You’re the best.”
It only took ten minutes, which felt like forever. Jimmy let Sammy in, then walked to his little kitchenette. “Want a beer?”
“Hell, yeah. So what’s up?”
Jimmy took his time opening the bottles. This was it. How did he start? He walked over to Sammy, who sat in one of his two rickety chairs, and put the bottle on the floor beside him. Deep breath. He plopped down on the edge of the bed. “I’m a freak.”
“I know.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.” Sammy sipped his beer, then put it back on the floor.
Jimmy took a drink before looking up at his friend. “I can do stuff. Weird stuff.”
“Oh, like whips and chains? Women’s undies?” Sammy grinned.
Okay, wise guy. “No, like this.” He focused his mind, pointed a finger, and lifted the beer from beside Sammy, making it float near his hand.
Sammy stared at it. No scream, no faint, not even a “what the fuck?”
“Why is it you don’t seem surprised?”
Sammy sighed and raised one of his hands. A book lifted from the floor beside the bed, floated awkwardly, and then fell with a thud. “Uh, I’m out of practice.”
“What the fuck?”
“I’m a weirdo too.”
Jimmy hopped up and looked at the book, then back at Sammy. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
“Hey, man, I thought I was the only freak on earth. I haven’t told anybody.”
“I’m your best friend.”
“Yeah, and now we know why.”
Jimmy sat again. “What do you mean?”
“Remember how we picked each other out at freshman orientation? Like we had radar or something? On some level we must have known we were both weirdos.”
“Freaks.”
“Yeah. We must have freakdar.”
“What in the hell does all this mean? Why can we do these things? I mean, I can make spoons dissolve, for crap’s sake.”
“Like Neo. Cool.”
“Is it cool, Sammy? Or are we sick? Do we have a disease?”
“Like a tumor that has activated unused parts of our brain?”
Jimmy pointed. “Yeah, exactly.”
“Both of us?”
“Maybe there’s some radioactive isotope at the college, and we’ve both been exposed or something.”
“The only class we take together is Witchcraft. And there’re a whole lot of other people in there too. Do you think they’re all freaks?”
“Alvin definitely.” They both laughed, which felt damned good. “Have you asked your parents?”
“No way, José. They already got six of us to put through college. Not going to add to their worries.”
“Yeah, I feel exactly the same, except for the six part. I did try to talk to Dr. Barth about it a little.”
Sammy sat forward. “No shit? What did he say?”
“He said doing unusual stuff is not that unusual. But I told him I was asking for a friend. I was kind of general. I didn’t give him a demo or anything.”
“Hey, maybe you should.”
“Ya think?”
“Hell, Jimmy. If there’s anybody who knows about strange, it’s Dr. Killian Barth.”
“Thanks, Al. That feels really good.” Killian lay on his bed as Aloysius applied more tongue therapy. He didn’t have any classes today, due to some kind of administrative meeting, so he’d been hiding out all morning. Al had managed to get him back in full working condition, and the present licking was more for his bruised soul than his back. “Why did I let him do that to me, Al?”
“Mwrar.”
“How could he have made me believe he cared for me? Why didn’t I see it? He never fooled you.”
“Mwrar.” Killian was pretty sure that meant “I’m smarter than you” in cat.
He flipped over, and Al crawled onto his chest, staring, blue eyes to blue eyes. “Maybe it’s the spell. I’ve never cast that kind of spell for myself. In other couples, of course, it affects both parties, so that must be true for me too. But Moran wasn’t the one, so why should I be clouded by the spell?”
He closed his eyes tightly. No more wussing out in front of Aloysius. “It’s pretty clear that I don’t have a true love. I’m supposed to marry Lavender and live my life as my people want. So maybe that was why I was confused.” His voice broke, and he took a deep breath. “I don’t have a true love, and I was forcing Moran to fit the mold, so I used my power… of course, to blind myself. He couldn’t convince me he loved me; I convinced myself. Gods, I feel like a human. My students do this all the time. I am such a sorry excuse for a Witch Master.” He threw an arm over his eyes.
“Mrawr.” Killian felt a small bite