“Who was that guy?” Callan asked, leading me to a black truck while flipping a set of keys in his hands. He opened the passenger seat for me, and I climbed inside.
“Just someone from school. SCC, I mean.” I zipped the backpack closed and set it on the floor.
“Hmm.” Callan’s expression was tight, but I was used to the serious aura he carried with him.
“So, where are you planning to eat? There’s nothing open this late around here except fast food.”
“Oh, ye of little faith.”
I glanced at him skeptically as he cruised away from the house. “I grew up here, remember? Iknownothing is open past eleven.”
A smile touched his lips, but he flicked on the radio—which was set to a pop-punk station—and kept driving.
“Maybe there’s a thing or two about this town you don’t know,local.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
When we parked at the fanciest restaurant in town, a little boutique American place, I didn’t move to get out.
“Yeah, this place is definitely closed.” I eyed the empty parking lot and dark windows.
But Callan came around the side of the truck and opened the door for me. “I didn’t say we were going somewhere that was open.”
Before I could ask a follow-up question, he walked to the back door of the restaurant and pulled out a key.
“Wait, do youworkhere?”
“Not exactly. But Perennial Farms supplies some of their produce. I make sure they get top quality every week. It comes with some perks.”
“Like a key to the restaurant?” I raised an eyebrow. That didn’t seem likely.
“The owner is a family friend.”
Right. Callan’s family was bound to have made some connections with the locals over the years.
“But what are we going to do in a closed restaurant?” We stepped inside, and Callan turned on the lights in the small commercial kitchen.
“I’m going to cook.”
“You’re going... to… cook?” I wasn’t sure why I was so surprised. But the words spluttered out of me.
Callan smiled in a way that nearly stopped my heart. Then he slung an apron over his chest. “Don’t look so shocked. I have herb affinities.”
“You do? Trees are your lead affinity, right? What other affinities do you have?” I felt that we knew each other well enough for me to try broaching this subject again.
Callan busied himself pulling vegetables from bins as he replied, “All of them except for mosses.”
I gasped. “All of them?”
“Except for mosses. The founders had all of the affinities, and that’s why they considered themselves most suited to start the academy. While magical lines have decreased over time, we’ve kept our family lines… magically potent since then.”
“Magically potent?” A thousand questions were stirring themselves up in my mind.
Callan sighed. “Has no one ever explained to you how magical blood works?”
“Not exactly.” I thought of my conversation with Professor East that had been cut short by his needing to teach a class. With all of the other things I’d been learning lately, my magical inheritance was no longer top of mind.
“We think that, originally, every magical botanist had all ofthe affinity powers. Over time, as they married non-magical people, the genes were mixed with non-magical ones. Some families retained only a handful of the affinities. Many magical botanists these days only have one or two affinity powers. But my family and some others around the world have kept their powers up by only marrying other magical botanists.”
