8

I was wandering through the outskirts of the coven garden in search for Jonas, who had unenthusiastically agreed to come with me shopping (his exact words were “Yes, please can I come, can I!? I’ve been dying to go shopping for ages!”) for an outfit for my first day at my summer job this Monday. I meandered through rows of ordinary day-to-day plants like lavender, basil, rosemary, onions, garlic, and sage, all of which could easily be mistaken for parts of a vegetable garden. Maybe I should try to grow some of these at home, it would for sure spice up the supposed ‘pasta pomodoro’ dish a lot? I broke of a few stems of fern – which is great for increased concentration - and tucked into my bag to hang up in my room. I should have had this during my exams, I thought to myself. The garden was empty and peaceful, and the sun that started to go up high on the sky warmed my face as I wandered about. Normally there’s a lot of activity to keep up with all the work in the massive garden, but I must have arrived just at lunch time, given its deserted state. As I went, I nipped off a few leaves of Pennyroyal and crushed them in my palm and sighed contentedly when I inhaled the fresh spearmint fragrance. I rounded the old oak and walked into what looked like a construction site, adjoining the main building of the coven. The white main building had stood on the ground for hundreds of years, stemming from the original founding of the coven. Like a lot of manors in this country, the covens’ manor was built in a neoclassical style. The façade decor is rather straightforward and simple, and even though it’s impressive, if is considered rather small compared to other manors. The front of the house displays a car courtyard, whereas a huge portion connected to the backside of the manor and the open garden area was now being developed into a greenhouse, where large pots of a weedlike plant with spirally arranged leaves was being stored in massive quantities in the half-finished building. Revealed by its beautiful and innocent-looking, yet poisonous brown-purple bell-shaped flowers, I recognized the pots of Belladonna immediately along with other unknown plants of flowers, in a blissful blend with muddy wheelbarrows, heaps of bags of soil, construction tools and slabs of marble. As I stepped closer to inspect the exotic new plants I hadn’t identified yet, Jonas came strolling along the edge of the main house and I waved my hand at him to get his attention. His face broke into a heartfelt smile and jogged the remaining distance to scoop me up in a tight hug.

“Ready for a shopping spree?”

I gave my almost-empty wallet a sad moment of silence and reciprocated his broad smile.

“’Shopping spree’ might be an overestimation, but I hope I’ll find some updates to my very casual wardrobe”. As we moved towards the front of the house, where Jonas’ car was parked, I nodded towards the construction site.

“By the way, what’s up with the giant greenhouse? Are you starting a proper business, or what?”

“Huh, that? No. Or, well, to be honest, we already supply other covens’ medicinal plants needs to a large extent. It’s part of our business model to keep up our witch community, but the greenhouse has nothing to do with that. We’ve had to add that to protect some of the more valuable plants from sabotage.”

“There’s been sabotage in your garden? Who would even do that? It benefits the entire community and besides, it’s medicine. What type of scum would do such a thing?” I gaped at him and shook my head. The nerve of some people…

Jonas climbed into the SUV.

“Who knows? Rivalry between us and other covens? Trouble-making kids?” He shrugged, but added cynically, “…Jealous werewolves?”

I opened the door to the car and sat beside Jonas in the driver’s seat.

“Werewolves? I thought we were on terms with both Northern Varger and Great Freke…? Are you saying there are problems between the coven and werewolves again?” My mind conjured horrific images of bloody bodies, crying children and mourning mothers. Thankfully, the rogue attacks 18 years ago hadn’t affected that many civilians, but every hurt individual was a person with a family, friends, and a life in the end.

“Hey, hey! Calm down.” Jonas placed his hands on each side of my shoulders and gave me an assuring look. “Nothing’s going on, Sam. I was just speculating. I’m sorry if I upset you, it’s just…I don’t like to be sure of anything, it’s better to be prepared for anything. That way, we won’t be complacent about our security. Okay?” He searched my face and I nodded. I felt a bit silly for overreacting. If there were new troubles with werewolves, surely both Jonas and Marie would have told me already. I stroked the Hagalaz pendant to calm my nerves and gave Jonas an apologetic smile.

