Page 6 of His Blazing Witch (The Silver City #3)

I open the window, taking in a deep breath of fresh air. It feels amazing... Just to be in a car, open the window, and watch the streets as we pass by. We are not in a crowded area, but it's still pretty lively. I can't help but stare at all the shops, the restaurants, the buildings. I wish we could stop to check everything out. I feel like I just stepped into a new world and I want to discover it all.

Bonnie chuckles next to me. We are in the backseat of the taxi that’s driving us back to my apartment, my bag which was packed in a hurry between us. It's a short ride, but I don't miss one second of it. My heart is thumping like crazy, I'm excited beyond words.

To my surprise, the car finally stops in front of a big modern building. Is this the right place? It looks a bit fancy... Bonnie and I leave the taxi and walk in. I look for my name and ring the intercom for Kelsi to open up. I forgot to let her know I was coming back, so she's overexcited. She's not the only one...

For some reason, I'm nervous in the elevator. I keep fidgeting and twiddling my hair with my fingers until it stops at the seventh floor. Bonnie chuckles when I hesitate, and gently pushes me out.

"Come on, Mara, you were so excited to come home!"

I nod and finally get to the door.

Kelsi opens up right away and literally jumps on me.

"My gosh, Mara! I didn't know you were coming back, you should have told me! I would have gotten you a cake or something! Oh, no, wait, we gotta order pizza!"

I laugh and hug her back, amused. Kelsi's even more excited than I am! When she finally lets go of me, I can see she is wearing horrible, cringey, pink overalls with a gray turtleneck, and her black hair is held in two cute macaron buns behind her ears. With her big glasses, she has the complete cute geek look. Kelsi takes my backpack off my shoulder while I explain my short discussion with my older sister, and how I managed to convince her to let me out.

"This is awesome, I'm so excited! I love this place, but it's a bit lonely all by myself..."

I can totally see what she means. I actually have a hard time believing this is our apartment...

I follow Kelsi inside after taking off my shoes. I had somewhat imagined a cute but cozy or colorful place that fit Kelsi's quirky personality, but it’s nothing like that. This apartment is big, brand new, and very... bland. I'm standing in a large, open living room, and though there isn't a speck of dust, there also isn't much decoration at all, except for the big photographs in black and white on the walls. The furniture is all white or wood, and I'm standing on a cold marble floor. There are two beige sofas with brown throw pillows, a large TV, and an old rocking chair. We also have one desk on the side, and Kelsi's computer is still open on it, displaying some video game she was probably playing before we arrived. Aside from the packets of snacks on the table and the books on the two shelves, there aren't any touches of color. It's full of natural light from the two large windows. I take a few more steps in, and Kelsi runs to gather the snacks.

"Sorry, I would have put these back in the cupboards if I had known you were coming... The cleaning lady came this morning, though, so everything else is neat."

"We have a cleaning lady?"

Kelsi nods.

"Yup. She's rather nice, she comes once a week."

"Wow... I can't believe this is our place... It looks... expensive. We are renting this?" I ask, still a bit intimidated.

Kelsi scoffs.

"Renting? I'm renting, you're the owner!"

"Wait, what?"

I turn to her, but Kelsi chuckles and gestures at the whole apartment with her open arms.

"Yup, this is all yours. I think your sister bought it when you said you wanted to come study here. You had an extra bedroom, so you looked for someone to rent it a couple of months after our classes started, that's how I came here..."

I don't know what to say. I knew my family was rich, but I didn't think Amy had bought an apartment for me out of the blue... I'll need a while to get used to all of this. More importantly, I supposedly lived here for several months, but nothing feels familiar at all.

Kelsi takes me to the kitchen, showing me the poor plant she was trying to take care of, the grocery list on the fridge, and our arrangement in the cupboards, but none of it rings a bell. I like the kitchen a bit better than the living room, though. I can see we tried to make it a bit warmer, with the random assortments of spices on the side, a waffle maker, and the colored towels.

"Do you want to see your bedroom...?" Kelsi asks gently.

I nod and she leads the way to the next room, but the door is closed and she lets me go in first. I take a deep breath and slowly open it. It's a square room, with only one large window and a wooden floor. I'm almost shaking. This is my bedroom. I have been imagining it so many times, it feels strange to finally be standing in it now. This is Clarissa's bedroom, the one I lived in.

