“Oh, I’m so sorry – how rude of me,” Margot exclaimed. “I can’t believe we were just having this conversation in front of you! Curtis, may I bring you into Chloe’s view?”
~I… suppose so?~Curtis said uncertainly.~If such a thing would be possible?~
“One moment! I’ll be right back!” Margot said, and dashed back through the bookshelves.
The room settled into what had to be one of the most excruciatingly awkward silences of Ethan’s life. Even his pegasus and Curtis seemed content to let him stew in his own juices while Chloe stood there, arms crossed, foot tapping, jaw set.
He wanted to talk to her, he really did, but it felt like anything he said at this point would seem like he was trying to force her to see his point of view. Better to just wait and see what tricks Margot had up her voluminous sleeve, and then work from there.
“‘Bring Curtis into my view,’ eh?” Chloe said coolly, completely ruining his intricate plan of ‘wait and do nothing’. She raised an eyebrow. “Now, what could that mean?”
Ethan was pretty sure at this point that it meant that Margot was a witch – he did believe inthoseafter all, however unlikely it was that one would be living here in Girdwood Springs – and that she’d gone off to stir her cauldron or gyrate under the full moon or something… but he couldn’t exactly tell Chloe that. It was hard enough trying to convince her that ghosts existed – he was pretty sure that she’d march right out the door if he casually dropped witches into the mix.
For once, however, the fates were in his favor, and he was saved from having to give an explanation by the sounds of Margot stumbling and bumping her way through the shelves, followed by Margot herself, who was almost entirely hidden behind an armload of ancient books, unidentifiable herbs, and who knew what else.
“There!” she said, dumping the armload of miscellanea onto the closest armchair. “I think I know which book I need, but I thought it would be best to just grab everything even slightly related to ghosts, just to make sure.”
She picked up one of the books and started flicking through it, muttering mysteriously to herself as she went, and certainly doing nothing to dispel the witchy vibes she’d been giving off.
“A-ha!” she said triumphantly. “Here it is.”
Ethan breathed an imperceptible sigh of relief. If Margot could indeed make Curtis visible to Chloe, then hopefully she’d start to believe that he really was telling the truth.
“Luckily it looks like it’s actually not too difficult a spell to perform, which is good,” Margot went on breezily. “I was worried that it would be a complex spell and I’d accidentally turn Curtis into a turnip or something along those lines, but it should all be fine.”
That was… less reassuring. Suddenly, Ethan wasn’t really quite sure how he felt about this after all. Chloe’s eyebrows were also shooting up her forehead.
He turned to Curtis. “Curtis, are you sure you’re okay with this?”
While Curtis also looked somewhat perturbed at the idea of potentially being turned into a turnip, he was holding himself with an air of resolve.
~I am happy to do this. It would be nice to meet Miss Chloe properly.~He smiled.~In any case, I am already dead. What further harm could result?~
Plenty,Ethan wanted to say, but he refrained. If Curtis had made his choice, then Ethan didn’t want to sow any seeds of doubt in his mind.
“Okay, all ready to go!” Margot said, arranging some herbs in the top of a small, strange-looking multi-tiered dish, beforelighting a match underneath. A searingly bright white flame sprang into being, and the herbs began to smolder.
At the same time, the lights in the room seemed to dim further, the shadows in the corners growing deeper, and Ethan suppressed a shiver. He wasn’tscaredof magic per se, but he wasn’t exactly a huge fan of it, either – corporate law and the occult were not really two areas that tended to converge all that often, at least within his circles.
His pegasus also wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, given that it apparently considered magic to be adjacent enough to ghosts to set off some of the same anxieties, but at least it wasn’t yelping and trying to bolt for the door.
Curtis was staring at the flame, entranced, seemingly unconcerned. Apparently hisI’m already deadmindset was serving him well in this instance.
Chloe, though…
She was putting up a brave face, the burning white flame’s reflections flickering in her eyes as she stared, but she was also slowly, almost imperceptibly, moving in closer against Ethan’s side, as if seeking his protection.
He froze, wanting nothing more than to put his arm around her and make her feel entirely safe, but he also didn’t want to take advantage.
In the end, he settled for changing the angle of his body slightly so that she could lean in closer if she wanted – which she did, settling against his side, her warmth radiating through him with a wave of pure contentment.
He had never really understood it when other shifters had talked about how amazing it was to find your mate. Perfectly sensible, level-headed people he’d known for years suddenly became enamored of someone they’d just met, their priorities changing overnight.
He had thought at the time that he’d understood the general concept behind mates, and that it was something he wanted nothing to do with, but he hadn’t understood at all. Now that he was experiencing it for himself, he thought that he finally understood what those other shifters had been talking about.
Standing there with Chloe by his side, he felt like he could face anything.
Suddenly, Margot’s eyes blazed with that same white fire, and he was very quickly snapped back into the present.
