“Meadow, I mean it. You don’t have to risk your life over me. I’ll go pack right now.” Charlie turns to go back down the hallway to his room but I stop him. Whatever Charlie has to say isn’t going to make a difference so I tell him that.
“You’re stuck with me. End of story, roomie.”
He opens and closes his mouth and then smiles at me. “Thanks, roomie.”
“No problem. I mean what are roomies for if you can’t face down an army of mini-demons with them, right?” I ask and that gets me a laugh which means I’ve won the battle of Charlie not running out of my house and into the night.
When it comes to keeping watch for the mini-demons we paper rock scissors it. I win because I have the uncanny ability to know what Charlie is going to throw because he silently mouths the word before he does.
He groans. “You’re a witch and a psychic?”
“I’m not, you’re just really bad at this game.”
I make Charlie go back to bed and I settle down onto a chair I dragged over to the window to keep watch. I sit for half an hour before I get up to check everything again. I feel antsy. Like something, anything, could happen at any second. In my case, that’s true. I woke up a witch after all.
“I’m going to have to tell Buffy,” I whisper to myself as I check the doors and locks for the fiftieth time that night. I can’t text this to her, so I’ll have to tell her when I see her tomorrow. There’s a town meeting at eight o’clock that I’ll have to catch her at.
“Hey, guess what? I’m a witch now. Neat, huh?” I practice and rub my temples. There’s no way Buffy isn’t going to freak out when she finds out I’m a witch, especially when I’m a man-made witch.
“Stupid demon phone.” I can’t believe Charlie’s book is filling his head with voices. The thing might be a beacon for evil nowfor all we know. I go back to the living room windows and nudge the curtains open. I peer outside, trying to see if I can catch a glimpse of an army of mini-demons on the hunt for Charlie’s book but it’s no dice. The almost full moon bathes the world in cold light, not a soul moves outside, or at least not a bipedal one.
I see Velma, Ms. Donna’s cat on the move. The calico cat swishes her way down the street with grace and speed that makes me think she’s got somewhere specific to be. I wonder where she’s going at this time of night. I watch the cat until she turns right at the next block and vanishes out of sight.
For a wild second, I think about following her on account of her going in the direction of Charlie’s old house but I don’t. If there’s demons out, mini or not, it’s best to stay inside with Charlie.
Chapter
Six
“Not knowing you’re a witch and finding out because you levitated in your sleep is kind of poetic, don’t you think? Waking from a dream into a world of magic and all that.” Charlie sweeps his arm out in front of him like he’s revealing a stunning vista and not the familiar streets we’ve grown up on.
I give his shoulder a pat. “I think that book is driving you more insane than you realize.
“I prefer whimsical but most likely.”
Charlie and I are walking towards the town hall meeting. It’s sunset, the colors play across the leaves overhead and the sky above us is a riot of colors. This is my favorite time of day. Just before twilight when the sun lights everything up with so much more color than I could have imagined.
“I don’t know how to tell Buffy I’m a witch,” I tell him. I thought all day and no matter how I tried to word it, it didn't sound any better. “I think she’ll be happy? She’ll be happy, right?”
“She has to be happy. I conjugated your powers to specifically help her. Why wouldn’t she be happy?”
“Lots of reasons. She’ll be upset if she thinks I’m in danger, and seeing as I don’t know how to use my magic other than to float when I’m unconscious then I’m not really backup. I’m a liability. That’s big danger.”
Charlie frowns. “Yeah, I guess but…you’ve always been a quick learner. You’ll get this.”
Thethisbeing the magic I couldn’t so much as wake up no matter how much I tried today. Charlie put me through what he called “a training montage” to try and help me get a handle on my powers. I went along with it because I wanted to be able to show Buffy that I wasn’t going to be a risk, that whatever got thrown at us, I’d be able to be the backup Charlie conjured, but it was a flop.
“I hope so.” I give him a weak smile because I don’t want to think about the books he threw at me trying to get me to freeze time, or the way he blindfolded me to try and heighten my senses. He had me blowing on a candle to try and turn it on and I didn’t understand why but I tried all the same. It ended up with me out of breath and the candle unlit.
We aren’t the only ones on the move to the town hall meeting and I wave hello to some familiar faces that join us on our walk downtown. The town hall meeting is happening in the Hall of Worship of course. It’s the only place that was built big enough to have a meeting like this on account of the cult activities and human sacrifice that went on here. My throat goes tight and it's hard to swallow the closer we get. I want to run the opposite direction, anywhere but where we're headed. I don’t normally feel this way about going to the old Hall of Worship, but tonight is different. The scent of smoke from someone’s fire blows in on the wind and I shiver.
That simple smell of woodsmoke changes everything. It’s like a switch flipped and I can almost see the firelight of the torches that burned in the Founders Circle when I stepped forward totake my vow to Wrath. My body hums and I raise my hand to look down at my fingers. I make a fist and squeeze it tight to remind myself that I’m here. I’m alive and everything is fine.
There are no demons after me. Yes, they are after the town and now Charlie but as a whole? I’m demon free. There’s no misguided cultists coming to take my soul or sacrifice me to their god. I squeeze my hand tighter but the smell of smoke doesn’t go away. It surrounds me, sinks into my clothes and into my hair. I turn my head and inhale deeply. I’m always going to smell this smoke, aren’t I?
My footsteps slow and I stop. Charlie looks back at me. He says something but I don’t hear him. I see his mouth move, and when he waves a hand in front of my face, everything comes back in a rush. There’s laughter from kids running by with their families, their footsteps are quick and fast, I hear bells ringing, and someone calling out to a friend.
“Meadow?”
