Page 13 of His Blazing Witch (The Silver City #3)

I keep checking page after page frantically, making sure I didn't miss one, but it doesn't match. None of the circles are like the one painted on my bedroom floor. At best, there's a couple of similarities, but that's it. I don't even have one that looks close to it that I could use as a reference. Damn it. I'm not a bookworm like Kelsi, I don't understand half of this stuff... I'm a failure of a witch! I glance at Spark, who's crouched down, his paws under his body like he's some big bundle of fur with just the head sticking out. I frown.

"Are you going to help or not?"

He squints his eyes very slowly, almost as if he's about to fall asleep. I guess that's a no...

I really need to sort this shit out. What did Kelsi say earlier about these circles? Something about families of witches... Could it be, this one is unique to me, then? I scratch the mess that is my hair, trying to remember more. She said this power was transmitted through blood, that those magic circles were made to invoke the dead. I am not sure I am up for a medium session right now.

I sigh and push the book aside. I know I am not going to read this thing now, but that circle intrigues me. I roll my carpet back some more until I even have to push my bed against the wall. I guess it's useful to have a large bedroom, you can hide magic circles under the carpet... Once everything is out, I stand above the circle, at a loss for what to do. It is about my wingspan in diameter. What is the point of this thing? It doesn't look much like the invocation circle in the book. Does it really help to call the dead? Who am I supposed to call?

Next to me, Spark meows and stretches, but when I think he's about to do something interesting, he just sits. I pout.

"Don't get my hopes up like that if you aren't going to be useful, dude," I whisper. "It's mean."

After hesitating, I decide to step inside the circle and sit down. It fits me just fine, but now, I feel stupid. I really have no idea what to do.

"Alright... Spirit, are you there?"

Of course, nothing freaking happens. I wait a couple more seconds, but it's very quiet, except for Ben's snoring coming from the living room. I sigh and massage my temple.

"Damn, I shouldn't have drank that damn beer so fast. I'm going crazy... Hey!"

Before I could do anything, Spark suddenly jumped to scratch the back of my hand. I push him by reflex, but the cat has gone back to sitting right outside of the circle, and even licking his damn paw! He really hurt me, that stupid cat... The back of my hand has three deep scratches, all bleeding. I see a couple of drops fall on the floor as if the scene was slowed down and suddenly, something happens.

The circle. It started moving. I watch it spinning around me as if I had just unlocked a wheel. I don't dare move a finger, mesmerized by this thing. The marks are moving on my bedroom floor as if the ink has a life of its own. It keeps spinning at the same speed, and I realize it's waiting for something.

"Sh-... Show me the truth," I mumble, with no idea what I'm saying.

Around me, everything suddenly becomes gray. I freeze, completely taken by surprise. What the hell…? It's like I'm seeing everything through a filter, like in shades of gray, but not just that, as if there was some sort of disturbance. I turn to Spark, and instead of a cat, a large, red shape is there. I almost jump back, shocked by its size. Yet, it still has a cat form, just... much bigger. Like a tiger made of fire, but it's sitting just like Spark was seconds ago. What is this thing doing to me…? I get up and look down. My body... Something is different. My skin tone! What the actual hell, I'm whiter now? No, it's... changing. I feel like throwing up, but it's as if my body is morphing and can’t decide on which appearance to take. What the heck? I stand up and turn to the mirror on the wall.

Oh… Wow. I look different. My hair is much longer and falling on my shoulders, all over the place. My face... keeps changing, and I can tell one part is my face, but why is it trying to change like that? What is going on? Even my eyes look like they are trying to change color, they are turning more gray, or perhaps blue... More importantly, when I look down, there's something big radiating from my chest. It looks like a core, radiating in red. The same red as the creature in Spark's spot. What is that thing...?

Suddenly, I realize the reflection isn't just a reflection. She is moving when I'm not. Oh shit, this is getting into the real creepy stuff. I see her lips extend into a smile. It's not scary, it really looks like a gentle... smile. I don't dare move. I'm too shocked to move or react. Then, I see her raise her hand, and with a face that looks like mine, she puts an index finger on her lips.

