Maya, Denise, and Elise had been planning their housewarming since they first moved that summer, and Maya couldn’t believe how perfectly they’d timed it. With her new ascendance at work, she was kind of excited for her different worlds to collide. Ever since Maya had saved the Harry Nguyen shoot, Lacey had been praising her nonstop, and it was giving her a surprisingly simple insight into how she, too, could access workplace fulfillment: by actually putting some effort into her job. Until that shoot, Maya had been comfortable skating by doing the bare minimum—sneaking in late after her 8:00 a.m. barre class, piling sweater dresses into her Net-A-Porter shopping cart when she was supposed to be working, and zipping out of the office at six on the dot to hit happy hour. But realizing that she could actually be good at her job (with the help of a little magic, sure) had spurred her. Her increasing grip on her powers, as evidenced by a metric that was now solidly approaching violet, meant she could conjure duplicates of sought-after designer pieces, transport to work within minutes of waking up, and basically always be ten steps ahead of everyone else.
She couldn’t wait to see the look on Elise’s face when she found out that Maya was telling the truth about being Lacey’s new golden girl. Now, when the sorors she hadn’t seen in months asked her what she’d been up to, she could just talk about accompanying Lacey to a press dinner at Bar Pitti, instead of worrying about how to not accidentally reveal she was a witch. Even the witch stuff was seeming less and less scary, and she’d been feeling so generous that she actually invited Gabbie and Delali.
A series of knocks sounded on the bathroom door.
“Maya!” Elise called. “The CS girls are here.” Maya turned in front of the mirror one more time, rearranging the curtain bangs on her new wig and adjusting the hem of her House of CB minidress before opening the door.
“Babe!” one of the CS girls yelled from the hall. She pushed past Elise to hug Maya, and Maya did her best to return. “Your apartment is fucking amazing.”
“Thanks for coming,” Maya said, doing her best to sound like she meant it. She’d invited her coworkers mostly as a courtesy, and as she scanned the group of girls, all in off-duty takes on their usual weirdo outfits, she was surprised to see that every last one of the junior PR girls had come. Barring Tatiana, which honestly was understandable. There could only be one golden girl, and Maya’s new dominance had been hard on Tatiana, who was now the only girl in the office who didn’t kiss Maya’s ass. Still, she wondered what Tatiana was doing instead tonight, and then immediately decided she didn’t care—she had a full night of dancing, drinking, and receiving compliments ahead of her.
* * *
Delali walked into Maya’s apartment building, trailing a group of girls in lavender mini dresses and turquoise heels. As she stepped into the perfumed elevator, Delali reached into the pocket of her felt bomber jacket, pulling out her phone to check the time—she didn’t want to be here for a second longer than she had to be. Reading Dr. Portillo’s mind had sent her into a tailspin, and the last thing Delali wanted was to be at a random party where annoying “is that Georgia?” whispers kept erupting around her. But if she didn’t catch Maya and Gabbie tonight, who knew when Maya would agree to meet again? The elevator door was just about to close when a foot stopped it. Delali, to her own surprise, immediately recognized it as Gabbie’s. She heard one of the FKA girls suck her teeth.
“Oh my god, Gabbie, hi,” Delali said, relieved.
“Hi!” Gabbie chirped as she stepped carefully into the elevator, balancing a big white bakery box in her arms. “I’d give you a hug, but,” she lifted the box.
“Right,” Delali said.
“So sweet of Maya to invite us tonight,” Gabbie said, shaking a coil of hair out of her face.
“Yeah,” Delali mumbled, zoning out as the elevator started to rise. Then something caught her eye. “Wait,” Delali said, pointing at Gabbie’s hand. “What’s this? Did you get your nails done?” For the weeks that they’d known each other, Maya and Delali had begrudgingly complimented each other’s manicures each time they changed, while Gabbie and her nubby nude fingernails watched on in silence.
Gabbie curled her fingers against the box sheepishly. “Yeah.”
“What’s the occasion? Is Dan coming back for Halloween or something?”
“No,” Gabbie said. They’d argued about that actually. “I just made friends with this other influencer girl and wanted to meet up to ask her some questions and she suggested a nail date. So I thought, why not?”
“It looks really good,” Delali said, oddly proud. “Is that Opal-lin Around?”
“A Pearl Could Dream,” Gabbie replied.
It was weird taking the ride up to Maya’s apartment with a bunch of other people, and even weirder seeing the apartment full of guests. Inside, people were packed wall to wall, drinking and talking, and “Party” by Beyoncé was blasting through the speakers. A table pushed against the wall held drinks and snacks, and even though it was chilly out, the double doors leading to the balcony were open, the crowd spilling outside.
