STRANGE NEW WORLD V5

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Chapter 9

“We’re home,” I announced from the vestibule. There had been quiet murmuring

from the dining room but it stopped at our entrance. Emma and Alex made a lot of noise

as they took their boots and coats off. Once I was free of my winter clothes, I went up the

steps to the main level and met Rose coming towards me.

Her body was tense despite her relaxed expression. She smiled at us and the

smile doubled as the twins brought our bags up the stairs with them. “Oh, good, so you

got all the stuff?” she asked.

I nodded. “I think we have everything that was on our list,” I told her. “If not, we

can go back. Or improvise.”

“Well, come on,” Rose said. The twins followed her eagerly to the dining room,

and I followed behind them. They dumped the bags on the floor by the bureau as Alex

greeted Edward and introduced Emma.

Edward sat at one end of the table, looking as if he belonged there. He smiled in

greeting and came to his feet when I entered the space. “Hello again,” he said, mostly

directed at me. I had a moment to think that maybe Alex was right about his attention

towards me. He turned to a young woman still sitting beside him. “This is Kristine

Carroway. She’s agreed to tutor you in your magic.”

Kristine got up. She was tall and slim with a love of goth clothes. She was head to

toe dressed in black, except for her light blonde hair, which seemed natural. She shook

my hand, then the twins’ hands. “It’s very nice to meet you, finally,” she said, smiling.

“Thank you,” I said, “same to you.”

They sat back down. Rose took a seat across from Kristine. Beside her, Mona sat

stiffly, looking down at the table. I was surprised she was still even there.
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The table wasn’t big enough to hold more than six people. The twins grabbed the

remaining seats, so I stayed standing beside Rose. I could have gotten a chair and

squished in, or taken Edward’s chair when he offered it, but I didn’t mind. I could see

everything much better from here.

When we were all settled, Kristine asked, looking at our bags, “Did you go

shopping for supplies?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Is that okay?”

“Yes, it definitely is,” Kristine said, smiling a little. She pointed to the bag closest

to her. “May I look at what you got?”

“Go ahead,” I said. I brought the bags closer to her.

Kristine pulled all of the stuff out and arranged them on the table in front of her.

Mona looked at some of the items and grimaced in distance. I smirked, watching her

squirm.

“I brought Kristine along because she was free today,” Edward began, telling the

twins and I what he must have told Mona and Rose before we got here. “Kris doesn’t

have a lot of experience, but the sooner you learn your magic, the better.”

Kristine nodded, still looking through the bags. “I completely agree,” she said.

She glanced up at me, then to the twins. “I can get you started on learning the basics of

your magic in the meantime. When we start with the more advanced magic, we can ask

my teacher to help and she can come over and teach all of us that magic.”

“It’s not perfect,” Edward added, “but it’s a start. All of you need to learn your

magic, as soon as possible.” His eyes lingered on Mona and I wondered if he knew that

she didn’t believe like we did that magic existed. “I also brought over copies of your
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ownership of the Forest Glen, which you can pass on to your lawyer during the week.

That should jumpstart getting your access to the investment.”

“Do you have any grimoires?” Kristine asked.

I nodded and went to my room to get them. Rose got the one she’d been looking

at and brought it to the table when I returned with the others. I wanted to hide them

when we weren’t using them. I didn’t trust Mona. She could be irrational sometimes,

and I was afraid she’d find the books and burn them before we had a chance to learn our

magic.

The dining room became a study area as Kristine talked about the spells and

rituals in the grimoires. Edward insisted that I sit in his chair, since he wasn’t a witch,

but he stayed with us while we learned. He could have gone back to work, I supposed,

but he seemed just as interested in our magic as we were.

Well, with the exception of Mona. Mona had taken out one of her law textbooks

and was trying, very stubbornly, to read them while Kristine talked. I could see Kristine

was a little annoyed with that. Hell, I was more than annoyed about it. But short of

kicking Mona in the shins, which I did every so often, there was nothing we could do to

get her to pay attention.

We broke up for a late lunch. Rose insisted that I pull out an extra chair for

Edward so that he could stay. He sat his chair between mine and Emma’s. “Did your

sisters like the dessert?” he asked quietly.

I nodded. “Yeah, they did,” I said. “Thanks for it, by the way. We don’t often have

dinner out because we can’t afford it.”

