I didn’t tell Stan, and wouldn’t because it was an unsuspicious weeknight. It was unlikely that the gossip columns would catch up to me out in human London, and my life would be separate from the Coven.
We met at a pizzeria in which you picked your toppings and they made you a slice. It was dim inside, and I felt at ease with the casual atmosphere, knowing that there wasn’t any pressure on me in the form of black ties and tall shoes.
O’Callaghan was already waiting inside, and I gave him a quick hug when he stood up.
“Hey, Kenny,” I said.
“Hi, Rose. You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
A giddy feeling I hadn’t felt in years crept up, and my hairline felt sweaty. I desperately hoped he couldn’t tell. I was on a date, a real date, and I panicked, remembering I hadn’t been on one before. This was a first for me.
We walked through the line to order and Kenny picked up the bill. We were handed a table number for when our order was ready. I expected small talk, and that is what I got, before, during, and after dinner. As soon as our food was ready, we could talk about other things without the risk of being interrupted.
“What’s being a witch like?” Kenny asked me.
“I’m in a huge learning phase right now, but as you know, I’ve been assigned to my first case.”
He took a bite of his pizza that had everything on it.
“What’s being a detective like?”
“Exhausting,” he said. “I just found out I was going out of town this morning, and I leave in two days. I can’t really talk about it, but my specialty is homicide, and that’s why I work in conjunction with you if something is linked to your world. Do you mind if I call it your world?”
“Not at all,” I said. “My mom was able to spend a few years separating the two worlds but being active in both, and I think I’m prepared to do that too. One always wins out over the other though.”
“Your parents are still alive?”
“Yes,” I said, “my mom is a psychologist, and my dad is a seventh-degree black belt.”
“Wow,” he said.
I recognized that specific emotion: dad fear.
“He has his own studio, and I drop in from time to time and still practice.”
“So you’re a…”
“Martial artist?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“I’m a second degree black belt,” I told him, though I wasn’t so sure he knew exactly what that meant. Most commonly, people would tell me it was cool, and that they got to brown belt when they were thirteen and quit. It was a huge part of my life, but maybe it would be refreshing to know a guy who didn’t have a clue about it.
“What do you parents do?”
“Both are school teachers in Ireland,” he said. “I grew up there.”
“Oh,” I said, “I’m half Irish. I love it over there. Why’d you come here?”
I thought it felt like an interrogation, and rightfully so, because he felt the need to change the subject.
“School and then work,” he answered flawlessly. O’Callaghan was either a good liar, or I was picking up on a repressed emotion. He knew I was a Changeling, so why try to hide anything?
“You seem like a man who is married to your job.”
“And you seem like a woman who is.”
I took a sip of water and nodded, looking down. I had more in common with him than I thought. This could absofriggenloutely work out between us.
“You want to ask me something about the case, don’t you?” Kenny asked with a twinkle in his eye.
I giggled, halfway through my slice of green pepper and pineapple pizza.
“I don’t want to come out with you to talk about work, but if you’d allow me to humor you…”
“Of course,” he said. Kenny had this way of pulling pressure off of me, just as he did when I had distanced myself from his touch the night we met.
“I think whoever killed the Hallorans is after witches, and that it could potentially be their only motivation.”
“But the Coven doesn’t think so.”
“They think it’s more personal, despite Ling’s clean record. Gregory and Maddi have been in the Coven forever, Stan thinks he’s always right, and Helaine has been watching true crime programs since she was five—apart from that year her mom found out—and I’m the greenest of them all.”
“Looking at something with fresh eyes never hurt anyone,” Kenny reminded me. “And you have a good group working with you.”
“That I do know,” I said. I didn’t mean to unload my need to be taken seriously onto Kenny. He changed the subject.
I let him walk me home, and once we came upon the red door of my house he said goodnight, but as promised, he wasn’t looking for what we had the night of Dia de Los Muertos. I was relieved when he didn’t try to plant his lips on mine, but an inkling of disappointment ebbed in my stomach.
“If you want to go out again, I’ll be in touch, after the trip of course.”
“Okay,” I said, smiling. “I’d enjoy that.”
“Goodnight Rose.”
“Goodnight.”
I went up to my room as if the night had been as normal as I lied about it being, knowing that I’d tell Helaine all about it tomorrow. Things could seriously work out between me and O’Callaghan—or I supposed I should call him Kenny. I expected my dare to only bring me bad energy, but it hadn’t. I couldn’t believe it. It must have been luck because I still wasn’t sure that I believed in fate.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
The Second Stranger
Helaine
Winter was especially mild this year, and did not allow many days when snowy twinkling sheets hushed the streets. Being a water element, I loved those days now more than ever. Onyx and I had just finished elemental training in the courtyard. The drill involved me conjuring water and stopping it from turning to ice despite the low temperatures. I owned how successful I had been, and even though training zapped my energy, all I felt was pride. I sunk into the couch, watching the snowfall from the night before melt under the afternoon sun. Onyx was holding his teacup in one gloved-hand across from me.