On my right, there's a desk pushed against the wall, with a couple of books on it. Right after the desk, there is one big bookshelf, filled with books, some even piled on top of others, almost overflowing. On my left, there's a standing mirror, a bedside table, and a large bed. I walk up to it, feeling like I'm in some strange dream. The furniture is made of the same dark oak wood, but my room's colors are more vivid than I thought. There's a large, multicolored carpet on the floor, the bedsheets are all dark pink, and there are a few throw pillows , all in shades of white and brown. To my surprise, there's nothing but an alarm clock on the bedside table, but a giant dreamcatcher is hung above the bed. I like it. It's full of black feathers and beads, a bit too many...

"You made it," says Kelsi.

"I made this?" I repeat, a bit surprised.

Kelsi nods and walks to the large wardrobe on the side, kneeling down to open the first drawer on the bottom for me to see. I didn't expect this... It's full of little crafting accessories. Feathers, beads, but also paint, chalk, and paper. There are also little ropes and several different materials, even little stones of all colors. It's very organized, though. Everything is in little containers or boxes, all carefully tagged. It looks like an art student's dream.

I raise my head, a bit lost. If I had so much crafting stuff, how come only the dreamcatcher here seems handmade? The other walls are bare, I don't even have pictures hung up like in the living room. I stand up and open the wardrobe. It's a bit of a mess inside, but there are only clothes, as expected. Most are black or dark gray, but there are some surprising items, like a red sequin top, a sexy black dress, and a cute white skirt. I find a couple of boxes with brand-new jewelry inside, left untouched, but that's it.

"Anything you remember?" asks Bonnie, standing at the doorway.

"No... Nothing."

I'm disappointed. I don't know why, I thought something might come back if I stood in my bedroom, the place I should have felt most familiar with, but nothing, absolutely nothing comes back to me. I keep staring at my clothes for a while. At least I like them, my tastes probably didn't change much...

"I wonder when you got these and why," says Kelsi, grabbing the jewelry boxes. "I've never seen you with jewelry either."

"Maybe you still have the receipts?" Bonnie asks, coming to her side to check with her.

While they are checking the jewelry boxes, I go back to my desk and bookshelf. I have so many books, and a lot of them look used. The covers are torn in some parts, and the pages are yellow for some of them. I check the two books on my desk. One is a book about meditation, the other one is a history book. That's an odd choice, no?

"Mara? The receipts say you bought one of those one week before Christmas and the other in mid-April. Does that mean anything to you?"

"No... Nothing does here, to be honest. Do you think I could be an art student? Or history...?"

Kelsi frowns.

"I've never seen you craft anything but the dreamcatcher, to be honest."

"Most of the paint looks unused," adds Bonnie, looking at the contents of the first drawer.

Damn it, this is all so frustrating! I frown and turn to the books on the shelves, trying to find a clue. Some of them are fantasy books, a couple of old history books, there are a few about psychology, theology, and some I have no idea what the subject is. It's going to take me a while to go through all of these...

"Come on, Mara, no need to agonize over this," says Kelsi, grabbing my shoulder. "You know what, boo? Tonight is your first night back, so we should celebrate properly! Let's order some pizza, get some beer, and hold a proper pajama party!"

To keep me from tormenting myself any more over the questions my bedroom raised instead of solving them, Bonnie and Kelsi kick me out of my own bedroom and take me to the living room, both girls agreeing we need a girl's night. We order from the local pizzeria and decide on a movie to watch. Kelsi goes crazy since I obviously don't remember any of the movies she calls classics, and we spend the rest of the day and evening watching the silliest girly movies I can endure. I know they are doing this to distract me, and it actually works.

Though I am a bit disappointed, at least I am out of the hospital. I get to change into my own pajamas, a dark blue ensemble, while Kelsi puts on a ridiculous pink onesie, and Bonnie borrows an oversized T-shirt. We spend a lot of time laughing at the movies, eating pizza until our stomachs are full, and Kelsi and I drink some nice beer while Bonnie only has tea.

I don't remember falling asleep, but a sudden movement on my bed wakes me up. I frown and struggle to see anything in the dark. After some hesitation, I light a little flame in my hand, careful to control it. It's pitch black in my bedroom, and I'm not familiar enough with my surroundings yet to remember where the furniture is...