“Let’s find Maya,” Delali said at the same time Gabbie said, “We have to go put these on the table!”
Delali sighed. As badly as she wanted to get in and out, it was clear Gabbie was thrilled to be there. She followed Gabbie to the snacks table, where she diligently arranged fifty purple cupcakes on the table, then whipped out a stack of peach-colored business cards and arranged those on the table, too. The cards said “Crafting & Coconut Oil” on one side in folksy cursive, and on the other, read “Gabbie Nwosu: 4C Hair Chick - DIY Goddess - Baker Babe.” Delali poured herself a Henny and Coke.
“I keep texting Maya but she’s not responding,” Delali said once Gabbie had finished. She stood on her tip toes to scan the room.
“Oh, I’m sure she’ll turn up,” Gabbie responded placidly, sipping her Diet Coke. “Who knew Maya had so many friends?”
“Oh!” Delali shouted. “There she is.” Across the room by the balcony doors, Maya was wearing a red dress with tassels, and talking to a group of people. They looked totally engrossed and entertained by whatever Maya was saying, an experience Delali had never had. She grabbed Gabbie’s hand and pulled her through the packed room. Maya, apparently already drunk, looked confused at first, then pulled them into hugs.
“Hiiiiiiii,” Maya oozed as her friends dispersed. When she pulled back from hugging Gabbie, she scrunched her face in confusion. Gabbie was wearing a strangely inoffensive outfit: a beige sweetheart-neck sweater with high-waisted jeans. She even had her nails done. “That’s cute,” Maya said, slightly accusatory.
Gabbie looked afraid. “Oh, it was a gift from this fashion startup,” she explained inspecting herself. “It’s not really my style but, I don’t know, I could never throw out free clothes.”
Maya nodded eagerly. “Okay, I’m so glad you said that because I was cleaning out my closet yesterday and I was thinking about how I have so many clothes that would actually be so good for you.”
“OMG,” Gabbie said. “That’s actually really sweet. I mean rude, but sweet. I could definitely make some content out of that.”
As Gabbie spoke, Maya scanned the room, apparently looking for someone more interesting to talk to.
“Is there somewhere—” Delali started.
“Oh! This is Elise,” Maya said dragging a girl in a patent leather tube top over to them. “And that’s Denise. You know, these two didn’t even think you were real cause you’re never here.”
“Paralegal hours,” Denise responded.
Delali tried to be polite as Elise, Denise, and Maya dragged them into conversation, but it wasn’t easy. How much was there really to say about Below Deck? It took a second, but as she watched Maya pulling faces and tossing her hair over her shoulder, Delali realized what was happening. It wasn’t just that Maya was drunk—which she definitely was—it was that Maya was in her element. Delali saw unbothered Maya so much that she’d actually forgotten what she’d been like the night they met. Maya loved a party, and Delali wasn’t sure she’d voluntarily leave to talk about witchcraft, even if it was only for a few minutes.
When Denise and Elise finally drifted away, Delali started to talk again but was interrupted by Gabbie, of all people.
“Are your friends from The Bar here?” Gabbie asked, fiddling with that beaded bracelet she always wore.
“OMG, yes,” Maya said. “Joe and Shelby—you have to meet them. They were actually there that night we met.”
“Oh,” Gabbie said. “Didn’t you say there were three of them?”
Delali threw a perplexed look at Gabbie. Who cared about the makeup of The Bar’s current waitstaff? They had way more important things to talk about.
“Who, Faison? He’s sick or something. Let me go get Joe and Shel—” Maya started, but Delali grabbed her arm before she could run off. In an instant, the entire room went still, the party falling dark and quiet. The girls were suspended there for a moment, and when the lights came back on and the music resumed, they were in Maya’s bedroom, the chorus of “Drip Too Hard” continuing in the background as if they had never stopped.
“Ugh,” Maya said from atop her bed. Her hands were empty—phone and drink vanished—and the silver Amina Muaddi mules she’d been wearing all night were sitting neatly by the door. Delali was on the floor, leaned up against the huge pile of clothes Maya had deposited while getting dressed, and Gabbie was sitting at her desk. “Fine, Delali,” Maya sighed. “What is it you needed to talk about so badly?”
