“Okay, pretty girl, don’t explain how you got to your epiphany. Just tell us your idea,” Felix encourages, hover-sitting on the table next to me with hope in his gaze.
“So there are two kinds of magic… well, it’s all one magic, sort of,” I begin, tucking my cold feet underneath me.
“Callie,” Donovan groans in his ‘get to the point’ tone and walks over to lean against the kitchenette counter, bracing his hands on either side of him.
“Sorry, you can’t rush this one,” I insist with pursed lips. “If I don’t explain it, then all of you won’t be able to tell me if it’ll work or not. I’m sure the spell will work, but if my understanding of how magic functions in the living versus the dead is wrong, then my plan is moot.”
“And this led you to asking about undead vampires?” Nolan questions with a hint of an edge, since this is always a touchy subject for him.
“Vampires are the only beings I know that require life sustaining magic outside of themselves,” I explain, hoping I’m wording this in a way that makes sense. “The reason undead vampires can continue to live for eternity is because vampires have the ability to obtain this magic from others.”
“Yes. That’s why vampires are ideal hosts for demons,” he replies quietly, his gaze meeting Donovan’s before skittering away to the safer location of the table.
“Yes, well,” I murmur, then close my eyes on a silent groan for using one of my… grandmother’s verbal tics for uncomfortable conversations. My chest grows tight thinking of her. Clearing my throat, I continue, “Unlike vampires, humans can’t gain that magic outside of themselves, but they normally don’t need to because it’s already inside them… except when they’re dead.”
“Magic is in their blood, but if a human is dead, there’s no circulating blood. The body no longer holds magic,” Kaleb comments, sitting down next to me, his eyes bright as he starts to see how the puzzle pieces are fitting together.
I nod as a grin spreads across my face. With Kaleb’s affirmation, it means I’m on the right track. “A body needs more than a soul to function. We’re all born with a little tea in us.”
“Tea?” Felix echoes, his features crowding together as he does his best to riddle out what the hell I’m talking about.
“Sorry,” I mumble, searching for words that don’t require the ‘magic is tea’ demonstration. “Source magic, er… like the gift of life. The spark that gets the body started and functioning.”
“That makes sense,” Kaleb comments, rapping out a beat with his fingers against the table.
“It does?” Felix squawks, his gaze bouncing to the others to try and see if he’s the only one who doesn’t understand.
“Don’t look at me,” Nolan mutters with a shrug. “Magic and I have a complicated relationship. I generally try to stick to what I need to know to survive.”
“The body and soul are two separate entities that require each other to survive in the mortal realm,” Kaleb explains, holding up each of his hands then pressing them together to illustrate the bond of soul and body. “What Callie has surmised is that the body,” he shakes his right hand, “also contains some magic of its own that is necessary to keep the body functioning. Something separate from the magic of a spirit.” He shakes his left hand.
“And that’s this source magic?” Felix asks slowly.
“Yes… sort of,” I answer, which earns me a squinty eyed, ‘that’s not helping’ look from Felix.
Fuck it. To the tea analogy.
I take the next few minutes to explain how the source of all magic is tea in a giant universal teacup and how our souls are like sugar cubes, and that everyone is connected in varying degrees to the tea, but me, as an uber powerful spirit witch, lives in the damn tea.
“So what you’re saying is that when we die, we lose our connection to the life giving teacup, and we’re just isolated sugar cubes until we move on?” Felix concludes, his pitch trailing up at the end.
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying,” I agree, leaning back in my chair with a pleased sigh.
“Great, so what does this have to do with your plan to bring Felix back?” Donovan questions, lifting himself up onto the counter.
“It’s not enough to just put a soul into an unoccupied dead body,” I clarify, tugging out my hair tie and wincing as it takes several strands of hair with it. “The body needs to be reconnected to the teacup. Without it, the body will use the soul as a magic source to stay alive, eventually corrupting or extinguishing the soul in the process.”
“Okay, so how do we connect my new body back to the teacup?” Felix asks, finally getting to the part of the plan I figured out on the balcony.
Donovan shakes his head and laughs. “You need a little spirit witch pixie dust.”
“Exactly!” I cheer, clapping my hands together.
Nolan fists his hands into his hair, tugging the ends into wild spikes. “Want to explain to the rest of the class? I thought our analogy was tea and sugar cubes.”
All of us startle when Connor starts talking from his perch on the arm of the couch. “When she resurrects Felix, she plans to leave a part of herself behind as a source of magic for the body to use.”
“Fuck, man. Make some noise,” Nolan gasps, placing a hand to his chest.
