Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 15

The ride back to the academy is quiet as Indigo and I sit side by side in another taxi. I want so badly to speak to her, but with the driver around, we can't without sounding insane.

Instead, I pull out my phone and text her.

"How did you find out that you were an Unfamiliar?" I text.

Her phone buzzes in her pocket a second later and she pulls it out and looks at the screen for a long moment before she shakes her head and texts me back.

"Mom had finally told me this year, that's why I stayed in Salem over the summer, I was being trained to control other people's familiars without making it obvious."

"Why control others at all?"

"Because, if I'm found out, it's helpful to know how to, that and controlling others can be beneficial to help out with finding other Unfamiliars."

She pauses for a moment before her fingers type another message.

"We have to stick together, mom is a part of a secret Unfamiliar coven that seeks out other Unfamiliars, you'd be surprised by how many orphans there are, or even how many children are abandoned by their parents when they're found out," she frowns and stares at her cell-phone's screen, "we have to keep other Unfamiliars safe."

"I understand," I text her, and it's the truth.

"Good, I'll tutor you in some defensive spells so you can learn to keep yourself safe, if people begin to act strange around you, let me know," she warns and I can feel the darkness of the subject in her text.

"Can I be inducted into the coven that mom's in?"

She shrugs and texts me back, "Maybe sometime soon, you'll have to talk to her about that."

"Have you joined?"

"No," she looks around. "We're getting close," and then, "we'll talk more about this later."

I'm too uptight and sleep doesn't appeal to me anymore as I squint at the time on my phone's screen, it's almost four in the morning.

I head for the group-chat where Tessa and Luke's numbers are. We had last texted each other a couple of days before I had come to Greenwood and the innocence and simplicity of what my life had been like before makes me shut my eyes against the tears that suddenly spring to them as a surge of fear grips my heart.

I bite my lip, finding my courage as I send them a text, even though I know that it's still too early for them to be awake. I needed to talk to them about this and tell them the truth.

"Meet me at the IHop near campus at five," I chew on the inside of my cheek before I send another text, "Tessa, bring Astrid with you."

I've come to trust my other roommate over the short time that I've known her and I figure that it's best to have her in on the story rather than leave her out of the loop. Besides, she already knows that I'm an Unfamiliar to begin with.

I get a response from Tessa a few minutes later, "Okay."

****

"Why did we have to come to IHop at five in the morning?" Luke complains as he stares at the tabletop in front of him.

He looks bedraggled and his hair is greasy-looking from where a few strands are sticking out from under the hood of his jacket. Next to him, Tessa places a hand over her mouth to cover it as she yawns.

"I'm tired," she groans as she leans forward and lets her forehead slam on the table in front of her.

"That's why classes start at nine," Luke mutters.

"Let's just get this meeting over with," Astrid suggests as she looks to me.

"After we order breakfast," I promise them in a low voice.

I had had the taxi drop me off at the IHop and had told Indigo that Tessa and Astrid already knew about what I was and that I wanted to talk to them. She relented...eventually and headed back to campus without me. Now I'm sat in the corner booth in the back of the empty restaurant with my friends and a secret that has put me in danger.

Being up all night has made me exhausted and my fingers are trembling as I pick up a menu and browse my choices as the others do the same. I'm not sure if Luke has been told about my 'Unfamiliar-ness' but he hasn't asked any questions or said anything so I can only guess that he probably doesn't know for sure. A waitress eventually comes by and takes our orders before she leaves and I feel the others look to me expectantly.

I take a deep breath and blow it out slowly as I try to think of exactly what to say.

"So I'm an Unfamiliar," I begin as I look to Luke so I can judge his reaction.

He gives me a long, wary look before he glances at the others, "You both knew?"

Tessa and Astrid nod at this as they look unfazed.

"I didn't know if you were going to tell him yourself so I didn't say anything to him," Tessa adds as she fidgets with the collar of her jacket.

"I was planning on it," I tell her, grateful that she had chosen to leave the choice to me.

"So you're an Unfamiliar, that's why you could control the other familiars on the field. I've heard that they're powerful," Luke says and shrugs, "you're acting like there's more to it, though."

Tessa looks to me then, her gaze narrowing as she realizes that he's right. Even Astrid is watching me with renewed interest.

"Because there is," I confirm.

I want to say more, but our waitress returns suddenly and drops off our food. She's a girl who probably isn't much older than we are as she smiles before she leaves again. I'm distracted by my plate of pancakes as hunger gnaws at me and I take a few bites before I continue speaking.

"Unfamiliars are...feared," I sum up for them as I swallow and try to find the right words. "They've been blamed for centuries and there's a cult out there who has been hunting Unfamiliars for centuries."

Luke pauses, his mouth full of food as he gives me a long look, "Hunting and...?"

"Killing them," I confirm, my voice dropping to a whisper, "my great grandmother was murdered because she was an Unfamiliar and they didn't trust her."

A heavy silence settles over us as the others stop eating and stare at me. Shock has contorted their features, it's one thing to be feared by mortals, we are in Salem which has a reputation of witch hunting like no other.

But they had been mortals killing witches.

My situation is something else entirely and I'm still having difficulty wrapping my head around it.

Witches shouldn't kill witches.

Luke is the first to speak as he clears his throat and gives me a determined look.

"Kara, we'll keep you safe," he says and he looks to the others as they nod in agreement.

"They're going to have to go through us first," Tessa agrees.

"I'll pledge my life," Astrid says in a bored tone as she grins, "besides, I like my new roommates and I'd hate to have to get new ones."