He smiled. “You don’t need to thank me,” he said. “I’m glad I can help, even if in a

minor way. I feel like I should have found you girls sooner.”
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It reminded me of what Peggy said, so I asked, “Do you know Peggy Gallagher?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I do. Have you met her?” I nodded. “She’s very nice, and she’s

a great witch. She’s actually Kristine’s teacher, but since she was working today, I didn’t

want to bother her.”

I relaxed, hearing that. I was going to ask something else when Emma opened her

mouth, her voice coming out as a hesitant squeak. “Um, sir,” she began, and Edward

turned to her, “do you know why we would be in danger? Peggy said that if she had of

known that Grandma had hidden our magic from us, she wouldn’t have allowed her to

do that. Everyone seems to think that we’re in danger for the five of us being born.”

Alex chimed in from across the table. “Yeah, I don’t understand that either,” she

said. “Why on earth would anyone get so upset about not being able to have more kids?

I’m sure Grandma felt like shipping some of us off if she could.”

I laughed at that, and so did Edward, but I think Kristine had to force her laugh

out. “I have a feeling that the person who said that was one of the kids she wanted to

ship off,” I said, smirking at Alex.

She frowned at me. “You know what I mean.”

I resisted the urge to pick on her and said, “I noticed that Peggy felt like she’d

missed out on having kids.” I looked at Kristine. “And I’m sure you feel the same way.”

Her eyes widened. “Am I right?”

Kristine took a deep breath and said, “I’ve had four miscarriages since I started

trying to get pregnant. I’m not even sleeping with a witch either. I’m with a shifter, and

he’s more fertile than I am. There’s something about our magic that kills our offspring.”

My blood chilled at her expression. “I’m sure the five of you will find out how it feels

soon enough.” She took another deep breath. “And you’re right, Peggy doesn’t have any
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kids. Her body is past that stage already, but she tried many times, unsuccessfully, when

she was younger. But for you, the danger is more than your blood.”

Edward cut in, his voice hard. “They do not need to know.”

I turned to him, glaring. Edward matched my glare with his own. “Of course we

do,” I said evenly. “We have a right to know why we are in danger when no one else

seems to be.”

“We’re supernaturals,” Kristine said, “we’re always in danger. And normals are in

more danger than they suspect. Life is always a battle.”

I looked back at Edward. He was still glaring at me, as if trying to force me to

move on. Alex looked annoyed, but was trying to hold it in. Emma had stiffened and was

trying to be as small as possible. But Mona’s reaction surprised me. Instead of her head

bent down over her book, trying to ignore us, she was looking around at all of us,

Edward and Kristine especially, with an interested expression.

“Weren’t our parents political?” Mona asked. Everyone turned to her. The twins

were surprised and confused. Despite the effort of Edward’s glaring, she didn’t back

down. “I remember when we were younger, when they were still alive, Mom and Dad

would talk about meetings and protests. I always wondered what they were protesting.

They never told us, and Grandma wouldn’t answer my questions when I asked.”

I nodded. “I remember some of that too,” I said. “I remember finding flyers in

Dad’s study about a protest that was coming up. He caught me and locked the flyers in

his cabinets.” I turned to Edward, who had gone still. “Was it because of you? Because

shifters can have more children than witches? It seems a bit lame, but—”

“That’s not it,” Kristine said. She glanced at Edward before continuing. “The

protests are every month on the full moon. I didn’t know your parents personally, but
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from what I understand they were quite active, politically. Protesters gather at the

hinterland’s offices and protest the loopholes in the Civil Rights Bill.

“See, for the longest time, witches were a ruling class within the supernatural

world. Everyone had to worship the witches, and if you weren’t one, you were

considered a freak by them. During that time, shifters were considered slaves. They had

no rights and they had to work almost day and night for the witches because they were

seen as less than witches. Eventually, the shifters began a rebellion and revolted against

the witches, forcing them to come up with the Civil Rights Bill. But that Bill subtly hid

many loopholes, and everyone was ignorant of it until the ‘60s, when the normals began

their revolutionary wave of activism. The loopholes came to light, and the two species

have been on uneven terms since then.”

In a firm voice intended for Edward, she added, “I’m a shifter supporter. We may

not be human, but each species needs it rights in order to survive, and witches have

enough rights as it is. But these days, there have been a lot of unease amongst witches.

Several shifters have been convicted of witch killings, and many witches are asking the

Council, the supernatural government for all of North America, to revoke the Bill and

make shifters less than... them, again.”

We gawked at her. Rose, who had come to the entrance of the kitchen, was also

staring at her. “So this is about race?” I asked. I shook my head.

