not getting any sleep tonight.
“Okay, that book, Darkest Sorrow, popped up recently, didn’t it?” Gina asked, knowing damned well it had.
“That’s the rumor. Some say it fell into the hands of Chris Gordon and his people,” Britta said. Something about the way she said it gave me the impression that she had firsthand knowledge of it. I tried to remember how she and her family knew Chris, but nothing came to me.
Mack leaned over to me. “It was found in the Carolinas and Chris took it away to hide it,” he whispered. Matthew, the closest were beside Justin, looked our way and gave the slightest of nods, as if to confirm what Mack had said. Interesting how many kids in this room had firsthand knowledge of the book.
“Okay, well that’s all pretty fascinating, but let’s not spend the whole class speculating on this case. Let’s talk about any other news bites you’ve come across,” Gina said. “Anyone?”
T.J. raised his hand, speaking at her nod. “I saw an article about how team or product names with the word devil in it are being changed for the most part. Like a minor league hockey team in Albany and those snack things. The article said that with demons being real, people avoid anything named like them.”
“Interesting, T.J. What was fiction became too real to ignore. Anything else?” Gina asked.
“All kinds of anti-vampire and werewolf charms are popping up for sale on the Internet,” another kid I didn’t know added. He looked stoned.
“Yes, Jack, I’ve seen some of those myself. What about the alarm companies hocking new and improved thermal detectors that are supposed to pick up both vampires and weres? Have you seen those ads?” Gina asked.
“One wonders how they are able to make such claims without proper testing?” Katrina asked from her position just behind me and one row over. She had sat down there as class started, giving me a nod before turning her attention to her phone. She seemed to always end up near our little group.
“Yeah, I read some of the technical specs, and deep in the fine print are disclaimers that the units were tested with objects both warmer and cooler than ninety-eight point six, but not with real supernaturals,” Gina said with a nod. “So, some society changes have happened very fast. Some will be slower.”
A hand went up, a brown-haired girl who might be one of the psychometric kids, the ones who could read objects and find out a lot about whoever had last handled it. I was pretty sure they all had jobs waiting for them with Oracle, as they would make fantastic investigators.
“Yes Jillian?”
“This is off topic, but what’s the point of most of us going to the Wytchwar class? I mean, if we can’t run avatars?” the girl asked.
“Well, Ms. O’Carroll fully intends that all of you will be able to run avatars, even the non-magical. She has suggested that a certain Earth witch will be building… I guess mini-golems would be the word. How about it, Declan? She said to ask you about Robbie?”
I felt myself flush instantly. Ashling was fighting dirty. “Yes ma’am, I’ve made some before that answered to voice commands, but that might get noisy and confusing here. I have some ideas about changing my formula that I could try out,” I said, hoping to avoid any more conversation about Robbie.
“Who is Robbie? Your dirt sex doll?” Delwood asked. The whole class laughed. I had to laugh, too.
“Just a golem I made,” I said.
“Jest a golem, he says?” Ryanne said. “Not a thing to it, is there?” she asked. “Like any old witch would be making them.”
She was right: making golems was tricky and required a lot of power, at least for the big ones.
“He took a while, but the little ones shouldn’t be awful hard to do,” I said.
“And jest how big was he, if ye don’t mind me asking?” Ryanne asked, one eyebrow arched, giving her question several meanings, most of which made the class laugh.
“Seven, maybe seven-and-a-half feet tall. Never weighed him, but we thought he was five or six hundred pounds.”
Ryanne’s eyes narrowed as she studied me, like she was trying to figure out if I was lying. “Ye went and made a giant golem? What for, and how could ye hide him?”
“I did it the summer my aunt put me in charge of the firewood supply. I could use the chainsaw and splitting maul, but we didn’t have a tractor or ATV to haul