Alice walked to her aunt's flower shop with music as her only company. The sun painted the skies in hues of orange and purple, drowning the old buildings around her in a dim light. In the distance, a waxing moon peeked from behind the green mountains, its appearance slow and calculated.

She enjoyed her life in this quaint town. Alice didn't know much else; she had grown up here. She knew these streets like the palm of her hand, understood its customs and people.

That didn't mean they understood her.

As most businesses closed up shop for the day, some would remain open for a few more hours. The local tavern was one of them, with its wooden slacks decorated with fairy lights and small carvings of animals and flowers. The owner set up the outside tables for the evening, going to each of them to drop an ashtray before disappearing towards the inside of the establishment to grab something else. In the small corner restaurant, an employee wrote the menu on a charcoal board hanging on the wall. Alice wondered if anyone would stop by since they rarely got any customers. They blamed their location—they were too close to the flower shop—but they refused to move elsewhere. After all, the business on the other side of the flower shop, a coffee shop, thrived with customers.

The problem, Alice suspected, wasn't in her aunt's flower shop, but in the antiques store across from the restaurant. It was another place in town where magic hid in plain sight. As she crossed the town square, she glanced at its window shop, her eyes tracing the aura emanating from the objects on display. Some of them had a warm golden energy, while others carried something heavier and colder, their aura an icy silver. She shivered. This store never inspired a sense of trust or safety in Alice, and she avoided it as much as possible. However, everyone else—humans and magical beings alike—seemed to enjoy it and some even visited it often.

Alice stopped at the flower shop's entrance, saving her headphones in her backpack and checking her surroundings. Despite the busyness of the town square, very few people came to look for flowers this late in the evening. Still, one could never be too careful. If the wrong person stopped her, the damage could be astronomical.

She spotted the plaque with the word open hanging from inside and knocked. Alice's aunt wasn't at the counter nor was she doing inventory, which could only mean she was in the back room.

Alice knocked again, this time louder, and shielded her eyes to get a better focus on the inside of the shop. After noticing some light piercing through the back door, she turned on the door handle and stepped inside the premises.

The shop was smaller than its exterior made it out to be. Besides a wooden counter and a back wall covered in flowers of all different shades and sizes, everything else was space for vases and gardening tools.

"I'm here!" Alice dropped her school bag and took off her jacket, closing the door behind her. She turned the entrance plaque to show the word closed and locked the door.

"You're late!" her aunt screamed from the back room and a loud clang followed. "Damn it! You weren't there before."

On the furthest wall, Alice spotted flickering lights flying above the flowers, forming shapes like constellations. Most people would think of them as fireflies, but she knew very well they were not.

"Is everything alright?" Alice pushed the back door open, facing her aunt as she picked a couple of metal dishes from the floor, her dark curls falling from her headband.

"Everything's fine," she said, puffing some hair away from her face. "Just some housekeeping gone wrong. Where's Xavier?"

Alice looked over her shoulder, her eyes catching the golden hues of the sunset outside. After what happened today at school, she was looking forward to his company on the walk back home. It was rare for people to speak to Alice at school, let alone be so comfortable to bring up the fact that she was a witch. She didn't like that. She especially didn't like how easily that information was available despite her attempts to hide it.

"He has swimming practice today," Alice said.

Her aunt furrowed her brows, studying Alice carefully. "Since when?"

"Since today?" Alice gulped and grabbed a small peacock feather from a nearby counter, her fingers grazing over the smooth surface, admiring the shape and colours. "What are we doing today?"

"Do your parents know Xavier is not here with you?"

"Why does it matter, Vi?" she said, dropping the feather back in its place. "I'm here in one piece, no one followed me and I'm alright."

Victoria sighed, placing the dishes on the counter before fixing her headband and moving her hair away from her face.

"You know," she said as she wiped her hands on her apron, "I'll talk to your parents about this. This was not the deal they made with Xavier."

"You mean the deal my parents made with his parents?" Alice rolled her eyes. "Vi, I'm fine. Really. I don't need Xavier to be around all the time. It's not good for our friendship."

"Right." Her aunt didn't believe a word she had just said. She picked up the dishes again. "In this case, your safety is more important than your friendship, and a deal is a deal. Why are you late, though?"

Victoria gestured to a couple of gardening tools behind Alice, and she grabbed them, extending them to her aunt. There was no way she was going to tell her aunt about Isaac. Or their conversation. Especially not the latter.

"I took longer at school." Alice shrugged. "Next time I'll text."

"You know I don't have a cellphone."

"You should, though."

Her aunt narrowed her eyes on Alice, waiting for her to break and reveal whatever information she was withholding. When she didn't, Victoria glanced at one of the plants nearby, its flowers blooming back to life as a ball of light flew from one of its buds. Victoria gestured with her head to Alice, and the light stopped in front of her, revealing a tiny fairy with wings like a dragonfly, and a dress that reminded her of dandelions.

