Page 76 of The Spell Caster

“And in this corner, we have handsome Calamus, sought after by single witches everywhere and the Mountain Circle’s most powerful spell caster, last seen with his hands all over our lovely prize.”

“It was one hand, on my shoulder—”

Oliver mashed the two oranges together and tumbled them around, providing growling sound effects. He shoved one into the oatmeal with a dying gurgle.

I tilted my head at the mess. “Well? Who won?”

“Blackthorn,” Oliver and Datura said in unison, then laughed riotously.

I rolled my eyes pointedly at them, but I couldn’t fight the small smile that tugged at my mouth. Their antics had pulled me out of my own bleak thoughts.

The pair quieted for a few moments as they ate, and I sank back into my somber mood.

“Are you two okay?” I asked seriously. They’d never even seen an angel, hadn’t trained with their guardians, and now they were responsible for defending against an imminent attack. To top it off, from what Costi had said, they were set up for failure.

I added that to my long list of worries—sometime in the weeks I’d been here, these two had wormed their way into my heart.

They glanced at each other, communicating without a word. Datura looked away with a sigh, and Oliver stirred his food around with a spoon.

“I suck at being a spell caster,” Datura said. “I hate patrolling.”

Oliver said, “I’m terrified constantly.”

“I wish I could help,” I told them.

Oliver brightened. “Any luck with your magic yet?”

“I have a circle spell to try. That’s why I was meeting up with Calamus. But nothing yet.”

“I just want you to get your magic. We’ll hide behind you, you can fry the entire sky if any angels get close, and Blackthorn can slice up the stragglers,” Datura said.

“That’s mean,” said Oliver as he lobbed a cherry at Datura, who dodged it. “If they pair up, then they definitely can’t date.”

“Fate help us, here we go again,” I muttered, picking up the cherry from where it had fallen onto the bench.

“It’ll be all forbidden and hot,” Datura argued.

I set the cherry on the edge of her plate. “You two certainly have a lot of opinions on dating for people who don’t seem to date.”

Oliver grinned. “We’re spectators, not participants.”

“Commentators, not players,” Datura agreed with a straight face.

“Why don’t you ever pick on Sativa? She’s got to have some drama going on with all those lovers.”

“Oh, she does, but that’s old news,” Oliver said. “Yours is way more fun.”

My phone pinged, and I looked down. There was a text from Calamus.

Good news, I found your father right away. He’s staying with the Oak Grove Coven in G block. They said he’s doing great.

Chapter 15

LAYLA

The one benefit of having a hoard of new people in the Circle was that they put signs up everywhere, so I found G block easily even though I hadn’t been to that part of the community before. The apartments circling a courtyard looked similar to ours, but this block had a fountain burbling in the middle of the garden. A few early fallen leaves swirled in the water.

The bench across from the fountain was occupied, and my breath caught.

---