“Wait, before we start,” Gabbie said, shooting a pleading look at Delali, who looked like she was about to explode. “What the heck are we gonna do about these?” She pulled a sanction from the pocket of her jeans. It had appeared on her desk that afternoon, after she had calmed down a particularly defensive dad in a parent-teacher conference, and it had inspired a weird combination of feelings. On one hand, she was happy to finally be joining Maya and Delali. On the other hand, Gabbie had never been involved with the law, and she didn’t want to start now. She couldn’t believe she didn’t even have Dan to talk to about all this. “I did an act of magic that was so subtle. And I got one anyway!”
“It’s weird,” Maya confirmed. “We’re supposed to be using our powers more, not less, right?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk about!” Delali said. She took a breath and lowered her voice. “I just—hear me out—I want to meet the Council. Dr. Diop, to be more specific. And I think racking up these sanctions might be the key to doing that sooner rather than later.”
“You want us to try to get sanctioned on purpose?” Gabbie asked.
“Who the hell is Dr. Diop?” Maya added.
“Do you guys read anything?” Delali asked.
Gabbie averted her eyes and fiddled with her hair. “The important parts,” she mumbled.
“She’s one of the doctors at the WHO, and she’s on the Council. She does work in magic heredity—I think that maybe she can tell us why we got our powers so late. Or why Alba thought our metrics were so weird. Or why only a third of the witch population has named powers but all three of us do.”
“Does it even matter?” Maya asked. “Why all this is happening? Maybe it just is.”
“I don’t know,” Delali said. She thought back to their last session, to Alba’s expression when she’d seen the metrics. “That might be true, but Alba seems just as confused by our powers as we are.”
“She said she’d talk to the WHO for us,” Gabbie offered.
“Yeah, and she also said they probably wouldn’t be taking any special cases.”
Gabbie and Maya looked at each other, considering Delali’s proposition.
“Why don’t we just try to find the doctor once we’re able to transport?” Maya said.
“How? How would we get ourselves a one-on-one meeting with a Councilmember? A Councilmember who’s in the middle of solving a Crisis?”
“But the whole Council will be at the Gathering. We could approach her there,” Maya said.
“There’s no guarantee we get invited to the Gathering,” said Gabbie.
“Don’t say that,” Maya responded. “We’re manifesting.”
“Alba said it could take over a year to fill our metrics you guys, which means over a year before we can transport to the Sphere,” Delali said, her voice rising. “At the rate these sanctions are coming”—she gestured toward the card in Gabbie’s hand—“we’ll be summoned way before our metrics are full. Plus look at this.” She touched her hand to one of her sanctions and revealed the text again:
In the instance that you receive five sanctions, you will be located and transported to 33,26 to discuss your behavior with the Council. You will be afforded the option of attending with your mentor, instructor, or closest elder should you choose.
With the utmost love and affection,
The Council
“Will be located and transported,” she emphasized. “They’ll transport us. We don’t even have to be finished with our training.”
“So instead of waiting, you want our first trip to the Sphere to be the witch equivalent of a court hearing?” Maya was dubious, her perfectly arched eyebrows raised dramatically.
Delali shrugged. “The sanction says ‘discuss,’ it’s not exactly threatening. I mean, we haven’t done anything wrong. If the Sphere is what it seems like, I don’t think this would be a high-risk meeting.” She lay back against Maya’s mountain of clothes, frustrated. “I thought you wanted to get to the Sphere as badly as I did.”
“I do,” Maya said defensively. Improving her magic and getting better at work had dovetailed so perfectly she’d almost forgotten why she was doing it in the first place.
Delali watched as Maya pouted in thought and Gabbie pulled at a curl.
She lowered her voice. “Maybe I am overthinking it. But I just want to know why I can suddenly read a random person’s mind. That wasn’t exactly on my twenties bingo card.”
Maya folded her arms across her chest, then nodded. “Whatever,” she said.
Delali understood that in Maya speak, this was an enthusiastic “yes.”
“So we’re basically just gonna keep doing what we’ve been doing?” Gabbie asked. She turned her sanction over and over in her hand. Three more of these and she’d be standing in front of the famed Council. The idea gave her a chill.
“Exactly,” Delali said. “We’ll just see what comes first—our final sanction or our final assignment.”
After a moment of silence, Gabbie added, “I feel like we should pinky swear or something. To commemorate this.”
“Can we just focus on filling our metrics?” Maya asked pointedly. She saw Gabbie’s face drop, and immediately regretted it. “Sorry, that was rude.” She stuck out both of her pinky fingers. Gabbie enthusiastically hooked hers around Maya’s, offering her other to Delali. Delali laughed, shook her head, and hooked a pinky with each of the girls, too.
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