I spot a shadow moving right under my desk, and frown. What the heck is that thing? It's small and dark, and I see it rush under my bed when I try to direct my flame its way. What's going on?! I get up, careful about my footing, and rush to turn the lights on. Nothing seems to have moved in my room, but I clearly saw something before. I get down on my knees, and to my surprise, two yellow eyes find me.

"Meow..."

A cat?

It comes out from under my bed, not looking scared at all. It's really a cat. A black one with lots of little golden patches, and those two big golden eyes. It's cute... It walks up to me, not looking afraid, and rubs its back against my leg so I pet it.

"Where did you come from, you…?"

Does the kitty have a name? Kelsi could have told me we had a cat! I wonder how it came into my room, the door is still closed? Did it sneak in before I went to bed? Anyway, it's rather docile, purring while letting me pet it.

After a while, though, the kitty suddenly turns its head toward my bookshelf and walks up to it. To my surprise, it suddenly starts scratching one of the books.

"Hey! That’s not your scratchboard!" I protest, taking the cat away from the poor book.

Crap... I take the book out to check its poor state after the ruthless scratching. It looks like an old one too, with a pretty leather cover. It doesn't have a title on it, though? I open it and, to my surprise, there's a picture between the cover and the first page. What is this...?

In the picture is a little girl and a woman hugging her from behind. It looks like it was taken in some garden, probably in a hot season too, as both are wearing dresses. I frown. That girl... It's me, isn't it? I look no older than five or six in that picture. The woman holding me is in her twenties. She looks very thin, with long hair, but the picture is in shades of brown and white. I can only say she's a Caucasian woman... I look at the back of the picture, but there's nothing.

"Meow."

Kitty is purring again and rubbing its head against my ankle. It's funny how it led me right to that precise book. I check the contents of the book. It's all about plants, with drawings of each flower or leaves, their uses, and properties. I keep checking the pages, and to my surprise, there are lots of little notes, handwritten next to some of the book's text. Good for headaches... Use roots for rheumatism... Boil petals for meditation... I grab one of the pens on the desk and a sheet of paper to copy some of it, but it's definitely not my handwriting. Who wrote all these? I get to the end of the book after over an hour of reading. The cat is curled up next to my legs, but I'm more absorbed in all the little notes. Whoever wrote all these was fascinated and very knowledgeable about plants.

I yawn. It's already dawn... A bit late to go back to bed. Too bad, I guess. I keep the book with me and head to the kitchen. Kelsi told me to take anything I needed, but I have no idea of my cooking skills, so I take it easy and simply make myself some coffee while continuing my reading, going back to the first pages once again, hoping I missed something.

"Morning..."

"Hi, Bonnie. Coffee?"

She nods, still obviously half asleep, and sits on one of the kitchen stools. Her red hair is tangled all over, hiding half of her face. Bonnie suddenly notices the cat roaming around me in the kitchen and jumps in surprise.

"Oh, gosh... I didn't see it. Hello, kitty. It's cute... I didn't know you have a cat?"

"Yeah, me neither," I confess.

However, the kitty is well-behaved around us. It's not even grabbing food or anything, just staying around me, its big yellow eyes curious about everything, and rubbing its fur against our legs. Half an hour later, Kelsi gets up, her hair in two braids over her shoulders, and half of her onesie is down to her waist, only wearing a little camisole on top.

"Morning, boo. Morning, Bonnie..." she yawns.

"Morning, Kelsi. By the way, what's the name of the cat?"

She frowns and stops where she is.

"What cat?"

"This cat?" I ask, pointing at my feet.

Kelsi frowns and leans over the counter to look. Her eyes open wide upon discovering the cat, completely awake now.

"What the…?! Where did that cat come from?!" she exclaims.

"What, it's not ours?"

"Of course not, I'm allergic! I would know if we had a cat!"

Bonnie and I exchange a shocked look. Where the hell did that cat come from, then? It couldn’t have jumped all the way up to the seventh floor! Meanwhile, the kitty innocently rubs itself against my leg, purring. Kelsi is about to add something when the doorbell rings.

I walk over to open it, still confused about the cat situation. Moreover, I'm a bit surprised to have a visitor so soon.

At the doorway, I'm surprised to find Benjamin, Bonnie's twin, standing there with a big smile.

