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“Oi, quit thrashing about. I’ve just about got that bandage on, but if you knock it loose I’ll have to start all over.”
Hecate blinked, trying to make sense of her blurry surroundings. It was dark, or at least she thought. Her eyes stung and she blinked quickly, trying to clear them. The room was warm and she was trapped inside.
“What?” she moaned, breaking off into coughs. Why did her chest feel so heavy?
“Hush, don’t speak just now. You’re ill from the smoke,” the voice said again. Hecate tried to turn her head to see it, slowly now, mindful of her pain. There was a strange woman by her feet, wild hair as vibrant as fire.
“Where am I?” Hecate croaked, earning herself a surprising look of admonishment. “What happened?” It hurt to form the words, but she had to know.
Perhaps it was the desperation in her rasping breaths, but the ferocious face of her apparent-captor softened. “You’re somewhere safe. That’s all you need to know.”
“But, what—”
The nameless woman sighed. “Let me finish this wrapping, then I’ll fill in what I can.”
Relieved not to have to beg any further, Hecate sat silent, lifting her head just enough to watch the redhead work. She was wrapping some sort of bandages around Hecate’s feet. They stung, but with the coolness of a carefully curated salve, and she wondered how she’d been injured.
“They were burning you,” the stranger said bluntly, startling Hecate. Her chest ached with the shock.
“Hence the smoke,” she husked quietly, trying to piece it together. She could almost remember now. She knew her past three days had been a whirlwind of pain, men shouting and women spitting.
“But no worries, we got you away as soon as we could, and they won’t find you here.”
Hecate nodded, thinking of the villagers she had once kept safe from harm. Oh, how they’d turned on her, screamed that word witch like it seeped with venom.
“We?”
“Sorry, should have introduced myself. Julie Hubble.” She gave Hecate a gentle pat on her leg through a soft woven blanket. “And my daughter Mildred is around out back fetching more water. You were in a right state. I cleaned you off best I could, but I didn’t want to… I mean, I wanted your permission first before…” Julie trailed off with a blush, motioning vaguely towards Hecate’s body. She peered down, surprised to find herself in Julie’s clean bed still wearing the blood-crusted filthy tunic they’d forced on her for the burning.
“I can take care of the rest,” Hecate assured, blushing in humiliation and something else she couldn’t quite name. Then, with hesitance, “I fear I still do not understand. I remember now what those men did to me, but we do not know each other. Why have you helped me? Why have you put yourself in this danger?”
Julie shuffled around anxiously, eyeing the worn wooden chair beside the bed. She walked around, peering suspiciously out the window. Hecate could make out nothing but trees—they had to be deep within the forest. Finally seeming satisfied, she returned to Hecate’s side and took a seat. “Before I answer that, I need to ask you a question.”
Hecate frowned. She didn’t like questions, especially ones stopping her from getting the answers she needed, but Julie had somehow, for some reason, saved her life. “I owe you that much,” she said, resigned.
She leaned close, lowering her voice as if the trees might overhear. “Are you really a witch?” she asked.
Hecate blinked. Was this a trap? Had some deranged woman rescued her only to issue a confession and elongate her torment.
Julie seemed to sense the fear she’d caused and waved a hand. “I’m not asking for a bad reason, I promise. You can trust me. It’s just that I need help from a witch. And not just one like me, working herbs and following the moon. I need someone with a strong power. They said you were accused for healing a child’s broken arm within minutes. Did you really do that?”
Hecate eyed her captor-turned-savior wearily. It was the words, ‘one like me,’ that got her. Though admitting to having no magick, she still clearly practiced ways that could end her life just as quickly should the villages catch a whim. Even acknowledging such a thing out loud was a risk, and Hecate realized her reasoning must have been very serious.
“I did,” Hecate admitted quietly. “I can make no promises, but if there is a way within my abilities to help you, I will consider it my debt to you for my rescue. However, I warn you, that magick used improperly can be dangerous, and—”
“It’s for my Millie,” Julie interrupted, looking on the edge of bursting. Hecate wasn’t entirely certain she’d heard a word of what she said after admitting to her sorcery. She was brazen—everything Hecate normally despised, and yet now that she was using that to save her life, she found it slightly charming.
“Your daughter?” Hecate asked, trying to remember through her still swarming head.
“She’s not like me,” Julie confessed. “I think she has magick. The other night, it was right cold but we were out of wood for the fire. Somehow, it stayed burning on ashes, and Mildred felt like a furnace all the while.”