“No, race is something the normals created,” Edward said. “A witch and a shifter

can have the same ‘race’, as normals call it, but we’re different species. This is about

species, and whose is better.”

I looked at him closely. His jaw and fists were clenched and he wasn’t looking at

anyone. “Were you one of their slaves?” I asked quietly.

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He seemed to jump. He took a deep breath. “I was lucky that I was made a shifter

shortly before the Bill came into being. I spent a decade perhaps as a slave for a witch

family down in the States. But now I am free man.” He looked at me. “And I intend to

stay that way.”

His look was intended to make me back down, but I looked back at him and said,

“I don’t blame you.”

He relaxed a little. He broke his stare from mine and looked around at all of us.

“I’m sorry,” he said, meaning it, “I’m not usually this hostile about our species’

relations.”

Rose disappeared back into the kitchen. I felt a headache start at the back of my

head as I listened to her movements in the kitchen. I thought about everything we’d just

been told and said, “So, our parents were political and shifter supporters. That would be

the real reason why they would have many enemies in the witch community, right?”

Both Edward and Kristine nodded. “So, really, the people we have to protect ourselves

from would be the witches.” I paused. “You’re right, we need all the help we can get.

Because if the racial relations in the human side of the world is any indication, we may

find ourselves in the crossfire. I know people of colour have been given rights, but even

I, a white person, can see that there are still limits to those rights.”

...

We ate in silence. Mona ate quickly and took her plate to the kitchen before

disappearing downstairs. When she came back up, she announced that she was going to

work. She took off with my car again. I didn’t fight this time but just nodded and

continued eating as she went out the door.

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Rose began clearing the table and Kristine offered to help her. In the ensuing

cacophony, Emma moved to Mona’s spot and Edward brought his chair back to where

I’d got it from. He sat in Emma’s old spot and I moved back to my original position,

breathing a bit easier.

I caught Alex looking at me. She smiled and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. I

glared at her. She laughed quietly.

When the others got back to their spots, Kristine announced, “We’ll start

practicing some magic now. We’ll start with basic protection spells and work upwards,

that way, before you learn the rest of your magic, you can protect yourself. We’ll run

through the layout of the spells first, then we should find a space to practice in.” She

turned to Rose. “Is there a space big enough for practice here? Should we use the living

room?”

“We have a den downstairs,” Rose told her. “We can move the furniture around

and it’ll be big enough.”

“Great,” Kristine said, smiling. She opened our grandmother’s grimoire and

flipped through it to the spells she wanted. She picked out three spells: a basic

protection spell, an invisibility spell, and a lock spell. She spoke the spells slowly,

making her pronunciation clear, before having us repeat those spells. All three were in

languages that we couldn’t understand, and only one of them was Latin. But they were

short spells, and soon we easily pronounced them.

Edward jumped as we heard clicks resound through the house. We stopped

saying the spells and looked at him and Kristine. Kristine was looking around the table

at us, her eyes wide and disbelieving. “Where did they—” she stopped herself.
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Edward looked around at us too. It was as if they couldn’t see us. I had a second

to wonder if saying the invisibility spell worked when Alex said, “Are you guys okay? You

look like you’ve seen ghosts.”

Kristine jumped and whipped around to face Alex. Alex frowned at her as if

Kristine seemed to see through her. “You guys have disappeared,” Kristine said. “I can’t

see you at all.”

“I can smell them still,” Edward said. He sniffed in my direction and I frowned at

him, though he couldn’t see it. “And I believe the locks in the house have all been

engaged.” He looked at Kristine. “I would suggest teaching them the words for the

counter-casts.”

Kristine nodded her head too quickly and began reciting the words out loud to us.

We repeated them back to her until we had the pronunciation down and the counter-

cast was cast. Kristine looked relieved when she could see us again.

“I guess we don’t need the hand gestures,” Alex said.

“Learning the hand gestures is as important as the words themselves,” Kristine

said. “When we start a spell, our bodies naturally raise energy to carry that spell

through. We use our hands to channel that energy in the direction we want it to go.

Some people don’t use hand gestures, but beginners usually need them to focus our

spells. I’m amazed that your spells worked nearly on the first try.”

“We’re quick learners,” Alex said dryly.

“Does that mean we have to skip these spells?” Emma asked.

“Not at all,” Kristine said. “You have the ability to cast them effectively. You still

need to remember them, which will take practice. And you should practice on your own,

or in pairs, just in case our presence boosted your magic.”

