Chapter Text
The earliest train out of Little Switzerland doesn’t leave until nearly noon the day after they receive Suzanne’s telegram. Beatrice wires back with travel plans before even returning to the room she shares with Ava. When she arrives, Ava stands at the foot of the bed neatly folding Beatrice’s clothing the way she knows she prefers, shoulders shuddering softly every few moments with tears. Beatrice comes behind her softly and places a hand on her back. Ava drops the shirt she’s folding and turns to bury her face in Beatrice’s shoulder. They’d been in the same position only a few short hours ago, but instead of lost in newly found love, they’re surrounded by uncertainty.
“Ava…I know you’re happy here. I’m happy here, with you. But I owe this to Suzanne and the Gap for raising me.” There’s a sniffle in her shoulder.
“I know, Bea. But I’m scared.”
“You can use the Green now, but what Suzanne said in March is still true. You don’t have to come back. This can be done without you, and you have no responsibility to the Gap”
“I think I have to, Bea. Everything in the past two years has been leading me back to Areala’s Gap. Duretti, regaining my mobility, going north to a town I’d never heard of instead of New Orleans. I don’t think I have a choice. It was Areala’s promise.” Beatrice is quiet for a moment.
“I think the Green has called you back, yes. But it should always be your choice. Whatever you decide, Ava, we all will support you.”
Mary’s waiting with the truck when the train pulls into the station. She looks like she’s aged ten years in the few months since they’d seen her last and she’s sporting a fresh black eye.
“Jesus Christ, Mary, what happened?”
“Nice suit, kid. Not here. Talk at the Salvius house” They toss their bags in the bed of the truck and pile into the bench seat. Ava takes the middle, and Mary gives her an affectionate nudge as she slides behind the wheel and takes off as fast as the truck will take them. The Gap has changed in the few months they’ve been gone. The streets are far too barren for the middle of the day and there’s a yellow, sickly feeling to everything. Beatrice sheds her suit coat, adjusting her sleeve garters to free her arms should she need to use her bone knife that had returned to its place on her hip as soon as they exited the train.
“Baby girl. Been awfully quiet without you and Camila giggling all over the place.”
“Missed you too, Mary. How’s Shannon?”
“Still some ups and downs, but she’s stronger every day. She’s still gonna have to sit the grand finale out, though.”
“I’d rather she did anyway. I don’t ever want to see her, or you, like you were that night again.” Mary hums in agreement and the cab settles into an uneasy silence for the remaining drive. The Salvius house was modest, by business tycoon standards. A formal parlor and dining room, but only three guest rooms, all of which were currently overtaken by the OCS. One room was filled with tables and jars from the greenhouse, and the other two with sleeping cots in addition to the original furniture. As they enter the house, Camila bounds down the stairs to envelope Ava and Beatrice in a tight hug. She whispers in Ava’s ear,
“I knew you’d come back. Suzanne was nervous.” She leans over to Beatrice.
“That better be your hickey on her shoulder, or I’m going to smack you.” Beatrice blushes as Ava quirks an eyebrow up in question, but they’re interrupted by Suzanne and Shannon emerging from the library, matching maple canes in hand, followed by Michael Salvius, and a tall blonde woman Ava concludes is Mayor Jillian Salvius. Shannon greets them with a tired smile and a kiss to each of their foreheads. The speed with which Suzanne crosses the foyer to embrace Ava is as unrestrained as many of the OCS have ever seen her. Her hug squeezes the breath out of Ava’s lungs. After a long moment, she releases her and gives Beatrice an equally bone crushing hug. As she lets go of Beatrice, she gestures to the Salviuses.
“I have no desire to cut our reunions short, but there is work to be done. Before we begin, Ava, this is Jillian Salvius. She is, of course, the mayor as well as a…old, dear friend of mine.”
“Seems rude to call your sweetheart old, Aunt Suzanne.” Ava quips without thinking. Michael and Beatrice go slack in the jaw as the rest of the room waits for a response. Suzanne seems flustered, looking back and forth between Ava and Jillian. Jillian appraises Ava for a moment before letting out a peal of laughter.
“Oh, you do take after your mother. Welcome to my home, Ava, Beatrice. Any family of Suzanne is welcome here.”
“Thank you, Madame Mayor.” Beatrice says.