"Morning, lady! Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" he asks.

"Hi... Uh, the bad news?"

"So, the bad news is that your babysitter has arrived and is going to stick to you like old gum under your shoe. The good news is that it's me!"

His wide smile is not helping me understand at all. He is standing there as if it was completely natural, his hands in his jean's pockets. Benjamin Lewis was sent by the werewolves? Did they pick Bonnie's chatty twin to guard me? I stay speechless at the door, but he gently pushes my shoulder and squeezes past me to enter, still with a confident smile.

"Nice place!"

"You're my... whoever is supposed to guard me?" I ask, following him inside.

From the frown Bonnie immediately puts on when she sees him, she had no idea either. Kelsi too goes from one twin to the other with a very confused expression.

"Okay, please tell me this guy is real. Because after the cat..."

I nod, but Benjamin immediately steps forward before I can say a thing.

"Hi, I'm Ben!"

He extends his hand to her very confidently, and Kelsi has no choice but to awkwardly take it. She keeps sending me totally confused glances over his shoulder as he shakes her hand frantically, and her other hand holding her cup of coffee almost spills on her onesie until Ben stops.

"Okay, is someone going to explain to me what's going on?!" she finally bursts, almost glaring at Ben. "I just woke up, I haven't had my coffee yet, and now I have a cat and a guy in my kitchen! What's going on?"

Bonnie and I laugh. All three of us girls are completely surprised by Benjamin's sudden arrival. As if the cat appearing out of nowhere wasn't enough! Bonnie sighs and crouches down to caress the cat, who seems to like it.

"You could have told me, Ben," she says.

"Sorry, sis, last minute thing. Apparently, they hesitated on whom to send until the last minute."

"Selena decided on you?" she asked with a doubtful look.

Ben rolls his eyes.

"Yes, she did! Don't give me that look, I can do a good job!"

"Hm..."

His sister doesn't look convinced, and neither am I. We watch Benjamin help himself to a cup of coffee. That guy literally spilled a lot of things he shouldn't have the first time I saw him, and now he is supposed to be the one to watch me? While Bonnie quickly explains the whole situation to Kelsi, I cross my arms.

"So?" I ask. "How long are you going to... watch me?"

"No idea."

"And… what else did Selena say?"

"Well, you can basically go anywhere you want," he says, "as long as you don't get in contact with humans and I am with you, that is. Oh, and no playing with fire, of course."

I can't help but roll my eyes and turn to Bonnie.

"No contact with humans, is that a joke? How am I supposed to avoid humans?!"

She sighs.

"Well, we do have a few werewolf-only places, but–"

"We have a lot of werewolf-only places!" retorts Ben with a big smile, suddenly sitting on our kitchen counter despite Kelsi's glare. "Moreover, it's not like you can't walk on the same streets, just avoid getting into any direct contact! After all, no one knows what the Fire Witch looks like."

I raise an eyebrow.

"The Fire Witch? I thought my existence was a secret?"

Ben grimaces.

"It still is, but, you know, between what the werewolves do know, and the rumors... Anyway, most people know there is a Fire Witch in town, they just don't know who it is."

I sigh. Bonnie gets up while carrying the cat, looking a bit unsure too.

"I think you should lay low for a little while, Mara. You just came back..."

I nod. At least for a couple of days, maybe.

"I want to keep searching my room for clues anyway," I declare, "and, speaking of which..."

I take out the picture and show it to Bonnie.

"Do you know who that woman is?"

She takes it with a frown and spends a long minute staring at it, Ben looking over her shoulder as well. After a minute, she shakes her head.

"I've never seen her before... Is that little girl you? Do you think that woman could be your mother?"

I'm not sure. I'm mixed and judging by Amy's skin tone, my mom could be white-skinned like this woman... I try to look for any resemblance between the two of us, but this picture's quality is rather poor... Kelsi takes the picture to stare at it as well, but she doesn't seem to know either.

"I can scan it and look for any similar pictures on the Internet," she suggests.

"Where did you find that picture? It looks old," says Bonnie.

"It was in this book the kitty guided me to. When I looked inside, it was full of notes and there was that picture."

I put the book on the kitchen counter and open it, showing them all the little handwritten notes. Kelsi looks at it while sipping her coffee, but the twins are the ones frowning the most. Ben takes out his phone and takes pictures of the handwritten notes.

