Tea in the Garden
The sun hung low over Paradis Hills, casting everything in a wash of soft gold. The air smelled of thyme, warm soil, and citrus blossoms. Birds trilled in the distance. Gen and Selene sat in the backyard, each with a steaming mug of honey-lavender tea cradled in their hands.
Selene watched the steam curl upward, then drifted her gaze across the hills—so quiet, so untouched, it almost didn't feel real.
"How did you find this place?" she asked, her voice a hush against the wind. "Paradis Hills, I mean."
Gen didn't answer right away. She sipped her tea, eyes distant, gaze fixed on the orange sky.
"I didn't," she said finally. "It found me."
Selene glanced at her, brows drawn together.
Gen let out a small breath, set her mug down on the wooden table. "I was twenty when the plague came. My husband, Thom, and our three little ones, John, Mirelle, and baby Ruth. They all caught it. I tried everything. Boiled bark, black root, powdered silver. Nothing worked."
Her voice caught. Just slightly. She looked down at her flour-stained hands.
"They died within a week. I stayed in the house until the smell turned the walls sour. Didn't eat. Didn't move. I think I wanted to join them."
Selene reached for her hand gently.
"But then she came," Gen whispered.
"A traveling witch. Older than time, it felt like. Silver cloak. Eyes like thunder. She found me on the floor, barely breathing. Said the world wasn't done with me yet. Said I had a gift. She took me with her and taught me the craft—not just spells, but how to survive grief when you don't want to. Or don't know how to. She brought me here when I was ready."
Selene's voice was soft. "What happened to her?"
"She vanished one morning," Gen said, her eyes flickering. "Left behind a tin of tea and a note that said 'Keep the door open for the broken ones.'"
They sat in silence after that, only the breeze moving between them.
---
Five Years Later – The Carnival
Paradis Hills had become a home. The kind you didn't expect but came to love with every breath.
Its people were kind, its rhythms slow. And to Selene's surprise, they had welcomed her and her children without question.
They never asked about the scar down her back or the odd shimmer in her gaze. Maybe it was the prayers Gen whispered into the eaves. Or maybe it was just luck.
Now, Xena and Xavier were five years old—bright, wild, and entirely themselves.
The town's annual Harvest Carnival was in full swing, with lanterns strung across the square and laughter echoing off stone streets.
Music played from fiddles and drums. Bunting danced in the breeze. The smell of roasted corn and candied nuts thickened the air.
Everything felt like and was magical.
Xena tugged on Selene's sleeve.
"Cotton candy, cotton candy Mama! The pink one!"
"Alright, alright," Selene laughed.
"Wait here and look after your brother. Don't move." she told them.
She turned her back for less than a minute.
When she turned around with the cotton candy in hand, they were gone.
The panic sets in almost instantly.
The sheer fear of losing them, was almost petrifying.
"Xena? Xavier?" Her heart leapt into her throat.
She spun through the crowd, weaving past dancers and clowns, face tightening with panic. Until—
She saw them.
Standing a few stalls away, holding hands with a woman who did not belong.
She was old, impossibly so. Her skin was wrinkled like melted wax, her eyes black and sunken beneath her brow. She wore layers of patched robes that shimmered like oil and smoke.
Xena clutched a crimson gem pendant, glowing faintly and laughing still, unaware of the term 'stranger, danger'.
Xavier's wrist bore a white stone bracelet that shimmered cold blue.
"No—" Selene rushed forward and yanked them both away. "Get away from her!"
The old woman didn't flinch. She just stared with a grin that didn't touch her eyes.
And then, she spoke.
Her voice was cracked glass and sulfur.
"I see blood in the wind. Ashes of souls. The Devil will desire both and seek after. A taste of their blood shall drive him to more."
"They will be the downfall of the damned, they will hunt his dreams. Love will roam... but he will seek pleasure and be swallowed by it."
"Pleasure will set his world on fire, and they will set the flame."
"One shall submit to the Devil's will. The other—" she smiled wider, "—will seek to find what was lost."
Selene froze. The words slid over her skin like ice, each one burrowing deeper. She didn't understand them all—but her bones did. Her blood did. It knew fear.
"When the Devil calls..." her voice thinned to a rasp,
"...either one, or both... shall answer."
"The fates of the moon-borns."
Her laugh was slow and feral, breaking into hysteria.
And then—she vanished.
One blink, and the woman was gone, swallowed by the crowd like mist on wind.
---
Rushing Home
Selene didn't wait.
She grabbed Xena and Xavier, pendants and all, and ran. Past booths and booths of laughter and music. Past the glow of lanterns and the scent of roasting chestnuts.
Her feet pounded the dirt. A drumbeat of dread. Somewhere behind her, a balloon popped, and it sounded like gunfire.
The scent of cinnamon and sweat clung to her clothes. But she didn't stop.
She ran until the lights were gone and all that remained was her heartbeat and the sound of the twins crying.
She burst through the door of the bakery.
Gen looked up from the stove, where a pot of cider simmered.
"What in heaven's name—?"
"She found us," Selene gasped.
"Someone found us."
She dropped to her knees, still shaking, holding out the necklace and bracelet with trembling hands.
"A seer, I think" she whispered. "Or something worse. She gave these to them" She said as she raised both the necklace and bracelet in the air.
She was frightened out of her mind, hysterical even.
"She said he would come—because they're moon-borns. That the Devil would come."
Gen went pale.
And for the first time since Selene met her…
She looked afraid.