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She gestures wildly, as if dismissing my concerns.
“It’s really nothing at all,” she says. “I’m just a little rusty, so I thought I’d practice using a harmless spell.”
I shake my head. None of this makes any sense. And I can tell from how long I’ve known her that she’s hiding something.
“Right,” I say. “But you still haven’t told me why it has to be my apartment.”
She looks back at the text, and gestures while incanting anyway, having given up on getting my cooperation.
“It’s just a little protection spell,” she says between utterances. “They’re important to learn, and I need to work on them. I figure they’re harmless enough - an factum custodiatur - that I can - in animalia noctis - just practice here.”
Magical light comes together, emanating from her fingers, before immediately dissipating in another loud explosion.
“I need to recite the Latin, but it’s hard to do that while I’m also casting the material part of the spell,” she says. “That’s why I need your help.”
I shrug and hold the book. I’m still not sure what she intends with this, but I know how important her magic is to her. I move over beside her and hold the book so that she can see it. On the page are several crude diagrams and an image of a pentagram. It seems pretty standard.
She looks at the page, studying it, and recites the full incantation, pinching together several herbs and crushing them together into a mortar and pestle while she speaks. When she’s done, at first nothing happens.
“Did it work?” I ask.
Then the ingredients that she mixed together seem to catch fire, creating a layer of steam that becomes white light. The white light forms a seal, covering my bedroom window.
“Yep!” She says excitedly. “Thank you for your help!”
“All I did was hold the book…” I say, but that’s not my main concern. “So what did that spell do anyway?”
“Like I said, it’s a simple protection spell,” she says.
Below us, I see a family heading to their car, probably ready for vacation from the looks of it.
“Right,” I say simply. “But you still haven’t told me what that means.”
“A protection spell can ward against diseases and insects, if they happen to flow in from outside,” she says. “Basically, nothing can enter your apartment through that window.”
I feel myself fuming. How could she neglect to give me that information?
“I already put a protection spell on your living room window. And I’m not even going to charge you for the ingredients!” She continues.
“How could you do that?” I ask, raising my voice a bit more than I’d like.
“Do what?” She’s still playing coy. “Protect your apartment, with everything that’s going on in this town right now?”
“You know what. Not only did you withhold why you were casting that spell, you made me part of it too. And that’s unacceptable.”
I turn my back on her, ready to head into my apartment in a rage.
“I’m sorry, Quinn!” She yells after me. “I’m just really worried about you.”
“If you’re that concerned about me,” I respond.“You’ll remove the wards.”
She shakes her head.
“That doesn’t track.”
“You know how important this guy is to me,” I say. “So if you’re concerned about me, worry about what makes me happy. Don’t try to keep me safe against my will.”
“I’m sorry Quinn,” she fires back. “Removing a ward is a lot more complicated than placing it, and I’m not even sure how to do that. I mean, the spell components alone…”
