Katherine Webber - The Revelry

For Fay and Janou, my oldest friends.
Thank you for a childhood spent wandering in the woods of our imagination.

Seven trees for seven wishes

Seven hearts for seven kisses

Seven deaths for seven dreams

Seven stitches in seven seams

Try to jump from six to eight

Because seven is where youll meet your fate

UNKNOWN , The Fate of Seven

I am a girl from Ember Grove, and these are my woods.

I grew up with the dark woods as my playground. Hide-and-seek among the trees. Play pretend on the lake shore. I know every root and bramble, thorn and stone.

But there are parts of the woods I would never go to alone.

Tonight is different.

Tonight is the Revelry.

Tonight the woods are ours for the taking.

The Revelry is more than a party: the Revelry can change your entire future.

Ember Grove is a town fuelled by rumours and superstition. Local myths and half-forgotten fables and the Revelry is the most important of them all.

A night to change your destiny.

To find out if Ember Grove will let you go or keep hold of you forever.

Not me. I, Bitsy Clark, am going to get out of Ember Grove. Like my brother Harvey did. Hes at Cobalt University down the coast. We dont hear from him much when people leave, they dont tend to come back, even to visit but I think hes happy down at Cobalt.

Who wouldnt be happier away from our small town, where secrets and success battle for space? Where the woods listen to every whisper?

Where one party can change everything?

The events of each Revelry are a closely guarded secret, kept between that years attendees. Nobody talks about their Revelry, there are no photos, no official guest list, no proof of anything that happens. Of course, whispers slither out, rumours spread and stories from Revelries gone by turn to local legend. Like one year, supposedly flowers bloomed between kissing couples all night long. And then everyone started to believe that when you have your first kiss, and it is with someone who likes you back, something green will grow. Amy agonized over this one, because she lives in an apartment with no green space at all, but then, and Im telling the truth, the week after she kissed Mark Lee during spin the bottle, a little dandelion sprout appeared on her windowsill. A Revelry rule that spilled out into town and lasted longer than one night. It happens all the time.

The Revelry is meant to be just for the graduating high-school class, no exceptions. It happens every year, almost by magic, all the adults turning the other way, as if its not for them to worry about. Everyone in town knows when it is, and even though there are whispers of what could happen, what has happened in years past, what will happen, nobody tries to stop it. Trying to stop the Revelry would be like trying to stop the seasons from changing. It is just as much a part of Ember Grove as the woods themselves.

It isnt my year. Im sixteen and shouldnt be going for another two summers

Apparently Amy has other plans.

Amys my best friend. She has been since she moved to Ember Grove eight years ago, when we were eight, and our own Revelry felt like a lifetime away.

Just like Ember Grove doesnt like to let go of its inhabitants, it doesnt always welcome new ones. But I saw this new girl, standing in front of the class with her head high and secrets clutched tight to her chest, and I knew I wanted to be her friend. So I grabbed her hand and I pulled her deep into Ember Grove. Shed never belong like I did, of course, but I did everything I could. I showed her the woods, showed her the town, made sure she felt welcome. Made her an Ember Grove girl in everything but birth.

The night I told her about the Revelry we were sleeping in a tent out in the apple orchard behind my house. The only light was from my little flashlight, propped up at the front of the tent by our feet. It was cold, colder than it should have been for a summer night.

I told her about the Revelry the same way I told her the story about Mrs Glen found dead on her porch, surrounded by nine snowy white owls. In a hushed voice, awe and fear mingling in my voice, I told her everything I knew about the magic party in the woods, which wasnt much, just stolen whispers and local legends.

And Amy became obsessed.

Ever since, shes tried to find out what day it falls, exactly where it happens what happens. All we know is that its near the end of summer, before the new school year starts.

And that its in the woods.

Once, when we were around nine, and still having sleepovers in the tent in the apple orchard, we saw people stumbling out of the woods at dawn. Two girls were laughing, high-pitched almost hysterical giggles, but one boy, I could have sworn he was bleeding. And the strangest thing was they were all wearing wings. Costume wings, the kind you slip over your shoulders and the fake feathers moult in minutes, but as they came out of the woods, for a moment I thought those wings were real. And we knew, we knew they had come from the Revelry. We watched them in silence, waiting for a hint, a clue to what had happened.

But they didnt notice us at all.

A girl disappeared that year. Florence Lonsdale. She went to the Revelry and never came back. But nobody talked about where she went. About what had happened. Or if they did, we never heard a word.

The next year, the Revelry happened again. Like it always does.

And this year, Amy is determined to go. Shes been set on this since the seasons changed, even though it isnt our Revelry, even though she knows that wanting to isnt enough.

I keep telling her this and Im ready to tell her again, but then she pulls out her trump card.

Ive got an invite. Amy holds out a Revelry invitation. Its the first time, ever, that shes known something about Ember Grove before me.

That isnt how they do it, I scoff. But Im not sure. Maybe it is. Im dismissive on purpose. I know more about the Revelry than Amy, surely. But maybe Im wrong: maybe this is how it is done.

We might as well try, she says, giving me a sly smile. Unless youre scared.

Im not scared, I say quickly. But someones playing a prank on you. No way is that legit. But still. I take the invite out of her hands like it might go up in flames at any moment.

Its a small white card cut from thick, expensive paper that smells like the woods. And embossed on one side it says:

Your Presence is Requested at

THE REVELRY

Dress code: Decadent Dionysian Bacchanalia

Location: Lake Lost

Time: Midnight

And on the other side tomorrows date is handwritten in gold ink, as fine as lace. I delicately run my fingers over the writing, as if I could magically tell who had written it by mere touch. My fingers come away wet and flecked with gold: the ink still isnt dry. My heart begins to hammer in my chest.

Where did you even find this? I say. Did you write the date?

Amys grin widens. Of course I didnt write the date. And as for the invite itself, I found it.

Where? I demand.

By the Founders Fountain, she says. And I dont know why, but I shudder.

Even if it is real, it isnt for you, I counter. It isnt for us. Invite or no invite, we cant go. The very thought makes my skin feel tight. If you find a set of keys on a lawn, you dont get to let yourself into a strangers house, sleep in their bed and put on their clothes.