Chapter Text
One
For the life of her, Rey can’t remember what it was like to have Magic, but she will never be able to forget the devastation of losing it. Of suddenly no longer being remarkable or impressive. Of becoming nobody. And having grown up closed off from the world of Magic, no one around her could possibly understand what it was like to suddenly lose it all.
She could believe that perhaps it was all a dream or the design of an overactive imagination and no one would blame her because every child that grew up in an orphanage had notions of being someone special. None of the children wanted to face the truth — that they were unwanted and unloved and thus abandoned to the care of the nuns at St. Teresa’s Home for Little Wanderers.
Rey could believe it, that is, if not for the fact that one afternoon, as she was scrubbing the floors in the dining hall, she witnessed a bit of Magic from Maz, the Reverend Mother. A woman who, for as long as Rey can remember, had a soft spot for her — giving her sweets when she hurt herself or stroking her hair and telling her that she was special when the other children made her cry.
So imagine her shock when, as she kneeled on hard wooden floors — undoubtedly putting more holes in the knees of her stockings — she saw Maz make one loaf of bread into two and then three, and before Rey could gasp, there were half a dozen loaves. But she did gasp and Maz did too, noticing Rey’s presence for the first time.
“How did you do that?” Rey asked, jumping to her feet.
“Do what?” Maz shot back and when Rey just continued to stare, her little jaw clenched, the older woman sighed. “I suppose we should have this conversation sooner, rather than later.” She lowers herself into a chair and with a wave of her hand, another chair untucks itself from the table for Rey to sit. “I’m a witch, Rey. And so are you.”
And so Maz told her everything: that her parents left her at the orphanage, in Maz’ care, to protect her from her grandfather. Sidious, he was called, and all Rey knew of him was that he’d done terrible things — such horrible deeds that Maz wouldn’t speak of them and so awful that only a curse had been able to put a stop to him.
A curse so powerful that it didn’t stop Sidious alone, instead passing down his bloodline, killing him and her parents and stripping Rey of her own powers.
For a twelve year old girl, it was a loss that made an already painful upbringing even worse. She’d long known the pain of being unloved or unwanted, but now she also knew that she’d lost an essential part of herself. While the other children around her could understand the loneliness, none of them could understand that she’d had something taken from her. Something special. Something Magical.
Anger and bitterness at that loss filled Rey and when she turned eighteen and aged out of the orphanage, she decided to do what any sane person would do: She would track down the wizard who cursed her family and get her revenge. Or at the very least, she’d get her Magic back.
“The Skywalkers,” Maz told her, as she’d packed up her meager belongings into an old suitcase. Her eighteenth birthday had come and gone with little fanfare and now, on the morning she’d be forced out, Maz had come to see her off. “They’re right in Salem.”
A half hour from Boston, Rey knew. The whole time, she’d been right under their nose and Rey couldn’t begin to imagine what would have happened to her if the Skywalkers had known. “You’re not going to try to stop me?”
Maz shrugged, “I always knew you’d go looking for them.”
“And you aren’t afraid that they’ll hurt me?” Rey pressed, her heart breaking a little at the thought that Maz wouldn’t even try to prevent her from running headlong into a dangerous situation.
“No,” Maz laughed, as if she knew something that Rey didn’t. “I’m not.”
And so that is how Rey Palpatine, with slightly bruised feelings, finds herself currently standing outside of 14 Hawthorne Boulevard — also known as Eudaimonia Botanicals & Athenaeum. Home of the Skywalker Coven, according to Maz.
Rey stands for a long time, staring up at the brick building and its creeping ivy. She’d spent so many years — six, to be exact — being angry at the Magic taken away that she hadn’t even thought of what she was going to say to the people who actually took it from her. Suddenly, running into the situation with guns ablaze feels hasty. Intimidating.
She takes a hesitant step towards the door, one foot in front of the other, and when she gets close enough, the door seems to swing open on its own. She steps inside and the scent of herbs and old books is familiar in a way that is completely unfamiliar .