"What do you think?" I ask.

"It's... I mean, I am not an expert, but you know, the Earth Witch? She was... the one who knew these kinds of things about plants. And all those notes, there’s a lot here that you don't learn in medical school. I think this book might... have belonged to an Earth Witch."

Her brother nods behind her.

"I sent pictures to Danny to get his opinion, but I think Bonnie is right."

"Danny?"

"Our older brother, Daniel," she explains. "He was a bit closer to the Earth Witch, so he might know."

"The one who is Selena Whitewood's friend?"

"That one. ...Did you find anything else?"

"She found a cat," says Kelsi. "A totally unknown cat who squeezed into our apartment. Am I the only one concerned about that?"

"We can go around and ask if it belongs to one of your neighbors?" suggests Bonnie. "Maybe it just walked into the apartment while we weren't looking..."

I don't really believe that explanation, but it's the only plausible one we have for now...

The cat seems rather comfortable, though. It keeps purring in Bonnie's arms while we finish our breakfast and keep looking through the herbology book some more. Once we are done, we leave Bonnie to go ask the neighbors about the cat, while Kelsi and I go back to my bedroom to look for more clues. Ben is left in the kitchen to do the dishes.

"I never really understood why you had this drawer," says Kelsi. "I swear I never saw you use any of this. You've never done a painting, crafted a bracelet, or anything. It doesn't make sense unless you abandoned a hobby without ever starting it."

I don't get it either. That dreamcatcher seems very elaborate for someone who's only done one!

Kelsi and I agree to go through all of my books, hoping to find more of the unknown handwriting in the pages, or maybe another clue about my past. We take out every single book that is on the shelves, put them all on my bed, and start looking for any clues. It's incredibly long and boring to swipe one page after another. I don't know what to look for, and even find the bits we are reading completely uninteresting. It's all theology books, history, some of science or physics. Why did I even have these?

After over an hour, Kelsi sighs.

"Boo, I'm sorry about this, but you had really, really shitty tastes in books," she says, putting another one back on the pile next to her on the bed. "History of the nineteenth century? Theory of atoms? Even the nerdiest person I know wouldn't read these!"

"None of those books look used," I add. "It's as if I had just bought them."

"Even if you bought them just for decoration, there's a lot," sighed Kelsi. "I feel like I'm going to get a headache if I keep looking. There were no notes in all of the ones I looked through, anyway. Just words and words. Even my glasses hurt at this point. I am so used to working on a screen, it feels like the first time in ages I've touched and opened so many books!"

If only we could find my laptop... This is another mystery we have yet to solve. I put down the volume I was skimming through. I'm sitting on the carpet, in the middle of the bedroom. I look around once more, but like this, there is no obvious place for a computer that we haven't already gone through. It's not in any of the drawers or on the desk... I know Kelsi already searched throughout the whole room, but I somewhat hoped I could find it, maybe have some sort of intuition once I got here. Seems like I was wrong...

"You guys have any luck?"

Bonnie just came back, and the black and golden cat jumps out of her arms to come and rub its head against my knee, purring loudly again.

"Nothing so far, Mara's books are boring as a university class," Kelsi sighs. "How about you? No one knows the kitty?"

"No one," sighs Bonnie, sitting on the bed. "They have never seen this cat, including the nice vet on the first floor. The only thing I learned is that the kitty is male, which is apparently extremely rare for a tortoiseshell, and only a few months old."

I chuckle and scratch the kitty's head. So it's a boy? Maybe we should give him a name... I turn to Kelsi, but she's already making a sour face and shaking her head.

"Uh-uh, no. No, Mara, we are so not keeping the cat," she insists.

"The cat probably spent the night in my room, you've been here for over an hour and you haven't sneezed at all..."

"Maybe, but I also didn't rub my face against his fur!"

"He found my first clue faster than you."

Kelsi looks offended.

"That's low, very low. I spent hours in your bedroom looking through everything, I just didn't happen to open the right book! I don't even remember seeing that book; it's like the cat, it came out of nowhere!"

"...Could he be a familiar?"

We both turn to Bonnie, who has her eyes on the cat. He meows loudly.

"A familiar?" I repeat, confused.

