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I got up from my desk and started circling the shelves. If the books were in any kind of order, it wasn’t apparent to me, and I started flipping open ones that called to me. Which tended to me the ones that looked like they belonged in a castle. I was lazily flicking through the pages of one when a sheet of folded paper fell out. Picking it up, I unfolded it to see what was written inside.
The handwriting was awful and not in English, but there was the image of a pentagram with had arrows pointing downward at each point of the star. The number thirty-five was also written with a question mark, but I couldn’t decipher anything else, and since the book also wasn’t in English, I couldn’t figure out what it might have correlated to.
I put the book back on the shelf and headed toward the section of books with modern covers. I found one which screamed “take me,” and … of course, it was a why choose romance book featuring foursomes and guy-on-guy action.
They can’t say that I don’t do anything for them.
“Hej, Charlie.”
I wasn’t ashamed of the squeal I made as Karin creeped up behind me while I was reading spicy scenes. Nor was I ashamed that I hid the book behind my back like a child when I turned to greet her. “Hi, Karin. You okay?”
She chuckled. “I’m sorry. Did I scare you?”
“Just a bit. Although to be fair, my heart was just settling down from the events of the past few weeks, so it was probably good you restarted it for me.”
She quirked a brow. “I’m glad I could help. What are you looking at today? Maybe I can help you get your books?”
I scratched my neck. “Elizabeth has me looking at defensive spells in that corner.”
“Great! I can show you some of the best ones!” She turned around and walked toward the corner, and I followed, interested in a magic display instead of reading anymore of the stupid textbook. But she disappointed me when she picked up another book and started flicking through the pages. She continued, “There’s an invisibility spell in here that’s different to the other ones because it uses approximately ten percent less magic. There are studies I can show you to back it up.”
While I really didn’t want to read the study, I was interested in what she’d said. “How do you measure magic?” I asked.
She turned to me, her eyes sparkling as she began explaining. “Well, it was through experiments. They would drain someone of their magic until they were almost completely empty.”
“Wouldn’t that kill someone?” I asked, thinking about Fafnir and his draining powers.
“Sometimes.” She shrugged, which I thought was weird, but continued, “Then they’d divide up all the magic they took and add it back into them in sections to see how much was needed for each spell. The development of science revolutionized magical practices for the better.”
“And what’s a few deaths for science,” I replied sarcastically.
She clearly didn’t see it that way. “They were paid. How else would they get witches to offer themselves as experiments.” She smiled and handed me the book. “You can read more about it here.”
The way she shrugged off the morbid history like it was completely fine was strange, but I didn’t say anything. I just walked back to my tiny desk to add the new book and the one I picked up for Clawdia and Zaide to my pile.Ergh, more reading. I really am at school.
“Let me know if you need anything else,” Karin called. “Anything at all. I’ll just be over there, researching.”
I sighed and started reading again, but I could feel her eyes on me. I turned around to catch her, but she held my gaze.
Out of nowhere, she asked, “What’s it like having a familiar?”
After the questions she asked at the party, I knew she’d been waiting for another opportunity to grill me, so I answered with a shrug, “It’s pretty great. I didn’t set out to get one like other witches, but it worked out well.”
“And you can hear her thoughts?”
“Yes.”
“All the time?”
“No. She has to want to talk to me for me to hear it. I think I’d go mad if I had to listen to her all the time.” I chuckled.
“And you can feel her emotions in the same way? When she wants you to?”
I shook my head. “That one’s more like if we don’t want each other to feel stuff, then they don’t.”
“Handy when one of you is in danger and needs help.” She pursed her lips as she thought.
“I guess.” I turned back to my book and flicked a few pages. “You asked me questions about familiars at the party too. Why are you so curious about them?”
