Chapter 13
Carly
This was the key Leonard and his thug friend kidnapped me for? It looked nothing like one.
I reached for it the moment I saw it, unable to stop myself, and felt the tug as soon as I touched it. It was faint and I didn’t quite get a vision, but it was there. I opened my mouth but stopped myself before I said anything. I wasn’t sure I should tell Desmon. Not everyone reacted well to hearing I “felt” items.
“What is it?” Desmon looked at me, then at the small shard of pottery. “You can tell me.”
“Okay. But first, let me give you some background.” I took a big breath. “Sometimes things…speak to me. Not in words. They give me feelings, or I have visions.” I held up a hand. “I know it sounds weird, but they just do. I tried telling my parents when I was little, and they thought it was cute that I had such an active imagination. They just brushed it off.”
I’d always felt like an afterthought for my parents. They weren’t bad parents, per se ; they did everything required to raise me, but it was very clear that they only had me because they felt they were supposed to. Their need to roam and travel always came first. The second I was away at college, they went on the road again.
I still remember my surprise when I called home one day and found the line was cut. For months, I had no idea where they were until one day I got a text message from an unknown number with a photo of them in Machu Picchu. They were happier than I’d ever seen them, and I realized how much of a drag it must have been for them to stay in one place long enough while I was growing up so I could finish the school year before moving on again.
We lived in a new city almost every year, and after a while, I was afraid to make friends because I knew I’d just have to leave them. I never inherited my parents’ need to roam. I was very relieved when I realized I could stay in one place to finish college.
“It wasn’t until after the fall of The Wall, and I was in college and working closely with one of my professors, that I finally understood that these sensations were magic. I’m not a witch or anything. I mean I can’t cast spells like Seth does, and I can’t talk to objects and make them talk back. I just get visions from them.”
Desmon perked up. “How do you mean?”
“It doesn’t happen with everything. Most ordinary objects remain quiet, but every so often, I come across something that just…I don’t know how to explain it…I just feel it. Like, when I was a volunteer at another museum, I met a battle axe that was super full of itself. It thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, but at the same time it missed its wielder and mourned his death. I have to actually touch the object for any of this to happen. Which is a good thing, I guess, because otherwise, it would be quite loud in the museum.”
“Interesting. And you’re feeling something from this right now?”
“Yes.”
“What is it saying?” He looked excited, like I was about to tell him something very important.
I felt bad I was about to disappoint him. “It’s not quite like that. It’s not saying anything. It’s just a pull. I’m not getting a full on vision.”
“Seth did say there was magic in this. I can’t see it, even though usually I would. Can you see magic?” he asked.
“If you’re asking if I can see a magical aura, no,” I said, disappointing him again. “To be honest, you’re only the second person I’ve ever told about this who took me seriously.”
“Who’s the other person?”
Did he sound jealous?
“One of my professors back in school.”
“Places like the University of Darlington have courses catering to our kind. But according to your resume, you went to a mundane, that is to say, regular , college. I know there are many professors worldwide who are monsters or magic practitioners who hid what they were before the fall of The Wall, and they weren’t able to talk to their students about magic.”
“The Wall fell when I was still in school,” I clarified. “And it suddenly came to everyone’s attention that one of my favorite professors was a nymph.”
Desmon nodded in recognition. “Yes, Valeria Elm the Educated Nymph. Quite an oxymoron. It was a shame how the magical colleges treated her.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Valeria went to school right here in Darlington. The university was willing to take her money as a student but laughed in her face when she tried to get a job there. All the magical universities did, simply because of what she was. She had to masquerade as a human and get a job at a university where no one knew what she was.”
“That’s horrible! I never knew.”
“I am sorry to say that humans are not the only ones who can be prejudiced. This was decades ago, though, and I like to think that things have changed for the better.”
“I hope so. She was the one who sent me the job posting for the Darlington Museum.” I looked down at the fragment of pottery in my hands. “She was also the first person to really take my visions seriously. I almost didn’t tell her about them. But I think she had a suspicion anyway.”
