Mary-Beth actually took several long moments of evaluating him openly. “I mean…you are kind of hot, in that good boy way. Classically pretty. And I know you’re rich. But I think I kind of have a thing for bad boys with dark hair and brooding eyes.”
Borden just laughed, shaking his head.
“Say what you really mean, Mary-Beth,” I teased her. “No wonder you were let down by that guy last year. Bad boys tend to have their reputations for a reason.”
“But they make life oh so exciting,” she said with a smirk and a shrug of her shoulder.
We got to the bank leading up to Asteria House and turned up onto it. Nathaniel pulled me up, followed by Borden who extended a hand down to Mary-Beth.
“Don’t be getting any ideas, pretty boy,” she said as she took his hand and let him pull her up.
“You are ridiculous,” Borden said, and from his tone, I could tell he was playing, but also a little bit serious.
“As long as I’m not boring,” she said, winking as she walked past him and came to my side. She looped her arm through mine and followed me without question to the steps leading up into the abandoned house.
“I literally don’t even know how to react to the dynamic going on here,” Nathaniel said from the other side of me.
I just laughed and hugged into his side more, rising onto my tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek.
“You better get used to them,” Borden said to Mary-Beth. “It gets a little stomach churning at times.”
“Don’t be jealous,” she said. “They’re ridiculously adorable.”
“So, what if I am a little jealous?” Borden said. “I’m a senior in college, and the most serious relationship I’ve ever had is with my financial advisor.”
Mary-Beth gave a pitying noise. “Okay, fine, I’ll go on one date with you, but you’re paying.”
“It’s too late,” Borden said, shaking his head. “You’ve already told me you aren’t attracted to me. You’ve bruised my ego. Let’s all just move on with our lives.”
As we all laughed, I felt…good. Peaceful. Like things were falling into place and that even though we were all so different, this was how things were meant to be.
I kind of loved the four of us together as a crew.
We stepped into the emptied bedroom and as Mary-Beth and Borden both looked around, I knew neither of them had ever been here before. We worked our way through the bedroom, into the massive living room.
Nathaniel and I had nailed sheets up over the broken window in an attempt to keep out the cold, rain, and snow. They flapped slightly in the breeze, but it was indeed warmer in here than outside.
“This place is kind of freaky,” Mary-Beth said as she let go of me and walked around. “Didn’t the Asteria family just walk away from this place after that storm?”
Nathaniel nodded. “It’s been about twenty years since anyone lived here.”
“So, you guys are the type that likes abandoned houses and spooky graveyards?” she asked as she ran her hand over the back of a chair that had no bottom to it anymore.
“Not exactly,” I said as my heart rate started spiking. “We’re the type that has something to share with you, and it’s about yourself. Something you never knew.”
Mary-Beth looked back at me then, and for the first time, she got a look of concern on her face.
I glanced at Nathaniel and wondered if this fear and uncertainty was how he felt the first time he told me.
“We have a common ancestor,” I said, turning my attention back to Mary-Beth. “Mare McGregor was killed in Salem for being a witch. Because she really was one.”
For the first time ever, Mary-Beth didn’t have anything to say. Her eyes slid from me to Nathaniel, and then to Borden, as if she was waiting for either of the two of them to laugh at my joke.
“There was a surge of magic between 1500 and 1700,” Nathaniel said, stepping in and filling in where I was lacking. “You’ve heard of the trials here in the States, but there were full on witch hunts in just about every part of the world between those years. Europe, Asia, much of Africa. My ancestors were killed in England. Borden’s in Scotland. All three of us are descendants of people who had magical abilities.”
I slid the bag from my shoulder and pulled out the telekinesis book. “I made up all that stuff the other day,” I said as I opened it and walked toward Mary-Beth, who still stood there silent and staring. “I have no idea if your grandmother donated it. But Nathaniel found it almost a year ago. And only certain people can read it.”
I set the book down on the table in front of her, open.
“Can you read it now?” I asked, and my heart continued to hammer and race.
Mary-Beth’s eyes dropped to the book. Her eyes darted back and forth, and the longer she looked at it, the more her brows furrowed together.
“Wait, the other day I could read it just fine,” she said, looking up at me for a brief moment. “Is this a different book?”
I shook my head. “That’s why I asked if you knew Gaelic. That’s what it’s written in, though we found out it’s just utter nonsense.” I stepped forward, and gently grabbed her wrist and moved her hand toward the pages. “Touch it.”
She gave me an uncertain, questioning look. But she did it.
And exactly like I had, like Borden had, she leaned in closer, her brows concerned. She withdrew her hand, and then touched it again.
“You can read it when you touch it, can’t you?” Borden asked.
She glanced over her shoulder at him, awe and confusion on her face. She looked back at the book and did it again. “How did you guys do this? I’ve never seen this kind of circus trick.”
“It’s not a circus trick,” Nathaniel said. “You share Mare McGregor’s blood, just like I share William Nightingale’s, and Borden shares Christian Stewart’s. They were mages. And so are all four of us.”
Mary-Beth looked back at us, and for the first time, I saw something new in her eyes. A mix between concern, and maybe just a little bit of fear. “Okay, I thought you guys seemed fun and maybe a little weird and adventurous, but I didn’t realize you were all delusional.”
I didn’t even have to say anything. Borden turned for the massive fireplace which still had a few logs in it from the last time Nathaniel and I came here. He rubbed his hands together, and they instantly sparked with electricity, something Nathaniel and I couldn’t do. And then he snapped his fingers, staring intently at the logs.
They instantly lit on fire.
There was a rustle of paper from upstairs, and two seconds later, a train of four paper airplanes came swooping down the stairs and circled around Mary-Beth.
I closed my eyes for a moment and reached out to every speck of dirt that was lying on the ground and asked it to lift.
When I opened my eyes, there was a massive amount of dirt floating in the air.
“Trust me, we all know how you’re feeling,” I said, even as I kept my concentration. “But we’re not delusional.”
Mary-Beth’s breath was coming in and out in sharp, unsteady pulls. She kept looking around, from the airplanes that continued to fly around the house, to the dirt I was making levitate, to Borden’s fire that had leapt to life.