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“Guess we don’t need a practice space,” Alex murmured.

“Perhaps we should go downstairs,” Rose suggested. “We’ll keep practicing.”

Kristine nodded. We got up, some moving slower than others, and went

downstairs to the den, Kristine and Edward following behind. Rose asked the twins to

start moving the furniture and Edward pitched in, hefting a chair out of the way all by

himself. I admit, it was impressive. Rose and Kristine busied themselves with putting

pillows on the floor and bringing down supplies.

Now, we had a large space cleared with pillows on the floor. The twins sat

together, Rose and Kristine sat together, which left me with Edward. I had a moment of

feeling awkward as I sat down next to him. We smiled at each other, then turned to

watch Rose and Kristine murmuring to each other about one of the spells.

“We’ll do the protection spell again so that you can see what exactly it is that a

protection spell offers,” Kristine said. “There are many varieties of protection, but we’ll

focus on one solely for your own body. After casting the spell, someone will try and slap

you. And you’ll see what happens.” She grinned at us. “I’ll start first and have Rose try to

slap me. Then we’ll go around the circle.”

Rose looked hesitant to be slapping someone. Once Kristine cast the protection

spell and assured her that it was working, Rose raised her hand and stopped.

Kristine seemed to understand. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Just tap me, maybe.

Perhaps I should have said ‘slap’. Slapping might be too violent. Just try to poke me.”

Rose nodded. She took a deep breath and lowered her hand to gently tap

Kristine’s head. But an inch away, Rose’s hand stopped and she frowned.

At first, I thought Rose had flaked out again. Then I saw that Rose was putting

movement into her gesture, and yet nothing was happening.

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Rose gave a shaky laugh as she pulled her hand away. “That is so weird,” she said,

blushing. “It’s like my hand hit a wall.”

Kristine smiled. “That’s exactly what it’s supposed to be like. More powerful

protection spells can have the effect where an attacker bounces away from you, like

there is a repulsive shield covering you. But that’s what a protection spell is about. It

builds an invisible, but physical, shield to cover your body with. Anybody you don’t want

touching you won’t be able to touch you at all.”

“Cool,” Alex murmured.

It was Rose’s turn to cast the spell. When she was finished, Kristine tentatively

pushed her fingers at Rose’s arm, then harder when her hand stopped a couple inches

away. She invited me to try, and I leaned forward, pushing my whole hand against

Rose’s side.

My hand found resistance a couple inches away, like Kristine’s had had. I felt like

I was pushing up against a cool wall that felt metallic under my hand. But there was

nothing there to see, despite the resistance my hand felt. I pulled my hand back and

grinned at Rose. She smiled back.

The twins were already using their protection spells against each other. Alex kept

trying to hit Emma, to no avail. Emma would tentatively stick her finger towards Alex’s

middle, but would be stopped. Alex got up and applied her whole body to Emma, but

met resistance a couple inches away.

Even as I chided them, I laughed with them. Alex was bent over Emma, a mere

couple of inches, between her and Emma, and it was as if Alex was suspended in midair.

If Emma counter-cast at that point, Alex would have flattened Emma.

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“Are you gonna try?” Edward asked me, raising his voice to be heard. He held up

his hand and grinned. “I promise I’ll be gentle.”

I nodded and took a deep breath. I cast the spell, but I didn’t feel any different.

Kristine had seemed aware that her spell was cast, and I had to wonder how she had

known.

I gestured to Edward to touch me. He moved in closer, grinning, and tried to tap

my arm, like Kristine had done for Rose. His hand met resistance about five inches

away. He pushed and pushed, but didn’t get anywhere. I chuckled. “That is pretty cool,”

I muttered.

Edward began patting the outside of my invisible shield, all around my body. It

felt strangely intimate, and I fought not to show it. His grin disappeared as he took his

hand back to himself. “Your shield is bigger than the others,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He demonstrated by pushing his hand towards my chest. I froze, looking down at

his hand, until his hand froze too. Inches away from my body. He moved his hand

around and looked up at me. “Your resistance is five, maybe six, inches out from your

body. The others only have a couple inches.” He dropped his hand. “You’re afraid of

me.”

I stared at him. “I am?”

He nodded, but didn’t say anything more. He turned back to the rest of the group

and chuckled when Emma tried to climb on top of Alex’s shield.