“When there is a mild winter, that means evil isn’t sleeping.”
“I thought evil lived off of vodka and Redbull as it was, Onyx.”
“We haven’t had a winter this mild in ten years. The last time someone in the Coven died.”
“Way to be morbid. I see where Stan gets it from now.”
“I’m serious, Laurence. It was the most horrible day I ever remember.”
That subdued voice didn’t belong to the cheeky mentor I knew, and since you couldn’t get possessed inside of the mews house, I decided I shouldn’t press.
“I didn’t know that elemental training would be so exhausting,” I told him. “It’s like I’m waking from the dead every time my alarm goes off.”
“You’ll get used to it,” He said, “It’s just like using any other kind of energy, Laurence. Your power will recharge.”
“After those girls attacked me in the pub, I need to prove myself more than I did when I first started getting hate mail. What I also need is to leave here from time to time and go be eighteen and not supernatural,” I said.
“There is still a risk. If you leave without any of the Coven members, or me, I suggest you go into human London, where people don’t know who you are,” he warned.
“Human extra-curricular activities,” I mused. “If only I had some like Rose’s.”
“What do you mean?”
“Human guys—guy,” I said, and then looked at Onyx suspiciously. “Don’t tell her family, and don’t you dare tell her father.”
“I won’t say anything.”
“Promise,” I commanded. I shouldn’t have said anything, but I had been reading about Twin Flames lately, and the whole concept was positively romantic.
“I promise, Laurence, that I will not repeat anything or talk about Avereis to anyone. You have m
y word. No matter who is asking and how persuasive their power as an empath is.”
“He needs to leave her alone and let her go live a little. Her choices are hers alone, and I know my best friend, she’s not going to make the wrong choices.” Though, her choices are growing dodgier by the second.
Rose came downstairs at that moment.
“Good job today,” Onyx told me. “See you later Avereis,” he bade her.
“Bye Onyx,” We both said.
As he left I hoped he could sort out what was in his head. He wasn’t ready to talk details about an event that happened a decade ago. It must have been bloody awful.
“I hear your lessons are going great,” Rose told me. “Gregory said he’s never seen anything like you, and that Treya wasn’t half as great as you are.”
“Lessons are going well.” I paused in silence. “So what do you think of “Kenny” after your not date so you don’t have to tell the Coven last night?”
“Kenny?” she questioned as I nodded. “He’s smart. He can read people well for a human, and we obviously have the same interests since we are both involved in protecting the city. Why is he interested in someone as young as me?” I asked.
“He fancies you because you’re pretty and nice, or maybe blue is his favorite colour.”
“Good one.” she grinned.
A knock sounded at the door.
“I’ll get it!” I jumped up.
I looked through the peephole and saw dark hair and sullen eyes. It was the girl I had spilled a drink on at in Seven’s on the winter solstice. I wondered about her a handful of times since then, always thinking I’d run into her, and nearly two weeks later she showed back up.
When people ended up on our doorstep it was never a good sign, and usually, we were the last resort. The spell shop at Block Thirteen headed by a Mage usually helped weed out the people who really needed our help versus those who were just looking for a spell to fix something minor. There were other witches, so if you came to The Coven, you needed help. Badly.
I knew I could let this girl in, though inviting anyone into the mews house was always a risk. I didn’t have Rose’s aptitude, but I was still a good judge of character, and right now I judged that she needed our help, so I swung open the formidable wooden door.
“I came to talk to you, Laurence,” she said.
“Oh, well you found me.” Lame, I know, especially for the first time someone was seeking out my help as Water with a capital W. “Come in.”
The girl stepped into the house, glancing down at her shoes. The toes of her boots were worn to a light grey.
“Keep them on,” Rose said from the couch, which meant that there was a reason she didn’t want to take the shoes off. “Come sit with us, as our guest.”
The stranger smiled and sat down on the couch. It was one of those smiles I recognized as being coerced from an empath. Rose was making her feel at ease.
“What can Water of the London Coven do for you today?” I asked as rehearsed. I was having a beyond brilliant day.
“It’s not serious…but it is serious to me. I need a reversal of bad luck.”
“Can we do that?” I asked Rose, crossing my arms.
“You and I can, no problem,” said my book smart friend. “As long as one of our mentors is present. Stan’s around.”
“Alright.” I shrugged, turning back to the girl, realizing that I had no idea what her name was. I also realized that she was wearing the same thing she was the first night I saw her.
“What’s your name?”
“Sophie.” she smiled meekly. Her hair was a mess of wild waves and she looked homeless. She probably was.
Rose caught my concern.
“Let me get Stan, and a change of clothes for you,” she added to Sophie. Rose was around her same height and body build, so anything in her closet should do. “Do you have a favorite color to wear?”
“I like black,” she said.
“So why do you think it’s bad luck?” I asked her while Rose climbed the stairs.
“Ever since I was born things have just happened to me. I don’t know if someone cursed me or if I’m just born to lose, but I can’t take it anymore.”
