Second Time's A Curse Read online

  Chapter Six

  "Are you sure this is a good idea?" I ask as I set a cup of tea down in front of Thomas.

  Escaping the room straight after he arrived on the pretence of making tea isn't exactly the best move from me, but I'm nervous about him being here, and going through a polite British ritual is one of the ways I can make myself feel a little bit better about everything. At least, that's my theory.

  I sit down on my bed, cupping my mug between my hands and blowing across the top.

  "We're less likely to get caught in your room than in my office," he points out.

  "Hmm." I try not to think about the fact he's in my bedroom for the first time. And that the first means I expect it to happen again. But we can't risk getting caught, not when he shares his office with another teaching assistant.

  Rhubarb jumps up onto the bed and starts making his way over to the mini table containing Thomas' tea.

  "This is nifty," Thomas says, tapping the side of the desk.

  "Thanks. I'm terrible at actually using my desk, this is a compromise." I shrug, feeling very self-conscious about the small portable table that can sit over my bed and keep my laptop from overheating. I’m bad at remembering to use the desk that comes with my room.

  "It's a good idea." He picks up his tea and takes a sip.

  The silence between us verges on uncomfortable and I can't explain why. I know Thomas well enough for it not to be an issue. And yet...

  "Why couldn't we meet in the library?" I ask.

  "Feathertop has been spending more time there, it's getting dangerous to go." He puts his tea back on the table.

  "That's a pity."

  "It is. But I already have everything I need." He nods towards the two leather-bound books he's set on my bed.

  "Good." I swallow down the nerves those books bring. I don't want to accept what using them can mean. Black magic is dangerous at the best of times, but it can also get us imprisoned. Or maybe even dead. They may not enforce it very often, the death penalty technically still exists for witches and I don't want to have to face that situation. Especially now I have a third book that might get me the answers I need without having to resort to anything illegal.

  Maybe I should outright tell Thomas about what Daphne found, but somehow, that feels like I'm breaking her trust, and that's the last thing I want to do.

  "I wanted to do a couple of tests," he says.

  I gulp. "Okay...what kind?"

  My gaze strays to Rhubarb as he trips over a lump of duvet. I don't know why, but it makes me nervous that Thomas can see my bed in a less than pristine situation, but I didn't have time after Daphne left to fix it. I'd been too focused on making sure none of my dirty washing is on show. At least I made the bed this morning, even if it's not perfect. I'm sure he'll understand that it's not completely possible to have things pristine all the time.

  "I want you to do a small spell."

  We both glance over at my growing collection of kittens. Some of them are playing with one another, while Ginger sleeps in the tiny slither of winter sun. None of them are as mischievous, or as people-centric, as Rhubarb is, though. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that he's on the bed with us instead of with the others.

  "I don't think that's a good idea," I say eventually.

  "If you don't want to, then you don't have to, but I think I have one that won't produce a kitten."

  I perk up at that. It's not that they aren't cute. I've come to love all of them and their quirks, but I don't have the space to keep an infinite amount. Maybe I should start a business selling kittens to my classmates. See Mona for all your familiar needs...

  "What makes you think I won't make one?" I don't want to get my hopes up, only to find myself back where I started at the beginning of the day. Then again, I suppose I don't have anything to lose. If I produce another kitten, then everything is the same. If I don't, then that's progress. Either isn't an issue.

  If I keep telling myself that, then maybe I'll believe it.

  "It's only a small spell. It's one for children..."

  "Oh, that's brilliant. I wonder why we never thought of that?" I muse. I've thought about the effect this has had on everyday spells a lot, but it's never occurred to me to think about trying to do a children's spell in order to break the pattern.

  "Huh, I thought you'd be more insulted by that."

  I let the smile I'm feeling inside show on the outside. "It's a brilliant idea," I admit. "I'm a little jealous that I didn't think of it myself. But I feel hopeful, I guess."