I thought about telling him that I wasn’t afraid of him, that maybe that was just

how the spell worked. Or maybe I was more powerful than my sisters. My ego whooped

at the thought. But I didn’t. I said the counter-cast and turned back to the others as well.
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Rose chided the twins for being foolish and Kristine called us all back to order.

She announced that we would try the lock-spell. We all got up and followed Kristine to

the twins’ bedroom door, which she opened. I peered in around her. Half the room was

empty, and Alex’s mess was starting to spread to Emma’s vacant bed.

Kristine ignored the mess and demonstrated the lock spell. She cast, and we

watched the lock on the door engage. The twins’ room had originally been the den before

we’d moved in. Grandma had renovated the basement so that the den moved out into

the main area and the twins’ had a room to themselves. She even put a lock on the door

willingly, though as Kristine demonstrated, a lock would have been nothing if she’d

really wanted to get inside the room.

I leaned against the wall opposite the door. I thought of all the times Grandma

had forgotten her house keys at home when she went some place. I’d always wondered

how she got in the house. Then there were the times when my bedroom door was locked

at night as I went to sleep, and I woke up in the morning to find the door unlocked. I’d

always thought maybe I sleep-walked during the night and didn’t remember it, but

perhaps Grandma had unlocked it, checking on me, and forgotten to lock the door again

as she left.

I blinked away the tears and forced myself to focus on the demonstration.

Kristine asked me to try it first and I stepped up to her spot, forcing myself to look calm.

I stared down at the door lock and imagined all the times Grandma had done the same

thing. I said the spell. The lock clicked open, sticking its tongue out at me. I counter-cast

and the lock pulled its tongue back in with another click.
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Kristine congratulated me and I walked back to my spot on the wall. I noticed

Rose was looking at me curiously and would have come over if Kristine hadn’t asked her

to try it next.

As Rose tried the spell, I slipped past Edward and up the stairs. I didn’t realize he

followed me until I got into the kitchen and got a glass out for myself only to see him

standing in the entrance.

His face was blank, but his voice was gentle as he said, “Are you alright?”

I nodded quickly. “I’m fine.” I turned away from him and filled my glass with

juice from the fridge. All of the locks in the house engaged and I jumped.

“That was Alex,” he told me, coming into the kitchen. He sat down in one of the

chairs at our breakfast table. “You engaged all the locks in the house too.”

I looked at him. “Seriously?”

He nodded. “All of you are more powerful than we thought,” he said. “You’ll

probably need to practice with those hand gestures in order to concentrate your energy

on only one object.”

“Did you want something to drink?” He declined. Reluctantly, I started towards

the table. When I realized how awkward I felt, I squared my shoulders and sat down

opposite him, forcing myself to relax. “How do you know so much about witchcraft?”

He shrugged, indifferent. “Observation,” he replied. “I’ve known many witches.”

“And you had to know what they could do, right? To protect yourself?”

He looked at me. “Right.”

“Was it really hard for you to be a...” There was no way I could make it polite, so I

just spat it out, “slave for witches?”

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“Of course it was,” he said. “Being someone’s slave is not a walk in the park. They

rule you. They tell you what to do and you have to do it because they’ll hurt you, or even

kill you, if you don’t.” My eyes widened at that. He looked away from me. “Don’t ask

about something you don’t understand.”

“I understand a bit of what the black slaves had to go through,” I began, but he

cut me off.

“Trust me, our slavery was nothing like black slavery,” he said heatedly. Then he

conceded, “I do admit that human slavery was really bad, but shifter slavery was...

Imagine being prodded awake early in the morning with electricity because you had

slept in and they wanted you out in the fields. Supposedly shifters’ bodies rejuvenate

themselves and we all have plenty of energy, but when you have been working like dogs

day in, day out your energy runs down. Imagine them punishing you with magic because

you won’t get up to complete another hard day’s work. Spells that... horrible spells,

designed to make sure that you always get up on time, even if your body quits working

right. Imagine that, then tell me you understand what it was like to be a slave.”

He jerked his head towards the kitchen entrance. I looked up too. Emma was

standing in the doorway, her eyes showing a lot of white. She was staring at Edward in

horror, and I could guess that she had heard almost all of what he said. She immediately

looked down. “I—I’m sorry, I didn’t—I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s alright,” Edward said, his voice suddenly very gentle. “Come on in.”