“Absolutely not. Please, Jillian.” Beatrice nods. Suzanne finally seems to have regained her footing from being caught out and gestures deeper into the house.
“Come, it’s time to get to work.” Jillian takes Suzanne’s hand as they lead the way into the library. Michael falls back to join the other young people.
“Wait, our moms are going steady?”
After the spring equinox and the OCS’s rapid disbursement from their home, things in the Gap went south quickly. Jillian rejected Duretti’s proposal of a mining expansion and obvious signs of sabotage began appearing everywhere in the mines. Just before each potential disaster, Michael or Mary would stumble across the problem and were able to minimize the damage. After the second incident, they split the day’s three shifts into two between them, ensuring every hour of the day had someone equipped to address the threat. Unfortunately a few weeks ago, they couldn’t avoid having both of them gone from the mines at the same time and within the hour, there was an explosion deep in one of the exhausted tunnels. There were only a few injuries from falling rubble, but the entire mine was destabilized and had to be closed for an engineer to reexamine it. It leaves most of the men out of work and bored for the time being, and despite the Salvius’ providing a portion of their missing wages, most prefer to grumble and drink away their limited funds. When the money runs out, they wander the streets looking for trouble and things to do. This is where Adriel’s haints move in. They step out of alleyways in sharp, not quite new suits, and thick wads of cash, offering work and stability for their family if they’d just come out to this address. When they return from the farm, wallets padded, they aren’t the same men who left. They’re emotionless or plain angry, and prone to extreme violence. They become loyal to Adriel to a fault, attending each rally and speech, offering to buy more meals than one man could possibly eat. The first trip Shannon takes out of the house a few weeks after the equinox, she’s nearly blinded by the amount of red power surrounding the people of Areala’s Gap, each possessed by some form of haint or tarask. The town felt sick from the amount of dark energy growing in her people, and neighbors began to avoid each other.
Some weeks ago, Lilith sent a letter explaining her suspicions that Vincent was in league with Adriel, detailing his disappearances, the odd changes in behaviors, and beliefs no longer lining up with what he and Suzanne taught to the students of the Cat’s Cradle. The day the letter arrives, a poorly banked fire erupts in each of the fireplaces on the property and nearly causes irreparable damage to the Cat’s Cradle. In the light of day, the garden beds were destroyed, Beatrice’s wards have all been scuffed away or smashed. Jillian offered use of her home as a temporary safe haven. Rather than expose them, Suzanne asked Lilith to ignore what she saw and convince Vincent to believe she was learning from him and agreed with him about the changes the Gap needed. Lilith was more than successful in convincing Vincent of her support, and he brought her to meet Adriel after a campaign speech. She saw an opportunity in one of the few weaknesses in Adriel’s image: his marital status.
Lilith made herself an indispensable part of Adriel’s campaign, coordinating potlucks, chatting with the women’s auxiliaries, stroking the right arms and egos, including that of Adriel himself. At a campaign dinner with Duretti and several other mining executives, Adriel proposed marriage. Lilith accepted with all the appropriate demurity of a politician’s wife and, according to her letter from that day, promptly returned to her room and vomited before writing to plan a public falling out with Suzanne and Mary to further convince Adriel and Vincent of her loyalty. That fight was the cause of Mary’s black eye. Lilith had managed to sneak a letter into Mary’s pocket during the scuffle, containing: an apology, instructions for applying a salve for the bruising, and a snarky comment about Mary still not hitting hard enough.
Suzanne takes a deep breath after relaying the details of the past three months.
“This is where we stand. Adriel has set the wedding date for July 20th, ten days from nwo. He, and Vincent, believe Lilith has betrayed us. In her fight with Mary, Lilith obtained a vial of lady-slipper. Now that Ava and Beatrice have returned, Lilith will drug Adriel and Vincent at some point before the wedding and we will be ready to take them to the grove to complete the ritual. Once the binding is complete, it will be significantly easier to free our neighbors from the grasp of the haints that possess them.” Beatrice nods in agreement.
“Ava, I cannot express the gladness I feel that you returned. There is still no expectation for you to participate in the ritual, no matter what reason you have for it. If you wish to help, however, Shannon and I will teach it to you.” Ava looks at Beatrice, who gives her a comforting nod.