“Yeah. You’re right. Sorry. I was just recreating the stories from the rogue attacks in my head. They always scared me senseless as a child. Marie has always told me the coven is stronger today than it was back then, but the thought of berserking werewolves has left me sleepless for more nights than one.”

“It’s okay. I would be scared too if I hadn’t mastered any protective spells yet, like you.” Jeez, thanks. Way to work up my self-esteem. He seemed oblivious to his down-boosting and smiled and stroked my chin gently. “But don’t forget, you have me, and no one can stop me from having you being safe by my side.”

“Mmmm, I could drink a dozen more of these.” I licked my lips and sat down my empty cup of hot chocolate, leaned back in the plush armchair in the café and placed a hand on my very full stomach, probably resembling a slightly pregnant woman after the enormous number of pastries I had eaten in the past 30 minutes.

“I know you eat like a horse, but you still impress me every time I see you gorge like that. I don’t know how you manage to gorge down the same amounts of food like an Olympic athlete, and still never put on even a gram of weight.”

“I don’t gorge! It sounds so uncivilized. I prefer the phrase ‘well-fed’. Also, I have to take advantage since you’re treating me. Bulking up for the winter.”

“It’s early June, Sam”, Jonas says wryly. I turn my nose up and stick out my tongue at him.

“I like to start early.”

“You’re incorrigible!”. He laughs at me and claps his hands together. “Okay, so what’s our next mission?”

“Hmm…shoes, check. Two different types of tops, check. I think I need some type of shirt or blouse, then we’re done.”

“Okay, lets’ go!”

In the third store, under constant low-key whining and huffing from my unwilling victim Jonas, I held up two different blouses in front of Jonas.

“Cream or white?”

“What’s the difference?”

“What’s the…di- Honestly, Jonas, are you blind? They are two distinctively different colours.”

“Tomato, tomato”. He shrugs and gives me an innocent look.

“Wait, I’ll try them on for you to see the difference.” I pressed my bag into his arms and dashed in to one of the changing rooms and started to undress. While my sweatshirt had entwined itself with my arms and hair, I heard my phone buzz. While desperately struggling for freedom, I asked Jonas:

“Could you pass me my phone, please? It’s in my bag.”

“Sure thing.” I could hear him digging around in my messy bag, and just as I had put my sweatshirt back on, he passed the phone to my hand, and I answered hastily.

“Sam. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I and Kurt am very disappointed in you ditching your chores like this”. Evy’s dissatisfied voice reached my ear, and it plainly told me I’m in for a scolding. I mentally checked through today’s chores.

“No, I’ve already taken care of the dishes, the henhouse, I’ve fed the cats and cleaned out the litter boxes.”

“Yes, but aren’t you forgetting that you promised Kurt that you were supposed to help him out with clearing out the basement?” Oh, crap. I had totally forgot that was today!

“Shoot. Sorry. I’ll come home immediately. I’ll be home in 15.” I hung up the phone before she had time to go on and on about how irresponsible I was and darted out of the changing room.

“Sorry, I need to go. Forgot something I had to do today.”

“That’s okay. Did any of the blouses fit?”

“I didn’t have time to try any of them on, but I’ll take the cream-coloured one.”

I paid for the blouse, crossed my fingers it would fit me and hurriedly scurried out of the store.

“You want a ride, Sam?”

“You’re an angel, Jonas. Yes, please!”

We reached the parking lot and entered Jonas’ car. After a few minutes, Jonas broke the silence.

“So…That old book you have there…That yours?”

Damn, damn, damn. I had the coven’s old magic book in my bag. How mindless of me to forget about it when I asked him to grab my phone for me!

“Ehm…Technically…No. But! It belongs to the coven, and I am a member of the witch community here in town, therefore one could argue I have some small part in the coven as well…?”