She nodded. She kept her head down and quickly went to the cupboard to get out

a mug. While she made hot chocolate, we sat in silence, and I pondered what he said. I

had to admit that poverty was nothing compared to slavery. I could only imagine what

he, and countless other shifters, and humans, had went through during slavery.
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Suddenly, Edward asked me, “Why were you crying downstairs? During the lock

spell.”

I swallowed my ‘It’s none of your business’ and noticed that Emma had turned

towards me as well. I looked down at my cup. “I was thinking,” I began slowly, “about

Grandma. About how much she has kept from us our whole lives. That lock spell made

me wonder whether she had ever used it on us, to unlock our doors when we had them

locked.” I sighed. “And I feel cheated.” I looked up at him. “She kept this most important

side of her away from us and I feel like now that we know about it, we hardly knew her

at all.”

“They had their reasons for keeping this from you,” Edward said.

“I know, but... that doesn’t change the fact that they aren’t here now and we have

to deal with the mess they left.” I was getting angry, and I welcomed it. “They should

have taught us this when they were alive. We shouldn’t have to go to strangers and beg

for help because we don’t know who the hell we really are. We should have known all of

our magic when we were kids. That would have made us safe. Knowing who we were

would have made us safe because at least then we could deal with whatever it is that

everyone seems so afraid is going to happen to us.”

Emma was nodding. “I wish they had of told us too,” she said quietly. “I mean,

what would it have been like to have been taught by Mom and Dad about our magic?”

She smiled a little. “That would have been cool.”

I frowned. “Maybe they would still be alive.” Emma’s eyes widened again. “Maybe

they wouldn’t have died that night...”

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I was getting sad again. I clenched my jaw and blinked furiously at the tears. I

struggled to hold onto the anger that I’d just had, but thinking about the accident, how I

could have died too...

I forced that thought out of my head and concentrated on Edward’s next words.

“You’re right, maybe they would still be alive. But maybe they wouldn’t be either. The

action is done, and you girls can’t dwell on the past. You need to concentrate on the now,

on learning about your magic. That will make you safe.”

I frowned at him. Kristine came up the stairs then. “You guys want to come down

for more work? I got another spell I’d like you to try out before we leave.”

Edward got up immediately and I followed after him and Emma. Back

downstairs, we sat in our previous places and listened as Kristine laid out the next spell

we were going to learn.

“Now, I have to warn you that I haven’t been taught this spell yet,” Kristine said.

“It’s not part of my grimoire or Peggy’s, so I suppose it’s a family spell that was

developed. But I think if we can all make it work, the spell will be very useful.”

“What is it?” Alex asked.

“It’s a long distance contact spell,” she told her. “It says in your Grandma’s

grimoire that it is used to tell someone to contact you. Let’s say that Alex was in Mexico

—” Alex hooted and she and Emma laughed, “and that Emma was in England—” more

laughter and I couldn’t help chuckle too, “and if either one of them was in trouble or

needed to talk but couldn’t get a hold of the other with a phone, then one of them would

use the spell to contact them for a few seconds. Does that make sense?”

We nodded. Kristine began laying out the pronunciation and the instructions for

the spell. After we practiced the pronunciation, without going through the motions,
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Kristine and Rose began working on each other, the twins with each other, and then

me... with Edward.

I turned my pillow towards him. “Do you think I’ll be able to work with you?”

“Yeah,” he said, shrugging. “I’ll have to pull down my shields to hear you, but I’m

okay with you working with me.”

“Your shields?” I asked.

He smiled a little. “When I work with witches, particularly psychic witches, I put

up mental shields to protect my mind from them. I wasn’t sure if any of you were

psychic, so...”

“I understand. I think I’d want my mind protected from someone else’s

interference too.”

I shook the tenseness out of my body and forced myself to relax. The instructions

of the spell said that I had to picture the person I was going to call on. So I closed my

eyes and pictured Edward, which wasn’t hard because he’d been the last thing I’d seen

before closing my eyes. Then I said the spell out loud and mentally asked, “Edward?”

I opened my eyes. Edward was shaking his head. I began to close my eyes again,

but he began, “No, I meant... Your call was really loud. It hurt my... ears.”

“Oh.” I looked around at the others. Emma was crying and Alex was trying to get

her to stop, and Kristine was rubbing her temple, a look of pain on her face. I looked

back at Edward. “Sorry. Maybe we should be at separate ends of the house?”

Edward nodded. “Good idea.”

We got off the pillows. Edward went upstairs to sit in the living room and I went

into Mona’s bedroom and shut the door behind me. I took a moment to look around the

room to let Edward get comfortable.

