2

Normally, I enjoy the walk through the park to my shop. My magic has always felt stronger in nature.

However, something seems off this morning. And I’m not talking about my dream.

My thoughts revolve around Zari. Werewolves can’t get fevers, their enhanced bodies don’t give them time to get sick or injured. If she did catch something, she should’ve healed within seconds. Then there is her exhaustion and pale complexion. I might not be a certified healer, but I know what a healthy werewolf looks like, and Zari looks far from it.

As if I’m not troubled enough, I slow my pace when I hear the whispers coming from the willow trees.

*Beware, it comes. Beware. *

The warning sends chills down my spine.

Picking up the pace, I hurry through the park and turn down the sidewalk leading to my shop.

Odds and Ends looks like a normal pawnshop from the outside as I charmed it to be. It has the normal ‘We’re Closed’ sign hanging by the door, and a few antiquities on display in the window. That’s what humans, hunters, collectors, and other Magians see, anyway.

Flipping the sign to ‘We’re Open’, I unlock the door by waving my hand over the handle and step into the magical atmosphere.

I do my rounds as per routine. First, water the hanging gardens and listen to whatever the plants have to say. Second, remove the drapes from the hall of mirrors for visitors to arrive. And finally, check the bird cages for messages and orders.

“Pardon, Pearl,” I speak softly to the white dove as I remove a little scroll from her pink leg. Next, the black and white crow with the beady eyes. “Now, don’t you try biting me again, Ziggy. I’ll let you know, I’m not above cooking crows for dinner.”

He tries pecking me anyway.

With the mail collected – and all my fingers intact – I unfold everything on my worktop to see what I have to work with. Three Stress-A-Way potions for Beatrice who’s writing exams. A Dose of Desire for Peter, who’s going on his first date in two years. And then, a Thinking-Out-Loud charm for Gerard, who wishes to know what his wife is thinking.

Customers visit the shop while I work. Most of them are like me, a Magian. We look just like humans, with the exception that we possess and wield magic. Now, any Magian with the basic skills can brew their own potions and create their own charms. So, why come from far and wide to shop at Odds and Ends?

Easy.

It’s because of my magic. It’s different, and also very, very illegal.

That man outside The Oddity was there for me, although he doesn’t know who he was looking for. Only that my magic, or ‘essence’ as we refer to it, is like a beacon for all things and creatures magical. Had he discovered me, had he taken me to the Academy…I’d rather not fathom what could’ve happened.

I head to the greenhouse for the wolfsbane stems I need for Zari’s potions. Entering the humid room, the plants come alive and whisper their stories to me. Some complain about the lack of sunlight, some whisper about the upcoming rain, and then a few stress about something cold disturbing their soil.

“Alright, I’m coming.” I sigh and abandon my search for wolfsbane to check out the disturbance.

Standing in front of my cursed garden – the herbs and plants used for poisons – I carefully search through the pots and leaves for anything out of place. And then I see it. A flash of lavender slithering among the henbane.

Tutting, I quickly scoop out the impostor and instantly, it curls around my hand and wrist. “Now, what did I tell you about bothering the plants, Siri?”

The lavender corn snake flicks her tongue at me.

“Oh, you lost your beanie?” I peer through the plants. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

Draping her around my neck, I bend over the poisonous plants, keeping my eyes peeled for the apple green beanie I knitted for her. The plants need trimming, I admit, which makes the search a bit difficult. Not many customers come in asking for poisons or poisonous herbs, not unless their husbands cheated on them...

“Ah, there it is,” I mutter, spotting the beanie underneath a henbane flower.

But the moment I use the back of my hand to push the plant aside, a surge of magic tears through me, causing every limb and muscle to seize up. I gasp for air, assuming that Siri had wind herself too tightly around my neck. Only when I feel around for her, I discover she’s vanished.

In fact, the entire greenhouse has vanished.

In my delirious state, I realize I’m standing in what appears to be an underground apothecary. The vision is hazy, the pulsing lights and colours straining my eyes. I’m vaguely aware of a brewing cauldron in the middle of the room, bubbling with a strange, murky red liquid I’ve never seen before.

And a man standing next to it concealed by the dark.

It happened so fast; I’m tempted to believe it was but a figment of my imagination. One moment, the man was hovering over the cauldron, chanting a strange incantation, and the next, his head snapped to me.