“How old is she?”
“Just nearing thirteen,” Julie said.
Hecate hummed. “That is the age most girls come into their power. Undoubtedly she does not yet realize the enormity of what is inside her. She will need someone to guide her. Normally that falls on the mother, but if you say you have no magick then… oh. I see.” It hit her then. At least this prison was considerably softer.
Julie sighed, looking heartbroken.
“It’s not like that. I’d save them all if I could, and I hope you believe me. But every time I do, I’m risking Millie ending up on her own. She’s only a little girl.” Julie looked on the verge of tears.
“So you’ve risked it and captured your own witch to teach her.” Hecate swallowed thickly. The Hubble home was more or less one room.
Julie’s eyes widened and she jumped off her chair, nearly knocking it over.
“Hang on one second, missy.” She held up her hands. “There is absolutely no witch capturing here. Is that what you thought I meant?” She groaned, running her hands through her messy locks. “I saved you so I could ask for your help, yes, but only to ask. My home is open to you should you wish to help her, and even if you don’t, you can stay until you’ve got a safe place to go. But by no means are you trapped here, understood?”
Hecate eyed her for a moment. Julie Hubble would definitely annoy her. If she had any self-respect, she would take to the woods immediately, burned feet be damned, just to make her she didn’t spend another second getting sucked in to her wild whims. Yet, there was something about her that was so different. She was willing to risk everything to save Hecate with no expectations of help? Only hope?
She could have been killed in the most horrific manner, and here she was instead, being asked to do something good. Something to spread the help she’d received.
How could she ever refuse?
“My magick is heavily drained from my ordeal, but perhaps we could start her off on some lessons. Are you at all familiar with The Witches’ Code?”
“You’ll help her?” Julie gaped, dropping back into her seat. “Are you sure?”
“I shall,” Hecate said, nodding gravely. “For a short while.”
And then they fell silent, for Mildred returned with the water.
Time passed in the Hubble cottage. At first, nothing came easily. Hecate knew she was a bad patient, but being unable to stand was frustrating. She could transfer around well enough after a few days of recovery, but that was the extent of her movement, and she grew grumpy. Julie insisted she take the bed, but after a few nights of listening to her and Mildred toss and turn on a thin padded mattress on the floor, she could barely hold onto her sanity, and another bed had soon been constructed.
It wasn’t all horrendous though, she had to admit. Mildred took to magick with enthusiasm—if a little too enthusiastically considering her many disasters. Hecate soon discovered she enjoyed teaching. Her wounds healed, the days grew longer as summer came, and Julie turned out to be a delicious cook. She knew in the back of her head she could leave, but where would she go? Her home would be gone. Her village was unsafe.
Hecate said she’d wait another cycle of the moon, then she’d make her way out.
Until that moon turned into another, and then a third, and then at some point Hecate stopped pretending to herself that she had any intention of leaving anytime soon at all.
“How did you learn so much about magick?” Julie asked one night.
They were sitting out on the small cottage porch, sipping the mead they’d just finished fermenting. The air without the sun looked cool, but it was deceiving. The humidity clung to them they were still far too warm. It had been a long day of Hecate trying unsuccessfully to teach Mildred how to land a broom, and her muscles ached from too many crashes.
“My mother,” Hecate said with a quiet smile. She reached for her pocket watch, fingers falling empty as she remembered too late that the men had stripped her of it, too. Though she was fortunate to have survived, it still stung to think of all she’d lost. “She passed away when I was still rather young, but before that she taught me all her secrets. Just like you have done with Mildred.”
“I think you mean like you’ve done. I can’t take credit for teaching her magick I can’t even do myself,” Julie tutted.
“No, that is not what I speak of,” Hecate said, waving her off and taking a thoughtful sip of her drink. “You have taught her plenty of what you do know. Her skill with herbs far surpasses that of most adult witches I have known. You should be proud.”
Julie beamed adorably in the moonlight, and Hecate forced herself to look away. She’d been noticing things like that quite often these days. Julie smiling. Julie laughing. Julie scrunching up her nose or licking her lips or humming or—
Hecate closed her eyes, banishing the thoughts. It wasn’t that she thought it impossible to act on those desires. She wasn’t a fool; she knew exactly what her thoughts were leading towards. She had always been attracted to women. Just another reason to be casted out, it didn’t really bother her. Likewise, Julie had long ago hidden herself and her daughter away in these woods, knowing that a single woman working with herbs would only last so long before they turned against her as well, regardless of any magick she didn’t possess. In that sense, they posed no risk.
