Sex, Lies & Magic

Twelve

The inside of Perfect Balance was deserted as always when we entered. I hadn't really expected there to be others. This time we'd made an appointment. Tabitha—the wizard who ran Merlin's Beard—suggested to Sam that we take one of the magic defense courses Tamsin offered. Sam set everything up. She was excited about it—too excited.

Then again, Sam took magic as defense at Knottsborough. The wizarding community cared more about the capabilities of their little wizards than the sorcerers did. The situation I found myself in really drove home the lackadaisical way the Sorcerers treated those on the fringes. I hadn't yet decided if it was intentional or not.

Our lack of knowledge seemed suspicious. I almost wanted to ask Mikey if he knew about anything Craven spoke about earlier. Mikey was both a Cavendish and a Sterling directly. His last name was Cavendish which meant something in the sorcery community. He was a member of one of the twelve houses. Sterling was the number one house, and Cavendish the number two.

The rest of us were members of cadet houses, what used to be called lesser houses because our magic tended not to be anything of note or we didn't have some massive fortune.

If Mikey knew then it would confirm my suspicions, the great big incestuous pool of the twelve hoped us little houses died off. I had a theory that all the inbreeding had effected magic for the worse. After all Mikey liked to joke his family tree looked more like a ball of yarn than an actual tree with everything all jumbled up and bunched in on itself.

"Welcome!" Tamsin declared with a grin. She wore a flowing linen peasant shirt and brown yoga pants. Her hair was swept up into a bun like before with the two chopsticks in it. "Let me lock up and we'll get started." She walked passed up and closed the door, flipping over the little sign which read open. Once it turned to closed the door slowly faded into the wall until only the sign remained.

Great, no escape.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. I jumped as my phone rattled in my purse.

- Feel up to pizza and a bad movie later?

The text from Craven read. He had put it in my phone with a little heart next to his name. I set my teeth into my bottom lip fighting my smile.

- Sounds perfect. What movie?

- A B-movie about vampires from the 90s. Super low budget. Should be good for a laugh.

- It's a date.

Dana glanced at me as I set my phone back in my purse following Tamsin into the back of the store.

"From Craven?" Dana whispered.

"Mhm."

"You always glow when you talk to him. I'm so jelly."

"Don't be. You'll get someone like him before you know it."

"Uhh, except for the fact that I don't think there's anyone hotter than Craven I kind of agree with you." She laughed.

Tamsin opened another door revealing a swirling purple portal. All laughter died then. Portals sucked. Literally and figuratively, they had a natural force which drew things to them and stepping through them felt like dying.

Okay, maybe I exaggerated because I'd never died so I didn't know what that felt like. But your heart stopped and you couldn't breath until you crossed completely over to the other side of the portal. Oh, and the pretty sparkling, swirly magical substance which created the rip between point a and b on the plane was wet. If you didn't step through with purpose you ended up soaked.