It’s like a movie set, Rey thinks, glancing around at the shop. The only sources of light are the sunlight through the large panes of the windows at the front, the heart in one corner and the candles peppering different shelves and counters. Glass jars line an entire wall, full of things Rey can’t begin to identify. Two of the other walls are lined, floor to ceiling, with old books and her fingers twitch with want to pull one down and flip through the yellowed pages. The floors are old wood that creaks under her feet, and the ceiling beams are loaded with all kinds of plants, hung upside down as they dry.
A sandy colored cat hops off the counter, giving a loud meow as he trots towards Rey. She ignores the cat for a moment, eyes darting around for the shop owner. Another loud meow and Rey sighs, crouching down to scratch the cat’s head and behind his twitchy little ears. He gives another meow and then Rey hears a woman’s voice, “Alright, alright. I’m coming.”
Rey lifts the cat into her arms, scratching his head as she awkwardly gawks at the woman standing behind the counter. She’s a tiny woman with graying hair piled on top of her head in an intricate braided do, but there is something commanding about her. She demands respect.
“Are you a Skywalker?” Rey blurts out.
The woman snorts, “By blood, I suppose. Who are you exactly?” She turns away before Rey can answer and steps onto a small ladder. Rey watches as she takes several glass jars from the shelves and begins pouring the herbs into a mortar.
“My name is Rey,” she squares her shoulders, and after clearing her throat, she says, “Rey Palpatine.”
The woman drops the pestle she’d been using to grind up the herbs she collected and at the same time, the cat leaps out of her arms and onto the counter, pacing back and forth in front of the woman protectively. She composes herself quickly enough, “Enough, you old fool. She’s got no Magic on her. Thought she was a tourist looking for a tea leaf reading.”
Rey takes a step closer, “I’ve got no Magic because of your curse.”
The witch waves her hand dismissively. “I didn’t curse your family. That would be my dear brother.” She doesn’t raise her face to look at Rey as she continues on with her tea brewing.
“Well, then. I’d like to speak to your brother,” Rey demands, though her voice is not commanding in the least.
“Wouldn’t we all,” the woman snorts. “I’m Leia, by the way. Come sit. Have some tea.”
So Rey does. She sits at the little stool offered to her and watches as Leia pours hot water over the leaves in a little clay tea cup decorated with cat paw prints. The sandy colored cat sits uncomfortably close and when Rey raises a hand to pet him again, he hisses at her.
“Ignore him,” Leia says. “He’s a cranky old thing.” Once she pushes the teacup towards Rey, she queries, “Since my brother is unreachable, is there anything I can do for you?”
Rey hesitates as she reaches for the cup, wondering if Leia is trying to trick her or poison her. Finally, she decides to just come forward with what it is that she came for. After clearing her throat, she announces, “I want my Magic back.”
Leia purses her lips as she narrows her eyes at Rey, as if she’s thinking very hard about something. And then she says, “We can talk about that after your leaf reading.” She nudges the cup closer to Rey still and then folds her arms over her chest, waiting.
Rey takes the cup in both hands, and when the heat penetrates her skin, there’s Magic about the simple act of holding just the cup that makes Rey feel as though there’s something simmering inside of her. Gingerly, she raises the cup to her lips and drinks deeply until she feels the leaves tickle at her lips and then she lowers the cup back to the counter.
“Now swirl it three times clockwise and give it over,” Leia instructs.
Rey casts her a glance and swirls the contents of the cup three times clockwise, watching as the leaves shift and slide up along the inside edges of the cup.
Leia leans forward, taking the cup and she tilts it towards the light of a candle on a nearby shelf. Rey’s eyes wander along the walls, trying to take in more of the atmosphere. Of what it means to be surrounded by so much Magic. That is, until a laugh bubbles out of Leia’s chest. “What?” Rey asks, narrowing her eyes.
“Nothing, nothing,” Leia sets the cup down and it’s as if she’s completely transformed. She no longer looks at Rey with thinly veiled suspicion but with a soft expression — one Rey isn’t quite sure she’s ever had directed towards herself. It’s Rey who is suspicious now, but before she can even question the older witch, Leia continues on, “I know a way to get your Magic back.”
Her own suspicion melts away to be replaced by excitement, “Really? How?”
A small, knowing smile graces Leia’s lips as she walks around the counter towards one of the walls lined in books. Carefully, she leans close, running her pointer finger along the spines of an entire row before she suddenly plucks one, “Ah! Here we are.”
