Chapter 19
Ten minutes and four cookies later—Kieran did not have one—they’re seated at a table, staring at each other silently. Zeke has strategically taken the furthest seat from Kieran.
Gabe speaks first, switching through three different expressions in under five seconds. “Have we all calmed down yet? No? Nevermind.”
“Should I be here?” Ellis mutters from his corner, half-fused with the wall. The ra—the dog is in his lap, trying to reach its short tongue towards the crumbs on Ellis’ plate.
Gabe clings to his arm. “Don’t leave me.”
“You two are attached at the hip,” Kieran mutters, recalling his future self’s comments. He’s almost surprised they’re not wearing one of those couple t-shirts, like: If lost, return to babe and I’m babe.
Lame. And gross. But mainly lame.
Gabe’s grin is so lewd it could rival Ash’s. “Technically, we’re usually attached at the—”
Ellis claps a hand over his mouth with the speed of someone who’s done this many, many times.
Unimpressed, Kieran looks at Ash. “The pervert gene runs in the family, huh?”
“Gabe’s worse.”
“Excuse me?!”
“Enough. I can’t do this shit today,” Kieran snaps, rubbing his temples. This whole exchange made him lose about a million brain cells.
He turns to Zeke. “Two years ago, you and I were here, together.”
Gabe gasps, clutching his pearls. “Together?”
“Not like that!” Kieran screams. “Jesus. You need help, Gabe.”
“Tell that to Mr. Jealous over here.” He nods at Ash, who is watching Zeke like he’s about to turn him into a carpet.
“Stop it,” Kieran hisses and pokes him in the ribs.
Somehow, it works, so he just shakes his head and picks up where he left off.
“Sunday, two years ago. The café was closed. We ran into each other. You made me coffee and gave me a bullshit tarot reading, spewed a lot of crap about fate and soulmates. Threatened to cast a love spell on me.”
Zeke’s dumb expression gradually sharpens, realization dawning on him. “Oh. Oh.” He shows his palms. “Oopsie.”
“Oopsie,” Kieran echoes, feeling his blood starting to boil again.
“You know a love spell?” Ellis manages to fixate on the wrong part of the story.
“It’s in my grandma’s grimoire,” Zeke says proudly.
“That’s what he calls a bunch of pages with would-be spells downloaded from the internet and stapled together,” Gabe cuts in.
“Not true!” Zeke protests. “I mean, I did that before. But after Nanna passed away three years ago, I was helping Mum clean out her house and found the grimoire.”
“Wait. You’re a witch?” Ellis squeals.
“He is not,” Gabe says.
“Yes, I am! I cast spells all the time. My garden is blooming—”
“That’s the fertilizer.”
“—and the summer before last, when we had that extreme drought, I summoned a week of rain!”
“That was cyclone Alfred, which was forecasted.”
“Unfortunately,” Ash cuts in, “Zeke’s right.”
“I am?” Zeke blinks. “I mean, yeah, I am!” Enthusiasm evaporating, he looks at Kieran. “So, what exactly happened?”
“Three days ago, I woke up…here. In the future. And I received a video that I—as in, my future self—recorded for me to explain what happened.”
“And he said that you time-traveled. And that Zeke is the one who caused it,” Gabe double-checks.
“Essentially.”
Zeke decides this is the perfect moment to give himself a pat on the back. “I’m awesome. This is so cool.” He deflates when met with tense silence. “Um…”
“So you sent him to the future?” Ellis asks.
“That wasn’t the plan!” Zeke defends. “I had no idea it would happen like this. It’s just…” He turns to Kieran. “You were so adamant that soulmates don’t exist and that you don’t have one, I wanted to prove you wrong. But the spell must have a mind of its own.”
“So you did cast a love spell.”
“Kinda? I just took that cup you drank from. You know, for DNA.”
“Gross.”
“And when casting the spell, I wished for you to learn the truth.”
Oh no, this doesn’t sound good. “What truth?”
“That you deserve to be loved.”
Yup. Not good. Very much un-good.
Gabe clearly doesn’t think so, his eyes going glassy. “Aww.”
“That’s pretty wholesome,” Ellis agrees.
Zeke beams. “Right?!”
Kieran swallows a scream and says instead, “This is such bullshit.”
Zeke sighs. For the first time, he seems a little remorseful.
“Look, mate. I am sorry. This is not how I wanted things to go. I just wanted you to be happy. And to be fair, you never—I mean, the other you never said anything! Not a word for the whole two years. I thought you’d just changed your mind about Ash, or that the spell actually worked. It was quite shocking, to be honest.”
For once, Gabe agrees with him. “Definitely! I mean, you hated his guts.”
“For good reason,” Ellis chimes in.
“Hey,” Ash complains, looking at Ellis with betrayal.
“I mean, you are kind of a dick.”
