"What the hell, Jules?" Kady snapped as she followed Julia into her apartment, almost getting a blow to the body by the door that's been whipped shut at her.
Julia stormed to the couch and threw down her bag.
"What?"
"Why can't you just talk to me?"
"Why do you want anything to do with me?"
"What?" Kady asked, concerned. "Julia, what's going on?"
All she can think about is that if it wasn't for her, Hannah could still be alive. "Nothing. You should go."
As Julia walked toward her to let her out, Kady held up a hand and froze her in her place with a blue beam of what looked like electricity.
"Shit."
She put her hand down and Julia let out a deep gasp.
"Sorry, I- Shit. I'm sorry, Jules, I just-"
"Force of habit, I get it," Julia cut her off and walked back to the couch.
There was a moment of awkward silence, awkward eye contact.
"Well," Julia said. "If you're not going to leave at least come sit."
"Right, okay."
She watched Kady's every move. The way her hair bounced with each step, the way her eyes gazed around the room, the way her fingers nervously interlocked each other. She was mesmerized. Kady sat next to her.
"Jules?"
"Sorry I was just, uh-- have you talked to Penny?"
"Yeah, I did actually. He told me that--"
Her voice faded out. Not because of any crazy spells or beasts, but because Julia could no longer focus. She's used to this, though, because her undying love for Kady since the day they met has always distracted her in this way. And to Julia, the early tension between them only made her fall harder. Suddenly, Julia found herself aggressively pulling Kady's face into hers, kissing her hard, condensing their bodies and reaching down to the bottom of her shirt to pull it off. She pushed her bra strap to the side and kissed from her shoulder, up to her neck, up to her ear. Through the sound of her belt buckle, each kiss and heavy breath, Kady whined "Julia, Julia."
She snapped out of it.
"Julia, Julia!" Kady finally got her attention. "Did you hear anything I said in the last six minutes? I'm out of time loops here."
She looked at Kady, mouth just slightly agape. Her lips were trembling but she couldn't get words out.
"Did I..." she stuttered and swallowed hard. "Did I already ask about Penny?"
"Oh, you are so god damn annoying. Come on, he needs our help."
---
"Oh, god" Kady sighed as they made their way to the Brakebills library. "What is that?"
"Shit," Julia watched as thick grey smoke danced from underneath every door leading to the inside. "Shit, shit, shit, Kady they need help in there."
"What is it?" she asked, frantic.
"Follow me," she took frenetic strides. "It's Our Lady Underground. I told Q not to summon her, I fucking told him and what does he do? God, he's so stupid, he's going to get them all killed. Fucking idiot."
"In his defense, Jules, you don't listen to him much, either."
Julia stopped in her tracks.
"I've had first hand experience with her, Kady."
"Jules."
"No, you listen to me. Do you not remember me growing a monster that wanted to intertwine it's soul with mine? You'd think he'd have a little common sense. He wants Alice back so god damn badly he's willing to put all of Brakebills in even more danger to do it."
"You don't know his motives."
"He's been my best friend all my life. Don't you dare act like you know him better than I do."
The floor shaking underneath them ceased the bickering.
"Enough distracting me, Kady, we need to move."
---
"How did I not know this room existed?" Kady asked, more confused than ever.
"Because it didn't. I just put it here."
"What kind of magician are you?"
"Why?" Julia asked, slowly walking toward her. "Does it impress you?"
"A little bit, yeah."
"Yeah? What are you going to do about it, hm?" She bit her lip.
"Come closer and I'll show you. Come on, Jules. Jules."
Again, Julia snapped out of it.
"Jules! Jules!" Kady said, snapping her fingers in her face. "Get out of your feelings unless you're trying to become a Niffin. What is wrong with you today?"
"I really want you," she said, almost inaudibly.
"What?"
"Never mind. Do you know remember the first Ancient Greek spell you learned here at Brakebills?"
"Sure, the one that creates a hologram of someone's thoughts, but--"
"Exactly," she said, pacing. "It might not work since I'm not a student. There's too many channels that my magic doesn't reach but you need to try with me. As long as we can see what Quentin is thinking, we can--"
"Jules, this seems really dangerous."
Julia stopped pacing.
"Oh, please. All of a sudden you care about dangerous?"
"Julia. We're not Penny. We don't read minds. This spell doesn't just simply depict their thoughts in a hologram. It extracts their being and their magic from their body for however long we keep it here. We don't know what kind of position Q is in right now and quite frankly I don't want to be the one who's responsible for making him defenseless to Our Lady Underground."
"Then we need to find Penny. The only way we can stop this summoning is if we get in his mind and get to the root of his motives. Trust me, Kady, I know what I'm talking about. Listen, there was this one time when--"
Now it was Julia's voice fading out. Still no spells, still no beasts. Just pure hypnosis. The only thing is, unlike Julia, Kady wasn't used to this. In fact, she hated Julia for a long time for being such a selfish bitch. She couldn't imagine explaining her love for Julia to the rest of the group, or even to herself. She tried to escape the thought of pouncing on top of her but she couldn't, so she let her mind take over. Before she knew it, she had Julia pinned to the wall with her body pressed against hers, her hands holding her wrists above her head. She let go for just a second to reach for Julia's belt and Julia immediately tried getting her hands all over Kady. "Nuh uh," Kady threatened, aggressively putting her hands back in their rightful place above her head. Julia, stuck between guilty smile and lip bite, let Kady run her course. Slowly but surely, Julia's shirt came off. "Don't move," Kady whispered. She kissed down her body and looked up at her when she made it to her belt.
"Stop," said Julia. Kady was confused. She thought Julia was enjoying this as much as she was. "Kady, stop that."
Kady snapped out of it.
"What, stop what?"
"You're staring at me like I have ten heads."
"I wish I could give you head," she said under her breath.
"You wish what about who's head?"
"No, uh. I said dead. I wish my friends weren't dead."
"Well, Kady they're not, but they will be if we don't get a move on with this spell. Let's go find Penny.