She brings it back to the counter, standing next to Rey this time as she sets the tome carefully on the countertop. It’s bound in thick navy blue leather and embossed in gold lettering, the title reads Forest Sorcery. Leia gives her another one of those smirks as she opens the book and Rey can’t help but lean closer as Leia begins flipping through the pages.
Rey catches only glimpses of the yellowed pages, filled with swirling cursive handwriting and drawings of plants and unrecognizable symbols, and for an inexplicable reason she feels both connected and disconnected to this world she’s suddenly found herself drawn into. It’s as if she’s caught up in deja vu, something inside of her knows what it’s like to be surrounded by Magic but the larger part of her being has no idea when or where or how it ever happened.
Leia finally stops flipping. “Here it is.” She angles the book towards Rey and announces the title of the ritual, “Exchange of Magic.”
Rey’s eyes go wide and her heart sinks. In the center of the page there’s an illustration of a naked woman, legs spread in a manner that suggests exactly what this ritual might entail, but Rey’s eyes flit to the directions as if to confirm what her brain has already supplied. She reads and turns to Leia, “Y-you can’t be serious.”
The witch takes Rey’s face into her hands, “My dear. My sweet little dear.”
Rey’s brows furrow and perhaps if she weren’t so touch-starved she’d lean out of the woman’s affectionate touch. “I can’t do that.”
“Sometimes Magic requires a type of sacrifice,” Leia explains gently. “And this is such a small sacrifice. One you might even find… enjoyable.”
Rey’s cheeks redden at the thought. Naturally, she’d fooled around with some boys at the orphanage — fumbling hands and sloppy kisses were hardly what she’d call enjoyable. She shakes the memories from her head and glances down at the book. “So I’m just supposed to go to the woods, get naked and let some random man —”
“Random wizard, ” Leia corrects with a small chuckle.
“Right. And what if a demon shows up?” Rey crosses her arms over her chest. She was dealing with a Skywalker here; a member of the coven whose curse killed her entire family and drained her of her Magic. Was she supposed to just blindly trust this woman because she looked kind?
“Rey, dear,” Leia clicks her tongue. “One of the most powerful components of witchcraft is Intention. Which means that unless you intend on a demon showing up, you’re fine. Although, I have to tell you… I did that in college once and it was not a terrible experience.” It’s a joke, but Rey is too weary to laugh so Leia closes the book and hands it to Rey, “Here. You take this for now and study the ritual. Decide if it’s worth it to you. The next full moon is in three days. If you decide not to do it, just bring the book back.”
Rey worries her bottom lip between her teeth, looking down at the picture. She wants her Magic back so badly, but this could be a trick. What if Leia is setting her up? What if she’s going to be killed like her grandfather? What if it backfires?
“I wouldn’t lead you into a dangerous situation,” Leia supplies, studying Rey’s face carefully. “I’m not the type to punish an innocent witch for another man’s crimes. You’ll have to look to my brother for that. Or perhaps my son.” The last part is mumbled under her breath and Rey thinks it probably wasn’t meant for her ears anyway so she doesn’t ask questions.
“And if I decide to do this?” Rey asks quietly. “Nothing dangerous will happen?”
The older witch throws her head back and laughs, “I didn’t say that. But not dangerous in the way that you think. I promise you that the ritual is one hundred percent safe. And it should work.”
“As in, it’s not guaranteed?” Rey’s mind begins backpedaling immediately, thinking of every little thing that could go wrong.
“Again, my dear. Intention. This is Magic performed with a partner,” Leia says and her lips quirk up at the word ‘partner’ and Rey once again has the impression that there is something that she’s not being told. “In order for the ritual to work, your partner will need to have the intention of giving you your Magic back.”
Rey swallows at the mention of a partner. A random stranger she’ll have to have sex with. “Do I choose the partner or…?”
Leia waves a hand dismissively, “The universe will take care of that part. All you have to do is show up. And study the book, of course, so you know what to do and expect.”
Rey lifts the book, cradling it against her chest as she considers the ‘sacrifice’ she’ll have to make in order to get her Magic back. Her skin tingles at the thought, like the Magic buried inside of her is struggling to make its way to the surface, and she’s suddenly overcome with the thought of unleashing that full potential. “Okay. I-I’ll study.”
