“Want to tell me about last night?” Auntie’s quieter than usual. She gazes out at the trees, and it takes me a moment to process that she asked me anything at all.
I knew this was coming, though, so I take another long sip of coffee and smack my lips.
“About what?” I ask.
“About meeting your first shifter.” If she’s annoyed at me playing dumb, she doesn’t sound it. “Well, first two shifters if you count Kai. But you weren’t interested in him.”
Taking a deep breath, I steel myself for this dramatic conversation. “No.”
“The other. Gordy, I think?” The sound of his name gives me the slightest chill. Auntie looks at me, and with a face free of judgment, asks, “Do you remember what you told him?”
“I…said he…was my familiar.”
“Mm.” We take a long moment to let the word float around us. “You know, according to my tomes, most familiars walk on four legs. Or, I guess ravens don’t. But you know what I mean.”
My cheeks burn as I nod and fixate on the trees in front of us. “Why did you say it?” she asks, quietly addressing what we all want to know.
“Because…I felt it.”
“How so?”
“The…tea leaves…”
“The ones from the other day? You said you saw nothing.”
“I was not…sure.”
“And you’re sure now?” I bristle, but Auntie continues, “Honey, I’m just trying to understand. You called a living, breathing human your familiar. Granted, he’s scaly with a huge tail and shell, but still. That’s not a common occurrence in the witch community.”
My throat goes dry at the memory of his muscular shell front?the plastron?and his long, green tail.What that appendage could do…
Focus. Don’t get horny based on a shifter man who will never want you. Clearing my throat, I continue, “I…saw his image. A turtle and a man. I didn’t think it was possible.”
“But then you met Gordy days later,” Auntie says. I nod and take another long sip of coffee. “Are you sure it’s him?”
“Do you know many t-t-turtle men?”
We both laugh softly and start to slowly walk back to the house. “I suppose that’s fair. But I’ve never heard of a human familiar for a witch before.” I open my mouth to argue, but she points at me. “I’m not discrediting it! In all my years, I’velearned all sorts of things exist in the magical world that were once thought to be impossible. Between the demons from other dimensions and mystical shifters, I know that almost anything can happen.”
After a long pause, she continues, “But I need to know for certain that you felt that pull. I’ve been blessed by the stars to have my powers and my coven without a familiar. Pets are cute and all, but if one were bound to me magically, I would know. And you and Gordy…”
The memory of his human face, with Asian eyes and high cheekbones, makes me weak in the knees. Seeing him morph into his reptilian form was like a jolt to my heart. It was like the magic in my fingers ignited at the sight, a phenom I’ve never felt before. Between that and the tea leaves, I know Gordy is the key to my magic. He’s the ruby red glow from my dreams.
If not, at the very least, he’s extremely attractive in either form. Whatever connection we might have, I wanted to explore it.
But now he hates me. I don’t blame him.
“I…feel my magic. When I think about him.”
Auntie frowns, and we make it to the back door. “Something tells me you haven’t given up on courting him.”
I shrug and sit at the kitchen table. “What do I do?”
“This is out of my wheelhouse, honey. I’m perfectly content being single, and if any man wants to bed me, they need to do the chasing, not the other way around.” She adjusts her hair in the reflection of the microwave, and my nose wrinkles. I never want to hear about my aunt’s sex life.
When she sits down, Auntie gives me a sympathetic look. “So, let’s review the facts: you feel the familiar pull, but not to an animal, to a big shifter boy.” I nod. “And now he’s not interested.”
Staring at my hands, I whisper, “He hates me.”
