Spell Book Ch. 01

"Cally!" Aria stood up, lifting the book up like a trophy, and held it for her to see. "He opened it. He read it, Cally."

She stared at the book in Aria's hands for a moment, her own eyes wide in horror. She looked at me. "No he didn't," she said dismissively, then narrowed her eyes at me accusingly. "Wait, why did you open my mail?"

"See, that's why I owe you the apology. Your, uh...first?...name...is Danielle?"

She nodded. "My middle name is Calypso," she said. "And I never liked Danielle. That's where Cally come from. Is this true? You read this? Like, you could actually read it? You couldn't read it. That's impossible."

I shrugged. "Well, once it settled on a language I could read comfortably, yeah."

"You're full of shit," the venom in her voice was intense and surprising.

I blinked at her, looked at Aria, who was giving me a thoughtful look, and then back to Cally. I sighed, sat back on the couch, held my hands up, and spoke the spell I had accidentally spoken earlier. My hands ignited into purple flames and Aria jumped up and over the coffee table.

"Holy fuck he did read it!" Cally said.

"That doesn't make any sense. He couldn't have read it! He's just a-a-a guy!"

"Thank you," I said sarcastically. I said the words to extinguish the flames from my hands, and they went out instantly.

"No, you aren't--you shouldn't have been able to even see any writing on this book." Cally looked at Aria, who shook her head, staring at me with wide, scared green eyes. "Much less learn any spells. You need to not do that spell again. Like, ever."

"Okay, look, I have some explaining to do. If you'll just--"

"No. You need to forget you ever saw this. You need to leave. Now." Cally grabbed my arm and pulled me up off the couch. I'm not a heavy guy by any means, but she pulled me up like I weighed as much as a stuffed bear.

"Hey, this was an honest mistake, I swear it..."

"Don't care. Out."

"Cally," Aria said. There was a note of warning in her voice.

Cally whirled on her, her pale blue eyes flashing angrily. She jabbed a finger into Aria's chest and glared at her friend. "No! We can't be caught with this mess. He needs to leave, and he needs to leave fucking now."

"No, come on, maybe, hey, maybe we can wipe his mind and he'll be fine," Aria pleaded. "We were all flirty and I've been wanting to play with him, please!"

"Hang on, what?" I asked, still eloquent.

"Oh, can we? I'm terrible at mind magic. So are you. Are you going to call Lucy over to do that for us?" Cally crossed her arms over her breasts and glared at Aria with challenge in her eyes.

I growled and stood up. "What. The fuck! Is going on?" I yelled. "Stop talking about me like I'm not here!"

They didn't. They didn't even look at me.

"Cally, come on."

"Ari! He's a warlock!" She emphasized her point by jabbing an accusatory finger at me.

"No, he's not! He's a nice guy!" Aria stepped into Cally's personal space, only inches away from her. "We can't just kill him because he accidentally read the wrong book."

"No! Such! Thing!" Cally yelled back. "He is a man, Ari! He may be nice now, but the more magic he uses, the more corrupted he's going to get. You know how it goes."

"But that doesn't make sense! How can he use burning hands so quickly? And he extinguished it perfectly. He learned that just from reading the book. He could be--"

"He isn't! That's a myth and you know it!" Cally was breathing hard by now, and I was trying my best not to just stare at her lightly-clothed chest while the two of them argued.

I was getting pretty angry by this point. I don't generally mind being ignored, it means I don't have to talk to anybody. But they were talking about killing me or mind wiping me, and I definitely had a few thoughts on that. I opened my mouth and spoke a word from the book before I knew what I was doing. Lightning arced from my hand across the room and hit the wall behind the TV with a sharp cracking sound, as if I had swung a whip.

Both girls turned on me, hands held high, palms glowing with barely held-back magic.

"I'm sorry," I said. I held up my hands in a surrendering gesture, trying to show that I wasn't a threat. "I didn't mean to do that. Can someone please explain to me--preferably in small words, so I can understand them better--what the fuck is going on?"

Aria dropped her hands first, and then nudged Cally to until she did the same. "See? It's true."

"He's not the Merlin," Cally muttered.

"You know anyone else who can absorb arcane knowledge like that? Even your mother took years of practice before being able to just belt out the lightning spell as casually as that."

"The Merlin isn't real!"

"Then tell me what he is!"

"Yes! Please! Someone tell me!" I yelled at them in frustration.

THUD THUD THUD came from the floor.

"Will you guys keep it down up there? Some of us work for a living!"

Aria rolled her eyes. "Sorry Mrs. Caterwaul," she yelled at the floor. "Goddess."