Chapter 31 #2
“So again, I say…I could die?!” his witch cried again dramatically, his hands gesturing as if that made his point.
Chuckling at the theatrics, he mused, “A possibility, but an unlikely one.”
“You say unlikely, but I am a new witch, soo—”
“Yes, but you are unlike most new witches. Considering the magic you’ve pulled off already, I doubt it would be able to drain you fully in a day, let alone twelve hours,” Noble pointed out gently, because, for some reason, the hunter loved to coddle his witch.
Which was completely bizarre to Red, especially considering what the man had done, and what his feelings had no doubt been towards witches in the past. He supposed the witch hunter was clearly ‘in love’… or at the very least, infatuated enough to be overprotective of Ollie’s feelings.
To Red, as Ollie’s safety mattered a hell of a lot, his feelings had to always come second, because he was dealing with a baby witch who could blow up far more than just the tiny tree that he’d accidentally obliterated in anger.
“You two do realize that ‘I doubt’ and ‘unlikely’ still mean you're not a hundred percent sure, right?” Jahla huffed.
Whimpering loudly, Ollie took Jahla’s hands and lamented in a tone that suggested the world was ending, “My best friend who always understands!”
The woman snorted. “I wouldn’t say always.”
“ALWAYS understands me in every way possible,” the witch reiterated sternly, as he stared intensely into Jahla’s eyes.
Eyes which she rolled as she sighed in exasperation. “You are such a dork…”
Ollie tugged his hands away with a fake, indignant hmph.
“If you are done with your dramatics…while I can’t fully explain why you are able to do what you have so far, I am sure this spell, advanced or not, will give you little trouble.”
“You really should be questioning why he's able, shouldn’t you?” Noble stated. “Or at the very least, pointing it out to him that it is in fact not normal?”
He… He should, shouldn’t he?
“I…know he shouldn’t be able to do a lot of what he already has done. At least, not this quickly, but in those moments…I have, for some reason, failed to voice a single thought about anything being abnormal. No—”
He cut off on a wince as a surge of pain shot through his spine like a lightning strike, but he ignored it and kept trying, even though the pain worsened with each word he spoke.
“It’s more that I don’t…haveee the thoughts a-at all until much laterrr and—Meow.” He let out a frustrated hiss as his brain became jumbled, human words beyond his capabilities for a brief moment.
Ollie eyed him with concern, before crouching down to run his hands through his fur as the witch asked, “It’s the binding, isn’t it?”
Red did his best to use Ollie’s touch to banish the remaining pain that was still vibrating through him as he sighed heavily.
When he tried to speak again, he couldn’t help but wince when his S’ came out in a very hiss-like manner. “Asss it flared up with me jussst trying to talk about it, I’d sssay ssso.”
“Are we talking about the same binding you mentioned that prevented Red from talking for like three decades?” Jahla asked.
Ollie nodded. “Yes, that binding.”
“Do we know exactly what the binding was supposed to do?” Noble asked. “Obviously, it was meant to do more than just keep you quiet until Ollie’s powers broke free.”
At one point, Red had thought he had known.
But now he could only admit that he’d been far too na?ve about the situation.
“I know it was meant to lower the risk of me accidentally triggering Ollie’s powers earlier than what would be safe.
And it prevents me from not only sharing specific information, but also from revealing certain things too quickly so soon after his magic broke free.
“I, however, do not know how long it is meant to last. I’d always assumed it would begin to fade and weaken after he awoke, but so far, it hasn’t. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that there was another purpose to it that I was unaware of.”
Ollie wrinkled his nose. “Have you talked to Rowden?”
Red scoffed. “That damn witch only speaks to those he wants to, when he wants to, on his own time frame.”
“So, no?”
He sighed and admitted, “No.”
“Do you even have a phone to talk to him with?” Jahla asked.
Red snickered at the implication. “I would hardly need one. There are far better ways for a familiar and a witch to communicate than—” He wrinkled his snout in disgust. “—technology.”
Ugh, technology…the bane of every magical being’s existence. Just an all-out pain in the ass to deal with, especially those damn cameras…
Ollie’s hand paused in the middle of him petting, as he almost excitedly asked, “There is?! How?!”
Red opened his mouth to at least give a brief explanation, but snapped it shut with a hiss as another bolt of pain sliced through him. As the pain dissipated, he snapped out loud, “Really? I can’t even tell him that?!”
“I am going to kick Rowden’s butt when I see him next!” The witch straightened up with an angry growl. “Come on, let’s go un-anchor Irene from the diner and hunt down her corpse!”
“Really? You're still planning to go forward with the spell that could possibly kill you?” Jahla asked stiffly. “Also, do I need to point out that tracking down a corpse sounds like a bad idea?”
“I mean…it should be fine. Also, they said it would be fine, right, Red…Noble?”
“Yes, you’ll be fine,” Red assured him.
Ollie waved his hand at his cat. “See. Are you coming?”
“Hell no. I have no earthly want or need to see any other ghosts than the one and a half I already have seen.”
His witch frowned. “‘And a half?’”
“I count the kitten as a half.”
“Should I find it upsetting that you count it as a half?” Red drawled, trying to figure out how he felt about it.
Like, he was a cat, but not. Overall, he was a magical being, but with his normal shape being a cat, he couldn’t help but feel a strong connection to the animals themselves…
Ollie pursed his lips. “I didn’t realize you had seen her.”
“Pumpkin may have wandered around my desk a few times after you mentioned her—thanks for that, by the way,” she explained, sounding slightly irritated. “Regardless, I am not going with you.”
“Fine, what about you, Red? Fancy a car ride? It could be fun?”
As Red hated car rides…and he had better things he could be doing, he shook his head. “I have something I need to do.”
“Would that something be trying to reach Rowden again in whatever way you can’t tell me about?”
He shrugged. “Possibly.”
Ollie rolled his eyes before looking at Noble. “You’re coming with me, right, Noble?”
The hunter smirked in a stupidly sappy way as he chimed, “No place I'd rather be.”
Red wrinkled his nose in disgust when Ollie just smiled back.