“Mmmm…Technically, no. But I appreciate the effort of you trying to make up an excuse”, he said and offered me one of his amused smiles.

“Okay, you’re right. But, in my defence, I have only borrowed it. I had planned to return it as soon as possible.”

“But why would you even borrow it in the first place? Those dusty old books in the main library are boring as hell and doesn’t really contain anything other than basic knowledge. There’s nothing in them that you don’t know already.”

“Well…” I nervously fiddled with the strings on my sweatshirt and gulped as tried to figure out a way of phrasing this as good as possible. “I…Like books. They calm me. And-…and Evy and Kurt are quite busy back home taking care of everything. They haven’t always had time to teach me some of these things.” Which isn’t untrue. They haven’t had time since they are busy lazing around in the majority of the days.

“What, they aren’t teaching you the basic stuff about magic that the coven has specifically instructed all parents in the area to do?” He frowned and I hastily switched subject to not get Evy and Kurt into any problems, as they surely would blame me for it.

“Well, they have just been busy sometimes, so I’ve taken it upon myself to fill the small gaps that I have. Anyway, what do you think about my purchases today? Do you think I will in well at Solhall Property’s office on Monday morning, huh?”

If I had thought Jonas had looked displeased a second ago, he had certainly kicked it up a notch just now.

“Solhall properties? You’re starting your summer job at Solhall properties?!” I was a little perplexed about his sudden outburst.

“Yeah, remember, I told you I’d be working as an assistant for one of their project managers.”

“You said you’d be working in a sale’s company!”

“Well...Yes, I’ll be working in their sale’s branch. They sell properties. What’s the big deal?”

“I thought you meant like within telecommunications or insurances or something like that!” He ran a hand through his hair and gives me a morose glance.

“So what? Jonas, you’re making no sense at all, why are you acting so weird all of a sudden?” I frowned slightly and cocked my head.

“No reason,” he said with his lips pressed tightly together.

Yeah, sure, that’s believable.

“We’re here.” We came to a stop, and he looked at me expectantly to leave.

“You’re really stupid if you think I’m that stupid to believe that.”

He crossed his arms defensively.

“I’m just disappointed you didn’t tell me you were working for Solhall properties this summer.”

“Well, I didn’t think it was of any significance to you. Heck, I didn’t even know about the company until I applied for a job there!”

“Sam, I’m in a hurry and I don’t have time to argue with you about this right now. We’ll talk later, alright?”

I bit my lip and let out a resigned sigh. “Sure.”

*Beep, beep*

I wiped the sweat of my brow with the back of my dirty hand and straightened my back. Is it possible for a 17-year-old to feel like an old crumpled up old lady already, I wonder? I had been cleaning out the basement for eight straight hours now, and it had begun to feel like a physical exertion beyond what I was used to. I wasn’t allowed back up in the house until I had gone through and organized all of the packing boxes neatly in the back of the basement. Unlike most creepy basements, this creepy basement was dry, stuffy, and hot, and my parched mouth had been begging me for a glass of cold water for hours now. I reached for my phone in the back of my pants and saw Jonas’ name light up the screen. “Are you still up? Mom wants you to come by tomorrow for an extra tutor session. See you at 10.” I was just about to let compose a text, letting him know I was on penal servitude as a punishment for having gone shopping today, when I heard the basement door open. I quickly put my phone back in my pants in order to avoid being accused of just dawdling and began sweeping the floor again.

Evy appeared behind the boiler. “Sam. The High Priestess has asked for an extra session with you tomorrow. I expected you to be finished by now, but I can see you still have a lot of work left. You can go to bed now and continue tomorrow, after your session with Marie.”

“But you told me I have to clear the flower beds in the garden tomorrow. I won’t have time to do all that, plus meeting up with Marie.”

I could see her jaw clench and she crossed her arms over her chest. “It was quite clear that the High Priestess wasn’t asking. You can therefore count yourself to be lucky to be excused of clearing out the weeds tomorrow.” She turned around abruptly and marched out of the basement.