“I want to help. Let’s put this bitch in the ground.”
Camila wastes no time in catching Ava up on the gossip from town since she’d left, specifically about Jillian and Suzanne. Suzanne and Camila shared one of the guest rooms, with Mary and Shannon in the other. One night at perhaps two in the morning, Camila woke to use the privy and found Suzanne’s bed empty and long since cold. She found the parlor still open and lit with a few candles. She heard some whispering and giggling, and a short peek showed the back of Suzanne’s head over the sofa, and Jillian in her lap. Beatrice is nearly as gobsmacked as Michael, but at least she’d had her suspicions. The door to their room opens as Camila finishes whispering about the mess Suzanne’s hair had been in the next morning. Suzanne enters, takes in the sight of three young women huddled on a bed in their nightclothes and sighs. The fondness is heavy in her voice as she says,
“Perhaps I’d sleep better sharing a room with Shannon and Mary.”
“You certainly wouldn’t sleep if you bunked with Jillian.” Camila quips, and she gets a slipper tossed across the room at her in thanks.
“That’s more than enough from you today, Camila.”
A few hours of giggling and half hearted scolding later they begin to drop off to sleep, Ava not bothering to move to a different cot once Beatrice dozes off, too comfortable to move.
Lilith grew tired of playing house with Adriel quickly, as expected, and after just three short days of preparation, one of Shannon’s students is sprinting up the driveway of the Salvius home early Sunday morning with a letter. Suzanne unfolds it, reads quickly, and tosses it onto the table.
“It’s time. Shannon, stay here to conserve your strength for after the ritual is complete. Mary, you will, as usual, be our main line of protection against any followers of Adriel who find the grove. Michael, you will be responsible for keeping Vincent restrained until the rite is finished. Camila, Beatrice, you and Lilith will weave the bindings. Ava, solzinha, I need you to stay back until we begin to tire. It will be safest for you, and the influx of your power at the end will ensure the bindings remain strong.” There’s no need for discussion this time. Suzanne gives Jillian a chaste kiss, and Jillian pulls her in for another, decidedly unchaste kiss. Mary wolf whistles and pulls Shannon in for a kiss of their own. Tasks set and of one mind, the Order of Christian Sisters face down their work with grim determination.
Lilith is reclining, bored in the gaudy parlor of Adriel’s home, throwing knives into various tasteless portraits and daguerreotypes, when her sisters arrive. Vincent and Adriel are unconscious in their chairs, empty mugs of coffee beside them. She flicks one more knife directly into the painted eye of Adriel as they enter the room.
“I thought Tommy was the fast twin.”
“No, that’s Billy.”
“Well, then. We’d better get to work. Who knows if this wears off more quickly on him. Mary, sorry again about your eye.”
MIchael sets to work gagging and tying the two men. Once done, he hefts Adriel over his shoulder and Mary takes Vincent. They’re unceremoniously dumped into the bed of the truck, covered with a tarp, and Michael climbs into the back as well, pistol trained in case they wake. They reach the grove without incident pulling the truck directly onto the open grass. The summer heat has toasted away any remnants of the conflict from March, but Beatrice still feels the acrid bile of guilt rise in her throat as she looks around. Ava notices the change in tension and takes her hand.
“Hey, Bea. You can do this. You have done this. This would have gone perfectly in March if Vincent hadn’t messed up your wards. He’s not awake to do that now. You won’t fail.” Beatrice takes a deep breath and nods. She presses her lips to Ava’s and whispers, “thank you” before walking the same path she had those months before. Ava watches her set the first ward. Her movements are precise and unhurried as they always are. Not for the first time, Ava loses herself in watching her.
“We’ll admire how special Beatrice is later, solzinha. I need you to get to a safe place.” Ava blushes but Suzanne is as gentle as she is stern in this moment.
“I think I’ll stay in the truck? Not too close to the tree, not too close to the woods.”
