Chapter 8: Caius in Love
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As soon as her shift had finished for the week, Astrid found herself standing outside of the Magic shop, furiously rapping on the door, hoping at least one of her sisters was awake and up to answer.
When Astrid had first started working at the Underground she'd felt smug, victorious even, that she'd managed to get out and away from the coven and flourish in her own space. Not that she was old enough to remember a time before the outrageous claustrophobia of the coven, but according to their previous Coven Mother, Rhea Bridge, Coven life had been different before the 1940s.
Witch covens had flourished; in Sydney, in Australia, around the world. But that had been before a mass inter-witch war which turned witch against witch in 1943. A war that had pulled all their mothers and fathers into it like a black hole - a war leaving only one witch of the old generations left for their coven: Rhea Bridge, who had died now almost a year ago leaving Astrid's older sister, Ana, in charge as Coven Mother.
What a tragedy that had been - poor Ana, barely twenty-nine - had been thrust out as Coven Mother - a position so monumentally stressful, time-consuming, and so crushing. Becoming Coven Mother had essentially stripped Ana of any chance of ever having her own life or her own family. Maybe that had been the reason Astrid had felt so frantic to get out from under the coven. She couldn't sit around every single day working in the magic shop watching her oldest sister take on such a huge burden while she watched, helpless and pathetic. It'd been easier to just go out and leave and live her own life. Or it had been. Now Astrid wasn't so sure - for one thing, the shit with Caius wouldn't have happened, not under the roof of the Coven, not under the protection of her sisters.
She wasn't sure how exactly she'd explain things to Ana or Lena. What was she going to say?
'Hey Guys, I've been fucking around with my manager. Well kind of fucking. He's also got this other chick on the side. And did I mention she's the werewolf queen? You remember Vanessa, don't you Ana? She tried to maul you when you castigated the Vampire Master of the City for pushing our little sister forward as a sex prize for a creepy vampire? No?'
It was a nightmare, and Astrid knew that she was at least partially to blame for the whole weird situation with Caius. If anyone was going to be able to give her some sense and advice, it was going to be her sisters.
Astrid was about to give up on anyone answering the door, when it finally swung open to reveal her younger sister, Lena, in the doorway, dressed in her nightgown, eyes puffy and nose red.
It was clear as day to Astrid that her younger sister had been crying again. Astrid felt a pang of sickness shoot through her stomach. Here she was, messing around with Caius, causing problems. Meanwhile at home her younger sister was depressed and recovering from what had to be the most fucked up situation.
"Hey Lens," Astrid tried to give her sister a kind smile, reaching out to hug the woman. Lena leaned in, holding Astrid so tightly she thought she might break.
"Astrid, what are you doing here so early? I thought you weren't coming until the meeting next Friday?" Lena's eyes seemed to fill with delight, which caused a further pang of guilt to choke Astrid's through.
"Just thought I'd swing by and visit my sisters," Astrid pulled back to survey her younger sister.
Lena, she was concerned to notice, had lost
more
weight. Lena had always been curvaceous, full hipped and womanly. Now here she was, a shell of herself, so many kilos lighter, face gaunt and thin. If Astrid had been less selfish she would have stayed with the coven and with her sisters.
"How are you going?" Lena asked, ushering her into the shop and locking the door behind them. It was just like Lena to be concerned for her when clearly she had her own problems to look after.
Astrid surveyed the room around her, taking in the bottles and tubs, the charms, candles, jars filled with every possible herb and flower stacked up on shelves around the shop. Astrid took a deep breath, the familiar scent of rose and bergamot filling the air, and something else, something spicy which burnt the insides of her nostrils. Astrid was surprised to find the familiar smells and sights chocked her up, filling her with some deep longing that she hadn't realised she'd ever had. She missed this; the shop, the familiarity, the feeling of safety, her sisters. Leaving the coven had been an escape, but perhaps it had been a foolish one.
"I'm fine," Astrid replied, "Are the others still in bed?"
"Yeah, it was a big night. Want to come up? You look like you need to talk. And if we're gonna talk, we might as well be comfortable." Lena nodded towards the door at the back of the shop.
After a long sighed, Astrid nodded, "Sure."
Without any further conversation, Lena led them down through the shop, heading through the back door passed the register and into the back work room.
It was just as messy as it had been the last time Astrid'd had to use the space - alters jammed with salts and candles, idols and offerings, benches covered in whatever it was that customers came in for. Probably sleeping potions - the humans always seemed to have problems sleeping. Maybe their lives were as fucked up as hers. Humans were notorious for making bad decisions, but then. so was Astrid. So maybe everyone was bad at making decisions.
Lena led them through the workroom, into a corridor and up the stairs where they arrived into the Coven kitchen.
The space was pristine - most likely Lena's doing - she loved cooking and baking - which none of the other witches seemed to particularly enjoy - leaving Lena to her own devices in the beautifully resourced space.