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I remembered that Mona’s bedroom had always been filled with her paintings.

Outside of law, Mona was quite artistic and I had always been impressed at the

paintings and drawings she had done. Every wall would be covered in them, making her

bedroom a collage of her own work.

But now, her bedroom looked completely empty. Her bed, her desk, and her

dresser were still there, but the walls were bare. None of her work was available to see

and for a moment I wondered when she had decided to take all of her work down. Had it

been after Grandma’s death? And how had I missed this when I had yelled at her

earlier? And what happened to those paintings? I looked for her work folder, hidden

behind her dresser, but it was empty. All of her paints and pencil crayons were stacked

neatly in a bucket on her shelf.

I sighed and sat down on her bed, still thinking about her. I cast the spell and said

mentally, “What’s wrong, Mona? Where’s your artwork?”

I waited for the phone to ring. I waited for something to happen, but nothing did.

Mona didn’t come home quickly to find out how she heard me, and I didn’t know if I

even had managed to contact her.

There was a knock on Mona’s door. I got off the bed expectantly, but Edward

came in. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Oh, sorry, I got distracted,” I told him. I smiled. “Sorry.”

He nodded and closed the door to go back upstairs. I waited a bit again then

forced myself to picture Edward. Then I said the spell again, and said mentally,

“Edward, can you hear me?”

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My cell phone rang. I dug it out of my back pocket and flipped it open. It was

Edward. “I got your call,” he said. “And I found your cell phone number on that list of

numbers you have in the kitchen. I hope that’s okay.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. That’s a good idea actually, instead of you having to come

downstairs every time you hear me. So you heard me fine? Was I loud?”

“You weren’t as loud as before, but I could hear you clearly,” he said. “I heard:

‘Edward, can you hear me?’ I didn’t think you could say phrases over the connection,

just names.”

“Well, I decided to try it out, just in case,” I told him. And because I’d tried it with

Mona, I wanted to see if it was possible that she’d heard me. “Should I try again?”

“Sure. Maybe say something more, just so we can see how long the connection

lasts. I’ll call you back.”

“Okay.” We hung up. I pictured him again, said the spell, then thought, “Hey,

Edward, can you hear me? I give you permission to add my phone number to your cell

phone, just in case. Can I do the same for your phone number? I hope that’s not too—”

My cell rang. Startled, I flipped it open. Edward said, “Of course you can add my

number. That would be beneficial since you might need my help sometime, and I

suggest your sisters add my number and Kristine’s number to their cell phones as well, if

they have phones that is.”

“They do,” I told him. “That was one thing Grandma was for, she wanted to make

sure we all had a way to call the police if we got hurt.”

“Good,” Edward said. “Unfortunately, the connection fizzled out after you asked

me if you could put my number on your cell. I heard ‘I hope’ and then nothing, so I

called.”
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“Good to know. So I guess a couple of sentences is the limit for the call. I’m sure

we can all work with that.”

“Lizzy, can you hear me?” I rubbed my forehead as the phrase slid through my

mind like a brutally sharp knife. I must have groaned because Edward asked, “What’s

wrong?”

“Um, someone’s trying to contact me,” I told him. Then the door popped open

and Alex came in, followed by Emma. Both of them were grinning.

“Did you hear me?” Alex asked. I nodded. Alex punched the air and exclaimed,

“Yes!”

“I wanna try!” Emma said and she rushed out of the room with Alex following

behind her. I chuckled and prepared mentally for—

“Can you hear me, Lizzy? It’s me, Emma!” I winced as the sentences cut through

my head.

“God, they’re loud,” I said. On the other end of the phone, Edward chuckled. He

must have heard the whole exchange.

“At least you know they can do it,” Edward said. I made a noncommittal noise. “I

have to get to work now, so if you want to come up...”

“Okay, I’ll be up in a sec,” I told him. We both hung up.

When I got out to the den, Kristine was talking with Rose and Alex was sitting on

the floor across from them, concentrating. I told them that Edward was leaving and both

Kristine and Alex yelled goodbye to him up the stairs. Rose followed me up and we met

Edward in the living room.

Rose held out her hand to him. “It was very nice to meet you,” she said, “and

thank you so much for taking time out to see us.”

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He shook it. “It was my pleasure,” he said, sincerely. He pulled out a card and

handed it to her. “There’s my cell phone number and my home and business numbers. I

think you and your sisters would benefit from putting me on your contact list, and if you

ever need any help, don’t hesitate to call.”

