The next morning, as I was about to travel to James’s place, my phone rang. It was a number I didn’t recognise. I almost didn’t answer it, then figured it might be Patrick. “Hello?”
“Hello, Lily? It’s Patrick.”
“Oh, hey. How’s it going?”
“Good. I can’t really chat now, but I wanted to know if you were free this afternoon for a coffee? I’d really like to see you again.”
Oh, wow, that was nice, and so soon. We’d only caught up yesterday. I couldn’t help but wonder if he meant it, or if he needed information—maybe he was double undercover, criminal style. I wasn’t judging though. Pot… kettle. “Yeah, sure. I’m about to go out, but I can meet you this afternoon. Where and what time?”
“Four at the same place as last time.”
“Sounds good. See you then.”
“Bye, Lily. Can’t wait to see you.”
I smiled, even though he couldn’t see it. My ego couldn’t help being pleased that he was so eager to see me, and it told my logical brain to shut up and take a number. I’d deal with any negative thoughts later.
I stepped out into James’s reception room. It wasn’t large, but it was bursting with character. A 1930s timber bureau sat against one wall, a blue-and-white vase filled with mauve hydrangeas on the top. The flagstone floor was varying shades of grey. The timber door was painted peacock blue, and a small window let in the morning light. This would actually make a cute reading room—it was wasted as a witchy reception room.
I knocked on the door. James answered. “Morning, sis.” He gave me a quick hug, then led me through to the kitchen. “Have you had breakfast?”
“Yes. Coffee. Is Mill at work?”
“She left ten minutes ago. And coffee is not a proper breakfast. Mum would be horrified.”
As sad as not having her here was, I smiled. She used to be a proponent of “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” She’d often cook us bacon and eggs, pancakes, or porridge. “So, are you going to make pancakes?”
“I can if you like.”
“Nah. As good as it sounds, I’ll vomit if you’re going to have me working out this morning.”
“At least have some toast.”
“Okay. One piece with butter and strawberry jam.”
He held his hand palm up. A plate holding a piece of toast appeared. “Just as you like it: lightly browned, not too dark.”
I grinned. “You remembered!” I took the plate and ate standing. When I’d finished, there was a knock on the reception-room door. I looked at him. “Are you expecting anyone?”
“Yes. Someone to help with training. Just a sec.” He left to unlock the door. Was it going to be some specialist combat agent?
I heard him before I saw him, and my heart raced. Gah! Damn traitor, my brother. Had Millicent been in his ear, or had he done this without an ulterior motive except my training?
I quickly put my plate in the dishwasher and wiped my mouth with my hand, just in case there were crumbs or jam or something.
They came through the door. “Morning,” I said, doing my best “I’m so casual” impersonation.
“Morning, Lily. Ready to train?” William was all business, but God, did he look good in his running shorts and black T-shirt. I was wearing my long black running tights and a red tracksuit jacket over a black T, but he didn’t even look twice or wait for an answer. He just kept on walking, straight out the back door. James shrugged and motioned me to follow, while he trotted along behind me.
James’s shed was the size of a two-car garage. It was equipped with heating and ugly grey carpet squares. At least the walls and ceilings had plasterboard linings and downlights, so it wasn’t super horrible. A punching bag hung from the ceiling to one side, and there was the obligatory weights bench with different sized weights stacked on steel holders next to the wall. The middle of the room was left open, probably for sparring or whatever the hell we were about to do.
I started by stretching while James and William conversed quietly in one corner. After five minutes, James said, “Okay. Let’s start.”
The guys walked to the middle of the room and faced each other. I stood to the side and watched. William grabbed James’s wrist and said, “The first few moves are defensive. If someone grabs you, there are things you can do to release yourself and run. And I know you’re good at running, so this will serve you well.” He smiled.
James circled his arm all the way around in a wide arc to the side as he stepped in the same direction, dislodging Will’s hand. “Now you try.”
Hmm, that looked easy, but I bet I was going to stuff it up. I stood in front of William and looked up into his blue-grey eyes. Crap. My heart was racing, and some invisible force was pulling me to him, but I stood my ground. Down, hormones. We don’t like him. Got it?
