I wished JJ could come with me to the coven meeting, but I had to stand on my own two legs. Plus, I doubted they’d be happy to see him there. Until now, I avoided mentioning my close knowledge of certain vampires, just in case. Caution was my best friend.

So there I was, in Yakov’s living room (barely big enough to contain everyone), together with him and eight other people in whom I’d never suspected supernaturals. They were just all so… normal. Even Yakov, instead of his carpet robe, wore a simple T-shirt and slacks.

“Dear Diana, I’m happy to introduce you to the Orion Coven! Today we have gathered in full force. Let me introduce everyone. This is Alexandra, our founder, Polya, short from Polina, Maxim, Igor, Zhenya, Denis and Katya.”

Yakov pointed at the people as he spoke, and they greeted me with smiles. I smiled back at them, hiding my nervousness by keeping my hands firmly clasped together on my knees.

Alexandra was a serious woman in her forties, with long blond hair pulled into a hair and lush ponytail. Polina was almost a teenager and even a ton of make-up on her face couldn’t hide it. Maxim looked somewhere between twenty and thirty. He winked at me when Yakov called his name. Igor was about the same age as Alexandra and reminded me of a friendly bear. Zhenya was a lean girl with curious eyes, androgynous enough that I had to squint to make sure she was, indeed, a girl. Denis and Katya, the last one, went together—Katya sat on a couch with her legs on Denis’s lap, which he absentmindedly played with, embarrassing me with their PDA.

Overall, they looked less like a coven and more like a bunch of people who gathered to play tabletop games. There were even some snacks on the table. Still, I waved at them and smiled, forcing myself to remember their names at least until we leave. “My name is Diana, though you probably know already. Nice to meet you all!”

“I hope you will join us, Diana.” Polina was jumping in her seat with excitement. “Then we will have more girls than boys, like it should be!”

Before I could answer, Alexandra cut in. “Yakov told us all about your predicament. Normally, it’s a parent’s duty to teach their children the art of spellcrafting or find an appropriate tutor, but in their absence, I think that most of us will be glad to teach you everything we can.”

“Sasha, please! I didn’t say that I was against teaching her. I just said that I am a shitty teacher,” Igor said in a deep voice that rumbled through the room, drowning out everything else. “It’s always great to see fresh faces.”

Alexandra hummed and nodded to him, but I was still the focus of her attention. “I created this coven to unite witches with no one else to go to. Polina here had a situation similar to yours, and we had taught her too.”

Polina nodded, looking sadder for a moment. I wondered what happened with her parent or parents.

“Of course, it’s not a requirement for you to join us, and if you do, you can leave at any time. We aren’t obliging anyone to anything. We don’t even have a leader. Everyone there listens for my opinions, since I’m the oldest here and the founder, but they are still only opinions.”

“That sounds great,” I said. My anxious jitters replaced with anticipatory ones, but I still had to force myself to sit still in my chair and not jump like Polina did. Maybe I would call her Jitter when I will inevitably forget her name and will feel too awkward to ask.

“I can imagine this all can overwhelm, dear Diana, especially if you only recently found your gift, but are all friends here,” Yakov said.

“Thank you.” I swallowed a lump in my throat. “I’d be happy to join you, guys.”

I hoped that this will be great, but even if it won’t—the witches weren’t obliging me to anything, so I could walk out on them at any moment. It was a pure win for me, and though admittedly, I wasn’t the most social person out there, more friends were a good thing to have.

“Then welcome to Orion Coven, Diana.” Alexandra gave me a tight-lipped smile. “I’d like to give you the introductory lesson right now if you are up to it. Some things are important to know in the supernatural world, for your own safety.”

I nodded. “Yakov already warned me not to touch random magic stuff without closing my well, though I have no idea how to do it.”

“It’s all a matter of practice,” Maxim spoke, waving his hand dismissively. “Just try and try, and you will get it, eventually. It’s not like magic items are lying around at every corner, so there isn’t that much danger on that front.”

“Maxim is right on that account.” Alexandra inclined her head in agreement. “While magic, like any other tool, can be deadly when used wrongly, a more immediate concern for you, Diana, should be other supernatural creatures. I don’t know how much you know about others besides us, witches, but they do exist and most of them are very dangerous. It’s important to remember to stick to the rules to coexist peacefully.”

“Rules?”

“Yes. First of all, Diana, never attract public attention to the existence of magic. As barbaric as this sounds, anyone who does that meets their swift death.” Alexandra’s lips tightened. “I personally believe that in the modern age we could’ve walked out of our closet, but the creatures who enforce this rule are too stuck in their medieval ways to change with the times.”

My eyes opened wider with interest. Vampires, Alexandra talked about vampires! Now that looked like some juicy… not a gossip, but a new perspective. I wondered how much they knew and how much it would tell me about JJ. But outwardly I pretended I was clueless. It was easy to see that Alexandra didn’t like them, and I didn’t want to create a bad first impression by blurting out my connections.

“Really? What creatures?”