Rose smiled. “Thank you so much,” she said. “Really.” She waved to him and

went into the kitchen to tack the card up.

Edward turned to me. “Listen, I am sorry I got so angry today when you asked me

about our slavery, and I’m sorry that your little sister had to hear what I said. You are

right to be curious, because you are a part of this world, and knowing about my slavery

would help you to understand our world’s history.”

“Thanks,” I said softly. I held my hand out too, and he shook it. His hand was hot,

yet firm. Then he stepped down the stairs to the vestibule, his coat in his hand, waved,

and then was gone out the door.

I went and sat down in the living room, closing my eyes for a bit. It wasn’t long

before I was joined by Alex and Emma. Emma sat down in one of the chairs while Alex

plopped down beside me.

“So, did you notice anything unusual today?” Alex asked.

I looked at her. “Besides the fact that we can cast spells? No, not really.”

She shook her head at me. “I meant about Edward. I told you he has a thing for

you, and you didn’t believe it, so now that he’s been here with the rest of us, I say it’s

only fair that I point out how much he likes you to prove my point.”

I closed my eyes again. “What if I don’t want to hear it?”

Alex scoffed. “Oh, you want to hear it. You’re probably visualizing him right

now... naked.”
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My eyes flew open. “Oh, for the love of god!”

“Goddess!” Emma exclaimed. “Not god. We’re witches, remember?”

“Doesn’t mean we can’t worship a god,” I told her. “And I don’t think our version

of witches worships any god or goddess.”

“You have to spoil everything, don’t you?” Alex asked.

“I’m not spoiling anything, I’m just pointing out to you guys that we may not be

the stereotypical witches you see on TV or read in the books.”

“Right, so anyways, did you notice how into you he was today? He kept trying to

give his chair to you, then when Mona freed her chair, instead of taking that seat, he

pulled his chair next to you. That’s love,” Alex sing-songed.

“And he kept sitting with you during the practice,” Emma added, grinning from

ear to ear.

“He followed you upstairs after you performed the lock spell,” Alex continued.

“And he let you into his mind. I tried calling him, but I don’t think it worked, so the only

one he preferred in his head was you!”

“How does he love thee? Let me count the ways!” Emma parodied, giggling.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you guys are taking everything he did out of context.”

Alex frowned at me. “Spoilsport,” she said simply.

I sighed. “I’m just saying that maybe you guys are looking for love when there is

none. We only just met him yesterday.”

“Yeah, and yesterday he was hooked,” Alex growled. “You are in denial.” She

shook her head at me and got off the couch to go back downstairs.

Emma looked between the empty space and me, unsure. I looked back at her. She

opened her mouth to speak, but Rose and Kristine came up the stairs.
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“We’re going to protect the house before Kris leaves,” Rose announced to us. She

looked around. “Where’s Alex?”

“She went back to her room,” I told her.

Rose frowned. She leaned over the banister and yelled, “Alex, can you come up

here please?”

While we waited for Alex, Kristine explained what we were going to do. We were

going to hide bundles of herbs and a few charms around the house, and burn incense to

protect our house from outside influences. She had already gone through our purchases

and through Grandma’s stuff and began putting together what we needed for the ritual.

As we grouped around the dining table, the smell of the herbs and the incense

was profuse.

...

I was nursing a headache from the fumes when Mona came home. I had my

bedroom door open and she came to the doorway, looked at me, then left. She looked

angry. I wondered if that meant that she had heard me call her mentally. I decided it

did, but she wasn’t going to admit it.

I heard Rose talking to Mona in the kitchen. Then Rose came into my room with

a cup of tea. “Mona doesn’t work tomorrow,” she began, handing the cup to me, “so

maybe we should try to teach her the spells we learned today.”

She looked at me for agreement. I shrugged. “As long as she wants to do it. I’m

not going to force her to learn the spells.”

Rose nodded. She settled next to me on my bed and frowned to herself.

“Shouldn’t we force her to learn the spells? Isn’t that the best way for all of us to be safe?

I mean, if we learn it and she doesn’t...”

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I shrugged again. “If she comes around, then sure. But she is so friggin’ stubborn,

I’d doubt that all of us would be able to force her to learn magic. It would be just a waste

of time and we could be learning more spells.”

Rose nodded. “Okay.” She patted my arm. “I’m going to cook supper now. Too

bad Kris couldn’t stay.” She got up and went back into the kitchen.