Page 22 of Weave Your Magic

‘I think!’

Susie nodded. ‘You’ll get it in no time! It’s so fun, seriously.’

The chorus started again and the women fell into a rough and tumble synchronicity of howling the lyrics while they wove around the space, all wild hair and limbs and massive smiles. Stevie agreed – this was serious fun.

All too soon the song had finished and half of their Cathy gang retreated to find a drink. The next song started, a little quieter, slower and even more intense, and Nina Simone starting singing deliciously about spells and romance. ‘Oooh, this a good song for tonight.’

‘Always a good song in my view, right Tee?’ Susie grinned wolfishly. ‘But a bit of a couple’s dance though.’

‘Ugh, I’m fed up waiting for the perfect man to come along. I don’t need one to have a good time!’ Temperance replied, starting to move to the hypnotic tempo.

Susie gave a dirty laugh. ‘That dress is really getting to you. And that belt . . .’

‘Huh?’ Stevie asked. ‘How is the dress getting to her?’

‘Nothing. I’m just glad she’s going for it tonight. I hope this feisty fairy princess is here to stay.’

‘She is!’ Temperance yelled. ‘No overthinking. No so much as a slight frown. Because you’re miiiiine.’ She closed her eyes as she sang.

Susie’s eyes flicked to the doorway and back again. ‘You know, dancing is a pretty good first step to falling in love. Body contact. Chemistry. All that.’

‘But you’re forgetting I’ve already been out with all the available men in South Devon. I did not want their bodies anywhere near me and the chemistry didn’t so much as set off a Bunsen burner.’ She wonkily shook her head.

‘So try something . . . new.’

‘Show me someone new and I will!’

‘Deal.’ Susie sloped off and Temperance went back to closing her eyes and dancing without thinking. It was a relief to push away the worries about the doom, even just for a few hours. Whatever was going on – with the dreams, the fact that Abel had experienced the exact same one and the swirling feelings in her head and heart – it could wait until tomorrow. He’d agreed to stay for a week, so that gave her time. Tonight, she needed to have fun.

Even through her boozy fog, the glow of love wrapping around Temperance was having an effect. She felt freer in her body, twirling on the spot, letting her hands trail out as she closed her eyes and gave in to the music. Occasionally her fingertips would accidentally graze a costume and pulses of other people’s happiness hit her lungs, making her dance more, sing more, smile more. Nothing about nudging someone else on the dance floor and laughing was weird, not on FairyFest night, and Temperance felt an illicit thrill of letting her powers off the leash, subtly sampling the emotions in the room. The magic woke up in her as she opened herself up fully to it without a worry about being caught or judged. Energy danced along every hair on her arms, the pins and needles feeling not just in her fingers but at the tips of her ears, behind her neck, down her thighs. Temperance sat happily in the knowledge of what she was: a witch.

‘Here’s someone to dance with,’ Susie suddenly breathed in her ear, spinning Temperance around to find a blushing Scout who only reached her shoulders.

‘Oh, hi, Dexter. You don’t have to dance with me really: Susie’s just being . . . well, her usual dickish self. Don’t let her embarrass you.’

‘No, I want to,’ his voice squeaked. And he took her right hand and waist like it was a waltz.

‘Oh right! OK.’ Temperance tried to spare his feelings as he marched them around in a boxy step, but after three minutes she couldn’t hold back the laughter much longer. Nina came to her rescue and wound the song up. ‘Ahh, it’s finished. Thanks for the dance.’ He nodded once, gave her a Scouts’ salute and then legged it out of the barn.

‘See?’ Susie appeared again, her eyes twinkling. ‘Someone new.’

‘But I was thinking more like someone who can vote. And has gone through puberty. I’m picky like that.’ Twangy guitar chords bounced out of the speakers and around the barn as ‘Wicked Game’ started to play. The DJ was leaning hard into his slow dance section.

Temperance gathered up her skirts and started to turn away.

‘Wait! Give me one more chance. Someone with GCSEs, got it. Just stay there.’

Temperance closed her eyes and let the sway of the music fill up her senses.

A whistle made her turn to the back of the room. Susie was standing with her arm around Roy, the old milkman, who, as he’d moved further into his eighties, had slid further down the height chart too. Susie mouthed, ‘Fancy it?’

Temperance laughed and flicked her sister the Vs, spinning back to the speakers and letting the low notes of the song radiate through her.

A moment later, something big and solid bumped into her back. She turned around to see a tall figure half-hidden behind a haze of dry ice, one of the Scout masks looming down at her.

Susie’s third attempt, then. A smile crept up Temperance’s face. At least he seems roughly the right age.

‘Sure. Why not?’ Without time for a second thought, Temperance looped her hands behind the guy’s neck and started dancing with the random. She’d take Susie’s approach – the backpackers only stayed a week, so why worry about the fallout? It was just a dance.