I had long changed and been standing in the door listening. I felt my heart clenching in my chest, hoping for a happy ending for them through the whole story. I had forgotten that the ending is now, here, today. This is as far as they have come and still Zaphyra is kept from the sun and the happiness she hopes it will bring.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have shared so much,” Zemira says.
“No, it’s good for me to know,” I tell her. “I need to know these things so I know just how to help you all. If I can, I want to help you all find your way back to daylight someday. You earned your human forms back. It could happen.”
“It’s not your job to release us from our sins. It’s your job to let us help you fight demons and earn it painfully, slowly. And if you have time, we could maybe go for a girls’ night. Shopping trip, nail salon,” she says wiggling her fingers at me.
“That we can do,” I say.
Chapter Fourteen
Violet
“I knew that would work,” Madame Leticia tells me watching the tiny tornado I conjured on the table. It’s sucking all the sand from her zen garden into its orbit. Her eyes are hungry, as always.
“So that one was deviere protejare?” Fiona asks taking her own notes.
“Yes,” I say refusing to say the spell again. I learned my lesson last time when I repeated the flugera spell for practice and ended up catching a curtain on fire.
Fiona scratches feverishly in her notebook noting the size and shape of the tornado. She’s been tracking my powers and their strength under Madame Leticia’s watch over the last few weeks. At first, I was hesitant to ask for more help, but it makes sense. I need to learn as much as I can as quick as I can. I’m facing real live demons that are absolutely terrifying. I need all the help I can get. None of us have told the gargoyles though. I doubt they would be happy. I haven’t told the madame about them or demons either. She talks mostly about the spirit realm anyways; that’s where her people say the powers come from. So, during the day I work with her.
At night we head out with the gargoyles to train and find out where the demons are lurking. That has been the scariest part, seeing demons, real demons, and watching the gargoyles fight them. There’s only been three others since the tentacle beast, but it is still unsettling. A giant slug with antennae had crawled out of a toilet in the public bathrooms in the town square last week. Apparently, no one else could see it but us, and now I’m dreaming about toilet slugs. The nightmares and checking the toilet for antennae every time I go to the bathroom are just one of many new perks in my bizarre life. Alex says the key to not being afraid is being prepared; he’s been teaching me about the different levels and types of demons. We haven’t kissed again or even talked about it, but sometimes he touches his fingertips to mine when no one else is looking. It might as well be a kiss with how crazy it drives me. I want nothing more than a night alone with him.
Zemira thinks I need to know how to fight, so I’m also learning some offensive spells from her, but mostly they need me to use my magic to bottle things that they can’t destroy. They said in the future I’ll be able to sense where demon activity is like Achilles, using other magical tools like a pyxis, but we haven’t gotten that far yet. They also said I should be able to sense where the gargoyles are at all times, but we’ve tested it and I can’t. Every once in a while, I feel like I get a flicker of something, but it fizzles out just as quick.
At sunrise, I trudge back to the rental and fall into my crazy dreams. Some have toilet slugs, some are full of river water, some have Alex, and some have a haze of magic. During the magic dreams, I wake up with massive headaches. I did tell Percy about those; he thinks I may be using my magic in my sleep which is bad. It can lead to magic overuse. The more power I use at one time, the more exhausted I am after.
At Madame Leticia’s, I’m learning the intricacies of the book. I’ve learned I can combine simple spells to create more powerful magic, something Percy would probably be upset about. I’ve broken more mystical tchotchkes than I could ever replace, but Madame doesn’t seem to mind. She’s thrilled to meet a zoana; she says she heard about them in the old country, she never explained where that is. Though her accent is thick enough I doubt she was born locally. I am finding a balance not being surrounded solely by gargoyles all the time. Even my aunt’s and my relationship is getting better now that she’s in the loop. She seems a lot like Fiona, eager to unravel all there is to know about the magical realm. They’ve become extra chummy too. Although Irene’s been spending a lot of time with Percy at the house, I haven’t asked her if they’ve been up to anything, but Zemira was right about hormones. Love is in the air everywhere I turn. Blythe and Aaiden had left Aunt Irene’s the other night to talk, and we saw them two days later as a couple. They’re taking it slow they say. But they run off and disappear together enough that Fiona and I are giving them space.
Currently we are in the shop so Fiona can work her shift. The Culty Medina has been owned by Madame Leticia for a little over a year. I’m practicing magic in the back in between customers. I wasn’t sure about Madame Leticia at first. She’s a bit off-putting, but maybe it’s mostly the idea of all of this being so foreign. Demons. Gargoyles. So many people learning about magic and being just fine that it exists. I should probably be in a mental institution because it feels like I’ve been dropped in an alternate reality ever since the night with the zombies. Yet, here I am conjuring tornadoes.
“Read more from book now,” Madame Leticia says. She’s been making me read page after page. Neither her, nor Fiona can read most of the book. To them most of the pages are in foreign languages. But for me, when I stare at the words long enough, they shake and transform into English. I’ve read almost all of the book. We’ll be completely through it in no time.
“I’m kind of tired today,” I tell her.
“More you read, more secrets you learn. Books are all magic, this one just more so. You’ll own your own shop one day and make money reading for people. I will teach you pyromancy and cards. You’ll be most powerful girl, like Fiona.”
“The madame has been teaching me to read tea leaves,” Fiona says.
“I’ve always wanted to know what sediment has to say about me.” I wink at Fiona.
“Fiona has special gift for fortunes,” Madame Leticia says causing Fiona to sit up proudly. I’m proud of her too. “But for now, you read book!” she barks at me.
“Ugh!” I stretch out in my chair. My back and my butt hurt. Who knew reading could be so painful? “Okay let’s see.” I flip the pages until it lands on one I haven’t read yet. The page shimmers and the words move as I read aloud.
“Belltonna Fortiore
The whisper room.
There are times a zoana will find themselves stuck in between realms. They will appear in a room with many doors. This is the whisper room. In times of uncertainty they can use the room to communicate with multiple realms at once. Past, present, and even future events can be unveiled.”
“This must be a story page,” Fiona says.
“I think you’re right,” I say. Some pages of the book don’t just have spells. They have stories, details, a record of battles fought. I have thought at least once that Great Uncle Eugene wrote in a page. This one sounds familiar though. I think I was in this room. I don’t mention it to Fiona or Madame Leticia. Some things I don’t think are for them to know.