Read Online The Problem With Black Magic by Karen Mead - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Karen Mead
Ads: Link
that should be enough. After you go back in the house, I’ll wait a while for all the lights to go off, then I’ll do the spell and leave,” he said softly.
“Can you do it without waking them up? I thought you had to say incantations and draw symbols in the dirt and stuff,” Cassie asked, genuinely interested. The one time she’d seen Sam use magic, it hadn’t involved any posturing or supplies at all, but the fact that he needed her hair led her to believe his magic required some set-up.
Sam fixed her with a sad smile. “That’s what people who summon demons need to do- - and I’m already here, aren’t I?”
Cassie gulped. Well great, she thought, so glad we cleared THAT up.
“Weren’t you going to ask me something before?”
Cassie’s eyes widened, surprised he remembered. “This familiar thing…you can’t undo it, can you?”
Sam paused, running his tongue over his teeth. “I don’t know.”
Cassie stared. “You don’t know?”
“You’re even more annoying than usual when you repeat everything I say,” he snapped, not looking at her.
“So this is my life now? Forever?”
They both stiffened as Annette knocked on the window, hard.
Sam began to back away. “I’ll look into it, alright? I don’t know if there’s a process for letting a familiar go, but I can find out. Now, get in the house before your mother kills both of us.” He turned, pretending to leave; Cassie figured he was probably walking around the block, marking the circle like he said he was going to.
Cassie went back in the house, still not sure why she hadn’t wanted to ask him that question in front of Ser. It was academic now, since Sam was probably going to ask for Ser’s opinion on the matter; he was the only one who seemed to know anything useful.
Chapter Six
When Cassie woke up on Saturday morning, the buzzing that she felt between her shoulder blades-- so normal for her now, she barely noticed it anymore-- had turned up in intensity. She figured it was probably some sort of magic indicator; now that Sam had done the protection spell, she could feel it. She wasn’t sure if that was a consequence of being his familiar, or just the advantage of having a lot of latent magic that was virtually useless to her.
She grimaced, pulling the covers over her head. What was up with that, anyway? How unfair was it that she had magic, but only someone else- - and someone she didn’t particularly care for-- could use it? Maybe there was something she could do about that.
It was easy enough to convince Annette to let her spend all weekend at home; all she had to do was mutter a bout doing a few more practice SATS, and her mother was pacified. Cassie’s grades were good, but not Harvard-tier good, and Annette was hoping against hope that Cassie would pull her scores up and become eligible for the best universities. Up until a week ago, Cassie had been very interested in the question of where she was going to college, but right now, it seemed kind of remote.
She actually did start a practice test, snacking on cinnamon toaster cakes and trying to think of geometry and latin-derived terms instead of magic. After she found that she was re-reading the questions multiple times because her mind refused to focus, she gave up and pulled out her laptop. Maybe the internet would yield some answers to her demon-related problems.
As she expected, her preliminary searches turned up a lot of nonsense: people nattering on about Satan-worship, and other things that didn’t jibe with her recent experience of actual magic. She also browsed witchcraft and Wicca sites, hoping to find something that would convince her she could one day use magic like self-proclaimed witches, but most of the more reputable sites seemed to treat the idea of magic as more of a kind of new-aged religion then well, actual magic.
It wasn’t that she didn’t see the value of modern-day witchcraft as a belief system; she could believe that performing a “positive
“Can you do it without waking them up? I thought you had to say incantations and draw symbols in the dirt and stuff,” Cassie asked, genuinely interested. The one time she’d seen Sam use magic, it hadn’t involved any posturing or supplies at all, but the fact that he needed her hair led her to believe his magic required some set-up.
Sam fixed her with a sad smile. “That’s what people who summon demons need to do- - and I’m already here, aren’t I?”
Cassie gulped. Well great, she thought, so glad we cleared THAT up.
“Weren’t you going to ask me something before?”
Cassie’s eyes widened, surprised he remembered. “This familiar thing…you can’t undo it, can you?”
Sam paused, running his tongue over his teeth. “I don’t know.”
Cassie stared. “You don’t know?”
“You’re even more annoying than usual when you repeat everything I say,” he snapped, not looking at her.
“So this is my life now? Forever?”
They both stiffened as Annette knocked on the window, hard.
Sam began to back away. “I’ll look into it, alright? I don’t know if there’s a process for letting a familiar go, but I can find out. Now, get in the house before your mother kills both of us.” He turned, pretending to leave; Cassie figured he was probably walking around the block, marking the circle like he said he was going to.
Cassie went back in the house, still not sure why she hadn’t wanted to ask him that question in front of Ser. It was academic now, since Sam was probably going to ask for Ser’s opinion on the matter; he was the only one who seemed to know anything useful.
Chapter Six
When Cassie woke up on Saturday morning, the buzzing that she felt between her shoulder blades-- so normal for her now, she barely noticed it anymore-- had turned up in intensity. She figured it was probably some sort of magic indicator; now that Sam had done the protection spell, she could feel it. She wasn’t sure if that was a consequence of being his familiar, or just the advantage of having a lot of latent magic that was virtually useless to her.
She grimaced, pulling the covers over her head. What was up with that, anyway? How unfair was it that she had magic, but only someone else- - and someone she didn’t particularly care for-- could use it? Maybe there was something she could do about that.
It was easy enough to convince Annette to let her spend all weekend at home; all she had to do was mutter a bout doing a few more practice SATS, and her mother was pacified. Cassie’s grades were good, but not Harvard-tier good, and Annette was hoping against hope that Cassie would pull her scores up and become eligible for the best universities. Up until a week ago, Cassie had been very interested in the question of where she was going to college, but right now, it seemed kind of remote.
She actually did start a practice test, snacking on cinnamon toaster cakes and trying to think of geometry and latin-derived terms instead of magic. After she found that she was re-reading the questions multiple times because her mind refused to focus, she gave up and pulled out her laptop. Maybe the internet would yield some answers to her demon-related problems.
As she expected, her preliminary searches turned up a lot of nonsense: people nattering on about Satan-worship, and other things that didn’t jibe with her recent experience of actual magic. She also browsed witchcraft and Wicca sites, hoping to find something that would convince her she could one day use magic like self-proclaimed witches, but most of the more reputable sites seemed to treat the idea of magic as more of a kind of new-aged religion then well, actual magic.
It wasn’t that she didn’t see the value of modern-day witchcraft as a belief system; she could believe that performing a “positive
Similar Books
