“Let’s just use our sanctions to meet the Council,” Maya mocked as they spilled out of Alba’s building and onto the stoop. “That makes sense, that makes perfect sense.” She stomped down the stairs.
“Sorry,” Delali said, too shaken from the meeting to defend herself. She followed Maya and Gabbie down the stairs. “Sorry.”
“Do you know what would be sorry?” Maya asked. “If we lost our powers because someone didn’t want to wait a couple of extra months to fill our metrics to transport.”
“Hey,” Gabbie said, putting her hands up to stop them. “We all agreed to that plan, okay? We all did this together.”
Maya crossed her arms, her face settled into a scowl.
“And I know you’ll say it’s corny, but, we’re gonna get out of it together, too.” Gabbie leveled a look at both of them.
Maya took a deep breath and shook her head. “Sorry Delali,” she said. Her face dropped. “I just don’t want to lose . . .” She couldn’t say it again.
“It’s okay,” Delali said. “I know.” The idea of returning to Hollywood without her powers made her nauseous. She could get the accent together, sure. But she’d already started scheming on all the ways she could bend the industry to her will, conjure up projects she thought mattered. Without that possibility, she didn’t know how long she’d last. “But there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to do this, right? Our metrics are full. It’s a final exam made specially for us and our capabilities. We haven’t gotten sanctions letters since last year . . . we should be fine, right?”
“Hey,” Gabbie said. She nodded toward a couple of students walking past—why was she the only one who ever seemed to notice when they were in public?
“Should we go to Delali’s?” Maya asked, hiking her Bottega Veneta padded cassette bag over her shoulder.
“Actually,” Gabbie said, “could we go to mine?”
Delali and Maya looked at her. Gabbie’s was the only apartment they hadn’t seen yet. Maya had just sort of assumed it was awful.
“I have to let the Verizon guy in to fix my Wi-Fi,” Gabbie explained. “Again.”
Delali and Maya agreed, too rattled by their assignment to argue. The three of them headed across the street and found a secluded patch of grass in Riverside Park to transport from.
* * *
“Oh,” Maya said when they walked in, relieved. “This isn’t as bad as I imagined.” Gabbie’s apartment was roomy and full of light woods, whites, and pinks, with lusciously flowering plants and gold accents serving as focal points.
“Thanks?” Gabbie responded. She’d already headed into the kitchen to grab wine and glasses.
“It’s really cute, Gabbie,” Delali confirmed. She kicked off her Air Forces and settled into the blush velvet sofa.
“Seriously, I’m so impressed,” Maya said, taking in the gallery wall.
“Have you seriously never watched one of my TikToks?” Gabbie asked Maya as she poured. “Most of them were filmed in here.”
“I mean . . . no?” Maya confessed. She kind of liked that Gabbie didn’t force them to watch her TikToks at gunpoint, the way some of her other aspiring influencer friends did.
Gabbie half-laughed, half-sighed.
“Mm!” Maya said, grabbing her glass. “Wait, I actually have! Back in like, November I watched one of your ‘Get Ready With Me’ videos. Just to try and understand your . . . mindset. Sartorially. I started pulling items from my closet shortly after.”
Delali busted out laughing and Gabbie, seated in a fluffy white accent chair, threw a decorative pillow at Maya.
“Wait have you seen any of my videos?” Gabbie asked Delali.
“Yeah,” Delali said casually. “I’ve seen all of them.”
“Yeah fucking right,” Maya said.
“All of them?” Gabbie clarified.
Delali nodded. “Why is that so hard to believe? They’re famously pretty short.”
“Quiz her!” Maya yelled, pointing at Delali.
“Umm,” Gabbie said, thinking. “Oh, what kind of dog do I have? At home? I did a TikTok over Christmas—”
“And she knocked over your cake batter and it poured all over her head. Her name is Sandy and she looks like a poodle?” Delali was suddenly embarrassed. “I don’t know all the different mixes or whatever. And she’s black.”
