He looked at me and I touched the floor. The door unlocked and opened itself to reveal Jetta, who was giving the door a wary look, and behind her, Caeco.
“Hey, how ya doing?” Jetta asked. I shrugged, then looked at Caeco. She seemed nervous and… weird.
“Are you healing satisfactorily?” Caeco asked awkwardly, sounding like she had when we first met.
I nodded, watching her. Her eyes were jumping around, looking everywhere but at mine.
“He’s hungry, though. I’m gonna get the kitchen to make him a bunch of stuff,” Mack said, attempting to bridge the awkwardness. His sister gave Caeco a funny glance, then smiled at me.
“That’s a great idea. We’ll see you downstairs, Mack,” Jetta said.
“Yes, let’s go get Declan’s food,” Caeco said, turning and just about running out of the room. Her roommate looked after her in disbelief before turning back to me and giving me a little wave goodbye.
I wrote on my pad and showed it to Mack. WTF?
“Don’t know, dude, but that was weird. She was acting all squirrelly right after the fight. Jetta will know what’s going on. I’ll find out at dinner.”
She looked embarrassed. She’s embarrassed that I got beat up so fast and so easily.
“That was bullshit. Nobody faults you for getting smacked by a gargantuan werewolf who is three times faster and stronger than any of us. Especially when that dick Jenks blocked your powers. Trust me, Jetta and I know how tough they are, and if you don’t kill them, they just Change and heal everything up and you’re screwed. Caeco’s gotta know that,” Mack said.
Caeco beat him easily and then her boyfriend got bitchsmacked. She’s embarrassed of me.
I put the pad down and rolled toward the wall. The lights flickered a bit while I struggled with my emotions.
“Well, I don’t believe that. But you rest and I’ll go score you some really good stuff,” he said, sounding a little weirded out. I’d kept the magic to a minimum till now, but that was over. This morning had ended my time of hiding who and what I was.
I was locking and warding the door every time it closed, so I opened it for him.
“Okay, now you’re freaking me out. Do you always do this much magicky stuff?”
I rolled back and grabbed the pad. No. But it hurts to move and I won’t get caught again—period.
“Yeah. I feel ya. Jetta and I vowed something of the sort when our parents died. Don’t mind me, I’m just trying to get used to the fact that my roommate is the male version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”
A thought occurred to me. I’m not scaring you, am I?
“No, not really, but you’ve got this dark mood thing going on which is totally understandable. It’s just I’ve finally realized that despite the Mr. Normal Dude act, you are actually, really truly a witch. And you seem a lot… I don’t know… stronger than I thought warlocks were supposed to be.”
Yeah, well stay tuned. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
“Okay, not making me feel better. Just heal up and stay in one spot, okay? I’ll get some good shit from the cooks and come back up.”
I nodded at him and he slipped out. I let him get partway down the hall before I ordered the door closed and locked. Then I reached under my bed and pulled out my empty suitcase. Only it wasn’t really empty. Just spelled to look that way. In a little cloth compartment where a normal traveler might keep underwear and socks was a hand-bound book. My mother’s grimoire, given to me on my sixteenth birthday by my aunt. It was enormously valuable in its own right—the personal spell book of the greatest of Ireland’s modern witches. But Mom was a Fire and Earth witch like me, and her spells were all especially valuable to someone with the same affinities.
Aunt Ash had given it to me with one stipulation… I wasn’t to read the final five chapters until she gave me permission. It was an on-your-honor type of promise, but I had abided by it faithfully ever since. Till now.
Drawing a short, painful breath, I opened the book to the last section and looked at the tidy cursive writing. Most of it was in Gaelic, which I could generally figure out, with a few notes in English here and there. The chapter title I understood instantly: cath draíochta—Battle Magic.
Settling down, I started to read my mother’s words, seeing my way forward with sudden clarity. College Arcane