which made sense. He was the teacher. “Okay, first, terminology: a clan, as you know, is a loosely connected group of witches who socialize, celebrate pagan holidays, and remain loyal and supportive to each other. In some ways clans are similar to wolf packs. Clan members may or may not be related to each other, but usually one family’s in charge.”
He paused, choosing his words carefully. “A coven is different. It’s usually a smaller group, five to thirteen witches, who actively perform spells together to accomplish a single unified goal. In theory this could be benevolent, but these days you rarely see covens get together to influence the tides to support better fishing, or the sun to promote better agriculture.”
“They get together to fuck around with dangerous magic,” Lily put in.
Simon nodded. “Boundary magic is a favorite, of course, because boundary witches are rare and death magic has that sexy sense of danger.” He gave a little eye roll. “Most of the time those covens get hooked on it, make a mistake pretty quickly, and flame out. Sometimes literally.”
“Or they don’t have access to mandragora, so they pivot and focus on getting revenge on someone’s ex or something,” Lily said.
“Exactly.”
“Are they more powerful than individual witches?” I asked.
Simon pointed at me. “Yes, and that’s just the problem. Coven members can get sort of . . .” He looked at Lily. “Would ‘toxic’ be the word?”
“More like ‘mob mentality,’” Lily said. To me, she added, “They get twisted, psychologically.”
“I don’t understand.”
Simon pursed his lips for a second. “Okay, try to think like a trades witch for a second here. Imagine you have an unhealthy obsession. Like, your ex cheated on you, and now all you can think about is revenge.”
“Um, that sounds perfectly reasonable . . .”
Simon didn’t bother to hide his smile. “Yeah, because you’d just kick the shit out of him. But not everyone can do that. Sometimes a witch gets some of her friends together and they start doing magic to hurt this guy. Small things at first—the guy gets in a fender bender, then he comes down with a rare flu. He keeps losing things. He gets fired from his job because he’s always late. It’s all manipulations from the coven. The first witch, on her own, wouldn’t be capable of spells that big, but together in a circle, they can do it.”
I nod. “Okay, I follow.”
“The problem is, this isn’t a finite goal, like trying to have good weather on X day so the crops will be ready to harvest. It’s ongoing, and eventually the coven loses control, like a fever pitch. One witch’s obsession becomes a group obsession. They do more and more powerful magic against this guy. Maybe the coven finally reaches magic that they can’t control, and it bounces back on them. Or . . .” He grimaced. “Maybe one coven member runs into this guy on the street. She’s never met him face-to-face before, but she pulls out a knife and stabs him seven times in the chest. Because the magic twisted her up with hate.”
“Um . . .” I looked back and forth between them. “That’s very specific,” I said. “Like, very specific.”
“It’s not hypothetical,” Lily said softly. “It’s a case study. And, I guess, a cautionary tale. Our mom knew the witch who led the coven, the one who actually dated the guy.”
“What happened to her?”
“She had to live with the grief of knowing she’d ruined her friend’s life, and killed a man who didn’t deserve death,” Simon answered. “She killed herself a couple of years later.”
I chewed on my lower lip for a moment, absorbing that. “If this is all common knowledge—not that specific case, but what happens to witches who do this stuff—why would anyone ever start a coven?” I asked.
“For the same reasons people always do dangerous, stupid stuff,” Simon said, with his trademark philosophical look. “Because they feel angry and powerless, and because there’s something very tempting about the forbidden.”
“Which is exactly why most clans don’t actually outlaw covens,” Lily said. “It would make them more appealing to some people.”
“And sometimes a little bit of coven magic, led by a clan leader, can be an okay thing, if it’s used to bring rain in a drought or find a lost child,” Simon added.
Lily nodded. “Good clan leaders keep an eye on their people, and if it looks like some witches are experimenting with coven stuff on their own, the clan leader has to derail it or