No words had been spoken between the sisters as they entered the kitchen, but they both seemed to move as if it were ritual. Astrid made herself comfortable on one of the barstools, while Lena prepared some tea.
The silence was almost religious, which was why Astrid practically jumped out of her skin when her younger sister spoke; voice slamming through the air like a wave thrashing against a shore.
"You're in love."
Astrid wanted to positively expire, Lena may have been the youngest of the Castegarde sisters, and the sweetest but she could be confrontational and direct when she wanted.
"What? No I'm not." Astrid knew how she sounded - defensive; like a little child. She didn't mean to sound like that - it'd just come out that way. Because Astrid knew for certain she wasn't in love. Flummoxed, annoyed, frustrated, angry, jealous even. But in love was just
stupid
. Astrid Castegarde didn't fall in love. Ever. Especially not with obnoxious, obscenely muscly, sexy, stupid men who turned fury once a month.
"You
are
." Lena said with absolution, "Who is he?"
Astrid wanted to positively throttle her younger sister, but then reminded herself that she was the one who had come seeking consultation. It just sort of sucked that her sister had been so quick to read her when she hadn't even said a word.
"He's this annoying werewolf I work with and
I
am not in love with him. It's just a sex thing."
Lena just rolled her eyes, pouring them tea; "It's never just a sex thing, Asteroid."
Astrid couldn't help but smile at the old nickname, which was kind of frustrating, because she was trying to be serious and have a serious conversation, and here her sister was being annoying and making her smile and also simultaneously making her feel guilty and confused. But then, Astrid supposed, this was family for you.
"So how's things going with you? You look like shit." Astrid knew her attempts at changing the subject were obvious, but suddenly with the mention of love, she wasn't so sure if she wanted to talk about her problems with Caius anymore.
"Thanks, you're sweet." Lena gave her a sarcastic smile.
"Seriously, have you lost even more weight? You look like a prisoner of war."
"I do not." Lena's eyes tightened, mouth set in a straight line.
"Tell you what, if that warrior of yours ever makes his way back here, he'll get a real shock."
Lena's eyes seemed to falter, and Astrid knew that'd been a mean thing to say.
Months ago now, Lena had met with, slept with and fallen in love with a vampire from a different city in the span of, like, a day. It'd been weird circumstances too. After that one night she'd never seen him again, and was unlikely to unless his psychotic master had a change in personality. Lena hadn't been the same since.
Guilt wrapped around her throat again, Astrid instantly regretted the words she'd used against her sister. Lena had tried to be helpful and instead of being mature and facing about to a proper conversation about her love life, she'd decided to deflect and hurt Lena instead.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I know you must miss him."
"It's okay. It's true - I suppose I have lost a bit of weight. It's just hard to eat when..." Lena didn't finish the sentence - she was never this open about her sadness, was never one to overshare. Lena was the first person there if you had a crisis, but rarely opened up to others about her own struggles.
"It'll be alright, Lens. You'll see." Astrid reached over and squeezed her sister's hand, " Hey, how about you distract yourself by helping me get the ingredients for an exclusion curse."
Lena seemed to snap out of her sadness at the mention of the spell.
"Why do you want to prepare an exclusion curse?" Lena leaned forward, large eyes fixing on her with interest.
"For the aforementioned werewolf. He's pissing me off."
"Don't do that to him, Astrid." Lena groaned, "Can't you just talk to the guy?"
"Well, no. Because he's annoying and it's complicated."
Complicated was an understatement at this point, surely.
"How is it complicated?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Tell me or I'll wake up Ana and tell her about your dumbass idea. She will obliterate you into the next century."
How was it that Lena knew exactly which buttons to press? It was true, Astrid hadn't realised it when she'd come over to talk to her sisters, but Lena's words were correct. If Ana even had a notion of what Astrid had been up to, or the fact that she was planning to use witchcraft against an innocent victim, she'd be utterly furious.
Ana had strict rules when it came to practicing magic in the region, something she was famous for. She was also famous for her temper. Made legendary after the whole Lena-sex-wierd-vampire-situation, when Ana stormed through the Underground, found the Vampire master of the city of Sydney and well, not to put too fine a point on it, damaged an entire wing of the city. So badly that they were
still
doing repairs on it to this day, and probably would be up until the end of the year.
"Fine," Astrid sighed, taking sip of the tea, "It's complicated because he's supposed to be the mate of the werewolf clan's Queen."
Lena's complexion grew paler, and Astrid was incredulous to note that there was a colour lighter than white.
"No, Astrid, Goddess no." Lena whispered, small hand gripping the handle of her cup tightly.
"Yup."
"You can't mess around with him. She could kill you, we wouldn't be able to stop her." Lena's voice came out in a strangled whisper.
"She doesn't know."