"Yeah... It's just a theory, but the other witch had a butterfly that followed her everywhere. I just read a bit about it in one of my fantasy books too... but it's a witch thing. That cat appeared in your bedroom on the day you came back and found a clue about your past right away. I'm just saying, it's a possibility..."

We stay quiet for a moment. I stare at the cat. Is it a magic cat? He looks normal. Bonnie's theory does seem a bit... far-fetched.

"Unless the cat suddenly spits fireballs, I am not believing he’s anything but a stray," declares Kelsi.

"Alright, aside from the cat, is there anyone who knows anything interesting about witches that I can talk to?" I sigh. "Can I meet your older brother?"

Bonnie hesitates, and for a few seconds, she stays silent, her eyes blank. Kelsi and I exchange a look, a bit lost. My question was rather simple, so what is she...?

"He's going out tomorrow night," she suddenly declares.

"Wait, what? How do you know?"

Bonnie smiles, a bit amused.

"Mind-linking, remember? I can mind-link anyone from my family or my pack just like that."

Oh, I'm never going to get used to that werewolf thing...

"Anyway, my older brother said he is going out dancing tomorrow night," she says, "in one of the clubs. It's owned by our pack, so you should have no problem going there, as long as you keep your fire in check..."

"Really? We are going dancing in a werewolf nightclub!" exclaims Kelsi.

"It's like any other nightclub," laughs Bonnie, "but yes, if Ben goes, I guess we can go too."

"Then I guess we can–"

I stop and turn toward the door. Oh, crap, did I just hear something break? Did Benjamin break one of the cups?

"Mara?"

I turn to the girls again, but they both stare at me, looking confused.

"Are you okay?" asks Bonnie, coming next to me with a worried expression. "You just stopped talking. Is there something wrong?"

"No, you didn't hear that? I think Benjamin just broke something."

"Oh, crap, Ben..."

All three of us get up and go back to the kitchen, the kitty walking ahead. Once we get to the kitchen, however, Benjamin isn't there. He's actually standing by the TV looking at his phone, and the dishes are done. He raises his head as the three of us enter.

"What is it, ladies? Everything okay?" he asks.

"Nothing," I sigh. "I probably dreamed that or heard wrong."

"Mara, are you okay?" asks Bonnie. "If you think you heard something–"

"I'm fine," I immediately retort.

Crap, did I hallucinate that? It wasn't even a voice this time, just the sound of something breaking! I heard it perfectly clear too. I don't want Bonnie to think I'm not well, they are just going to send me back to the hospital if they have any suspicions. I need to change the subject.

"Anyway, can we go out tomorrow? To a nightclub?"

Benjamin frowns, but his sister quickly explains the situation.

"Oh, right, it's his night out!"

"His night out?"

"Yeah, Daniel usually goes out once in a while, to relieve the pressure of work. He's probably going to go with his husband too; they haven't gone out much since they had a daughter."

"Oh, so he's..." starts Kelsi.

We exchange a glance and understand there's nothing much to add. The twins chuckle.

"Yeah, he's married to another male werewolf, and they adopted a daughter a few months ago," explains Bonnie. "They met at a nightclub, actually, so it's not surprising that they go sometimes."

Suddenly, behind us, I hear the clear sound of a dish breaking. I freeze. Again? Am I going crazy, hearing things? I hesitate to even turn around to look. Did I dream that one too? It's the exact same sound as before! However, all three of them turn toward the kitchen.

"Crap, Ben! You should have put them back properly!"

"Sorry..."

Bonnie walks past me to go see what happened, and I finally dare to look. One of the cups he washed earlier most likely fell from the kitchen counter where it had been left somehow, as it is now smashed into dozens of little pieces on the floor. I keep staring at it while the twins clean it up, completely confused. My heartbeat is going crazy.

It can't be… That was the exact same sound I heard a minute ago. I'm absolutely sure. I heard that cup breaking before it actually happened. Is that even possible?

"Mara?"

Kelsi put her hand on my shoulder gently, looking a bit worried. I must look crazy, but I can't process what just happened. Either I'm going crazy for real, or...

"Are you okay?"

I nod, trying to calm down.

"Bonnie?" I call, turning to the nurse.

She hasn't seen my panicked expression and doesn't even raise her eyes, focused on picking up the pieces.

"Mhm?"

"The witch you knew, did she ever... hear things? Like... before they actually happened?"