I fall back on my rear, still in the circle but out of the mirror's view. What the fuck was that?!

"Meow..."

I fucking jump. God, I had forgotten about Spark being replaced by a giant fire feline or whatever that thing is! Did it just seriously meow like my cat? Take deep breaths, Mara, deep breaths... Oh, hell, this really turned creepy real quick. Plus, everything around me is still in that gray filter, how do I stop this?!

I look down. The circle is still there, except that it is now white for some reason. Is it because it's activated or something? Crap, I thought I was a crappy witch, but now, I may have jumped to level nine or ten without knowing how the hell to handle this thing! How do I stop it? I try to step away from it. I get both feet out of the circle, but nothing changes. Oh, crap, crap... I can't stay like this! Maybe if I'm far enough...?

I walk to all four corners of my bedroom, but it doesn't change a thing. Don't tell me, this is going to work everywhere? I go to my bedroom door and open it, very slowly. I grimace as soon as I hear Ben's snoring, but when I glance down at the couch, I see a big wolf sleeping on it. Did he go to sleep in his wolf form? Don't tell me that's a circle thing too? From the snoring, that definitely comes from human-Ben, not wolfy-Ben... What the hell did you do, Mara? I see the giant Spark following me, and his tiger size apparently doesn't care about my door frame. Guess it's just my vision, the real Spark has no issue going through that door... It's horrible to see everything in gray but the living beings in that room, I feel like I'm trapped inside some broken old TV screen...

Suddenly, I realize. If this shows me Ben's werewolf form, what about Kelsi...? I hesitate. That's probably not a very cool thing to do, but since I have a unique opportunity to check... What the hell am I checking for anyway? Kelsi is a human, what else is there to find out with this thing? I'm about to bite my thumb when I remember my hands can't decide on what to look like. Yeah, no, that's kind of gross to chew a finger that's not really mine.

I take a deep breath and walk to Kelsi's door. I hesitate again. Well, she is the one with secrets, to begin with... I open the door very slowly. She sleeps with night lights on? Three rows of fairy lights are lit up above her bed, but Kelsi is soundly sleeping and... looking exactly like normal. I'm a bit disappointed, and feeling even more guilty now. I sigh and close her door. My mistake, then... Apparently, this thing gives humans their normal appearance and shows me a werewolves form, but I'm the one with a creepy appearance.

I get back into my room quickly, closing the door behind me. Spark is already ahead. I can't get used to this giant-shaped thing, but from the way it starts scratching the carpet on the side, it's definitely my cat.

"Alright, I’ve had enough of this," I say. "How the hell do you turn it off?!"

Spark is just staring at me. I walk to the circle, doing my best to avoid looking in the mirror. I am not ready to see that girl again, not yet. I glare at that stupid circle, clueless as to how to go back to normal. There has to be a way!

"Stop!" I say, sitting back inside it.

Nothing happens. I frown and for a dozen minutes, I keep saying all the words I can think of to make it stop, including a couple of swear words and foreign ones. I really feel like the kid who made a mistake and has no idea how to repair it. After I'm out of ideas, I sigh.

"I swear you're getting a treat if you help me shut this thing off, Spark."

I see my cat come over, and under my shocked eyes, he starts licking the pattern. What the heck? He keeps licking, and I suddenly get what he's doing. Don't tell me it was that easy! I grab the end of my sleeve and start rubbing too. As soon as we erase a portion of the circle, everything is suddenly back to normal. Wow...

I look around, a bit shocked. It's really back to normal. At my feet, the circle is still there, with a chunk wiped off. Damn, I hope I'll remember whatever was there in case I need it again.

"Meow."

I turn to Spark, who's sitting there and waiting.

"Seriously, Spark? You let me say all that stupid stuff for ten minutes and waited until I promised a treat to help me?"

"Meow..."

I let out a long sigh and lay down on the floor.

