Maya, Gabbie, and Delali did their first practice session the night they got the spell. Nadia stayed behind in the Sphere. There wasn’t much she could do by hovering. They gathered in Maya’s room, sleep-deprived and unkempt.
“On three?” Maya asked.
Gabbie nodded. “On three.”
“One . . .” Maya started. “Two . . . three.”
Focusing on the page before them, the girls began to chant. They tripped over each other at first, their different volumes and paces creating an unpleasant cacophony. By the third time chanting, they were saying the words in unison, but felt none of the usual sensations—the heat, the white noise, the weightlessness. They continued, only to be met with more of the same: nothing.
“Ugh,” Gabbie groaned.
“Okay, we can’t just get frustrated because a spell didn’t work the very first time,” Delali said, her tone sharp.
“Wait,” Maya said. She held her hands out to Gabbie and Delali. They both stared at her. “Come on,” she said. “Did you guys already forget about shared intent, physical proximity, and all that?”
“Oh, duh,” Delali said, taking Maya’s hand.
Gabbie took Maya’s other hand and the girls all closed their eyes. Delali counted quietly, and on three, and the girls started to repeat the words again, this time easily matching in pace and tone:
I come here now to heal my deed
Reverse the words I past decreed
All things here are as they were
My intent has grown, true and sure
The old pursuit I now negate
Please spare my soul an ugly fate
They felt the difference immediately, a tickling pressure spreading over their arms and the familiar warmth growing in their chests. The girls repeated the spell again and again, their voices falling into an eerie chant. With each repetition their chanting was faster, and the warmth, now running through them, grew hotter and hotter with each word. They squeezed each other’s hands in anticipation. Then, abruptly, the heat flooded from their bodies, and a cold dampness rushed in to take its place. The girls stopped chanting midverse and opened their eyes, immediately disoriented.
“Ew, what is that?” Maya said, rubbing her arms. Though her body was perfectly dry, her whole body felt slimy and wet, as if she’d borrowed Elise’s weird aloe vera body wash again. None of the girls knew what a reversal spell was supposed to feel like, especially if it was only practice. But they knew it wasn’t supposed to feel like that.
“Um,” said Gabbie. “I don’t think that was supposed to happen.”
“Obviously,” said Maya.
“Let’s just keep trying,” Delali said.
They recited the spell again, the unpleasant sensation of the last failure still clinging to their skin. Then again, and again, and again for three weeks straight, their magic taking precedence over their fraught personal lives for the first time. The second meeting was no better than the first. Nor was the third or the fourth. Sometimes it was that same cold clammy sensation. Once, Maya had gotten a rash along her chest that was so ugly she called in sick for two days. Often, the spell simply got lodged in their throats, refused to come out. Every banner they sent to Alba was promptly returned unread, and after a while, even Maya stopped lurking around the Upper West Side building where they used to have lessons, giving up on ever catching a glimpse of Alba again. As the Gathering neared, the girls picked up their pace, meeting to practice every single day, no exceptions, fitting in additional practice sessions where they could. They quietly recited the spell to themselves at every opportunity, repeating it as they brushed their teeth or did their hair or lay in bed waiting for sleep. Gabbie recited the spell as she double-texted Faison and dodged Dan’s calls. Maya recited it quietly when Tatiana was asleep on her shoulder. Delali typed the spell into a page of the script so it looked like she was rehearsing lines during downtime at rehearsals. None of them stopped to think about what it meant to house the magic of the Mothers, because they knew, intuitively, that if they did, they might balk in the face of their challenge. Slowly the spell emerged more easily, left behind fewer troubling effects, and the girls began to feel confident.
How’s practice going? —Nadia
Sorry that I can’t be more help —Nadia
OMG don’t apologize!! You’re already helping so much —Gabbie
Also it really helps that I no longer have a mute on my apartment —Gabbie
Haha —Nadia
Practice is going better —Delali
How’s Gathering prep? —Maya
Chaos over here —Nadia
Doing the next mute coordinates tonight. Let me know if there’s anything you want me to avoid —Nadia
🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 —Maya