He reached out and grabbed my left wrist with his right hand. I tried to remember exactly what James had done. I pushed my arm out to the left and stepped while making a massive circle with my arm. And hey, it worked! “I did it!”
William gave a small smile, but James was grinning. “Nice work. Now, do it again, but add in a bit of force at the end, kind of flick your arm down hard, then get ready to run.” I did as he asked, and we practiced it on both sides at least ten times.
They showed me two other moves for when someone grabs your wrist, and we practiced those before moving onto getting out of a chokehold when someone has both hands around your neck. I really could have used this with stupid Snezana—the crazy witch who kidnapped my brother.
After we’d done all that, I checked my watch. 9:45. We’d been at this for forty-five minutes. I hoped I didn’t forget anything. I’d probably have to practice every day. “Can I come and practice with you, James, to make sure I don’t forget?”
“Yeah, sure, plus I can teach you some other stuff. Why don’t we make this a permanent thing, but we’ll do 7:30. Angelica’s giving me time off for this, but she won’t be able to next time. I have to be at work by 9:00 am at the latest, and that’s if we don’t have something special going on.”
“Yep, that works for me.”
“Speaking of which, I have to get going. William can teach you the magic part of today’s lesson by himself. He’s the expert at that anyway.”
My mouth dropped open. Oh, hell no! That was so unfair. How was I supposed to control my hormones when we were in a room by ourselves, touching each other? It was likely to end in me misreading some signal of his, trying to kiss him, then him awkwardly telling me to get off him. “You can’t leave.”
“I have to. What’s wrong? You’re not scared of Will, are you? He’s just a big teddy bear.” James smirked.
“Of course I'm not scared of him.” At least not how he thought. “Okay, well how long will this part take?”
Will folded his arms. “About twenty minutes. But if you can’t handle it, we can do it another time.”
“What? I can handle anything you throw at me.” I narrowed my eyes and put my hands on my hips. He shook his head and smirked.
“Okay, I’m out of here. Don’t hurt my sister, dude.” James threw Will a meaningful look.
“She’s safe with me, unless she hurts herself.” He snorted.
James grinned. “Fair enough. See you both later.” He stepped through a doorway and vanished.
And then there were two.
Crap.
He pinned me with his gaze, although from his point of view, he was probably just plain old looking at me with no ulterior motive than to get this lesson over and done with. Fine. I needed to get with my program, which was to ditch this stupid crush. I gave a nod. “Right. I’m ready.”
“Good. So, firstly, when fighting with magic, you need to be aware of what protections your opponent has. There are many different protection spells, and they all do different things. You’re going to have to learn what they all are so you can recognise them, how to cast them, and how to defeat them. Here.” He held his hands out, palms up, and a red hardcover book, about the size of a large dictionary, appeared in them. He handed the book to me. Whoa, it was heavy.
Ashford’s Contemporary Spell Compendium, Fifth Ed. Wow. This was way bigger than the beginner book of spells I had. It seemed quite a jump going from kindergarten (in witch years) to university. “Um, am I allowed to have this?”
He wrinkled his brow, and it made me realise that all morning, he’d had a smooth brow. Hmm, maybe Piranha was actually making him happy. I sighed.
“Of course you’re allowed to have it. Why wouldn’t you be?”
“Ma’am. I'm not supposed to perform spells—well, anything above infant level—without an experienced witch present.”
“What am I?”
“Yes, but I’m guessing I get to keep it when we finish today, so I can learn the stuff I need to.” At least I hoped I would get to keep it. Excitement built through my fingers and toes, but I contained any jumping around. I grinned instead.
Will grinned too. “Yes, you can keep it. I expect you to learn that whole book from front to back, but don’t perform any spells unless you’re with an adult.” He snorted.
I shook my head. “You are such an ass. Just you wait till I know what I’m doing.”
His eyes darkened, and his voice was almost a growl. “Is that a threat, Lily?”
My heart raced, and my stomach went fluttery. I swallowed. I was pretty sure he was flirting with me, but why, when he had Dana Piranha trying to sink her lethal teeth into him? Maybe I’d flirted with him first, and he was just having a bit of fun? You are not doing this now, Lily. Stop! “Not a threat. More a warning. Now, what do I need to know?”
