My smile falls when I recall that I didn’t pass, and the brothers seem to notice as well. Shugo gives Kenta a pointed look, and he appears genuinely contrite for bringing it up.
“Well, welcome!” Auntie says. “Loxley and I will be happy to help you move in. Boysen House witches gotta stick together, right?”
Shugo nods and says, “We’re mostly good for now. Later on, if we could group-conjure some furniture, that would be great.”
“Yeah. Our room is down here, right?” Kenta asks. Auntie nods, and Kenta promptly picks up several pieces of luggage andwalks past me down to the previously unoccupied room. Now two people will be sleeping there, I guess.
Meanwhile, Shugo scrutinizes the parchment on the floor. “Huh. Do you always use magic dampening runes on the floor?”
My eyes widen, and Auntie looks between us. “Um, well…it’s based on new developments. We don’t want magic to get too uncontrolled, right?”
“Huh.” Shugo seems none the wiser as he stands up. “I trust we’ll be getting rid of that later when we magically conjure the rest of our furniture, correct?”
Auntie glances at me and lets out an uncomfortable laugh. “Of course, Shugo.” In moments, the dude is gone, presumably to get more things out of the car, and I glower at my aunt. “What?”
I bend down to roll up the parchment, and Auntie joins me. “This was for your benefit,” she remarks.
“You…should have told me.”
“You were going through a lot! You still are. I didn’t want the voices to hurt your empath ears.”
“So what, now I just…” The frustration chokes up my voice as I roll up the giant parchment. “Never use magic again?” When I notice more copies trailing to the living room, I make quick work of picking them up.
“I never said that, honey. But let’s focus on the positive: you found your witch role, that’s great!”
I glower at her again and hand her two more giant rolled-up rune parchments. She smiles and continues, “Now we just need to hone your abilities, Loxley. And we need to do it in a safe way.”
When I’ve cleaned the living room of magic-dampening runes, I study my aunt with my arms crossed. I feel like a teenager grounded for no reason. Her expression goes from embarrassed to something softer. “Loxley, you have no ideawhat it was like the other day. You were in so much pain, a sleep spell was all I could do.”
She steps forward, and my face relaxes. She puts her hand on my shoulder and continues, “It hurt me so much to see you in agony. I never want that again. You’re my family, and I love you.”
She gives me the briefest hug, and I step back. It’s the moment of truth, literally. Closing my eyes, I focus on relaxing the magic within me. I hear distant echoes, auras from around the city. When I think of Auntie, three feet in front of me, I try to visualize her face and her voice.
Opening my eyes, I notice flecks of magic emanating from her body, like a trippy old-timey screensaver. She studies me, but I try to hear what she’s not saying.
“Worry. I worry about you,” her aura seems to say. “You have so much potential power, but I never want you to get hurt.”
When the sounds of others begin to crowd my ears, I shut my eyes and shake my head. After taking another deep breath, I open my eyes to visualize the living room back to normal.
“Loxley?” Auntie asks, hesitantly. “Did you…use your empath powers?”
I give her a shrug, moving both hands, expressing, “maybe, maybe not.” While I did tap into my abilities, I doubt I have control over them. Now is not the time to celebrate any witchy wins.
“Hey, everyone.” We’re broken out of our serious conversation by a smiling Shugo. “When can we start conjuring our beds as a group?”
Auntie shoots me a soft smile, and it’s off to the brothers’ bedroom we go.
That night, we conjure dinner together as a coven like we do most nights. It requires less effort on our part now that we havesix witches living under the same roof. Shugo and Kenta both seem super chill. They’re friendly, and with them around, I don’t need to talk as much. I get queer vibes from Shugo, but Kenta only seems to have eyes for Taina. As we eat, I silently wish them the best of luck on whatever their relationship turns out to be.
After supper, Auntie asks me to assist Shugo with putting protection runes around the house. They both claim they’re not magic dampeners, so I agree to the task. For one thing, I want to know all the runes that are to be placed around Boysen House. More than that, I simply want to stretch my legs and walk around. I’ve been on magical house arrest, after all.
It’s almost sundown, so I shine my flashlight on the lawn as Shugo places small rocks with etchings in distinct locations. Crouched down, Shugo looks up to me. “You should know, Loxley, that I’m not here to dampen anyone’s magic.”
“Okay,” I reply, unsure of where this is going.
“Magic dampener runes only work in a limited capacity anyway.” He stands up and dusts off his knees. “Your aunt’s little paint job there this morning wasn’t exactly the best at dampening.”
I give him a perplexed look, and he gazes out at the suburban street. “I know what it’s like to not be in control of my powers. Fortunately, my focus is on runes as a protection witch.”
