Wicked Girls by Kinsey Leigh

Author:Kinsey Leigh [Leigh, Kinsey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lisbon Press
Published: 2022-10-06T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-THREE

LYRA

“Gabi, will you set up the candles? Teagan, did you find what I asked for?”

It was midnight and the full Beaver Moon hung large and orange-cast above us. We were in the clearing again, and my heart was in my throat as Silverine took charge, ordering everyone around with confidence.

“I did,” Teagan said with a grin. “I think you’re gonna like it.”

My heart had never felt fuller than it did watching these three girls I barely knew busily moving around the clearing, getting ready to perform a forbidden rite just for me.

Making friends never came naturally for me, and I lost quite a few of the ones I did have when I came out and started to transition in high school. I never expected college to be much different… but then I met Teagan.

Silverine.

Gabriela.

It wasn’t just that they were becoming my friends. They’d accepted me instantly, without reservation, and gone to bat for me happily as soon as I needed someone in my corner. These were my girls from the first moment we met, and now they were getting ready to perform a ceremony cementing that fact. Even in the face of great personal risk for them.

“Are you ready?” Sil asked, her voice smooth as honey as she stepped up to me.

I nodded because my own voice failed me.

Gabi came to me next, and held up a black cloak with silver vines and thorns embroidered along the edges. “At the academy, we all have our own cloaks. Mine self-combusts.”

I couldn’t help laughing, and Teagan smirked too. “It’s true, we had to extinguish her.”

“We couldn’t go get those from the academy without arousing suspicion,” Gabi went on, “so I borrowed my parents’ and brothers’ cloaks for tonight. I cleansed them of my family’s energy so they’d be neutral, or at least I tried to. If you feel an irresistible urge to make tea and nag people, that’d be because you’re wearing my mom’s cloak.”

I grinned as Gabi settled the cloak over my shoulders. She never failed to make me smile with her dry, self-deprecating snark, and my heart skipped a beat when she leaned in close, her arms going around my neck as she lifted the hood over my head.

“Thank you,” I said, then looked at the other girls. “All of you.”

“You don’t have to thank us – you’re one of us,” Teagan said.

And then the rite began. Silverine took the lead, assigning each of us an element and a role. I stood to the east, representing the element of air. To my right, Teagan took the north, the earth element. To my left was Gabi, fire and the south. And across from me, Silverine stood regal and calm as the west, the water element.

Just like in the movies, except this was – pinch me – my real life.

I mostly just watched as the girls expertly conjured a protective circle around us, and I imitated the others’ words as we called the quarters. We linked hands and Sil led us through the rite as if she’d been doing it her entire life.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.