  "Alright then. Did you ever play one of those colour matching games?"

  "The one where we had to use our wands to match the colours up?" The child hiding deep within me loves that game, and is anxious to play it again.

  "Well, I brought it with me." He pulls it from his bag and places it on the bed between us.

  Nerves flutter in my stomach, and I know it's not over a children's game. There's just something intimate about the way the two of us are sitting, with the hexagon between us, each side a different colour, just waiting for me to change the bricks to match.

  "Are you okay?" Thomas asks.

  I nod quickly. "Just excited." And nervous, scared, and just about every other emotion known to man.

  "If it feels like it's going to get too much, then we can stop."

  "Thanks." I take my wand out, noting how weird it feels in my hand.

  A year ago, I wouldn't have gone for longer than ten minutes without holding it. Now, I can go hours without even reaching for my wand. The perils of having backfiring magic. I hate the way it makes me feel, but I know I have to get on with this if I ever want to get my magic back to normal.

  "Before you start, I need to cast a spell on you, is that alright?"

  "What kind of spell?" Alarm slips through me. I trust him, I do. But I'm not expecting this, and that causes some sort of problem in my mind.

  "It'll let me track what you're doing. That way, I can see if there's anything blocking you, and reveal what kind of curse is on you."

  "You can do that?" Despite being around magic my entire life, it still manages to surprise me.

  "It's not the most sophisticated of spells," he admits. "But it will give us a good indication of the origin of the curse."

  "I thought we already knew that it had come from Ivy?" I ask.

  "She's your best bet, I think. But even if she's the one who cast it, she's not going to know how to undo it. We need to find the origin to find the countercurse."

  "That kind of sucks," I observe.

  He chuckles. "It does. Now, are you going to let me do that spell?"

  I nod, and close my eyes.

  Thomas touches his wand to the top of my head, and a cool trickling sensation travels through my entire body.

  A giggle escapes me, and a concerned meow comes from Rhubarb in response. I open my eyes and hold out a hand to him. "It's okay, it just tickles," I promise, despite the fact he's just a kitten and probably can't understand what I'm saying.

  He nuzzles into my hand, purring loudly. I don't know if it's because he's the first one I conjured, but Rhubarb is the kitten I feel the most connected to.

  Despite that, he clearly decides he's had enough of me, and turns away, sticking his tail in the air and going off to explore the dips and folds of the duvet once more.

  "Is that all?" I ask Thomas, hoping my kitten didn't interrupt the spell.

  "Yes. It's deceptively simple." He shrugs. "To be honest, I'm half expecting it to fail."

  "Good to know. I guess I should play and find out." I raise my wand again, not waiting for him to respond.

  I tap the first block, turning it red with a tiny spark of magic. "I did it."

  "You did," Thomas responds. "Try another one? I didn't get much of a feel for the magic that time."

  I nod and press my wand on to the next one. The wood turns from a light oak to deep green, perfectly matching the second side of the game. This time, I don't wait for Thomas t
o prompt me, and move on to the next one. The quicker I do it, the more magic will flow through me, and that should give his spell more time to work.

  The last block turns yellow, and I look up at him expectantly. "Anything?" I ask hopefully.

  He shakes his head. "It's hard to...ahhh."

  Hot tea splashes against his leg as Rhubarb gives us both the cutest not guilty eyes I've ever seen.

  Without thinking, I raise my wand and blast out a spell to take the heat out of the tea and stopping it from burning Thomas. Magic shoots through me before I even realise what I've done.

  The tea disappears from his jeans, but we both know that isn't the only thing that happens when I do a spell.

  Fluff flies through the air, hurtling towards Rhubarb. I'm just quick enough to scoop the grey striped kitten off the table before he's bowled over by the new kitten that's just appeared.

  Thomas dusts himself off until his eyes lock on the kitten in front of him. "Wow."

  "That's not the word I'd use for it," I mutter darkly.