So, I've found a new way to use my witch powers... A magic circle. I didn't know it could do that, aside from invoking demons... I'll be careful not to mention that next time. I don't want to have a goblin thingy all over the room. Damn, Kelsi would be proud.

I feel a pinch in my heart, thinking about Kelsi. I really thought she was my friend... Is she? The image of her sleeping in her bed comes back to me. She sleeps with fairy lights on... What kind of villain sleeps with fairy lights on? Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself she isn't really bad. My sister isn't a bad person. She's just... Oh, whatever.

"Meow."

"Oh, I get it, Spark, stop it..."

I get up and grab a Sharpie to try and draw in the circle as it was. Spark even tries to grab the pen a couple of times, though I don't know if he's telling me I'm wrong, trying to play, or just getting impatient about his treat. When I think I'm done, I roll the carpet back down and move my bed into its usual spot. Damn, that's a lot of exercise just for one magic circle; I guess that's how it wasn't found until now, though... I hear something just as I'm moving my bed, like a little creak or something. What the hell?

I look down under my bed, and suddenly, I spot something brown between the slats. Crap, more secrets? I need to crawl under the bed to go get it. It's a kraft envelope... What the hell now? I wriggle back out and agitate it in front of Spark's whiskers.

"And that one, you couldn't have helped with that one? Or were you hoping to extort me for a tuna can with this? Hm?"

The cat gets impatient as I keep teasing him with the envelope, and pushes it with his paw, sniffing it a bit too. Well, maybe he only helps with witch stuff. I open the envelope. What did I hide now…? To my surprise, a big bundle of money falls out and a little key. What the heck? Every time I think I find an answer, two new questions pop up just like this. Where the hell did this money come from? What is this key for? It looks too small to be a door key, more like it’s for a locker or something?

"Meow..."

"Oh, fine, fine, Spark, I'm getting you your treat! Anyway, I'm thirsty after you let me say all that stuff without helping..."

I leave the money on my desk; from the thickness of it, I can already tell it's a lot more than a twenty-year-old should have. I keep the key with me, though, putting it in my pocket while heading to the kitchen.

Ben is still there, though I see him in his human form this time. I chuckle for some reason. Human or wolf, he's the same... sleeping with his mouth wide open and his horrible snoring. I walk to the kitchen and find an olive left from the pizza, giving it to Spark to play with while I pour myself some water and find a real treat for him. Didn't we have a bag somewhere?

"...Mara? What are you doing?"

I turn my head toward Kelsi, who just stepped out of her bedroom, rubbing her eye.

"I don't know," I retort. "If I tell you, are you going to text my sister about it?"

She stares at me, completely stunned like a deer in headlights. Even I am surprised by how calm and composed my tone was, despite the hint of irony. Kelsi opens and closes her mouth a couple of times, at a loss.

"I... I don't know what you're talking about..." she mumbles.

She's such a poor liar. It's written all over her face and in the way she nervously pulls down on her T-shirt too. I sigh and close the cupboard, putting the bag of treats on the kitchen counter a bit too loudly. Ben's snoring skips a bit, but he doesn't wake up. Meanwhile, Kelsi is still standing there and looking guilty as hell.

"H-how... How do you know…?"

"I saw your notifications," I admit.

Spark jumps on the kitchen counter, too curious to wait, and I give him a couple of treats while waiting for Kelsi to say something. She walks up to me, looking absolutely devastated, which I didn't really expect.

"Mara, I really didn't mean... You weren't supposed to see–"

"To see what, Kelsi? That you're spying on me for Amy? That the one person who I thought was my friend is not? Are you even my flatmate to begin with? And I thought Ben was the snitch!"

"It's not what you think!" she protests. "I really am your friend, Mara, I... I didn't lie to you."

"Then what? You're best buddies with my sister too? Forgive me, but Amy doesn't look like the kind of person you could chat about your favorite video game with."

She sighs and crosses her arms as if to protect herself.

"It's not like that... Okay, m-maybe I lied a couple of times, but... most of it was real, Mara."

"As in?"

"I'm really your friend."

I take a deep breath in.