Gabbie, who looked truly touched, put a hand on Delali’s knee.
“Anyway,” Delali said, gulping back the rest of her wine. “The spell.” She suspected they were stalling. Gabbie and Maya followed Delali’s gaze to the coffee table, where Maya had tossed the spell book when they first entered. They gathered in a circle around her coffee table. The sun was setting, and the orange sunlight cast a glow over the page. They all hunched over it in silence for a moment, reading and rereading the spell. Alba had hyped it up so much, they hadn’t known what to expect. But the page was sparse.
to repeat:
There are times when one must take
Leaving absence in her wake
Handed to the one we trust
Use this only if you must
And once you choose this course is best
Say it loudly from your breast
“I can’t believe that’s . . . it,” Gabbie said. “No positioning, no pace, no volume—it doesn’t even say how many times to repeat it.”
“Maybe that’s what makes it so hard to cast,” Delali suggested. She hated these kinds of exam questions, where you were tested on not just the result, but your very interpretation of the question.
“Well, Alba did say it was more about intention than anything else,” Maya said.
“I’m more worried about how we’re supposed to cast it,” Gabbie inserted. “I don’t think we can cast a spell from a literal world away.”
Gabbie and Maya both looked to Delali. “Okay, I don’t know everything off the top of my head. But I do think we need to be there. Like, near Violet.” She pulled out her two lesson booklets and read aloud from the section on spells:
“Spells may be cast only on subjects in view of, or in reasonable proximity to, the witch casting the spell.”
“Well, we did know we’d have to transport for the assignment,” Gabbie said. “And we do know where the Regent lives, 33,26. Next to the Cradle.”
“Okay, so we can get to the Cradle if we follow the instructions in the Transportation section, but then what? What if she’s not there when we go?” Maya asked. The whole thing was starting to look like an annoying riddle.
“She lives there,” Gabbie said.
“I know that Gabbie, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be there whenever we choose to go. Did you even read the customs section in the lesson book? Witches do not take work seriously at all. They’re always on fucking vacation!”
Gabbie pouted as she considered Maya’s point. “True.”
“We could do it during a Council meeting,” Delali said quickly. “She’d definitely be there then.”
“Oh my god, yes!” Maya exclaimed. “They’re once a month, right?”
“Yep,” Delali said, her stomach wobbling as she came to a realization. “Nine p.m. on the first of every month.”
Gabbie looked to the DIY chalkboard calendar she kept hanging by her apartment entrance. “Today?” she choked out.
“The Mothers do work in mysterious ways,” Delali said.
Gabbie groaned. “Guys, I don’t feel amazing about this.”
“It’s actually perfect,” Maya said. “Council meetings are at night, so it would be dark and no one would see us. Violet and the Council will be stuck in the same place for at least an hour.” She was close, so close to finally seeing the world that had kept her afloat this whole time. To making sure her powers wouldn’t be stolen by Violet. The spell had to be cast tonight.
Delali nodded. “If we don’t do it tonight, we’ll have to find another way to get to Violet later on. I think this is it. I don’t think this timing is by chance.”
Maya placed her hand on Gabbie’s. “It’s like you said before. You’re not going alone,” she said. “It’s the three of us.”
Gabbie nodded, a sense of warmth washing over her. Nothing that had happened between them had been predictable or probable or reasonable, but they had all experienced it together. Behind all their bickering and eye rolling and judgment was another thing, an affection that underscored their relationship like the low hum of a harmony. A feeling of absolute certainty. Gabbie knew she’d be safe with Maya and Delali, no matter what happened.
“Okay,” she said, nodding. She looked at her watch and set an alarm for eight forty-five. “We have five hours to practice. Let’s do it.”
