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I thought that I was going to hate Darla.
Instead, when she walked home with me last night through the forest, I found a friend.
When I introduced her to my mother, my mother was also suspicious. But Darla was so eager to meet both of us, so open and free with her information, that it was hard to find her suspicious for very long.
My mother made up the guest room for her and she slept over.
The next morning, when I woke up, she was making a huge breakfast with pancakes and eggs and bacon and Dante was already shoveling some of it down.
"I'm ready to trade you in for a newer, prettier model," Dante said.
I pointed my fork at him. "We are a two-for-one deal, buddy. You can’t get rid of me that easily."
From the look on his face, he remembered that we weren't so easy to get rid of. In fact, Artie was the only one who knew how. We both fell silent.
"And that's my cue to change the subject," Darla said. She traded out an empty plate for another stack of pancakes and I grabbed three of them before Dante could eat them all.
"I tried texting Clint this morning but there's no service out here," Darla said.
"No. There never is. We always got a bunch of talk about how we were too far away from a major city to run lines out here, but Artie told me that the magic from the spring interferes too much with the electricity. So, no phones, except for landlines," I explained.
Darla looked thoughtful but nodded. "It's kind of nice, not being attached to something all the time. Celia called and asked that Dante join them at the house as soon as he could. She wants to start training him right away."
Dante shoveled the food into his mouth faster.
"And she told me to tell you," Darla pointed her spatula at me. "That you need to study all day."
I groaned. "I've been trying, but I've been constantly interrupted."
"Well, that's what I'm here for. I can answer any and all questions. And also I would like to soak up the serenity of your mother's house. I have only ever met one other high priestess and she wasn't nearly as nice or as knowledgeable as your mom."
I studied her. "Be honest. How big of a deal is my mother in the magical community?"
"Hardly anyone knows my name. No one comes to visit, no one asks for my advice. I'm not that big of a deal," my mom said as she stepped into the living room. She swept by Darla and patted her cheek affectionately. “Thank you for breakfast. It all smells good.”
Darla's eyes widened. She held her arms apart as far as they would go behind my mother's back, indicating to me how important my mother was.
"Darla, your food is fantastic. I am also thinking of trading my son in," my mom said with a twinkle of amusement in her eye.
"Hey, I am a once in a thousand-year event. And now everyone wants to throw me away for some pancakes?" I asked and stabbed my forks through the pancakes in front of me. I shoved them in my mouth and glared at everyone around me.
They waited.
Darla’s pancakes with a fluffiest, softest, most incredible thing I had ever tasted in all my life.
"Holy hell, I might trade myself in for Darla," I said.
Darla raised her hands in victory.
Shortly thereafter, my mom and Dante left, leaving me to my books and Darla.
All of the books that Artie had brought me were about ancient gods and goddesses. I had to think hard, wondering if he did this on purpose, knowing what Azolata was.
But when I thought about it, he brought me the books after Azolata had told us his name, but not what he was. It could have been before Artie discovered Azolata's story.
It seemed to be a hell of a coincidence.
"I wish I had someone here who could say some of these names," I muttered. It was closer to lunchtime now and my eyes were already burning.
Darla looked over my shoulder at one of the goddesses I was studying.
Coyolxauhqui, it read.
Or that’s what I thought it was saying. It was all becoming a jumble of letters to me now. I rubbed my face and sighed. I could feel a headache creeping up on me.
"Hey, how about we take a walk and you show me more of your forest?" Darla asked suddenly.
"I don't know. I'm supposed to study these and I have had enough interruptions as it is," I muttered and put a hand to my head. I was getting a headache. It felt like it was finals week all over again, but for a class that I had not taken.
"Believe me, you need to get out and into the sunshine. You're not going to be able to concentrate like this and then what's the point? Come on, I promise that I will still teach you a thing or two while we are out there," Darla said. When I looked over at her, she was leaning against the sink, biting her thumbnail and her eyes kept flicking to the backdoor.
She must have been restless, so I nodded. I did insist on bringing my book with me though.
“This is such an amazing place to learn. You are very lucky,” Darla said and bumped my shoulder with hers.
“Where did you learn?” I asked. I realized that I had only known of mine and Artie’s stories and how we came by our own magic.
“Actually, it kind of sucked. It just hit me one day. I was getting picked on by this one group of girls. Must have been fifth grade? Anyway, they had me cornered and I just lashed out. That..." She shook her head. "Not the best introduction to magic and after that, I kept breaking things. My mom was at her wit's end and that's when she found this community. She didn't have a lot of money to begin with and after I was gone, things got a little easier on her. She was also given some money, I guess in exchange for me. We used to talk a lot, but I haven't heard from her in months now."
Darla kept her eyes forward, even when I looked over at her. I couldn't imagine being that young and basically having my mother abandon me. My own introduction to magic wasn't that great, but at least I had a system, a group of people, that were there to help me transition into this kind of life.
"I'm so sorry," I muttered.
She shrugged. "I ended up with Clint. He's like the big brother I never knew was missing. It's like we say, everything balances in the end."
I could tell that she was done with the subject and I let it drop. "I'm not sure what you want to see out here. I mean, I understand it's a draw, but really, if you see one tree, you see them all."
Darla shrugged. "We don't get to visit springs every day."
I wasn't concerned, but I did want to get back home. The headache that was pounding behind my eyes was not getting any better.
Darla looked behind us like she was judging the distance that we had come. She hurried along a little faster and that was when I saw one of the duende. I knew Darla saw them too, but she did not seem to be alarmed.
She didn't seem tired, but I could feel the sweat on my forehead and the back of my neck. She wasn't even breathing hard and I was almost gasping for breath.
"Hey, can we slow down?" I asked.
Instead of heeding my request, she turned around and grabbed my arm. She threw it over her shoulder and looped her arm around my waist. "We're almost there. Just keep up."
I was confused. She said she had never been here before, so how did she know where we were going? Or how close we were?
I stumbled over my own feet and struggled to stay upright. Darla gripped her teeth and hefted more of my weight into her arms. "Almost there, come on. You got this."
The weak January light felt a lot brighter than it actually was. I groaned and my head felt worse. "Please, we need to stop."
Everything was spinning and it was like that last night when I had too much to drink. Darla remained silent and dragged me deeper into the forest. At this point, she was all but carrying me.
It was probably only a few more minutes, but it felt like days until she stopped. She let me fall to my knees and then to my side.
Darla was breathing hard and she bent over and put her hands on her knees. "You are overloaded. You need to blow off some steam."
I didn't know why I didn't recognize the signs. This was far from the first time. I guess it had been so long since I felt like this that I figured I was past it. Everything was starting to go dark and I raised a hand to my throat.
"Let go."
Those were the last words that I heard before the darkness swallowed me up.