As she turns to leave, Leia stops her, “Oh and Rey?”
She pauses and turns back to look at Leia. “Hmm?”
“In exchange for helping you, I’ll need something from you,” her voice is almost sing-song as she says it and it makes Rey shiver — a reminder that this woman seems kind, but is not necessarily a friend. “I want you to come back here and work. Where I can keep an eye on you.” Though her voice is light and airy, there’s an expression on Leia’s face that denotes a certain level of authority. And perhaps suspicion. “You seem like a lovely girl, but I’d just like to keep you close and make sure you don’t walk in your grandfather’s footsteps, you know?”
Rey nods, but says nothing else, turning her back to Leia and walking out of the store. Nothing is ever free, and that’s something that Rey knew all too well growing up in an orphanage. A favor is never a favor and a gift is never a gift. Everything comes at a price and Rey is more than willing to pay the price of her grandfather’s mistake in order to get her Magic back.
She turns back to look at the shop, her eyes falling on the tawny cat sitting in the window, his eyes narrowed to slits as he watches her. She doesn’t break eye contact, squaring her shoulders before turning away to make her way home, to the small studio apartment above a dentist office that she’d spent every penny of her life savings to rent.
By the time she walks through the door, Rey — who is always used to finding the silver lining — has found two benefits of Leia’s request: she will have a steady job to pay for bills and access to a witch who can teach her how to use her own powers.
*****
In the three days leading up to the full moon, Rey changes her mind a dozen times. She’s hardly virginal, but the thought of just letting some stranger in the woods have his way with her makes her stomach churn nervously. Over and over, she thinks about every little thing that could go wrong.
And yet, her mind keeps arriving at the same eventual answer: she wants her Magic. It’s worth the risk, she tells herself. She would rather try to get her Magic back and have something bad happen than spend her entire life wondering what if. Feeling utterly incomplete.
No, she decides. She can’t possibly go on feeling this emptiness for the rest of her life. She wants to feel special again, to have some link to the family that had abandoned her.
She studies the book Leia gave her until it’s so ingrained in her mind that when she closes her eyes, she can see the pages etched onto the insides of her eyelids. She knows exactly what to do by heart. At the witching hour, go to the woods, any dense copse will do, and find an opening where the moonlight hits. Undress there and wait. ‘Give yourself to the Magic’ — a phrase which Rey takes to mean ‘lie back and think of happier things’.
Rey sets her alarm as she crawls onto the mattress in the corner of her apartment, but she can’t sleep. Her brain is humming with an odd mixture of excitement and nervousness and dread that makes it impossible for Rey to find a restful sleep.
Instead, she watches the full moon crest over the tops of the buildings that line the street across from her building until it’s so high in the sky that she only sees its brightness reflecting off of lamp posts and window frames.
She’s still wide awake when her alarm clock goes off at 2:30 and she shucks off her pajamas, slipping on a tshirt dress — something easy to slip on and off — and tip toes from her apartment. The streets outside are quiet and as she glances down Hawthorne Boulevard, she sees the movement of candle light through the window of Leia’s shop; someone is awake and moving around.
Turning her attention away, she crosses the street and wanders down a back alley towards the large grove of trees that she knows is a park behind main street. The closer she gets, the more on edge she feels, as if someone is watching her, but she knows that she’s paranoid. It’s dead quiet in Salem and she’s afraid of getting caught running around naked. That’s all.
She hesitates at the edge of the park, giving herself one final chance to back out. Rey had given herself precisely twenty three minutes to get to the park for the ritual and she didn’t have time to waste on second guessing a decision that she’d already made. There was no other option now but to go through with it.
After a deep breath and a mental pep talk, she follows the path until she finds the tallest, densest area of trees and then she veers off the trail. Her feet have a mind of their own and she trusts them as they carry her deep enough into the trees that she can’t see the trail from any direction and then she stops. Suddenly, she’s in an opening and there’s so much moonlight that it’s almost blinding. For a moment, just a blink of an eye, she feels as if she’s crossed into some other realm but quickly shakes off the foolish thought. She’s in Salem.
