The Ex Hex

Nine years later, Rhys returns to his home village, Dweniniaid, in Wales. He owns a travel agency and was just in New Zealand. As he walks down High Street to the pub, people cross to the other side of the road to avoid him. His brother Llewellyn owns the pub and is their father’s favorite. Their other brother, Bowen, “fucked off to the mountains of Snowdonia” years ago and has not visited since. Llewellyn says the bad weather over the village is the result of their father’s latest bad mood. As Rhys walks to their family home, Penhaven Manor, he recalls the many storms provoked by his father’s near-constant irritation with him. He wonders if the manor itself, set against a hillside surrounded by dark trees, would seem “lighter” if his mother were still alive.

Rhys meets his father, Simon, in the library. Simon announces his decision to send Rhys to Glynn Bedd—also known as Graves Glen, the town in Georgia where Vivi lives—to represent the Penhallow family during the Founder’s Day celebrations. Their ancestor, Gryffud Penhallow, founded the town “in a spot where the veil was weak and magic was strong” (22). Rhys must also strengthen the ley lines that magically power the town. Rhys returns to the pub to see Llewellyn, who does his best to quell Rhys’s anxieties about possibly seeing Vivi.

Vivi is now a history professor at Penhaven College in Graves Glen, and she uses magic to detect plagiarism in her students’ work. Her colleague and friend Ezichi nearly catches her using the spell, but Vivi distracts her with a gift of bath salts homemade by her Aunt Elaine. Vivi recalls her decision to earn her master’s degree in “regular, human history” instead of the more “secretive” classes meant for educating young witches. Vivi teaches humans, not witches, and though she does not regret her decision, she does wonder if studying and teaching magic would have been less work. Vivi joins Gwyn and Elaine for dinner. Gwyn is frustrated by near-constant text messages about the Founder’s Day celebration from the new mayor, Jane. Gwyn and Jane have a past sexual relationship, and Elaine suggests that Jane still has feelings for Gwyn. Jane does not know Gwyn is a witch. One text from Jane stuns Gwyn: It says a representative of the Penhallow family will be in town for Founder’s Day.

Gwyn and Vivi go upstairs to speak privately. Vivi admires a set of tarot cards Gwyn hand-painted, and she privately thinks that if her own mother had spoken openly about their status as witches when she was a child, she might have embraced her powers the way Gwyn and Elaine do. Gwyn does a tarot reading for Vivi, and the first card is The Fool, for which Gwyn used Rhys’s likeness as a model. The second card is The Magician, which Gwyn interprets as a sign of bad luck: Rhys is surely the Penhallow representative. The remaining three cards are The Star, modeled on Vivi; The Tower, showing Elaine’s cabin split by lightning; and The Moon, a werewolf. Despite the cards saying “yes,” Vivi reasons Rhys will not even be in Graves Glen long enough for them to see one another.

Rhys has a string of bad luck as he journeys to Graves Glen. His flight is long, he has trouble finding a rental car, traffic is bad, he gets a speeding ticket as soon as he crosses the town line, and he gets a flat tire halfway up the hill to his family’s home. Rhys tries to reinflate the tire, but it swells to twice its usual size. When he attempts to float the spare out of the trunk, it hurtles off into the distance. Rhys sees a car’s headlights approaching and waves his arms to get the driver’s attention. The car drifts directly toward him, and Rhys falls down the hillside to avoid being hit. The driver exits the vehicle, apologizing repeatedly, and Rhys is stunned to realize it is Vivi. She has not recognized him yet, and as she comes down the hillside to help him, Vivi claims the steering wheel locked up and she could not brake. She trips over Rhys, elbowing him sharply in the crotch. Rhys tries to make small talk, but Vivi has little patience for it. She leaves him on the side of the road and continues driving home.