Page 11 of The Witch & the Wolf

“I have no idea.”

Another ominous ribbit. The balloon pouch swelled larger.

“I think… we should maybe back away,” Holly suggested.

“Mm.” They both straightened and stepped back. The frog hopped after them with a booming RIBBIT! Okay. Time to go. They broke into a brisk trot, trying their best not to look back and see if the frog was following them.

“You’d think,” he added slowly, “that since this path is one of the most used by students outside of Dreadmor, it would be the safest. So… I’m sure that frog probably wasn’t harmful.”

“Probably is not enough.” Holly smiled ruefully at him. God, the way her eyes looked then, so full of mirth – his heart gave a traitorous little leap, and for a second, mild panic seized up his brain. Luckily, she didn’t appear to notice anything, and her attention turned back to the path.

“The more I find out about this school and the area it’s in, the more… incredible it feels. It’s really as if we’ve stepped into another realm entirely.”

“That’s kinda the thing.” He gestured around her. “This place is not connected with Earth in the same way. If a plane above us were to fly over, it wouldn’t see anything but mountains and empty land. If a normal human were to walk close to Dreadmor, they wouldn’t see or experience it in the same way. Anything that is a ‘wildland’ area, as we call it –is almost like another realm leaking into ours.”

“Really?” Holly frowned, clearly trying to make sense of what he was describing. “But it’s not another realm, right? It’s here, on earth.”

“Kind of. But it’s like… a magical part stitched onto the planet where the normal laws and physics of Earth don’t add up because everything is influenced by magic. You might be visiting it on Earth, but it is a separate place. A separate country.” He sighed. “I hope that makes sense.” It used to give him a headache when it was explained to him before.

Holly nodded, but still, her eyebrows scrunched up in doubt. “It might take me a little bit to process that. I was reading about what happened with the summer camp, you know. But this is different from something like that.”

“It is.” He examined the sky with its wispy, puffy clouds and sighed. Now, with his family heading back to their home, he wanted to spend time with Holly, which reminded him… “Are we meeting up with any of the others, or will it just be us two?”

“Us two,” she said, with a faint reddening of her face.

“Interesting.” He smiled, enjoying her natural reaction more than anticipated. “Your cheeks seem a little flushed. Are you feeling well?”

“Oh!” She patted her face. “Must be the wind. Does that sometimes.”

Sure, it does.

His smile widened. Time alone with Holly. Did she like him? Or at least have some attraction to him that way? He wanted to ask. But those were not really questions you dropped on someone when first getting to know them, and the last thing he wanted to do was chase her away or make her feel uncomfortable with him, especially since it was highly likely they’d be working together for the next few years, being among the few that communicated with the dead.

A tiny, rebellious spark in him alighted at the notion of how pissed off his mother might be if he ever ended up dating someone so far removed from all the family politics. If it were up to her, she’d try to find some nice woman from a not-too-shabby clan. Given his father’s choice, he’d encourage closer cooperation with the Raintotems, as they had latent necromancy in their bloodline, too. That was already happening with Rican – he knew his brother happened to be going out with someone from one of the lower Raintotem branch families. There were no options in the main branch, but many of the lower ones – siblings and cousins of the main clan leader – held a few options. Of course, more and more werewolves broke away from rigid traditions in this modern day and age. But that didn’t mean that some still clung to them and refused to let go even as the world shifted and evolved in front of them.

He didn’t blame them, really. And now, he was associating with a medium, who seemed all human, with latent abilities to reach beyond, impressive latent abilities, in fact.

Arlo asked, “Before you came here, did you have many friends from… different magical backgrounds? Or was it more or less a normal upbringing?”

Holly’s embarrassment receded as she contemplated this. “I think it was mostly normal. My family made a living from their magic. I had an aunt who sold crystals, tarot cards, and mythological creatures – and my mother did card readings in the back of the shop. I have an uncle who does ghost tours – all of us are doing things like that.”

“They’re all quite powerful with their magic, then?”

“I couldn’t say. Only one of them went to Dreadmor – the rest were self-taught or didn’t seek out an education. There are obviously powers in our family line. There are lots of legends about who we’re descended from. But I never really thought to… categorically measure anything, if that makes sense.”

“It does.” He moved closer to her as the village slowly came into view. “There’s a lot of controversy about psychics and mediums. As a result, I admit my family has a rather poor opinion of your type of magic.”

“Right.” She folded her arms but didn’t seem too offended. “It doesn’t help that there are a lot of fakes out there. They really drag down the magic, faking being possessed or making up crap with the tarot. However, we don’t really have a good opinion of necromancers either.”

“They’re dark, evil. They’ll raise an army of the dead and go on a rampage.” He snorted. “It doesn’t help that we did have a few necromancers like that in the past. They’ve also screwed up the image.”

She laughed, and the laughter made him feel warm. “Yeah. I guess we have a lot to learn about one another.”

“That we do.” The village consisted of several buildings clustered together – all houses and cottages. Most of the village’s trade came from the students and their relatives who came for sports events, magical challenges, lectures, or just simply to visit. As a result, a few restaurants and coffee places had sprung up, and some beautiful gardens had been erected for sightseers. The village even had an old movie theater where they showed classic films.

Arlo didn’t really have a plan beyond walking here and seeing where the mood took them – and this suited both of them fine.

Holly stopped when they approached the old cinema, and Arlo made a mental note to see what might be playing at a later date. They both grabbed a coffee with a waft of cream on top and walked together, shoulders occasionally bumping.

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