Growing Into You (First Draft; Unedited)

xxxii

Aoife

I shook my head. “Hey, when did you guys leave your Covens?” I had always wondered when people usually leave. Some people stay their whole lives, others leave as soon as they can.

“Well, I left when I was nineteen but I didn’t have a choice. Ferni did I ever tell you guys that story?” Kuna turned to him and he shook his head. “Alright. Well my brother--”

“You have a brother?” Ferni dumped the flour into the sink.

“Yeah, don’t interrupt.” Kuna laughed. “His name was Kaz. Anyway, we were in Coven 451 together with our dad. We ended up getting our Marks done at the same time as soon as I was sixteen. Our dad convinced the leader to change the rules for that to happen!

“Anyway, when he was twenty and I was nineteen, we got robbed. The robber didn’t take much but when Kaz tried  to fight him off, he bit him. We didn’t know it at the time but the robber was a lycan. . .”

“Wow, really?” Ferni’s eyes widened. “But aren’t lycans normally peaceful?”

“You can’t just group people together like that. Lycans don’t attack other people because they don’t want to accidentally turn them. Back to my story, Kaz ended up Shifting that night. I had no idea and I thought he was jsut a wild dog that got into the house.” Kuna sighed. “I tried shooing him out and he bit me. I ended up Shifting not moments later. We were lucky our dad was out of the house. . .” They trailed off.

“Well, what happened next?”

They shook their head. “Long story short we were kicked out the Coven. But we did end up joining 333 for about a couple years or so. I moved here when I was twenty-five from the Isles.”

“Wow. . . Kuna that’s pretty metal. I didn’t know you were a lycan though.” Ferni leaned back against the counter.

“Does that change how you think about me?” They asked.

I shook my head with Ferni. “Of course not.”

“What about you two?” Kuna threw a rag over their shoulder.

Ferni giggled. “I was never in a Coven! I was raised with Devi by our adoptive father. He was a good man. Very stern and silent but he was really just a goofy man. We lived in Rusiane until we were sixteen. Our dad moved us when he found out I was gay. Laws were rougher there. But as bad as they were in my dream.”

I laughed. “I lived with my momma and grandpa. I was in Coven 184 and it was pretty great. I moved to Onshoren when I was twenty-two and left the Coven when I was fifteen.”

We went back to cleaning in silence. After I scrapped everything off the pots and pans and washed them they shinned. I was pretty proud of myself and Kuna said I did a good job.

“Okay let’s see here. . .” Kuna sat on top of a counter that had been cleared of flour. They were reading a cookbook with a leather bound backing. “Do you guys want to make meat or veggies?”

We both agreed on veggies and Kuna handed me the book. “Get these ingredients from the vegetable garden.” 

Carrots, green beans, and sweet peppers. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”