I don't know how to react to this. I'm angry and upset. Yet I want her words to be true, for some reason. It's hard. Now that I've seen the text, I can't trust Kelsi like I used to. I can't look at her, so I look down at Spark, who's attacking the bag of treats. I push him off to grab it and put it back into the cupboard despite the loud meows of protest. I just don't want to look at Kelsi right now...

Damn it, I didn't think I'd be this upset, but she's been my only friend for weeks. She came to see me almost every day, we spent so much time together, watching her silly videos and chatting about stuff of the world I had to learn again... I take a deep breath to keep myself from crying. Shit, I had no idea I was actually a sensitive crybaby.

"Mara... Let me explain..." she sobs.

I turn around. She took me turning my back on her as a sign of rejection. Now, she's crying silently, and it's ugly. She's got a runny nose, big tears, twitching lips, and red eyes, the whole package. Damn it... She's really upset, then. I don't know why I expected more of a fight. It turns out, Kelsi is also quite the crybaby. I sigh and cross my arms.

"Fine, then, I'm listening."

She nods and takes off her glasses for a second to clumsily wipe her nose, looking for her words. It actually takes a full minute before her breathing calms down enough for her to start speaking.

"I don't know where to start..." she mutters.

"Start with the part you didn't lie about," I suggest a bit rudely.

"I didn't lie about anything, Mara! I mean... n-not really. It's true we weren't close before the incident. You... barely talked to me, and to be honest, I also worked too much to worry about that."

"You worked too much?"

She slowly nodded.

"Yeah... I don't want to get into the details, but... unlike you, I came to Silver City completely broke. Their university was offering this super alluring program where they paid for your expenses if you got the right kind of grades, so I moved here penniless and I found a job right away. I spent my first year of university working like crazy... I had a part-time job in a fast-food restaurant, and I gave private tutoring lessons to some rich brats whenever I could squeeze them into my schedule. I lived in a flat where I had four roommates, and three of them had no idea what personal hygiene or private space is."

I grimaced. I don't know why until now, I had thought Kelsi came from some rich family, like me. Not as rich, but... aside from her geek stuff, I definitely saw her wear some super expensive brands sometimes. I would have never thought she had struggled like this before.

She sniffs, rubbing a bit of her snot on her sleeve, and continues, looking down.

"I could barely make ends meet in the first months. I was tired of studying, working, and all of it. I ate at the university cafeteria because it was cheaper, skipped breakfast, and ate some cup noodles for dinner when I couldn't get food from my job. I had a really shitty year. During the summer, I took even more hours at the fast-food restaurant in the hopes to have enough to pay rent, but with so many students coming here, the prices boomed... That's when we met."

"When you started renting here?"

She nods.

"Yeah... I was standing in front of one of those panels at the university where you can put offers, lost stuff, and so on. You were about to put up that note saying you needed a roommate. I asked you how much it was, and you asked me how much I could afford. I told you a very low sum on purpose, I thought I could find a way to negotiate like that if I started super low, or you'd just turn me down... I was shocked when you agreed right away to what I said. I thought you'd laugh at me."

Wow, I didn't expect that... She had simply told me we met through an online thing. I don't think I ever asked her how much she was really paying to stay here either.

"We started living together... I finally took it easy on my job, until I only worked on the weekends. It was a really... nice change of pace, to not have to worry all the time about money. I focused on my studies, and I managed just fine. Although, as I said, we never got close. You barely talked, I'd just run into you from time to time."

So that part was true, at least. She could have embellished it a little, now that I think about it. Saying we’re buddies or something. I still don't really get what role my sister has to play in this, though. Kelsi sighs and I hear her dry throat. I sigh as well and take her almond milk out of the fridge to make us some late-night chocolate milk.

When she realizes what I'm doing, she looks a little bit relieved and comes to sit on the stool across from the island. I am impressed that Ben is still snoring like a pig while we're chatting a few steps away from him like this. We are speaking rather softly, but still...

"One day, I ran into your sister while you were at the university. I have to say, I literally freaked out. I am not super confrontational, and your sister is... a bit..."

