you love the most,” my grandmother said. “What would you do to protect them? What would you do to save them? Put those feelings into the potion. Call them in to aid in your work.”
Ethan immediately popped into my mind. I focused on how defensive I was of him, how much I wanted to save him, and put that into the spell. The mixture turned so black, it was nearly like looking into the night.
“Very good,” Faylin praised. “We’ll make an Unseelie out of you yet.”
“I’ve got it, Babcia.” She insisted I call her Babcia now— Malovian for grandma.
Vocheck wanted me to call him Bapa. I stuck with it, because it didn’t feel as formal as their real names, and I liked the idea of having a close family. Arthur watched nearby, eyes huge behind his glasses as he observed me pull off the intense spell.
The spell was to provide protection for my dorm room. I was damn sick and tired of people breaking in my room and trying to kill me. With this mixture of salt, cloves, vinegar, faeseed, and Unseelie magic, mixed together and applied to my door frame, no one would be able to enter my dorm if they had ill intentions, so long as I remembered to reapply it every new moon. I finished stirring the pot, and sat back to let it sit for a moment.
The fattest, oldest dog I’d ever seen ambled into the living room. He was huge, with white fur and pointed ears. I think he rolled rather than walked. His big paws smacked on the floor, and his tail wagged as he sniffed my sweater.
“Who’s this big guy? I didn’t see him the last time I came over.” I held out a hand, and the dog licked my fingers. He had big black eyes that immediately warmed my heart.
“He was sleeping in the bedroom, lazy thing.” Bapa reached over and gave the dog a pat on the head.
“Do you have a cat?” I asked.
“Faeries don’t like cats. We enjoy dogs. Especially white ones,” Babcia said. She reached into her apron and tossed Puck a treat.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen a single cat at Arcanea University… or in Dolinska, for that matter. Were they unheard of here in Malovia?
“Cats are the pets of filthy witches.” Bapa wrinkled his nose. “Felines don’t much appreciate our kind. Cats aren’t loyal. Not like old Puck, here.”
Puck. Ethan would’ve liked that name.
I drew my attention back to the spell. It’d cooled in mere minutes. I used the ladle to pour the mixture into a vial, capping it with a cork. I slipped the mixture into my bag, to put on my door for later.
“Don’t get caught with that on school grounds,” Arthur warned. “Not even Lady Magdalina will be able to defend you.”
“I’m aware.” I had plenty of experience hiding Unseelie objects. I’d renewed the apple branch spell to protect me from curses that I learned last semester, and always carried one with me.
“Wands are the worst,” Babcia added. “Stay away from such wretched things.”
“I thought wands were an Unseelie object?” I asked. Kiara had told me such, long ago.
“That’s a misconception. Wands can be used by Unseelie fae, but we don’t like them. They’re mostly used by witches and warlocks to banish fae. Wands are one of the few magical items that has any power over our magic,” Babcia explained.
“Crystals are what we prefer. They’re a natural object that comes from the earth, and as faeries, we love and respect nature,” Bapa said. “Much of the propaganda against Unseelie fae compares them to the Miriamic Coven.”
I didn’t get the hate against witches. As far as I could tell, the reason the fae despised them was the Miriamic Coven could handle— and even stop— our illusion magic, when the other magical races couldn’t.
In my opinion, it was good to level the playing field. If the fae were too powerful, people like Elijah would already be running the world. Not that it stopped the bastard from trying, anyway.
As I sat on the chair by the fire, I let out a heavy sigh. Babcia wiped her hands off with her apron. “Something’s on your mind. Spill it out.”
Babcia had little time for tact. I appreciated that about her. With Arthur eyeing me, I said, “The competition’s this weekend, and I want to do well, so I can go on to compete at the European final.”