When Knight Falls

Chapter 1: Willa

The cauldron bubbles a putrid green substance into the stale air of the cellar. I close my eyes and lean back against the wall. My mother had explicitly warned me not to burn the potion, but my brother, Oliver, is also here attending to the mixture. He won't let it rot.

Not mom's perfect little Oliver.

It was a cruel twist of fate.

The Knight Coven has always had to be ruled by a female. Generation after generation, the offspring of my family have always been women. Dating back as far as the Salem Witch Trials, up to my grandmother. There hadn't been a boy in the family until my brothers.

It had come as a shock. My mother had barely made it through the shame of having my eldest brother Hudson, and then that shame only doubled when Oliver was born. My father had been interrogated through hell and high water. They were convinced there was some sort of spell from his coven to weaken ours. There was no way that Zelda Knight, the witch who stood taller than all, the witch whose prodigy in magic had surpassed even our last Witch Queen, had delivered not one but two males into the lineage.

I was a miracle.

A true and utter miracle.

Welcome to my hell.

There was no time for me to play with Barbie or have tea parties. There was no such thing as normal education in a school surrounded by people of my age. There were no birthday parties that were surrounded by my interests or desires.

Everything from the time I was born up until now was entirely about the Coven.

It took my mother until I was five years old to realize that I was not going to be the perfect little witch that she was. I was never interested in the spells we were taught or how to harness the magic from the earth. I never wanted any part of the system that didn't allow for anomalies in their rulers. That same system expected nothing but the same thing from the start of our Coven over 300 years ago to the end of time, when we would cease to be. When the Earth was finally ready to reclaim our magic from us and let us sink into the Great Unknown of what lies beyond this life.

Yes, I hated everything about my magical upbringing.

That didn't mean I wasn't good at it.

I open my eyes and look at my brother. He rotates the wooden spoon clockwise as he peeks up from the cauldron to stare back at me. A sly smirk appears on his pale face, and he uses his free hand to brush his long wavy brown hair out of his eyes. "Mom will have your head if she sees you sleeping during tonic lessons again."

Oliver was the one good thing about growing up in this place. He was everything that my mother expected me to be, but better. He's always wanted to be in some sort of leadership within the Coven, whatever position they would put him in, but because he has a penis, they decided that he's deemed unworthy of leadership.

Even if his power levels are too far off from my own.

"Let her," I muse. "I'm tired of coming into this dank cellar day after day." I rise from my seat next to the cauldron and motion with my hands to look around the dim cellar. The potion we are making, a tonic that grants immortal strength for a brief period, is light-sensitive. The only light we are allowed to have right now in the stone room is the very fire we use to bring the liquid to a boil. "Besides, you'll lie for me, right, big brother?" I pout my lip out and beat my eyelashes in an overdramatic way. "And maybe if I'm really lucky, she'll decide I'm unfit for leadership and cast me away to my desires."

My brother snorts as he sprinkles a golden powder into the puke-colored liquid. "Yeah, because they're suddenly going to decide a male can rule the Coven."

"It's a shame you weren't born a woman, Ollie," I joke. He throws a rag at my response, and I feel the back pocket of my jeans begin to buzz. My heart stops beating as I reach to pull out my phone, but he waves his arm around frantically.

"Do not answer your phone in this room, Willa!" he commands. "Go to the supply closet."

I roll my eyes and walk over to the small closet in the corner of the room. I've been coming in here all day to check my phone. Not because I've been bored; well, yes, I've been bored, but I'm also waiting for something. An email. An email that could very well change my life.

The closet I walk into is barely big enough to house the shelves that reside in it. It's deep enough for one person to walk in and close the door behind them; for two people, you'd have to leave the door open. I close the door and pull the string that's attached to the single light bulb in the room. With shaking hands, I bring my phone out of my back pocket and resist the urge to squeal upon seeing the sender of the email.

From: Everdyne University School of Law

Subject: Congratulations!

I sink to my knees in excitement as I clasp my hand over my mouth. This is what I've been waiting for. My escape from this life where everything is chosen for me. I'm going to make the choices and choose for myself once and for all who I am and what I'm going to be.

And Zelda could kiss my ass if she thinks anything different.

Dear Ms. Knight,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Everdyne University's School of Law on an all-inclusive scholarship. Please click the link below to accept your invitation to join us for our Fall 2024 semester and schedule your move-in date a week from today.

Please call us if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Alfred Woodville

Dean of Students at Everdyne University

I waste no time as I frantically click the link and accept my invitation. My student portal reveals that the earliest move-in I can do is two weeks from now, and I waste no time selecting that day before I lean back onto the shelf and smile giddily.

You did it, Willa. I say to myself. You did it.

I take a few minutes to compose myself before I put on a neutral face and exit the small closet. Oliver is now bottling the potion, having removed it from the fire, and glances at me when I come into the room.

"I'm assuming whatever that was is good news."

He raises his eyebrows at me. Of course, my brother could hear my heartbeat pick up when I got excited. All witches had supernatural gifts that came with having our powers. I hadn't thought to control myself around Oliver, though. He knows that I like to keep my business to myself, and for the most part, he respects that.

"Just Ellanora telling me about a party that we'll be going to this weekend." I lie as I take my ladle and begin helping my brother scoop the liquid into the bottles he has laid out before him.

"You hate parties," my brother reminds me as his precise pouring leaves not a drop outside the bottle.

"No, I hate your kind of parties. The Coven's kind of parties. The party I was just invited to is nothing like that."

"Mother will never let you go," he says.

"Zelda," I say, emphasizing her name, "Doesn't have to know I'm going. Right, Ollie?" He ignores my question and continues to look at the concoction in the cauldron before him. I raise my palm and will my magic to travel over to him and tickle him in the ribs. He looks annoyed at me but lets out a playful laugh all the same.

"Right, Willa," he responds. "I won't say a word."

We continue to bottle the potion in silence as I plan my escape from the compound in which my family lives. It isn't going to be easy, but I'm so close that I can taste the freedom I'm being offered.

And nothing and no one will get in my way.