A twig snaps in the distance and Rey’s entire body goes stiff in fear. Then, she hears a voice in her head — not her own, but one that sounds suspiciously like Leia — Give yourself to the Magic.
Right. She snaps out of it, remembering what she had come for, and lifts the dress over her head. Once she drops it to the ground, she immediately second guesses herself — perhaps she’s too caught up in what the stranger walking into the woods might think of her — she bends down to pick it up and place it in a neatly folded pile on the forest floor.
Her skin begins to tingle and her blood rushes in her ears like thousands of tiny voices whispering to her, telling her to keep going. Excitement whips around inside of her and she almost screams when someone appears along the line of trees.
A man.
A wizard , her brain corrects. And a strong one — she can feel power washing off of him in waves.
The first thing she notices about him is his face: dark, deep set eyes, almost hidden under the masculine line of his brow and a large nose with full lips. All of it framed by thick dark waves of hair. He’s exactly how Rey had always pictured Lucifer before he’d fallen from heaven. Dark and beautiful and brooding.
The second thing she notices is that he is also naked. Incredibly so and Rey has to force herself not to think about the sturdy length of his cock which seems to be pointing straight at her. But he doesn’t move, doesn’t cross the clearing towards her, and Rey stares in confusion, watching as his face grows more and more agitated.
Lay down. The next step in the ritual and Rey almost smacks her forehead as she lowers herself to the ground. The floor of the forest is hard and she winces as rocks and twigs dig into the flesh of her buttocks and back. The moon is almost directly above them, in the center of the clearing, Rey notices. She hears his footsteps and is surprised that such a pretty man makes so much noise, almost as though he’s stomping.
She doesn’t watch him until he drops to his knees next to her. “What are you-”
“Shhh,” he cuts her off and Rey feels annoyed enough to yell at him until he slaps a hand over her mouth to prevent her from doing so. A muffled protest works its way up but then he begins whispering words that she can’t hear or understand. Soft, rushing words spoken quickly.
His hand drops to her collar bone, and he draws his finger in a line down the middle of her chest and the proximity of his hands to her breasts makes her nipples draw into stiff peaks. There’s a tingling sensation shooting up and down her spine — one that Rey recognizes as arousal but stronger than she’s ever felt it before.
Rey’s face flushes red as he traces around her breast and Rey knows that he’s seen her nipples harden under his touch, he must know how much some part of her is enjoying this. She wants to groan in humiliation, but now his hand ghosts down her stomach towards her pubic bone.
“Your intention,” He barks out and his voice is so deep and rich that the tingle in her spine transforms into a blossom of butterflies in her stomach and a throb between her legs.
“Wh-what?” she mumbles, feeling almost hypnotized as his fingers brush through the curls.
And then he presses a finger to her clit and Rey jolts. “Your intention. You need to focus on that,” he tells her, and the pad of his finger slides back and forth, across her swollen nub, teasing it and her.
She wants to tell him that she can’t focus on anything other than what he’s doing and it’s like she can feel every ridge of his fingerprints as he strums her gently. Her legs fall open in a way very reminiscent of the crudely drawn sketch from Leia’s spellbook.
“Your intention,” he tells her one more time and suddenly she’s acutely aware of the fact that her thighs are suddenly cradling his hips, that she can feel the prod of his cock against her opening. She can feel how open and wet and swollen she is down there but even then, she’s never had anything quite so large inside her.
“Magic,” Rey whispers, and as soon as she whispers it, she isn’t sure if she means her intention or the way it feels when the man nudges himself inside of her. It’s good. So good and her eyes roll back into her head as she glances up at the moon.
And then his hips jerk forward and Rey winces at the rocks that scrape against her back. “Focus,” he growls into her ear and his hips surge forward again. She feels so full and it’s not just tingling in her spine, but up and down her arms and legs, in the tips of her fingers and swirling at her nipples.
He rocks into her steadily, and she turns her head to the side, watching his hand braced against the dirt-covered forest floor. And then, moss oozes from the ground like liquid and Rey blanches at the thought. But the ground is soft, cushioning her back against the man’s thrusts.
“Good,” he grunts.