I gulped and my heart broke a little bit. That was always a scary choice of words.
“What sort of things happen, Sophie?”
“If there is a puddle I step in it. If there is something to be spilled, it spills on me. Hence the black.”
“Do you have any family?”
“No. Another string of bad luck, I suppose.”
Rose brought down clothes for Sophie, followed by Stan, and we directed Sophie to the first-floor water closet to change and clean up.
“There are tags on some things,” Rose said. “If you don’t like them just leave them in there.”
“Thank you,” she said, about to cry. Sophie turned from us to go change.
“We usually don’t let people in off of the street like this,” Stan started to lecture. “Usually Maddi delegates these things on an appointment basis.”
“She’s the girl from the pub who vouched for me when I was attacked by Bessie and company,” I said, “and my whole life I’ve been helping people like this. She thinks it’s bad luck and wants it reversed. She doesn’t even want good luck in its place. We need to help her.”
“Aren’t people allowed to just show up when they need us?” Rose asked. There was no way she was letting Stan get in the way of us helping Sophie.
“They used to, but in recent years—since I’ve been here—it’s more official and Maddi handles it. Gregory also tracks the list of people with powers coming in and out of the city. We aren’t supposed to have departments within the Coven like that, but they are good at what they do.”
“What’s your department?” I asked Stan.
“It’s mentoring,” he said. “I need to be fully committed.”
When Sophie came out of the water closet, I hoped she now felt as well as she looked.
“Thanks for the socks too.”
“It’s no problem, really. It’s what we do in the Coven. So why do you think bad luck is after you?” Rose asked.
“It’s every little thing,” she said, “Starting from when I was born.” Just when we thought she was doing better, her golden eyes glossed over again.
“I’ll get you something to eat,” Rose said, jumping up again.
Stan looked as if he was having a delayed reaction to something someone said.
“Do you know?” he asked Sophie.
“Stan, it isn’t the time,” I said. Cryptic Prince of the Dead stuff has no place here. He ignored me.
“You do,” he said to Sophie again.
“Again with the mysteries, Stan,” I said.
Rose came back with a glass of water and a brie and apple sandwich for Sophie, who stared at it a moment.
“What, you two?” Rose asked us.
“I tried to tell him the same day Jaime got there, but again, bad luck, and I was a few minutes too late to The Hallowed Locus.”
“I think I bumped past you on my way out the door when I still lived at The Hallowed Locus. The night before the pre-initiation social. I don’t know what you mean but Jaime is horr—oh no!” I yelled.
Stan couldn’t just conceal information, he knew everyone else’s autobiographical information. I knew exactly what he had seen and it all made perfect sense.
“What?” Rose asked, and then she looked back at Sophie and followed with, “No…”
The three of us were the only ones in London who knew who she was—more importantly who her father was.
“I just… if I tell them, then something bad will happen and they won’t like me. I don’t see why they’d like me in the first place.”
“You want to go stand on a street corner and see if you can find any more of them?” I asked Stan. “We’re not trying to be insensitive, it’s just that… if you haven’t met your father yet I can’t really explain it in nice words.”
“He made you,” I told Sophie, “Travis will keep you because you’re him, and he’d never deny one of his own.”
Sophie started to cry loudly and Rose trapped her in a hug.
Maddi came down the stairs.
“Is everyone okay? Who is this?” It was fortunate for me that Maddi sounded more concerned than disapproving.
Stan must have told her telepathically because Maddi responded, “Oh...” She joined us in the living room. “How can I help?”
“No way,” Stan said again.
“What?” The four of us asked.
“You’re a Luison? But you’re a woman? Are you a woman?”
Sophie looked a little hurt, and Rose felt the need to explain.
“Stan calls things how he sees them and analyzes everything in depth to try and help,” she told Sophie. “We know that Luisons are always men, so that’s why he’s confused. Do you mind if I ask if you are a Luison?”
“I’m not wrong,” Stan interjected.
“I didn’t say you were,” retorted Rose.
“Do you know anything about Luisons or are they speaking a foreign language?” I asked Sophie, as she took a bite of the sandwich.
“No…”
Maddi grabbed a book from the shelf and sat back down with it in her lap. It was the subculture book I refused to read.
“Hi, I’m Maddi,” she said, better late than not at all. “I wish you would have come here sooner. The Coven helps everyone in the city. We dedicate ten years of our lives to helping people like you. Do you know anything about your powers?”
“I know that I can self-heal, and I think that this is all part of my bad luck. I think it’s my curse to… to live forever.”
“Being special should never be a curse,” Rose told Sophie. “We can do that reversal for you, lift any curse you might be under. We just need a clipping of your hair.”
“It’s all yours,” Sophie told us.
The reversal of bad luck was easy when it came down to it, and Stan and Maddi watched Rose and me, letting us perform it by ourselves. The book told us to make a solution out of oils and swirl a piece of her hair around in it. Sophie’s raven hair was so thick that she wouldn’t even be missing the piece Rose cut from her.
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