The girls hammered out their intention, burrowing into the details they couldn’t afford to mess up: their aim was to temporarily strip Violet of her powers, for at least a week but certainly no more than six months, and the binding should take effect at midnight on the night of the Gathering. They aimed to pass their assignment, so they could give back to the Sphere they wanted so desperately to visit. And finally, they aimed to keep their powers, which they’d come to rely on so much. Once this was established, they practiced reciting the spell, making sure they fell into an easy chorus, the way the lesson on group spellcasting instructed. Then they turned to the sections on Transport.
principles of transportation
(general/intraworld)
Transportation is the practice by which a witch displaces herself. This displacement may take place over any distance and the witch may take with her any dependents (typics; MAMs; children).
A mastery of transportation includes arrival at the desired time and in the exact desired location, no changes in appearance or dress arising from travel.
A witch may transport from a seated or standing position. A witch may not transport while in motion.
To transport, a witch should envision all elements of her destination, considering all six senses (smell, touch, taste, sound, sight, and mood). The only instance in which this is not required is when traveling to the Cradle, as the Cradle is intimately and soulfully known by all witches.
Before transporting, the witch must inhabit her body entirely, developing an awareness of all its contours. Only when the processes of envisioning and inhabitation are complete should the witch mobilize her power and her intention to transport.
principles of transportation (interworld)
After completing her training, a witch is entitled to transport between worlds.
For a beginner witch, practice for interworld transportation must begin with a trip to the Cradle (33,26 SPH or 40.7263, -73.9817TW, depending on the direction of travel). Even after her first effective interworld transport, it is recommended that a witch only transport to the Cradle until the practice is mastered.
For transportation instruction, please see Transportation (General/Intraworld).
When a witch transports as part of her mentorship assignment, the attempt to transport will necessarily be successful, unless the witch commits an egregious technical misstep. Transport is not to be considered a test but rather an act necessitated by the nature of final assignments. The witch must endeavor to complete her assignment immediately upon arrival in the alternate world, and must return to her original world immediately upon completing the assignment. Any loitering before or after performance of the assignment is considered breach of the assignment instructions.
“So we don’t really have to practice?” Maya asked.
Delali shook her head. “Doesn’t seem like it.”
“Then we have two more hours to practice the spell,” Gabbie said, checking her watch.
The girls returned to studying the binding spell, stopping only when Gabbie’s alarm went off. They looked at each other.
“Ready?” Maya asked. She was surprised by the current of excitement leaping up in her stomach—she wasn’t even afraid anymore, just ready.
“Yep,” Gabbie said. “Oh, just one thing.”
“What now?” Maya asked.
“There’s something about my apartment that . . . I don’t know, makes it really hard for me to do magic in here. Maybe it’s just, like, a superstition or something. But whenever I want to transport I go to this random place on Fort Washington. It’s always empty.”
“And you thought this was a good place for us to practice for our final assignment?” Maya replied.
“That’s only because—wait,” Gabbie said, realizing the Verizon guy had never showed up.
“Let’s fucking go,” Delali interrupted, grabbing her jacket. “We only have fifteen minutes before the meeting starts.”
Gabbie led the girls out of her building and down the street, to a courtyard in the middle of a collection of apartment buildings. As promised, it was empty, but for extra cover, they huddled into a narrow alleyway between two buildings.
“Okay,” Gabbie said. “Ready.”
Delali grabbed the other girls’ hands, Gabbie’s palms warm and soft, Maya’s stiletto-nailed and slender. They looked at each other for a moment, breathed deeply, then closed their eyes. Holding each other tightly, Gabbie, Maya, and Delali focused, channeling every last thing they had studied in the past hours—past months—through their bodies. At once, they felt between them a current of heat and a sudden numbness. The brick walls, the barren dusty ground, the sound of a dog barking nearby—everything that surrounded them disappeared slowly and deliberately, and a soft whirring noise enveloped them. The sound built, growing louder and more forceful, overwhelming them completely. It enveloped them, the volume soaring, expanding, surging, until it disappeared entirely and the girls entered a loud silence. When they opened their eyes, they were no longer in New York. They were in a different world altogether.