Page 15 of The Witch & the Dragon

“I… don’t know. I can’t exactly summon my intuition on a whim.”

Except with this, I apparently can.

Maybe she should do something now…? No, too risky. “I guess I have to wait until I get a fresh vision or intuitive burst.”

“We will need to examine the pendant, of course. It’s a requirement of the academy,” Z’Hana said. “Some artifacts can be more or less than they seem, and it needs to be examined.”

Chloe felt a brief stab of panic before remembering that the dryad had mentioned expecting something like this, and she nodded before taking off the pendant and handing it to the professor. “How long until you think it can be checked into? I admit I’m really curious to see if it does make my intuition stronger. It’s as unreliable as the rest of the future magic.”

“That’s the thing, isn’t it? Time magic is rare and powerful but often unpredictable.”

Eleanor nodded at Z’Hana’s words. “Yes. I agree with that.”

Z’Hana smiled. “Shouldn’t take too long. We have a lens that can examine the magical properties of an item so that we will look into it this evening. You can expect it tomorrow morning around ten or later if you want to make it over to my office before then.”

Squeezing into the car, they made the journey back in silence, and at one point, Chloe found herself overcome by tiredness and leaned her head against Tiran’s shoulder, partially to have something to rest against and partially to test the boundary of what he was comfortable with. It was something she would do with a friend she trusted, and she hoped, well, Tiran liked her enough not to be annoyed by it.

He went one step further and adjusted his arm entirely so that she was nestled up against him, eyes closed, feeling his arm drape over her side.

They were let out on the grounds of the school, and she ended up walking with Tiran, explaining in detail about the encounter and the strange, shambling ghosts. The only thing she didn’t explain was that the artifact might be stronger than she’d admitted.

They did, of course, wander off to the academy dining hall at some point since the food was actually decent. Some of it was probably magically enchanted (one of the students said they had people who could do cloning spells and copy fruits and vegetables). Then, they settled in for their evening studies and winding down.

Naturally, Chloe couldn’t wait until tomorrow morning for the pendant to be examined. She was at Z’Hana’s office just after ten, hoping the professor wouldn’t dismiss her and say to come back tomorrow. Thankfully, Z’Hana let her in and presented the pendant to her with one raised eyebrow.

“It does appear to do what you said it does. Minor Luck can work with future-based magic, so it comes in handy for you. You could even sell it if you wished. If you do want to auction it, we have an accredited contact with the other schools and some buyers who are reputable collectors. You might be able to get ten thousand for it. So, that’s something to consider as well.”

“Thank you!” Chloe said, having absolutely no intention of selling the pendant. Ever. It was a genuine magical artifact, and now it was hers. The school hadn’t stolen it after all. She really worried for a moment that they might.

Wanting to test her new trinket, the one the dryad specifically told her to lie about, Chloe shuttled into her bedroom. Not for the first time, she wondered if the dryad might somehow be deceiving her – if it might have lied about the properties of the artifact. It had seemed eager not to let the artifact fall into the hands of the schools and various institutions employed to house the ones that emerged from the fae realms.

Perhaps it was foolish of her to trust the word of the dryad. Perhaps the fae were always untrustworthy, no matter how willing and keen they seemed. Perhaps the dryad had gotten much more than bargained for the use of Chloe’s own powers. Perhaps she should tell Kati, or Harrow, or well, Tiran, more details about what truly happened.

Still, a part of her wanted to keep these powers to herself, and now she channeled the artifact, tapping into its ability to give visions – even if they would not necessarily be directed toward anything. Just the power to even induce one was enough.

A vision swamped Chloe, too confusing and chaotic to make anything out of it. She saw a mountain and snow blasting in the winds. She saw a cabin whose roof was covered in snow and a fire flickering within, fogging the windows. She saw a shadow outside the cabin.

The vision ended, she jotted it down, but there was nothing really to define it, and she tapped into the artifact again.

No more than three a day, she remembered. She used all three. She wrote them all down. The leather-bound diary would slowly fill up with all her visions in time.

None caught her attention. But she did get a probing message from Tiran later, asking if she might be interested in meeting up with him again.

If only I could get a specific vision for him, she thought, annoyed, and tempted to use the artifact again. However, you didn’t ignore warnings from the fae.

No more than three.

Besides, her magic already felt tapped, and a soupy exhaustion bit into her limbs. Soupy, weary.

It doesn’t seem fair what’s happening to Tiran. Imagine losing my own family home, having members of my family fight against me, taking everything after I lost… Mom… Dad.

The thought chilled her too much. She resolved instead to thrust it out of her mind and allow the day to wrap up with her hanging out with Tiran. Innocent hanging out, of course. Just friends getting to know each other. Definitely, no ulterior motives and surface-level attraction in the mix. People were more than just their physical appearances.

The gravity of Tiran made her want to get closer to him, to find out more about him. There was… a lingering weight. Like somewhere, they both had this hidden knowledge of one another. A memory from her that affected her recent interactions, and a respect from him that gave her the impression he was worried about scaring her away. It felt like a slow, intricate dance as they circled one another, probing with light conversation, waiting to break the surface into deeper talks once more.

That was the thing with people, really. Everyone had the potential to be reached on a deeper level. Everyone held that barrier of politeness – and it took some people longer than others to reach it. Oddly enough, they’d breached it on day one with her intervention and then sort of traveled backward.

Maybe she just needed to be a little bolder and decide for herself what she really wanted.

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