100% That Witch - Celia Kyle Page 0,29

pit that felt so much larger than the body that contained it.

“Why would I like pink mice? They’re disgusting!”

You’re disgusting was what she’d heard. For a twelve-year-old, it was a pretty devastating thing to take in. Just as she was beginning to discover herself, a single nasty event curdled who she wanted to be. A witch of light and love wasn’t the kind this world prized, and she’d learned to hate it and hide it away.

“Gross!” His voice rang out in her mind again.

“Shit,” Tiffany said, her face inches from the mirror. The Vance of her memory had made her hand jump, and the usually perfect sharp line of black she drew from the corner of her right eye wavered. Licking her middle finger, she did what she could to wipe the smudge away, so she could match the Nefertiti perfection of her left eye.

In one, memorable moment, that little shit had spooked her away from her natural gifts, and she’d started to smother herself in pure, necromancer black. If love and light were going to be rejected, she might as well be the one to quash it.

Trouble was, the truth will out. At times, it seemed like the more dark clothes she wore, the more colorful creatures sprang up around her. All that frustrated energy must have manifested itself in festoons of flowers and hearts at the slightest provocation, which Tiffany figured was her cross to bear.

But today was going to be different. For the first time since she had her tender heart trampled on, she felt unreservedly like herself. And strangely, that meant shedding her ebony exoskeleton for the first time in what felt like the first time. There were still little places where she wanted to cling to habit, and the eye makeup was one.

Turning to her bed, a sea of pastels seemed to beckon with a new kind of freshness. Aurora had given Tiffany consent to raid her closet—on the condition that she not alter anything permanently, which posed a minor quandary.

Their figures were quite different. Aurora was tall and enjoyed ample curves, which meant some pieces hung a bit over Tiffany’s pixyish frame. She’d never especially envied either of her more buxom roommates—she was perfectly happy with her figure—but it did make her present situation tricky.

“There has to be something,” she muttered to herself, rummaging through a pile of textured, vintage skirt suits. Tiffany wanted to look good for Rhys’s proposal, and dressing like a secretary from the sixties was not the look she was aiming for. She just wanted to add a splash of color, not reinvent herself.

And there, under a smart, mauve blazer, the perfect blouse called to her. It was simple, with clean lines, in a rich pink that lent a bit of glow to her pale skin. Thankfully, it wasn’t sheer, so there wouldn’t be too much issue with her black bra. Going braless felt too brazen, under the circumstances. Shrugging into it, she waited until it was fully buttoned and tucked into her skirt before turning to the mirror to confirm how bad she looked.

Oh my god.

Tiffany couldn’t believe how freaking radiant she looked. After hiding her light under a bushel for so long, even the tiniest bit of color made her blaze with a fire that took her own breath away, and she clearly wasn’t given to vanity. In light of the woman looking back at her, she suddenly felt inspired.

Retrieving a makeup wipe, she faced herself, and with a decisive swipe, cleared away the black eyeliner that had become her trademark... and her mask. Not content to let her look go completely, she settled on a rich blue eyeliner that made her sparkle. All told, she felt suspiciously like a butterfly emerging from a midnight cocoon.

Thanks to the disparity in the size of Aurora’s clothes, she held onto some of her old aesthetic. Even so, the cute black flare hem pencil skirt she chose only made the blouse pop even more. The purple streaks in her dyed black hair sprang to life, and she knew she looked exactly the way she wanted for a night she would remember for the rest of her life.

“Whoa,” Kelly cried from the couch as Tiffany descended the steps. “That’s new!”

“Thought I’d try something different,” Tiffany answered bashfully, though her insides glowed with confidence.

“Good idea. With none of your little kittens and shit around, you were gonna need a splash of color.”

The words caught Tiffany short. “What?”

“Just sayin’,” Kelly shrugged. “I don’t know