“I’m starting to like you,” Kieran says. Maybe he’d jumped the gun when he decided to hate Ellis on principle since his brother is a monster.
“…Thanks?”
“Can we see the video?” Gabe asks.
Kieran pulls out his phone. Might be easier to let future Kieran lay it all out.
He listens to the video with one ear, at least until a part he completely forgot about starts playing. By the time he realizes, it’s too late.
“We get our ass railed on the regular, and you know what? We love it. It feels fucking good.”
Gabe recoils. “Ew.”
“You’re welcome,” Zeke says with a grin.
Ellis just looks uncomfortable and like he’d rather be anywhere else.
Kieran can relate. He hides his face in his palms.
“FYI, realizing you’re into dick is just the beginning. You’ll learn things that will be hard to believe and it’s okay to freak out. You will, because I did, but you’ll come around.”
“Oh. He doesn’t know,” Gabe says, exchanging a look with Ash.
“Obviously.”
“Know what?” Kieran asks.
“Let’s finish the video first,” Gabe says quickly.
Once the video stops playing, Kieran pockets his phone. “That’s pretty much the gist of it.”
By now Zeke looks at least slightly guilty, which is probably the best Kieran’s going to get. The bar is low. Possibly underground.
Everyone is silent for a while, just processing the information. Good luck: Kieran still hasn’t processed it and it’s been days.
Speaking of, they all look remarkably, well, undisturbed by the revelation that Zeke is the next Sabrina, and that time-travel is a thing.
Sure, they were surprised at first, but they also accepted it way, way easier than any normal person would.
Honestly, Kieran should be grateful they’re taking it so well, but it’s sus, okay?
Like there’s another shoe waiting to drop.
Maybe both shoes. Possibly a boot. A whole freaking closet filled with skeletons about to pour out.
“So, how do you get back to your time?” Ellis is the first to ask.
“Beats me.”
“Isn’t it obvious? There’s a lesson here he needs to learn,” Gabe says, like it’s the logical conclusion.
Ellis strokes his hair, giving him a soft, patient smile. “You read too many fantasy books, babe.”
“What lesson?” Kieran asks, despite a nagging feeling that he’s not gonna like the answer.
“Oh, I know. I know!” Zeke slaps the table, then spreads his arms and theatrically announces, “You need to let yourself be loved!”
Kieran stares into the distance, feeling his life force drain out of him. “I’m gonna be stuck here forever.”
“Oh, come on!”
“Leave him alone,” Ellis reprimands him. “If that’s the case, it’s not as easy as it sounds.”
Alright, it’s official. Ellis is Kieran’s new best friend. No further applications will be accepted.
“Okay, enough of this,” Kieran decides, nodding at Gabe. “Your turn.”
“Um…maybe we should have Cal and Dawson over for this too.”
“Nope. I’m done being the only one in the dark.”
Gabe gnaws at his lip. “Okay. I will precede this by saying: you just time-traveled into your future, and it turns out our friend is an actual witch.”
“He is not my friend.”
“What?” Zeke gasps, giving him a kicked puppy look.
“What I mean is,” Gabe carries on. “Keep an open mind.”
“I’m not gonna like this, am I?”
Gabe’s wince answers that for him.
“Let’s start with the easy stuff.” Which is apparently a category now. “So…I can feel people’s emotions. Like, really feel them. And if I put my mind to it, I can even influence them. To a degree.”
Kieran stares at him. Then at Ellis, at Zeke. Then Ash. Four nearly identical, tense expressions. No one’s laughing.
“Open mind, open mind, open mind,” he chants, breathing deeply. He needs to look at the facts.
One: Supernatural stuff is apparently real.
Two: Gabe has always been too empathetic for someone who works in customer service.
Three: Kieran can’t think of a reason anyone would lie about this, unless they’re suffering from a mental illness or playing an elaborate joke.
“Okay,” he says. “You have proof?”
“That’s my boy,” Ash says approvingly, as if Kieran passed a test. So annoying. And why the fuck does Kieran feel proud?
“Can I touch you?” Gabe asks, sliding his hand forward. Waiting.
“Go for it.”
Not sure what that’s gonna do—
The second Gabe touches him, Kieran melts backward into his seat, every muscle in his body relaxing at once. “Shit, what did you—the fuck is happening to your eyes?”
“They glow when I use my abilities or experience intense emotions,” Gabe explains, like that’s not deeply unsettling. Completely normal human eye reaction.
He withdraws his hand, but whatever he did is still taking effect. Kieran’s body feels much looser, no longer like a piece of rope about to snap any minute.
“What was that? What did you do?” And can I buy it in store or just online?
“Just helped settle your energy. You’re very highly strung right now.”
“All the time,” Ash mumbles uselessly.
“So you’re a witch too?”
Gabe shakes his head. “I’m an empath. I take after my dad.”
“Your dad… Didn’t I help you track him down?”