“Good choice. I’ll see you after.” Suzanne squeezes her arm and walks to the base of the tree where Michael has Adriel and Vincent laid out. Camila and Lilith are setting up their final preparations, checking the weave of the ropes, the quality of their herbs. Beatrice is halfway done setting the wards when the forest around them erupts into screeching noises. It’s multi-tonal, unlike anything Ava has ever heard before. It cuts through her ears, vibrates through her skull, and she wants to curl into a ball until it stops. It seems to go on forever, but when it stops as unexpectedly as it starts, the sounds that replace it are thunderous. Footsteps? Hooves? Both? And laughter. Unstable, cruel laughter. She looks to the tree and sees Adriel spitting out his gag and laughing, struggling to stand with his hands and feet bound.
“Very sneaky, my little wife. I’m impressed you’ve managed to restrain me this time. It’s a shame it’s not enough, we really would have played quite well together.” Michael shoves Adriel back against the tree. The thunderous noise grows louder as a mass of skeletal deer and panthers leap out from the woods into the clearing. To her left, Ava sees a group of large, suited men approach from the road. Beatrice has one and a half wards to finish.
“Bea, watch the road!” Beatrice glances up, finishing the stroke of her blade in the dirt without hesitation, and her brow furrows. Two swift motions more and she’s sprinting to the final stone that marks her wards. She has perhaps 20 seconds to finish the ward before the tarasks cross into the unfinished circle and without Shannon, she’s not sure they’d make it through another fight against that many tarasks. With mere moments to spare, she makes her final mark in the dirt and leaps inside the protective circle. The tarasks no longer a concern, Beatrice feels confident Mary can handle the skeletal beasts. She bolts over to Camila and Lilith, taking her portion of rope in hand. They look to Suzanne for guidance. Mary has the beasts well in hand, Ava is secure in the truck, and Adriel is enraged. There will never be a better moment. She begins to recite Areala’s Oath to the Green, knelt before the tree. The wind shifts and blows heavily through the trees as she concludes, leaves swirling around her. She begins another recitation, one of banishment and restriction. As she does, Camila, Lilith, and Beatrice begin working complicated loops and knots around Adriel in the tree. The energy of the Green surges and Adriel starts to look uncomfortable. Mary destroys creature after creature with her shotgun. He tries talking to them, getting in their heads. He stares at Beatrice for a long, long moment, though she avoids his gaze.
“Where are my granddaughters?” He yells. “I’d like to see what kind of bitches I sired.” The shock and insult of it causes Beatrice to drop her hold on her rope and she punches him squarely in the nose. Satisfying as it is, it causes enough of a slip in the working that Adriel is able to access some power and push back. Suzanne can’t stop chanting, but she shakes her head at Beatrice. She can’t let him get to her.
Ava watches intently from the truck. Over the sound of Mary’s gun and the clattering hooves, she doesn’t hear what Adriel says to Beatrice, but it’s enough to get her to drop her rope and punch him. The moment she does so, Ava’s struck by a wave of nausea. The same feeling she gets with Mr. Fonseca. The Green wavers just a moment and surges back, but the nausea never subsides in her. Adriel and Suzanne strain against each other and Ava feels each inch of the battle. Eventually, Mary handles the last of the skeletal creatures, and plants herself at the warding line on the road. Ava watches as she slices open her palm again and presses her blood to the barrel of her gun. Six rapid shots later, the tarasks that still stood waiting for their master are piles of ash on the ground. Adriel screams as his creatures fall. The surge in the dark and rage are so overwhelming that Ava would have collapsed under the weight of it were she standing. She sees Suzanne’s hand start to quiver on her staff as she forces out the remainder of the spell, and Ava begins to channel her breathing. She steps slowly out of the truck and kneels on the ground. Palms in the grass, she feels each blade of grass and each miniscule creature underneath it. She thinks about the glow within everything, the Green, and she opens herself up to it as she inhales. As she exhales, she focuses on her aunt, her sisters, and her beloved. She sees the glow in them brighten and Suzanne’s hand steadies as the knots are finished. Suzanne gives one final cry and drops to her knees, heaving. There’s a blinding burst of light and when Ava opens her eyes, there is no Adriel. The great tree looks different, as if it has a face, but she feels nauseous if she looks at it too long.
She clambers to her feet and makes her way to her aunt. She kneels beside her and wraps an arm around her shoulder. Suzanne embraces her back. They look up at the sound of their family’s footsteps, but before they can speak, three shots ring out across the grove and Ava falls onto her back, sharp pain radiating from her chest. The last thing she sees is Beatrice’s panicked face.