Rey isn’t sure what that means but a wave of pleasure washes over her and the tingles are building and building and when the stranger angles his hips, it’s like there’s an explosion inside of her. That tingling feeling bursts from her skin and when she blinks, she thinks the moon has exploded too, the way that everything is covered in shimmering lights.
Without question, it’s the best sex Rey has ever had.
Her body is so heavy that she can’t move and somehow so light that she feels like she’s floating away. The man is still between her thighs and when she feels him slide out and the trickle of wet, she knows it's over. “Did it work?” Rey asks, blinking into the light of the mood.
The man gives a grunt of affirmation and Rey pulls herself into a seated position, gasping loudly.
Long, thick vines full of blooms in pinks and purples hang from every tree. The forest floor is gone, replaced by thick moss in the greenest shade she’s ever seen. And underneath her, is a bed of lush beautiful flowers. “Did I do this or did you?”
There’s no response and Rey looks around. The man is gone. Just like that.
She tries to shake off the disappointment, or perhaps offense, that she feels from his sudden departure. Not even a thank you. Or, Rey thinks, maybe it wasn’t as good for him as it was for you.
Her heart sinks as she stands and takes a step. Under her feet, creeping phlox springs up and a laugh bubbles out of her when she takes a few more steps, watching as foot print shaped patches of tiny violet flowers sprout in her wake.
She slips the shirt on, but leaves her shoes off, walking backwards all the way home so that she can watch the flowers bloom in her footprints.
*****
When Rey wakes up the next morning, every vine of ivy climbing along the facade of her building has wound its way through the cracks in her windows. They sprout along her own walls and drip down from her ceiling, like a curtain surrounding her bed.
She’s too thrilled with this bit of magic to question how she’s going to explain this to her landlord or that she’s screwed as far as getting her deposit back. The possibilities of what she can do while awake and trying are enough to make Rey throw on a pair of jeans and an oversized sweatshirt. She has to go see Leia.
After throwing the spellbook into her bag, she sprints out of the apartment and down the stare. Maybe she can learn how to clean like Maz. When she bursts through the doors, the cat is at the counter and wakes up from his nap long enough to hiss at her.
“Rey,” Leia gasps. “Your magic. It worked.”
Rey nods excitedly and rushes at the counter. “Watch this.” She pictures it clearly in her head and so, it happens before her — the cork stopper in one of the vials lining the wall behind Leia pops off. And another. And another. Whatever dried plants are in the jars spring to life, pouring forth and spilling from the jars until the wall looks like a tapestry of shades of greens.
“Oh, that’s beautiful dear. And your magic,” Leia smiles. “It feels like sunshine and smells like the wind.”
Rey flushes red. “I owe it to you.” She pulls the book from her bag and sets it on the counter. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“You can thank me by holding up your end of the deal. You can start with cleaning up your mess,” Leia waves her hand at the wall of cracked jars and rejuvenated herbs.
Rey cringes. “Sorry.” But she’s not. Not really.
*****
It takes exactly three and a half hours for Rey to figure out how to return Leia’s apothecary back to its original state, after which she’s banned from touching until she learns how to reign in her magic. So Rey turns her attention to the walls of books.
She’ll dust them, she decides but midway through the first shelf, she frowns. Spellbinding Spells by Agatha Washington. Next to it, Planetary Spells and Rituals by Dexter Swallow. Not alphabetical at all. She pulls them from the shelves and begins rearranging. She’ll arrange them alphabetically by author. The way that libraries do. And then maybe she can create some type of dewey decimal system for spellbooks.
She’s shaken from the thought only when the bell above the door jingles and then a familiar stomp stomp stomp. It’s him . The stranger from the woods. Only now he’s glaring at her, dressed in a fine knit black sweater and dark jeans. “Who said you could touch my books?”
“I-I,” Rey stammers. “They weren’t alphabetical?”
His face turns red and Rey thinks he’s going to explode, and not in the good way like she had last night when he was moving inside of her and-
“ALPHABETICAL? Who the fuck searches books alphabetically. They were categorized! Spellbooks there, botanical glossaries over there and —”
“Benjamin, be nice,” Leia scolds from where she suddenly appears behind the counter.
“What is she doing here?” he points.
“She’s my new apprentice,” Leia smiles and then turns to Rey. “I believe you’ve met my son Ben?”
*****