Brilliant. Cindy fucking Bernstein’s wedding. Here . . . tonight. Same night as the Enrapture, and quite possibly the end of one or more witch’s goddess given lights. Including my mother’s. No, I wasn’t freaking out. Not one bit.
At least Joe had been too busy with the food she was preparing to bend in and give me more than a peck on the cheek earlier. She hadn’t had a chance to look up at me, therefore she hadn’t noticed a thing out of the ordinary—like the fact that I was radiating light from every pore in my body. Her ignorance wasn’t going to last for much longer, though, and neither was me being able to avoid her. Even if we were able to kill this asshole who was haunting our world, I was still going to find myself up against another obstacle.
“Nice glow, babe,” Candy said, sauntering over and stealing a truffle fry from the plate of food I’d scored from my niece. Maddie was so wicked cute—all the servers were dressed in matching witch uniforms. She was so adorable that I could’ve shot rainbows out of my ass. It almost created a feeling inside . . . a sentiment, one could argue, of looking forward to watching my own kid grow up.
“Fuck off,” I retorted, slapping Candy’s hand away from my plate. “Get your own, I’m starving.”
She chuckled and leaned back against an amp. “So, what’s that mean—the glow? That you’re definitely having a little witch.”
I chewed on my last bite like a cow eating grass. “Yes.”
Then, just as if he’d been cued in by the god of everything shitty, Derek wandered onto the stage, coming towards us with one of the most frazzled looks I’d ever seen painted on his face. His mere existence pissed me off, but still, I was jittery with excitement because he’d had to have come across my booby trap already. There was no question about it.
“What up?” Candy asked. “We about ready?”
“Uh . . . yeah,” he said, looking anywhere but at me.
“You see this shit?” Candy pointed at me. “You see what you did? She’s like a goddamned light bulb.”
Derek attempted to shake it off, his hands tucking stiffly into his tight black jeans. “Yeah. Hey Elle—” He lifted his chin up in my direction but was careful not to look me in the eyes. “Have you had a chance to talk to Joe yet?”
“About the me being pregnant thing?” I questioned, plucking one of my fries from Candy’s hands.
“No. I mean—I’m assuming you’re still waiting to tell her after tonight. I just mean—”
“Spit it out, Der,” Candy said.
“Never mind.” His head lowered down as if in shame and he walked away.
Candy and I scrutinized his behavior as he made his way over to the mic to test it out.
“Why’s he being all weird?” she asked.
I continued to feed my little fetus beast as a sly smirk curled into my lips. “Beats me.” But I was pretty sure that it had something to do with a few lost ingredients, and a bit of truth that I would see if he would just look up at me. Everyone knew that the eyes were the window to the soul, and since I’d stolen his chemistry set, he no longer had the elixir he needed to hide his true identity.
The party got started pretty quickly after that. Leo sat behind his drums, Candy took her guitar and stood behind the mic, and Derek stood up front—holding both his guitar and my violin. Other than a few years and a couple giant life changes, it could’ve been 2005 and in a dive bar. I couldn’t wait to play with these weirdos. I hadn’t realized until recently how much I missed our band.
Just before he kicked it off, Derek got into his band persona—caressing the souls of the audience in a way that only he knew how to do. He had this thing about unwinding stupid little stories about each song as if they were balls of yarn that needed detangling.
“I know it’s a wedding, witches—” As soon as he said the word witches, the audience exploded. Wands and broomsticks raised in the air, and they all hooted and hollered. Then there was me, standing back with my arms crossed, a grin on my face that I could no longer contain. “I thought we’d start out the night with one of the first songs I ever wrote, The Sound of Souls Parting. Maybe you think it’s sad and all that bullshit, but the thing about souls drifting apart is that they always come back together.” He paused, his cheek turning just enough my way that I knew the glance was meant for me. “It’s not really a sad song, you see. In fact,” –-he tapped his foot three times on the ground, signaling for Candy and Leo to start picking up the beat— “if you’re lucky enough to have someone to share your soul with, then you shouldn’t ever be unhappy, because even if you can’t live beside them in whatever life or universe you live in, you’re never truly alone, and you’re never apart forever.”
I’d never heard him talk about that song before. To be honest, I couldn’t remember the last time we’d played it. We definitely hadn’t practiced it in his garage over the past few weeks. He was just lucky Candy and Leo remembered all the notes.
Candy’s fingers gently strummed the beginning melody as Leo set the pace, then Derek moved in on the mic and started unfolding the lyrics that had always somehow haunted me.
“The rip, the tear, we’ve been here before . . . The fall, the break, the last look on your face . . . But you never hear it, not even for a pace . . . I am left standing, alone in this empty case . . . The sound of souls parting, echoing all over the place . . .”
I was so lost in the song that I barely took notice when the tempo picked up and Derek lunged forward, chucking my violin far up into the air. Ignorant of my daydreaming, he grabbed his guitar from around his belly and strummed away alongside Candy.
“Ellie—go!” one of the backstage persons yelled at me, jolting me upright and causing me to gather my footing as I took my cue.
I ran from where I was hiding backstage and lifted into the air just in time to grasp the violin handle in my hand and tuck the instrument under my chin. The wand in my other hand transformed into a bow, and I slowly fell back down to the stage as I began to play. Derek’s voice streamed out into the crowd, and something in my gut told me to listen to his song. Like, really listen.