  "It's amazing, Mona. I've not seen you do it before."

  Oh. Right. I forget because the rest of my friends seem to be pretty used to the magically appearing kittens by now.

  "Sorry." I set Rhubarb down so I can get a look at the new kitten. This one is completely grey, almost like a shadow. "He's called Aspen," I say softly, not sure why I'm choosing that name. Aspen strikes me as a name that's better for a wolf, rather than a cat.

  Thomas picks the kitten up and examines it closely. "I think you'll find that he is a she," he points out.

  Oops. I need to get better at telling them apart.

  "It looks just like an ordinary kitten," he says in awe.

  "What else is it going to look like?" What a confusing thing for him to say. I don't understand what else he thinks the kitten could look like. Maybe this is just a weird guy thing? That's the only explanation I can come up with.

  "I don't know. What every other magically created animal does."

  "There are other creatures like my kittens?" Why aren't we looking at them? Surely they have some of the answers we need?

  "Not that I know about. A lot of people have tried over the years, but none succeeded until you."

  "Nobody has succeeded even me," I point out. "I don't know what I'm doing or how I'm doing it. If I wanted to create a kitten on purpose, I wouldn't know how to go about it." And I think that's the worst thing about all of this. There's something very fun about it, and yet I have no control at all.

  Thomas sets Aspen down on the bed, where she takes a few wobbly steps before sitting down and looking around with big forlorn eyes.

  Rhubarb doesn't seem to like her response, as he climbs straight over to her and sits close by. I can hear the two of them mewling to each other, but without any idea what the sounds mean, I can't know if it's good or bad. So far, all of my kittens get along, and I hope it stays that way. I don't want to have to deal with two of them being at war.

  "I got more of an imprint from your magic that time," Thomas says.

  "You did?" All thoughts of warring kittens vanish from me within seconds. "What about it?"

  "There are two signatures to it. One feels very similar to your own."

  I frown. That doesn't make any sense. The only people who'd have a magical signature like mine would be family members, and I don't see any reason why any of them will have set up a curse on me. I've never done anything to hurt any of them, that's for sure.

  "How similar?"

  "It's impossible to tell without having experienced some of your parents' magic. Did either of them come here?" he asks.

  "Both. They met in their first year." But they've never really told me anything other than that. Now I think about it, that's kind of odd. Unless they were particularly into the party scene and spent the whole time drinking.

  "The spell I found in the secret library doesn't feel like either of the magical signatures around you right now, though."

  "Is one of them just the caster, perhaps?" I can't help thinking about Daphne's theory about the spell that cursed me being based on the one we found, but for some reason, I don't want to say it out loud.

  "Hmm."

  "Let's guess, a theory?" I say, remembering how cryptic Daphne was being about them too.

  "Just something to look into, but I don't think I can say anything for sure. We can keep working on things, if you want?" He seems unsure of himself.

  "Of course. I want this sorted as quickly as possible." And yet, a little part of me doesn't. Even though conjuring kittens is a pain, it's meant I got to see him and spend time with him. I don't want to lose that just because my magic is fixed.

  "Good. There's still the option of the spells in these books." He taps the two he brought with him, and I have to gulp back my fear of what that means.

  I'm saved from answering by my door swinging open.

  "Mona?" Caspian asks.

  Uh-oh. How am I going to explain this one?

  Chapter Seven

  "I'll see you later." Thomas waves and hurries out of the room, clearly not wanting to be part of the awkward conversation I now need to have with Caspian. Great.

  The incriminating books he'd brought still sit on my bed, staring at me with judgy eyes.

  "You've left..." I trail off, hearing the front door slam too. Knowing him, he's probably left them behind on purpose. "Do you want a cup of tea?" I ask Caspian, using the same tactic I had with Thomas to put off any slightly awkward intro bits. Hopefully, he'll let me escape and try and work out what's going on here. At least, that's the theory.

  "I'm alright."

