“It’s time, Maria. We need to go downstairs and join Lúcia and Amada.”

“You’re right, Zita. Let’s go.”

My heart was beating fast.

I was nervous and excited, but there was something else too. An energy I didn’t recognise. I could feel it around me, almost touching my skin. It scared me, but at the same time it fascinated me in a way I had never felt before.

When we went downstairs, Lúcia and Amada were already waiting for us.

“Maria, tonight is a special night. We celebrate Walpurgis Night. We have quite a long way to walk before we arrive at the celebration. Are we all ready, girls?”

Then Lúcia looked directly at Zita.

“Including you, Zita?”

Zita smiled.

And this time, when she answered, everybody heard her.

“Yes, I am ready. Tonight is my night.”

I looked at her.

She seemed pleased with herself, but before I could ask what she meant, Lúcia opened the door.

We walked into the forest.

It was completely dark, yet somehow I could see perfectly where I was stepping.

After a long time, the trees finally opened into a large clearing.

I stopped.

A gigantic bonfire stood in the middle, waiting to be lit. Long tables were covered with food and drinks, and there were people everywhere.

So many people.

All dressed in white.

Women and men.

They were talking, laughing, drinking.

They looked beautiful.

Almost too beautiful beneath the moonlight.

“Girls, wait here. Including you, Zita,” Lúcia said.

We stayed hidden between the trees while Lúcia walked towards a raised wooden platform.

The moment she stepped onto it, every conversation stopped.

The silence came so quickly that it made me uncomfortable.

“Coven, welcome to one of the most special nights of the year, when we celebrate our existence, our freedom, our power and our Master.”

Nobody moved.

“Many, many years ago, long before any of us were born, Walpurgis Night was already celebrated. The night between the last day of April and the first morning of May was believed to be different from every other night of the year. A night when the distance between worlds became smaller, when the dead could come closer to the living and those who usually remained unseen could finally be seen.”

Everyone listened.

“For centuries, people feared this night. They lit fires to keep witches away. They prayed behind closed doors, rang church bells and called anything they could not understand evil.”

A few people smiled.

“But while they feared us, we celebrated.”

Lúcia looked around at the coven.

“We celebrated those who came before us. Our freedom. Our power. Our existence. We remembered the witches who died, the witches who survived and those who continued what others tried to destroy.”

Her eyes moved towards the unlit bonfire.

“Tonight, the living and the dead celebrate together. Tonight there are no barriers between us.”

She paused.

“But tonight is even more special because…”

Lúcia turned towards us.

Then she lifted her hand.

It was our signal.

Amada stepped forward first.

Zita grabbed my hand.

She looked even more beautiful than usual. Darker somehow, although she was smiling.

We walked into the clearing.

The moment people saw me, everybody froze.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody smiled.

They simply stared.

At me.

For what felt like forever, the entire coven remained completely silent.

Then people began looking at one another.

One smile appeared.

Then another.

And suddenly the clearing exploded.

Applause.

Cheers.

People raised their glasses towards me. Some laughed. Some hugged each other. Others were calling things I could not understand because everybody seemed to be speaking at once.

The happiness around me was almost overwhelming.

I looked at Amada.

“What is happening?”

She smiled but did not answer.

Neither did Zita.

Lúcia raised both hands.

“Coven!”

Silence returned immediately.

I had never seen so many people become quiet so quickly.

“Today is the beginning of a new era.”

“And to celebrate it, Maria will light the bonfire.”

My stomach tightened.

“Maria, please.”

Lúcia held out a torch.

I stared at it for a moment before taking it from her.

The moment the torch touched my hand, I knew.

I lowered the torch.

The fire caught immediately.

It travelled.

From the bottom upwards, flames climbing through the wood faster than any fire should have moved, until the entire bonfire burned in front of me.

For a few seconds there was no smoke.

Only fire.

I stepped backwards.

And then I saw them.

At first I thought the heat was making the air move strangely.

Shapes appeared between the flames.

Women.

So many women.

Some young.

Some old.

Some dressed in clothes I had never seen before.

They moved through the fire without burning.

Witches.

Spirits.

Then men began appearing among them too.

People who had been dead for years, perhaps hundreds of years, together again as though death had only been somewhere they had gone for a while.

They laughed.

They embraced.

They danced above the flames.

Some flew higher and came down again, reaching for one another, celebrating as if they had been waiting all year for this single night.

Then they saw Zita.

The witches rushed towards her.

They surrounded her so quickly that for a moment I could barely see her.

They hugged her.

Kissed her.

Touched her face and hair.

Some laughed while others seemed to cry.

They celebrated her as though she had done something extraordinary.

Zita laughed.

I had never seen so many people celebrating one person.

“Zita?”

She looked down at me through the flames.

Her smile told me she knew exactly why they were there.

I didn’t.

Then something behind the fire caught my attention.

Seven thrones.

The one in the middle was the most beautiful of them all.

Seven men sat on them.

I could see their bodies.

Their clothes.

The way they sat.

But no matter how hard I tried, I could not properly see their faces.

They looked powerful.

Two of them leaned towards one another and whispered something.

Another continued watching the celebration.

But the man sitting in the middle looked directly at me.

I knew he was looking at me even though I could not see his eyes.

Nobody around me seemed surprised that they were there.

The man lifted the chalice he had been drinking from.

He raised it towards me.

A greeting.

Something inside me responded before I could think.

I smiled.

And bowed.

The moment I did, heat rushed through my body.

It surrounded my head, travelled down my neck and through my chest until every part of me felt awake.

Alive.

Happy.

Strangely, impossibly happy.

My thoughts became faster.

Everything around me became clearer.

I could feel the people at the celebration.

Their intentions.

Admiration.

A man beside her.

Curiosity.

Someone farther away.

Jealousy.

Love.

Fear.

Excitement.

They wanted to come closer.

They wanted to speak to me.

Some wanted to touch me.

But nobody did.

They were waiting.

For permission.

I looked towards the seven men again.

I tried to feel the one sitting in the middle.

Nothing.

My smile disappeared.

Everyone else around me had suddenly become so easy to understand.

But from him, I felt nothing at all.

“Amada.”

She came closer.

“Do you see them?”

I pointed towards the spirits above the bonfire.

“Yes, Maria.”

“Tonight everybody can see each other.”

I watched two witches spinning through the fire while another kissed Zita’s forehead.

“Why?”

Amada smiled.

“Because tonight is our night.”