"That's new," she said, reaching the tip of her index finger towards the fairy's torso. She moved away, flying to sit on top of her finger instead. Alice narrowed her eyes, inspecting the fairy closely. "Is she new?"

"Yes," Victoria said. "She brought a letter. For you."

"A letter? For me?"

Alice's heart picked up pace. It was rare for her to receive any sort of correspondence. She didn't have any friends—Xavier didn't count—and she only exchanged texts with him and occasionally her parents. Letters were an even rarer occurrence since that wasn't a typical practice in this realm anymore.

For the past couple of months, Alice had been eager to receive one. She had been working hard to prepare her application for the University of Nadalan in Otherworld, hoping to get accepted in the Alchemy Major they offered. So far, she had only performed the theoretical tests, all under the scrutiny of Xavier, Victoria and a Council member, but she was hoping this letter would bring good news.

"Do you think it's from them?" Alice asked, following the fairy as she flew across the room, plopping herself on top of a small flower pot. "Do you think I got in?"

Victoria said nothing. She kept moving objects from one side of the back room to the other, occasionally stopping to curse under her breath and fix her headband. She shouldn't have gotten bangs. Hair as curly as hers would not deal well when forced to do anything it didn't want to.

"Where's the letter?" Alice said and moved her hands to express her question to the small creature.

The fairy shoved her hand inside a flower bud, causing some pollen to fly nearby. She pulled the smallest envelope from inside; it fitted on the tip of Alice's finger. Carefully, the fairy placed it on the wooden table and threw light from her hands towards the envelope.

Alice took a deep breath, her eyes widening as the small envelope grew in size until it was big enough for her to grab it. It would always amaze her how this spell worked. Once she mastered it, she would make everything tiny in size and carry it in her backpack everywhere she went.

"I'm opening it!"

No answer. She picked the envelope up, its surface still warm from the spell. Her thumb traced the golden edges and the impeccable cursive handwriting on its front. Alice stopped.

She recognised this handwriting.

"Vi?" She searched for her aunt in the back room. "I don't think this is from them."

Alice pondered not opening it. If she didn't, then she wouldn't know what was inside. She was sure she would not be pleased with it. However, she had no other option. With her stomach churning in fear, she opened the envelope, pulled out the letter and read it.

Oh no, she thought as soon as she was done reading it. "Oh no."

"Is it from them or not?" Vi asked as she stepped inside the back room, placing a couple of pots on the counter. When her eyes met Alice, panic took over her. "Who is it from?"

Alice couldn't speak, couldn't move her feet. She extended the letter to her aunt and waited for it to be snatched away. Vi took the letter and mumbled the words under her breath as she paced around the room, growing more distressed by the minute.

"Gloria is coming to visit you," she said, a tone between bewilderment and something Alice assumed was fear. "This is not good."

"Not good at all."

Alice liked Aunt Gloria. As a kid, she liked her stories from the Otherworld, how she always seemed brave and smart and how she never took no for an answer. As she grew older, she realised that her aunt wasn't very nice. She didn't like her siblings and she made it known. Nothing was ever good enough for her standards, including Alice's education in the human realm. She only appeared to like Alice, but that was because she was a powerful witch and interested in studying Alchemy in the Otherworld.

Except, Alice wasn't a powerful witch. She couldn't summon magic or cast a spell. All she knew were the rules of magic, but practising them was out of her reach.

"She's probably aware of your application," Vi said, returning the letter to Alice. "She wants to see the progress of your magic."

"There's no progress," Alice said, pouting. "It's even worse than what it was."

The last time Aunt Gloria visited, Alice summoned light with her bare hands to show her skills to her aunt. She had received a big round of applause. She had been showered in compliments. Alice had never felt so worthy of magic.

Now, she didn't feel worthy of it. She was a shame to all witches.

"I'm sure until then, you'll be able to figure something out. She's only coming during the next New Moon, so until then, we'll keep practising. Alice," her aunt searched for her eyes as she rested a hand on Alice's shoulder, "I know it seems impossible now, but you'll be a master of your craft someday. You just have to work for it, okay?"

Alice was tired of listening to that. Everyone kept telling her that she should keep practising, that she should keep trying, that she would achieve greatness if she didn't stop. She had been doing it ever since she was six and for what? No matter how much theory she knew, she would never be able to summon magic.

Whenever she tried, she was back in that miserable place, a reminder of what she had done, of what she would never be, of who she was born to be. She was failing her magic and yet, she wasn't entirely human.

"Come here." Vi wrapped her arms around Alice, pulling her in for a hug. They stood there for a while as the fairies flew around the back room, gracing the flowers with their light and energy, sprouting them back to life, bringing colour to their petals.

Alice wished she could have that too. She wanted something to bring back colour to her life, to bring back her purpose to the surface. Someday, her aunt said. How many somedays did Alice have before she could feel like herself again?

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