Episode 2: A Bite, a Death, and New Friends: Part 6

Oh, look, a magic shop, cats, questions, and heartache.

Gwen hated driving, but it wasn't so bad at night when no one was around. She didn't mind the empty streets and the long lights. She often wondered why people would get upset and go for a drive. It didn't make any sense to her until tonight. She had to get all the supplies that would save Scott's life, but being alone in the car on the lonely streets didn't seem so awful.

She was free to breathe.

She didn't have to worry when stuck under the glow of the red light. There was nothing she could do to change the light, and she took a moment for herself.

If you do this, Rupert's voice echoed in her mind; it will tell the Night and the Sons you are back on the board.

She shuddered at the voice but more at the truth. She had tossed herself into the still pond of the Night, and everything above and under the water would see its effect. She couldn't escape it. The whole point of leaving her family was to be free of the duty of the Duval. She never asked to have this power. She didn't want to be born into this family; fate had been cruel to her.

Mckenna had been deemed the Queen of Necromancers, one of the Duval to rule over the family and know the deep magic of the grave. Mckenna could, if she wished, take a seat on the Council of the Damned when she came of age; all she had to do to gain her title was defeat a demon named Thunok, the Bloody. He ruled over some cult, and the foolish people summoned him.

It should have been an easy task for the new Queen; it would be her death in the end.

"It should be you," McKenna said, sitting down on Gwen's bed when they were sixteen. "You are better at the arts than I am."

Gwen shook her head at her twin sister. "I don't want it, and mom knows it."

"You really don't want to be a part of this?" Mckenna asked. "We could do so much good with all this power?"

"It's not for me," Gwen said, smiling. "I don't know what I will do, but it's not for me."

"You can't hate where you come from, sis," McKenna said coolly.

"I don't hate it," Gwen said, shocked at the words; at least she didn't hate her bloodline back then. Now, she wasn't so sure anymore. She stopped at the shop on the other side of campus. She should have driven right through it, but the GPS took her around the school.

Harley's Manticore Magics shop sat behind a strip mall and a line of trees. The shop looked like an old house out of a fairy tale with a single candle burning in the window. The trees around the shop would hide it from the world during spring and summer, but with the trees soon to die, anyone who stepped out back of the mall would see it.

Gwen pulled into the small parking lot, which could only hold six cars. It looked like a shop that only the people who knew it was there would dare go to. She got up to the door about to ring the bell, looked into the dark window, and saw a few cats staring back at her. She smiled at them and stepped back from the door.

"Harley Odd," she said to the door, and it opened. A tall woman dressed in gym clothes smiled at her. Her face was long and pointed like the moon and just as pale. She looked to be somewhere in her late fifties, even if everything else she was in her twenties, but her body was a killer. Gwen could only hope to be in such good shape when she was older.

"Ah, come on in, my dear," she said in a smooth voice like smoke. She turned from the door. Gwen stepped in, being followed by two black cats on her side. "I'm almost done getting everything ready."

"I appreciate this so much," Gwen said sheepishly.

"I'm sure so does the boy you are trying to save," Harley said. "Ghoul's venom is a nasty thing."

"You are telling me," Gwen said, stepping to the main part of the shop. The walls were filled with books, supplies for all kinds of spells, and art Gwen had never seen before. She wanted to spend hours in the shop, but didn't have the time. She would make sure to come back here when she had a day off.

"I'm surprised a Duval is having a hard time with it," Harley said, adding another jar of something black to a box. One of the cats moved to the counter while the other stayed close to Gwen, licking his paw.

"I, uh, hm, haven't, you know," Gwen said, rubbing the back of her head. "I've let some of my magic go."

Harley smiled. "Child, I know you are not trying to follow in your mother's footsteps. You don't wish to be one of the Sisters Three."

"No, ma'am, not at all," Gwen said.

"It is fine; we have to be ourselves, not who our parents tell us to be," Harley said. "My father hates I run this shop. He says it is beneath an Odd to do so, but I love it."

"It is nice," Gwen said.

"It is freedom, my flower," Harley said. "Your mother came by last week, didn't know that?"

"Not at all," Gwen said, almost wounded at her mother's presence in town but didn't come to see her.

"Ah, I'm sorry," Harley said, shaking her head, seeing the pain in Gwen's eyes. She pushed the box across the counter. "She was just stopping in for one thing. You know how spells are."

"I do," Gwen said, taking out her wallet. "How much do I owe you?"

"It is on the house," Harley said, leaning on the counter.

"Are you sure?" Gwen asked.

"Oh yeah," Harley said, winking at her.

"Thank you so much," Gwen said, taking the box in her hands.

"May I ask you something before you go?"

"Uh, sure."

"Why did you come here to Wheldrake?"

"For the school," she said. "They accepted me, and they are one of the best for med students."

"No other reason?"

"No, why?" Gwen asked, hearing drumming in her chest.

"Wheldrake is much like Tallwater or Charlotte," she said, "magic is drawn here."

Gwen's face went flat. "I did not know."

"As I guessed, but you need to know there are two evils here at war."

"Who?"

"I know there is a Bloodlock here," Harley said, "but I am not sure of the other. I tell you this because they have noticed you, and as long as you stay inactive, all will be fine."

"Rupert told me saving this boy changes all that," Gwen frowned deeply. "Does it?"

"Only time will tell," Harley said, "and no matter what happens, Gwen, you are doing the right thing. Your mother is right, you have a big heart and are a good person. You will make a fine doctor one day."

"Thanks, I got to get going," Gwen said, racing out of the shop, and the cats went with her up to the door. They watched her climb into her car and drive away. The ride back was not as peaceful as the ride to the shop. All she could think about was ...

Why didn't you come to see me, Mom? Why? Am I that big of a disappointment to you?