thing, twelve women, one from each season, made a sacrifice.”

My blood runs cold.

“For years neighboring tribes believed that the forest ate those that ventured in too deep. That it was full of monsters. They weren’t wrong. The forest was full of monsters, just as ours is. But there was a reason why it lured the creatures. Devoured those that went missing. You see, the forest sat above the Celestial Cusp, a well where the ley lines intersect, where the power pools. Where it waits.

“And the Cusp was hungry.”

It’s not until my jaw begins to ache that I realize I’m grinding my teeth.

“The blood of the Twelve sank down deep, each drop a gift to the stars. This sacrifice, this act of selflessness, of love for all that has come before us and all that will come to pass, the intention to do good will, was rewarded abundantly. For when the sun crested the horizon the next morning, our tribe was imbued with powerful new abilities.

“And from that generation on, new witches of our kind come into their magic during their alignment, when their age matches the date of their birth. This astrological synchronicity brings the witch to a powerful spiritual intersection, where your mortal life and the lives of your ancestors, and the stars, reunite.”

“Is that why Gigi left me the letter on my birthday? I was turning sixteen on the sixteenth?”

“Yes, she wanted to ease you into all this as best she could.”

“But I didn’t wake up with my powers that day. Or at least, I don’t think I did.”

I try to remember what I felt besides earth-shattering grief between my birthday and that day at Dawson’s, but it’s all so blurry now. So dark. If I concentrate, I can conjure the feeling of an electric current gently buzzing within me, but I figured I was dehydrated and so stressed, I could barely eat.