My body jolted in panic, and just as I stepped back to flee, I feel myself – or my mind – transporting through time and space. Just like that, I’m back in the greenhouse surrounded by plants, with Siri flicking my nose with her tongue, and her little beanie clutched tightly in my hand.

I sit up slowly, wincing at the sharp ache at my temples. Not to mention the pins and needles in my hands and feet, along with the heaviness in my limbs. All clear signs that I’ve just spent copious amounts of magic.

“Here you go,” I say to Siri, and place her beanie on her head. She flicks her tongue happily. “Let’s go strengthen the charms, just in case someone sensed the magic.”

I grab the wolfsbane stems I need and hurry back to the shop. My thoughts swim with questions, most of them revolving around that man and the cauldron. Who was he, and what was he brewing? I didn’t recognize the potion’s colour neither the incantation he used. But the feeling it gave off…

My memory travels back to the willow trees and their warning. Beware, it comes. First the trees, and now the vision? It’s a good thing I don’t believe in coincidences. Whatever that potion was, it’s evil. That much I know.

I’m about to check the charms when I glimpse one of the mirrors emitting a soft glow. Someone is coming. I ready myself, a spell crawling at the centre of my palm.

“For the love of – woah!”

I’m thoroughly surprised to see a girl around my age tumble out of the mirror, stumbling over the frame and nearly planting face-first on the floor. She curses at the mirror before straightening up and smoothing out her attire – a forest green uniform that consists of a knee-length skirt, a matching blazer, and a pair of glossy kitten heels.

“Eisley?”

The girl spins on her heels, the motion causing some of her hair to come loose from their updo. She exhales in relief when seeing me. “Ah, finally! Do you have any idea how many mirrors I had to fall through to find this place?”

I try not to laugh at her irritation. “Is this place that hard to find?”

“Yeah!” She holds her hands aside as though balancing herself, takes a deep breath, and says in a calmer tone, “But I’m here, and I found you.”

“Well, it’s good to see you too, cousin.” I brace myself and go in for a hug, knowing she’s not too fond of them.

Eisley’s arms hover a moment before she reluctantly returns the embrace. It’s almost impossible to think we haven’t seen each other since she joined the Academy.

“Okay.” She pulls back, ending the hug. Then, she freezes, staring at something on my head. “Is…is that a snake?”

“Huh?” I turn to look in one of the mirrors to see Siri curled up on my head, flicking her tongue in content. “Oh, yeah, this is Siri.”

Eisley blinks from her silent trance and divert her eyes from the snake to me. “Look, I shouldn’t be here. But something going on at the Academy and I just had to come.”

The tone of her voice worries me. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m not entirely sure what I heard, except that they mentioned your shop’s name before sending someone to investigate.”

“Investigate?” I frown, feeling panic and agitation stirring in my stomach. “Investigate what, Eis?”

“I…I don’t know.” She scrambles her words as she tries to remember. “There was a report of a rupture, I think. I feared it was your magic that caused it. But it’s impossible, right?” Eisley looks at me, hazel eyes hopeful. “I mean, you’re not practicing anymore, are you?”

I don’t give her an answer. Lying isn’t my strong suit.

Her hope falters and her voice drop to a grave tone. “Sylvina, please, for the love of Magnus, tell me you’re not practicing wild magic.”

I open my mouth to answer but closes it again. I can’t lie to her.

Eisley’s skin pales with fear. She seizes me by the shoulders and start ushering me towards the mirrors. “We need to leave; I need to get you out of here.”

And just like that, I snap out of whatever trance her visit had me under and kick my heels into the floor, making it hard for her to push me. “Leave? Why?”

“Because!” She delivers an especially hard shove to my back, making me stagger forward. “Because don’t you get it? The Academy is sending someone to investigate the rupture. Someone is heading here right now!”

No sooner did she say those words, for one of the mirrors to emit a glow. At the same time, the plants whisper warnings into the air, and the protection charms fill my head with sirens, alerting me of danger.

Panicking, I do the first thing I can think of and spin us around and, with a powerful shove, push Eisley through the closest mirror. She barely vanished through the glass before a man staggers out of the glowing mirror and nearly tumbles to the floor, wearing an expensive suit with the Alcove Academy crest on his chest.