  "Okay." I sit down on my bed and fidget with the hem of my shirt. I want to outright ask him what he's doing here, but I can't bring myself to get the words out.

  "I see you've gained a couple more." He gestures towards Aspen, who is still sat with Rhubarb, trying to get used to her new surroundings, no doubt.

  "Yes. That's Aspen. She's about ten minutes old." I twist around. "And that's Seth by the chair. The new one sat with Ginger is called Romeo."

  "You've been busy." He chuckles.

  "Just a little bit."

  Silence falls again and I hate every moment of it. I draw in a deep breath, readying myself for what I know I need to say.

  "What are you doing here?" I blurt out.

  Caspian glances away from me, nerves written all over his features. "I saw a cute cat video and it reminded me of you," he admits softly. "I was going to send it to you..."

  "But then you realised we aren't really speaking to each other," I finish for him. "I don't like it any more than you do," I point out, deciding that the time is right to spend some time watching two of the kittens chase a patch of light across the floor. I'm not even sure what's making it appear, but I should find out. The two of them are thoroughly entertained.

  "Then what can we do about it?"

  I look up, surprised to see so much hope on his face. "You want to fix this?"

  "I thought I made that clear, outside the library."

  "No, you made it clear that you were mad at me, I didn't pick up on anything else," I counter.

  "Oh."

  "So, what was it that you thought was clear?" I raise an eyebrow, more intrigued than ever for his response.

  A little paw batting at my knee draws my attention back to Rhubarb.

  "Sorry, little one." I lift my arms and let him climb onto my lap. He does, then looks at his new friend, letting out a cute little mewl and calling her to him. Aspen narrows her eyes, clearly not so sure about what he wants. But after a moment of thinking about it, she pads forwards and joins him on my knee. I'm impressed the two of them both fit on. I've never thought that two kittens might be able to. Soft purrs emanate from the two of them, and they close their eyes.

  Caspian chuckles. "Somehow, I was hoping that would take longer so I'd have more time to think."

  Despite my nerves, I crack a smile. "Isn't that always the way? When you want them
to take ages, it's over in seconds."

  "They must have such a simple life."

  "Now you're just stalling. Out with it." I want this over and done with as quickly as he does.

  He sighs and rubs a hand over his face. "Is this really all over who my step-sister is?" he asks.

  "No." My answer is quick and firm. I hope he doesn't think I'm lying. "I was hurt by the fact you know how I feel about Ivy and yet didn't think it was important enough to tell me about your relation to her."

  "Ah. I feared as much." I wait for him to continue. At least, I hope he's going to. It seems like he has so much more that he needs to say. Something is clearly bothering him about this, but I'm not sure what it is.

  He stays quiet, and I use the time to scratch behind Rhubarb's ear. His purrs grow louder, but doesn't open his eyes.

  "I used to think my parents were happy," he says after another couple of moments staying quiet. "They met here, spent all their time together, and then got married once they graduated. Dad went into the army, Mum got some kind of admin job, I don't really know. Sometimes, they'd argue about her being so set on pursuing something. They must have had that argument dozens of times a month."

  "I'm so sorry." I can't imagine what that must have been like for him. My parents argue sometimes, but not that often, and it's always obvious that they love each other through it all.

  "It was. They fell out of love. If they were ever in it in the first place. Sometimes, when I think about how I feel now, I start to doubt that."

  My eyes widen and I get stuck on him talking about his feelings, even though I know I shouldn't be. This is about something far more serious than that. Especially when we have time to explore the feelings later. If he's even talking about me. He might not be, and it would do me good to remember that.

  "When I was fifteen, they got divorced."

  "I'm so sorry," I say instantly, feeling that's the expected response.

  "It's not your fault. But Mum remarried almost instantly. It turned out she'd been having an affair for five years that Dad had no idea about. He wasn't in a good place. He even tried to start drinking until I worked it all out and made it so none of the alcohol in the house could get him drunk."