He blinked, all the heat leaving his gaze. Then he slow-nodded and refocused. “As you’ve been told, no doubt, there are spell protections that can cause a spell to bounce back to the caster, doing to them that which they tried to do to someone else.”
I nodded. “But what if you both have the spell to bounce back spells? Does it keep bouncing between you like a pinball machine?” I snorted.
“No. You can’t protect yourself from your own spell. Your magic knows you and will find a way in.”
“If my magic knows me, shouldn’t it not want to hurt me? Shouldn’t it make allowances for my mistakes?”
“Unfortunately, no. Magic is partly you and partly the source, or universe, as you like to think of it.” He smiled. “We’re getting off track. The point of what I’m trying to say is that when a person has a defence or protection spell in place, you should be able to see it with your third eye.”
“So, if you’re in aura-seeing mode, you can see the spell?”
“Yes. Each spell will be a golden symbol, kind of like hieroglyphics. You’ll have to learn what each spell looks like and memorise it.”
My mouth dropped open, and my brain froze. Not possible. Maybe I could just lock myself inside Angelica’s house and never leave again because that would be more effective than memorising all that other stuff. Why did being a witch require a good memory?
“Hey, don’t worry. You’ll be fine. Just learn one a day. There may even be a spell to help you remember.” He winked.
“Well, why didn’t you say something before?”
“The spell helps you remember for a week or two, but then you have to remember yourself, or redo the spell as you look at the symbols. But the more you look at them, the more likely you’ll remember them anyway. Until you get used to them, it’s a good idea to do the spell if you know you’re going out, just to be safe. But eventually, you’ll recognise them on sight. Like how you recognise business logos.”
“They’re not as complicated as these.” He was crazy if he thought this was going to be easy. This was me we were talking about. But now, I just wanted to get this over and done with, see if I was capable or not. I wasn’t into loads of suspense. “Can we get started?”
“Okay. Shut your eyes, draw some power, and focus on the space between your eyes—your third eye.”
I did as he said and felt the power heating the spot at the top of the bridge of my nose. I opened my eyes and gasped. William’s golden aura was so bright and crisp, so much shinier than other people’s auras—not that I’d seen many. And there was heat radiating from it. I stepped close enough to touch him, and I raised my hands, facing my palms towards him to just feel his heat.
His voice was so quiet that I almost didn’t hear him. “What are you doing, Lily?”
“I can feel warmth radiating from you. Is that the power, or is that you?” When I met his gaze, he was staring at me, his mouth slightly open. He grabbed one of my wrists, firmly but not enough to hurt. Energy zapped down my arm, leaving tingles in its wake. My breathing came faster. I had no other name for this other than super-duper attraction. Dangerous. The type of attraction that got hearts broken and, if this heat was anything to go by, eyebrows singed.
I used the move James had shown me earlier. Stepping away, I circled my arm and flicked my wrist out of his grip. He blinked and shook his head. “You shouldn’t be able to feel anything. Can you do that with other people?”
“I… I don’t know.”
He ran a hand through his dark hair. “This isn’t going to work, Lily. You’re too new at this. I’ll speak to Angelica, and she can take over. I’m sorry.”
What the hell? He already knew I didn’t know anything. What a lame excuse. “Are you bailing on me?” Our “moment” had sent him running, apparently. Maybe he felt guilty since he was supposed to be patching things up with chompy witch.
“I’m not equipped to deal with your magic, Lily.”
Was he implying this wasn’t something between us but that I had another talent? I shook my head. I was pretty sure this had never happened with anyone else, but I’d have to test my theory on Angelica to make sure. “Don’t worry, Will. You’re off the hook. Thanks for your time so far. Besides, I have a date this afternoon, so now I have time to get ready properly.”
His eyes widened slightly. Ha. I hoped he was irritated or even pissed off. Although that was probably too much to wish for. Argh, I was losing the plot. I didn’t have time for this. I had to learn to protect myself, and quickly. I was sick of being vulnerable… in every sense of the word.
I turned and made a doorway. It was time to rely on someone I could trust.
Myself.