“And magic is near dead!” Her mother’s eyes were full of desperation. “We can’t control the gorgons passing down from generation to generation. They aren’t being born often, so there is no guarantee your children will have the same gift.”
“The same curse, more like it...”
“As magic dies, the gorgons will too. It is inevitable. They only have two choices of how they will live in the first place.” Mom held Desi’s gaze for a long moment, searching. Perhaps for a sign Desi cared, I’d never know for certain. I just knew she didn’t find it because she eventually exhaled and went to the sink to do dishes. “You can enter into a pact with your guardians where your destiny will be to judge every soul that crosses your path. For better or worse. And they will be punished accordingly for their crimes. It’s certainly not a terrible life. The other choice is to free them.”
Desi sighed. “With true love?”
Her mother nodded. “In the past, a gorgon could have both. True love and companionship with their guardians. The more magic is strained, the worse it is for the poor creatures.”
“So in order to help them, I have to fall in love,” Desi grumbled. “What if I don’t want to? What if I’d rather be alone? Perhaps being a judgmental witch is the right idea. There are a lot of terrible people in the world right now.”
“Is that what your heart wants?”
“You’re assuming I have one,” Desi said, her tone like ice. Before her mother could reply, she added, “That being said, I don’t particularly enjoy the thought of having snakes in my hair for life.”
“How about you meet them.” Her mother’s lips formed a smile. “It might change your feelings.”
Laughter erupted from Desi. “Sure, why not. Let’s chit chat snakes. Tell me your life story!”
Even though her voice dripped of sarcasm, the intent in her heart was pure. She’d called upon us, and we were going to meet at last!
“Hi Desi,” Brie said. So jealous she got the first words.
Only, it didn’t matter. She couldn’t hear them.
“Desi?” Jerry tried.
Nothing.
My stomach turned. “No, how are we going to make any kind of progress with her if she can’t even hear us!”
“Our magic!” Brie started to sob.
I dared to slither out into the open, dipping below her hair line so that I dangled in front of her face. “See us. We’re here!”
Desi’s dark eyes glued onto me, and she shrieked. “Get it out! Mom! Get. It. Out!”
Her mother stroked the top of my head. “Good try, sweeties. Don’t panic.”
“How can you tell me not to panic! They’re snakes!”
“I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to them.” Her mother leaned up to kiss me. “You’ll be okay, no matter what happens.” She turned her attention to Desi. “All of you will be. Don’t be afraid of love because I think the reason you were so afraid and upset last night is because you’re close. You’re not as heartless as you want us all to believe.”
Desi spun away so fast that I had to curl back up otherwise I’d get sick. The magic bound us to her body. I’d rather not flop around uncontrollably.
With a sigh, Desi sat at the kitchen table to drink her coffee. “Sure Mom. Whatever you say.”
Chapter Nine
Brie
The truth! Finally, it was out there and with that a burden released within me! She knew we existed, and that meant all the world to me. Unfortunately, we still couldn’t speak with her. I’d underestimated how terribly pathetic our magic levels were. I felt stupid for calling upon it for such trivial things. What if we lost too much and being human would no longer be an option? How long would we even survive? Being attached to Desi offered us strength, but without magic we could hardly do anything. We’d be nothing more than a fun hair accessory!
I’m not sure how long it took for Desdemona to come to terms with reality. After she talked with her mother, she went up to her room to look over her text messages.
“Saw this and thought of you.” From Toby, attached with a picture of a purple and orange lily. She smiled, a little, and then frowned.
Her next messages were all from an unknown number. “It’s Rodney. Don’t get mad. Got number from Leah. Just worried.”
“Still worried. Please tell me how you are.”
“Hoping the silence means sleeping. Won’t message again until I hear or see you.”
She chuckled at those messages and sighed. Her heart felt lighter, yet also torn.
“Oh, I hate this,” I whispered.
She spent one more night with her parents, before driving home the next morning. On the way back, she addressed us.
“I’m not sure if you’re listening, and I feel really stupid talking to you. But I saw you, and I believe you’re real...even if it’s confusing and messed up.” She shook her head. “Look, I don’t want you living on my body anymore. Can I just release you from your duty? Set you free and let you do your own thing without the true love bit? What other deal can we work out? Because as cool as it would be to be a judge of the world, I don’t feel qualified to do that. I’d also be a hypocrite.”
“Truth,” Preston said.
I snorted and head butted him in the side. So rude! So mean!
She waited a while, perhaps for one of us to say something or confirm we could do such a thing. Unfortunately, we couldn’t. Perhaps I could send an urge, a hint, of reassurance, but I feared expending more magic than necessary. Even if we could talk to her, what she wanted was not in the cards.
After a while, she grunted. “Fine, guess that’s out.” Another pause. “I’m scared, okay? Really scared. All the guys I’ve been interested are bad, you know that. How am I supposed to find love when they either suck or there’s something wrong to the point where I can’t get a guy to want me?” She paused to rub her head. “Yes, I know I have two guys who seem to be genuinely into me. I don’t know who I like more, though, and I feel like there’s a time crunch here. If we’re going to vacate you from the premise, I feel like I have to decide now.”
And she did if we had any hope of being human. Though, it wasn’t her who needed to decide, it was us. As our magic dwindled, our chances of being released did as well.
“It’s not fair,” she added. “Why should I have to decide now between two guys I just met.”
So true. If only it worked like that.
“I’m going to call the guys. See them both tonight. We’ll go from there, I guess. I want you gone, and you want to be gone. And I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”
Phone calls were made. Toby got dinner at a restaurant called Salute, and Rodney got drinks and dessert at a cafe across the street two hours later.
Back home, she took some time to settle in and collect her nerves. During that time, the boys and I had a chat.
“Guys, I think she’s right,” I said. “We’re not being fair to her.”
“If I could change the rules of our magic, I would,” Preston said. “I don’t like it either. But, this wouldn’t be so hard if we’d just all agree that Toby is the best option she’s ever had! We need to pursue it!”