Page 37 of The Spell Caster

I felt a little more myself after stopping for lunch on the way back to my apartment. I had a plan. Calamus and the library witch were going to help too. Between the three of us, we were bound to uncover something.

I drew up short. My mother was standing on the garden path in front of my building. She lifted her furious face, and I knew there was no chance of escape. She advanced on me, and I stepped backward, nearly tripping on the walkway.

“Where have you been?” she hissed. She clamped her hand around my upper arm. My books spilled onto the ground.

“Let… let go. I’m sorry.” I tried to twist away, but she squeezed to the point of pain. I stumbled as she dragged me farther into the garden, where no one would see her. “I… I was only trying to—”

“Trying to what? Sneak around with that Blackthorn man? Go out partying and drinking? Ignore my calls?”

“I wasn’t sneaking around. He was assigned—”

“Neither of you were assigned to be on the seawall in the middle of the night. Don’t think I didn’t put that together.”

My heart beat wildly as I inched away into the garden bed, backing myself against a tree. She was blocking the path. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong.” I raised a shaking hand to my arm, which was throbbing from where she’d grabbed me.

“Layla, I’ve warned you about him. About this. Look what happened to me. I married a spell caster, and fate is punishing me.”

“I’m not doing anything like that. I—”

“Stop lying to me!” she seethed. “You think I don’t know what you’re doing behind my back? How do you think it looks when I don’t even know where my daughter is? When I had to ask around to find you?” Her face was contorted with anger, and her normally smooth hair stuck to the sweat at her temples.

I clutched myself miserably, tears dribbling down my cheeks. “I’m… I’m sorry…”

She stared at me a moment, then sniffed. “I heard about your spell casting during the attack.”

I said nothing.

Mother gave a wan smile. “So, you did your summoning after all. Why didn’t you tell me?” After a moment, she continued in the velvety voice she used on people when she wanted something. “I recently met the Mountain Circle’s security coordinator. She’s a delight.”

My eyes flicked to her nervously.

“She has such a heavy responsibility, vetting and assigning all the new Northern Sea guardians. Not all of them are up to Mountain Circle standards, sadly.”

My breath stalled and my body turned to ice as her threat hit its mark. Witches like Costi didn’t get a second chance. If they decided he couldn’t make it as a guardian, they would ask him to leave the Circle.

She said, “Please answer my calls and texts.”

“I… will,” I rasped, looking down at the wavering mulch.

“And stay away from the guardian.”

My head snapped up and I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

My mother’s lips pinched with rage. Her voice was like a knife at my throat. “You’ll do as I tell you, Layla.”

Blood rushed to my head so fast, I felt faint. Do as she tells me? Witches didn’t try to control each other like this. With threats. It wasn’t done. It went against everything we held sacred.

If she was aware of my reaction, she didn’t comment. She sighed. “This new Circle… it’s different from Northern Sea. It’ll be good for us. I can feel it. I have a plan to make things better. You just need to help me instead of fighting me.”

“Wh-What plan?”

“You needn’t worry about the details. Just focus on yourself and your spell casting,” she said. “We’re in a new era now, and I’m prepared to make the most of it. For both of us.”

She stood over me a moment longer before nodding to herself and leaving me alone beneath the oak tree.

I slid down the rough bark onto the ground as raw emotion clawed up my throat. She’d never been this bad. She’d never hurt me before. What was I supposed to do now? I couldn’t tell Costi. My mother would—

A shadow fell over me.

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