"...Scary?"

Kelsi grimaces. Yeah, Amy tends to do that to some people. She is so imposing, everyone else feels like ants next to her. I can easily imagine Kelsi, in one of her silly, fluffy sweatshirts, coming out of her room and meeting Amy. A close encounter of the third kind. They are almost like two species that were never supposed to live in the same environment...

"So, what happened?" I ask, grabbing my cup.

She sighs and pulls hers closer, frowning a bit at the pink mug.

"She asked me what I was doing here, so I spilled the beans... I couldn’t tell if she was upset about it or not, she didn't get very... talkative. She said I wasn't really supposed to be here, so I understood she wanted to kick me out or something. That's when she gave me her card."

I frown, confused.

"Her card?"

"Yeah, her business card." Kelsi nods. "Your sister said to call her if anything ever happened to you... Back then, I was a bit surprised, so I just took it without saying anything."

"...That's it?" I ask with a frown. "That's how you started to... spy on me?"

She almost drops her cup, shaking her head.

"No, no! That's not how it went. I put her card into my agenda, and I decided not to think too much of it... She had told me not to tell you too, so I didn't think twice about it. That was at the end of February, months ago! To be honest, I forgot about that stupid card until you disappeared."

"What do you mean?"

She grabs her mug to sip a bit, clearing her throat, and lets out a long sigh.

"One evening, everyone on campus started talking about some big fire that had happened, with some people inside. All of social media was going crazy about it. There was news about a girl who had survived and had been rushed to the hospital. At first, I didn't think twice about it, but... when I got home that night, I felt super uneasy. You weren't home, and it wasn't like you to stay out at all. I decided to stay up, in case you were just late, like at the library or something."

She keeps turning her mug nervously between her hands as if she was feeling the stress from back then all over again. I can just imagine it. A nervous Kelsi, pacing around in the living room and hesitating.

"The university library closed around 10:00 p.m. that day," she continues, "so I waited until then, but I had this feeling, you know? When you still didn't show up by around 11:00 p.m., I grabbed your sister's card and I rushed to the E.R. to ask about the girl they had brought in. They hadn't been able to identify you yet, so they let me in when I explained that my roommate was missing, with your description."

"You saw me... like that?" I mutter, shocked.

Kelsi shivers and nods.

"Yeah... I recognized you... Gosh, you had tubes everywhere, it was so... scary... They only showed me your face, though, don't worry, I didn't see... you know, all the ugly parts. I mean, no, I don't mean ugly!"

"I was burnt to the fourth degree, Kelsi, you can call it ugly," I shrug, shaking my head. "I've seen it too, it wasn't pretty. Then, you're the one who called my sister?"

"Yeah, and the hospital did too. She was out of town, so I texted her about your state throughout the night and into the next morning about how you were doing."

"You stayed the whole night at the hospital?"

"Yup, with a lot of coffee... I met Bonnie this way, actually. She let me use the nurses' resting room to get coffee and some food."

Oh. Now that I think about it, I had assumed those two met at the hospital, but not really... that way.

I'm a bit surprised. So far, Kelsi doesn't really look like any kind of spy I had imagined. I don't really know where we are going from there, though, we have already caught up to the point where I was hurried to the hospital, after the incident... Kelsi drinks a bit of chocolate milk and wipes her chocolate milk mustache with her sleeve before continuing.

"I felt pretty bad, you know. I kept wondering what would have happened if I had been worried sooner, if I should have tried to befriend you more. A part of me kept thinking that maybe, I don't know, if we had actually become friends..."

"That sounds a lot like survivor's guilt, Kelsi," I stop her. "You said it yourself, I wasn't the friendliest roommate either."

She pouts a bit, staring at her pink cup.

"I know, but... you still let me live with you, and with all the money issues I had the previous year, I couldn't help but feel like crap about all of this. You basically picked me up out of the dirt, and I was fine not making any efforts. It’s just... You know, after you spent the night between life and death in that hospital room, I had a lot of time to think."

I chuckle.