Page 6 of Witch's Rite
3
DEJA
It wasn't until opening my tea shop the next morning, after a nice buzz of caffeine, that I realized I forgot all about asking the guys questions related to my mother.
"Damn it," I muttered into my third cup of lavender chai.
"What's up?" asked Nona, my only employee. I swore she had the hearing of an elephant.
"Nothing. Just got a fly in my cup," I muttered as I turned toward the sink.
I felt guilty for keeping all my witchy developments a secret from Nona. She wasn't just my employee but my first and only real friend since moving out to San Francisco.
I stepped off that Greyhound bus a sheltered and naive girl, the perfect prey for a fast-paced, cutthroat big city to swallow up whole and spit out in pieces.
I didn't even make it out of the bus terminal before someone mugged me. If she hadn't ridden her bike past me at that exact moment and saw the whole thing, I could have spent my first night sleeping on the sidewalk. It was serendipitous. She never left my side again after that.
Even though she worked for me, she was like a mother figure in many ways, like gently reminding me when rent was due, and where the best Mexican food and bars were.
Hell, she even encouraged me to hook up with all three demons after we first met them at that party. That was before either of us knew they were demons, of course.
I hated lying to her. In fact, I was bursting to tell her everything. I needed a girl friend-- who was not my grandmother-- to confide in.
Simple logic told me it was unwise to tell non-magical humans about my powers. Diana hinted at that when we talked about paranormal investigators last night. If knowledge of our powers fell into the wrong hands, it could be devastating.
But this was my sweet Nona. I would bet my life on her loyalty and trustworthiness. Would it really be so bad if I told her I broke a man's leg without touching him? And that the devilishly handsome guys I liked wereactualdemons?
Something in the air suddenly pulled my attention like a magnet. I looked out across the tea shop to see a young woman sitting by the window, an Earl Grey latte on the table in front of her and a book in her hand.
My eyes narrowed as I tried to make out the title of the book. The jacket certainly looked familiar.
I nearly dropped my cup when I realized it was one of the same spellbooks Diana had been teaching me from,The Magical Properties of Plantsby Alastair Knowles.
My heart jumped into my throat as I blocked out everything else in the shop and focused on this young woman with serious tunnel vision.
She looked about my age with pale blonde hair down her back in pretty waves. Her large eyes were a brilliant aquamarine color, and a large chunk of raw crystal in a similar color hung around her neck on a long chain.
Her aura shimmered around her whole body in the same brilliant bluish-green color, with slow, undulating movement like the way a mermaid tail would swim through water. Essentially, she looked bathed in the brilliant lights of the Aurora Borealis.
And she was most definitely a witch.
Only then did I glance around, to see if any other patrons noticed this woman bathed in ethereal light and reading from a spellbook. But everyone chatted with friends, worked on laptops, read ordinary books, and sipped their tea as if nothing was amiss.
"Hey Nona," I said as casually as I could muster. "Has that girl in the window been in here before?"
"No, I don't think so," she said just as casually, pulling cups and saucers out of the dishwasher.
"Have you uh, noticed what she's reading?"
Nona paused and took a longer glance.
"A chemistry textbook, huh? Heavy subject matter. She's probably a student."
I blinked and bit my tongue before I could reveal my shock. I looked again and sure enough, the book cover now readOrganic Chemistry.
I'll be damned.Disguising the book with magic. So simple but genius.
To anyone looking, I was a calm shop owner sipping my tea while looking out adoringly at my customers. But on the inside, I was a twisted mess of anxiety and excitement, like a high school girl debating on saying "hi" to her crush.
