A little piece of magic

Chapter One

Chapter One

The baby across the hall was definitely teething, it was half-three in the morning and the cries had been constant for pretty much the last week. I had no idea how anyone could sleep through it. I tossed and turned for what felt like hours but when I checked my phone display it had only been five minutes.

"Hang on, I'll get Ivy."

We shared a quick two-second glance, knowing my roommate she'd burst out of her bedroom. Ivy was better with people than I was, probably explained why out of the two of us she had the better job and I was struggling to make my half of the rent more often than not.

Just as I was thinking that, Ivy barrelled out in all of her five foot glory. Ivy was a tiny force of nature and a much better herbalist than me. She always seemed to know just what was needed.

"Ive, l just need something to make him sleep."

"We all need that," I muttered before my sleep deprived brain caught up. "Sorry, l didn't mean that."

Ivy's stare was assessing and calculating, it had the unpleasant feeling of being a bug under a microscope. Eventually everyone wilted under the stare, her family held the patent on that stare. I lasted about forty seconds before she decided that l needed some of her "Riley is a sourpuss" tea and that Oscar needed something cool and soothing for his gums.

"Well, what do you have for him?" Oscar's frantic father, Chase, struggled not to snap.

The two of them had a shared history, they grew up together, and it was quite funny watching them awkwardly flirt with each other. I didn't blame either of them. Lvy was my best friend and Chase was kinda cute.

Whenever they were around each other I felt like l was watching a documentary on animal planet about how clueless mates attract each other. Either way tiny giggled a lot and kept touching her hair unnecessarily, l swear it took about five minutes longer than it needed to for Oscar to get his frozen teething ring in his mouth. Of course Chase could never admit that Ivy's herbal concoctions were much better than anything pharmaceutical.

"Ivy you're the best herbalist l know," l said sometime later when Oscar had finally settled down.

Ivy laughed and tapped her wine glass against my chipped mug, "and you're the best animalist l know."

I sipped my tea, deep in thought. Herbalists were the most common specialisation and animalists one of the rarest. Even though mortals based their myths and legends on animalists and herbalists we weren't the same and most mortals had no idea that they were living next to us.

Everyone wanted to be a herbalist, it was a practice that came in super handy; you could do anything from curing a cold to treating a broken leg. Of course the remedies were different from witch to witch and passed down through the ages from mother to daughter. There was nothing to stop an elemental from leaning a few simple cures, specialisms didn't always run in families.

I specialised late, and since I don't know who my mother is, was at a disadvantage. These was no-one to teach me anything and everything l knew was self-taught. The council also hated me, in their eyes I was an orphan and even though l had power they still needed to give me the allowance. Witches came from old family money and those without mothers or female relatives got a decent chunk of money every month or so. My dad also claimed that I was first generation, I had the eyes for it and since the council had no way of disproving that, had grudgingly set up an inheritance for me when l set up my own family or when l did something that needed me to break away from them - usually a wedding.

"Ivy, when did you get your inheritance?"

"I was supposed to get it when my Gran passed, but l got it early. When I moved here. Why?"