Page 7 of White Charms and Dark Secrets

“It’s fine, I quit anyway,” I reply, standing up too. The swift movement makes me dizzy, and I quickly find my ass back on the sofa.

Kier is hovering over me in seconds. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just a little dizzy.”Probably the blood loss…

“Eat something sugary and get some rest. I’ll see myself out.” He moves before I can argue, but he pauses in the doorway of my living room. “Goodnight, Kayla.”

I hear the soft snick of the front door opening and closing, and I know that he’s gone. Leaning back on the sofa, I stretch my legs out across it as I pull a cushion under my head.I can just nap here for a few minutes…

Four

Portals & Coffee

Sleeping on the sofa is never a good idea. The kink in my neck is painful, and my shoulder aches from where I slept on it in an awkward position. My intended few minutes nap morphed into over twelve hours of sleep, out cold in the possibly the most uncomfortable position my body could have found.

Just my luck should be my new catchphrase.

Still shaking off the remnants of weird dreams about the first vampire, I will my body up and off the sofa, dragging myself into the kitchen for some coffee. As I go to grab the milk, I pause, looking at one of the photos pinned to my fridge with a magnet. It’s a photo of me and Lizzy last New Year’s Eve. We’re dressed up as two of the Power Puff Girls. The image makes me smile; we’re laughing at some stupid joke I can’t even remember with drinks in our hands.

I pull my eyes away and open the fridge. I stare into it unseeing for a moment, almost forgetting I’d gone in there for the milk. Remembering my task, I grab the milk and then hurry to make my coffee, loading it with extra sugar. Two more than I normally take. I figure if I can’t excuse extra sugar after being chomped on by a vampire, when can I?

Clutching my coffee tightly like the lifeline it is, I grab my grandma’s grimoire, pulling it down from its hiding spot – hidden behind the cookbooks I never use. I settle myself down at the kitchen table, sitting on one of the stools. After taking a big gulp of my coffee, I pull open the brown book filled with more spells, potions, and curses than I’d ever be able to memorise.

I want to find a few things. One, a way to break my bad luck. Two, a way to prove Lizzy’s innocence so she could come home. And, three, a resolution to my dumb romantic problems. I flip through the pages for what seems like the millionth time. I find plenty of spells regarding good luck in the book, but all of them have notes scrawled next to them, letting me know these spells won’t work on someone cursed with bad luck. I never paid too much attention to them before, but it makes a lot of sense now.

What about a solution for my love life? I’m not sure what kind of spell would be the better option. A spell to ensure I stay in love, or one to pull both of us out of it.Shit.I grit my teeth. I didn’t just admit that, did I? At least it was only a confession to myself. Darren would never shut up or leave it alone if he ever heard it. I take another large gulp off coffee and slam the book shut.

“Fuck,” I mutter. Lizzy could help with my bad luck, and she’d provide stellar advice on how to repair this mess that is my love life. I need to get her back.

There’s only one way she can return home, and that’s by finding out who really killed Jay. Luckily for me, I already have a prime suspect. Rhydian hasn’t shown his face since the day I found out he was posing as Gideon, a human at my office. He clearly had something to hide. If he wasn’t going to show his face here, I have no choice but to go after him instead.

I open the grimoire back up and flick through the pages until I find what I want. There…directions for how to open a portal. Before now, I’d never possessed nearly enough power to open one. I never even attempted it, just assumed that I couldn’t. Now I know my power is stronger, wilder and more unpredictable, but still stronger. No longer drained by the good luck necklace, it’s allowed to run free and reach its full potential. I know I can do this. I glance down at the list of things that can go wrong when conjuring a portal, feeling my nerves and self-doubt begin to build up within me.

…But maybe I should do a test run first.Just to be extra careful.

Some witches become so adapt at portals, they can cast instantly without the use of words or hand movements. They can form portals just by the direction of their thoughts and magic. Some are even able to mimic the fae ability of phase walking, by making themselves the portal. It’s beyond complicated, and only the most powerful witches are capable. As are most demons. Their magic is similar to witches’, but far more powerful. Seeing as it’s my first attempt, I decide to test it the long way.

I grab a blank piece of paper and crumple it up into a ball and set it aside on the kitchen table. I scan the instructions a few times, draining the last of my coffee as I do. Finally, with no other excuse to procrastinate, I take a deep breath and begin.

I hold my hands out in front of me and focus, moving them to draw out the sigil in the air in front of me.“Segmentum aperire conscidisti in mundo. Ite ad locum creare hunc locum,”I chant, while picturing my destination and moving my hands over and over in the design of the sigil. A pulsing light appears in front of me.

I drop my hands to my sides.I think I’ve actually done it.I gape at the portal for a minute, stunned, before grabbing the paper ball I made and throwing it through the portal. After giving it a few moments, I cut my magic off and let the portal dissolve.

All but running in my excitement, I speed walk into the living room, finding the paper ball in one piece on the floor. I grin. It worked perfectly.Score one for the bad luck witch!

As I’m about to cast a portal to The Rift, I glance down only to realise I’m still dressed in last night’s clothes, and I could probably use a nice long shower. I drop my hands. Confronting Rhydian could wait an hour while I got myself ready. I’d rather accuse him of murder when I’m not looking like I just got beat up by a vamp and then spent the night sleeping on the sofa awkwardly. Even if that is exactly what had happened.

Grandma wasn’t kidding when she told me that life would never be easy.

Five

Secrets of the Fae

Showered, dressed, and alert thanks to two more cups of coffee, I finally feel ready to face Rhydian. Well, as ready as I can be anyway. I take a deep breath and begin to recite the portal spell again.“Segmentum aperire conscidisti in mundo. Ite ad locum creare hunc locum,”I chant. I picture The Rift, outside where Lizzy opened it for me before, and lift my hands to form the design of the sigil in the air.

The pulsing light appears again without any struggle, and I relax a little bit. This is so much easier than I thought it would be. I’ll be interrogating Rhydian in no time. I can already picture the surprise on his irritatingly good-looking face when I show up uninvited. I grin, the image giving me the push I need to move forward. My foot only has a slight tremble as I step into the portal, and my eye catches on a strange flicker as I pass through. Abruptly I stumble, my foot catching on something unseen on the other side, sending me tumbling forward. I brace myself for impact on the hard dirt but find myself falling on top of something a bit softer.

“Not that you aren’t welcome, sweetheart, but most of my guests use the door rather than portalling themselves right onto my lap,” Rhydian drawls. He brushes my hair from where it’s fallen into my face, and I look around, completely mortified. I’ve managed to end up somewhere other than where I’d intended; instead of landing outside of the building, I seem to have landed upstairs. Of all the places I could have come out of the portal up here, I’ve ended up on Rhydian’s lap.

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