And yet, it felt like all the risk in the world for Hecate. Reluctant as she had been at first, the Hubble cottage was the closest thing she had to a home. What if she messed it up? What if Julie didn’t return her affections and thought her horrid? She didn’t want to lose the little family that saved her.
“Care for a swim?” Julie asked, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.
“I beg your pardon?”
“A swim in the pond. It’s so hot, I can feel my skin melting. Don’t tell me you don’t feel the same?”
“Well, I suppose,” Hecate admitted. It was sweltering, and the cool water of the pond behind the house sounded wonderful to her sore muscles.
“Last one in’s chopping firewood for the next week!” Julie exclaimed, jumping up suddenly and tearing off.
Hecate blinked in shock, mind taking a split second too long to catch up. She would never be able to run after Julie and catch her in time. Smirking, she waved a hand and transferred herself to the edge of the water.
She was just dropping her carefully folded dress to the side when Julie came up panting, bending at the waist. “So not fair that you cheated.”
“I do not believe you established any rules, therefore, I have played fairly,” Hecate quipped back. “Enjoy your wood chopping.”
Julie tossed her dress in a messy pile beside Hecate’s then reached to untie her underthings.
“What are you doing?” Hecate asked, eyes wide.
“It’s too bloody hot. What’s it look like I’m doing? It’s not like anyone’s going to see us all the way out here,” she said, shrugging. Hecate looked very firmly at the ground. Julie wasn’t wrong—they were very unlikely to be discovered, especially considering the enchantments Hecate had long since used to surround the cottage, intended to confuse any wanderers off course and away from their home. However, what she was very steadfastly missing was that Hecate would see her.
“You can leave it on if you like,” Julie added, making sure Hecate was comfortable, as always. “But I won’t mind at all if you don’t. I just want my skin to feel something cold.”
Hecate frowned thoughtfully. It did sound delightful.
“Do not look until the water covers me,” she ordered softly. Hecate folded up her underthings just as carefully and placed them atop her dress, then waded into the cool water.
“It is cold,” she complained.
Julie snorted.
“Just dive under and it will feel fine. You only think that because you’re so warm.” With a wince, Hecate followed the orders, spitting out the slightly green water as she came up for air.
“Better?” Julie asked. “Is it safe to turn around?”
“I am decent,” Hecate replied.
She was just about to look away and afford Julie the same courtesy when the woman flung around and bounded into the water. Hecate’s jaw dropped. She had seen many magnificent displays of magick, but nothing quite compared to the magick of Julie Hubble skyclad in the moonlight.
“You are exquisite,” Hecate murmured, unable to help herself.
“What was that?” Julie asked before plunging beneath the water and shaking our her curls. “Whew, that was just what I needed.” She swam closer to Hecate, “Sorry, love, what was that you said?”
“It was unimportant,” Hecate lied.
Julie looked at her curiously for a second, then carefully a wet hand reached out from the pond and cupped Hecate’s chin. “If you want to catch fish, there’s better ways,” she teased, closing Hecate’s mouth for her. She felt herself flush warm in embarrassment, the coolness of the water nothing to match it.
“I apologize. I did not mean to look,” she confessed.
“Nothing to be sorry for. I never asked you not to,” Julie pointed out.
Hecate scrunched up her face in thought. The way she was gazing at her, so close, it almost seemed like Julie had liked it.
“Did you say I’m exquisite?” Julie whispered.
“I thought you said you had not heard me.” Hecate closed her eyes. Julie’s hand left her chin and moved up the side of her cheek. She sucked in a breath.
“No, I just wanted to hear it again,” Julie said, laughing just on the edge of her breath. “Why did you say that?”
Hecate opened her eyes. Julie was so close. She knew she could move back if she wanted, and Julie wouldn’t pursue her further, but she didn’t think she wanted to. “Because it is the truth,” Hecate said boldly.
“You want to know my truth, Hecate?” she husked, inching closer in the water. She could feel the warm puffs of Julie’s breath against her water-freckled face.
“Yes,” Hecate whispered back.
“I would really like to kiss you.”
Hecate swallowed and licked her lips. None of this felt like ruining anything. In fact, it felt like she was only inches away from making her life so much richer. She could hardly stand it.
“I would like that as well.”
Gently, Julie cupped her cheek just a little more firmly, and she drifted forward into Hecate’s open arms, pressing their lips together.
And there, under the moonlight, Hecate burned brighter than any blaze could have taken her.