“I’m curious. Have you felt anything from any of the items in my home?”
“If you’re asking if I could feel all your previous sexual escapades when we passed by your bed on the way to that amazing bathroom, no.” And a good thing, too; I wasn’t sure I wanted to feel Desmon getting it on with some other woman. I didn’t understand this jealous feeling I was getting.
I’d meant it as a joke, but Desmon took it very seriously. “You wouldn’t, because it has never experienced any. You are the first female to have been anywhere near it.”
And there was that giddy, fluttery feeling again! How was I supposed to keep my heart safe when Desmon kept saying shit like that? Did I even dare believe him? Desmon didn’t come off as the lying type, but everything just felt way too good to be true. And now I was thinking about what things we could do on his bed.
To distract myself from the line of thought, which could so easily lead to me being bent over my boss’s home office desk, I ran through all the other things of his I’d touched.
“I saw a forest when I touched the filing cabinet in your office. And now that I think of it, I got an aerial view of the city when I touched your pants, the pair I got coffee on.” I frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense, but that’s how it is a lot of times. It’s not always even an image—sometimes, it’s a sound or just a feeling. In fact, I used to call them feelings myself until Dr. Elm started calling them visions. Half the time, I’m not even sure if I’m getting the vibe from the item or if it’s just some random thought that popped into my head at the right time. Like, why the heck would your pants give me an aerial view of the city? Honestly, I just try to block them out most of the time now.”
It had been fun telling Dr. Elm all the things the items told me and finally having someone believe me and take me seriously. But none of the information had actually ended up being of any value from an academic standpoint, so what was the point, really?
“My pants have been spelled to stay with me when I shift. They have flown over Darlington with me in my dragon form many times. “
“In that case, that makes a lot of sense. But still, while this little talent has provided many hours of entertainment for Dr. Elm and I, it isn’t very useful. Like, now that I know the little detail about your pants, I see exactly why I got those images, but if I didn’t know that information already, I’d never guess it. Like the key: I’m sure once I see what it opens, everything will make sense, but from one little tug, there’s no way to figure out what it’s for.”
“What if I told you that I already know what this key opens, and that I have it in my possession? Would that help?”
“Can I touch it?”
“You can.”
I ordered myself to stay calm. I didn’t want to raise his hopes unrealistically, but the idea of actually using my talent to solve a mystery, a talent that up until this point had been pretty much useless, was pretty exciting.
“We can head to the museum after it closes, and you can touch the statue. See if you get anything,”
“Don’t get too excited, I can’t make any promises.”
“Speaking of promises, you promised me a lunch date today. You must be hungry. It’s well past lunch now.”
I looked up at the clock. It was almost one.
“Shoot,” I said. “My tour!” Even as I said that, I realized that I didn’t have any work-appropriate clothes now.
“Janice can take care of that. The volunteers came early from the university.”
“I’ll need to pick up some more work clothes before I do any more tours anyhow. I don’t own much black stuff.”
“I noticed. Your wardrobe is very…colorful.”
“It’s called dopamine dressing.” Black might make me look slimmer, but colors made me happy, and I’d decided long ago that the latter was way more important.
“I will take you shopping after our lunch.”
Usually, I didn’t feel comfortable letting a guy buy me things, but he did burn my clothes to ashes, so I’d let it slide this time.
“How long do you need to get ready?” He touched my face gingerly. “My kisses have made your lips worse. I’m sorry.”
I’d forgotten all about my various bumps and bruises. The healing salve Desmon had put on them after my shower had helped a lot, and my wrist and lips, while mildly sore, weren’t in pain anymore. The salve had most definitely been magical. But even though they were feeling better, my wrist still looked atrocious, and I guess my lip wasn’t much better.
Then I recalled the instant makeup spells in the basket. Thank you, Elana!
“Fifteen minutes.”
“I will call to move our reservation. I’ll tell you all about the competition between me and Gillisandra while we eat.”