1.

We stood there for a long time, just staring at one another. Lucian with that smile of his and me with a very concerned look on my face. Or, well, what I assumed was a concerned look on my face. I couldn’t really see it. Either way, the two of us were staring at one another and it was disturbingly like one of those cliffhanger endings from anime where the protagonist and antagonist stare at one another.

I decided to break the silence. “What do you want?” I asked.

He didn’t answer right away, instead he just took a step closer to me.

I backed away. I wasn’t incapable of fighting, but even as a guy, I’d sorta been more of a runner. “Stay back,” I said, “I’m not very good at it, but I do know how to do some spells.” It was a lie, but he couldn’t possibly know that. Then again, he knew I was a sorceress.

“Your spells are exactly why I followed you. I’ve seen you around school for awhile now, and when I finally saw you today, in all your beauty as opposed to the guy you used to be, I knew now was the time.”

For awhile now? This guy’s known about me being a sorceress since before I knew I was a sorceress? “Time for what?” I asked.

He took another step closer, but I couldn’t move this time. I didn’t know what was keeping me trapped there, but it was almost like my feet were made of cement. “I have a little family problem that I’d like you to help me deal with. You see, my father’s incarcerated, and I’d like him out.”

I laughed. “You want me to use magical power to break somebody out of jail? Can’t you just hire some people to do that?”

He shook his head. “Not this prison. Not ordinary people. No, it may not surprise you to learn that there are magic prisons, used for only the most dangerous of people. One of them is my father, and only someone as powerful as you can help me.”

“And why should I?”

He put a hand on my shoulder and suddenly I felt insanely cold, almost ice cold. “Do you know how this world would react, Kendra - Kenneth - if they found out about people like you or I? People of magic? People like Mikaela? You’ve seen movies, societies rise against people they’re afraid of.” He took his hand off me and I felt the warmth return to my body. “Consider the idea of society rising against you as incentive to consider my offer.” He walked past me. “Have a good day, dear Kendra. I’ll speak with you tomorrow.”

I could finally move again, but I didn’t for a moment. I still felt somewhat cold, and that feeling didn’t want to go away. What the fuck did I just get myself into?

2.

“What’s up, baby?” Mom asked as I walked in the door. “You and Gabby didn’t break up, did you?”

“What? No, Mom, we’re fine. What?” was the best I could get out. I was still too freaked out by Lucian and his ultimatum. I couldn’t think straight and I still felt freezing cold. I was beginning to regret shorts and a cami top as wardrobe choices. Then again, outside it was like almost a hundred degrees. I was only cold because of that bastard Lucian.

I walked down the hall into my room and locked the door. I wanted to be alone, so that I could think. I set my bookbag down on the floor beside my desk and crashed on my bed. So now I was being threatened with the whole world knowing who and what I am if I didn’t break this dickhead’s dad out of jail.

I wondered why he’d target me specifically. He was clearly magic, and knew exactly what he wanted, why have me do it? And why couldn’t he go for some other magic person out there who would be more than willing to jump at the chance to break into a jail? There had to be a criminal out there who happened to have magic power.

I sat up and pulled myself against the wall. I couldn't think now. I needed to do something, talk to someone. Locking myself in my room was the wrong idea. I didn't even know who to talk to.

I grabbed my phone and texted Amy, Is that sorceress of yours busy?

Five minutes later, I received a reply of, She's on her way.

3.

The place I was asked to meet at was a little coffee house with exterior tables. Ms. Malski was sitting at a table already sipping from a cup of coffee. Nobody else was with her, but I didn’t feel any sort of anxiety. Almost completely the opposite of the meeting with Lucian.

I sat down across from her at the table and was given a cup of black coffee as a server walked past. “I hope you don't mind, I ordered for you while I was waiting,” Ms. Malski said.

I shook my head. “No problem.” I took a drink. “What did Amy tell you?”

She pulled out a small book and slid it across the table to me. “I can't say I’ve come across many magical beings in my lifetime, but my mother did. She left me this book. I don't know if this Lucian you met will be in it, though.”

I opened the book and found dozens of pictures of people with newspaper clippings beside them. Some had notes scrawled on them, like one of Marilyn Monroe with “Succubus?” or Ronald Reagan with a pair of devil horns drawn on his head (that one may just have been a joke). I went through page after page and didn't find anyone resembling Lucian. I did find a picture of that guy at the lake party doing the poker game Mikaela lost her clothes at.

“I just saw that guy yesterday,” I said, pointing to his picture. The newspaper clipping was dated August 19th, 1938.

“Loki. One of the few I have had the pleasure of meeting. He's not so bad after you get past the tricks, but his brother is an absolute horndog.”

I looked up from the book. “Thor?! Like, the Norse God, Thor?”

She sighed. “He’s less a God and more an animal when his pants are down. Not one of my interesting boyfriends, that much I’ll say.” She took another sip. “Is he in there?”

I shook my head. “Not from what I can see.” I slid the book back across to her. “If I describe how he made me feel, will that narrow it down?”

She shook her head. “Not really. Most of my mother’s notes weren’t actually meeting the people, but more by reputation.” She slipped the book back into her purse. “What was his demand, exactly?”

I slumped down in my chair. “He wants me to free his father from a magic jail.”

“And that’s all he told you?”

I nodded. “That’s it. His father’s in some sort of magic jail that somehow he can’t free him from and he needs me to do it.” I took a sip from my cup. “And seeing as I don’t know how to do any actual spells that aren’t me creating an accidental persona, I don’t see that happening, and then I’m a very public sorceress.”

She tilted her cup toward me. “That you don’t have to worry about. I can put in a call to Loki and get him to fudge with reality a little. It’s not like it’s the first time he’s done it and ordinary people are none the wiser.”

That eased my mind a little, but if that guy knew about me, he had to know about somebody who could warp the fabric of reality. He probably had a contingency plan specifically for Norse Gods.

I pulled myself up and sat straight. “What about… Spells? That kind of thing? Shouldn’t I know some? Like maybe how to kick this guy’s ass the next time I see him?”

Ms. Malski nodded. “I knew that would come up, and took the liberty of having Dean deliver a sort of starter kit that I found among my mother’s things recently. Dean’s been progressing nicely herself, so I decided to hold onto it in case Amanda or Melanie developed any sort of prowess. It’ll be at your house when you return.”

“What exactly comes in it?”

“Spells, ingredients for potion mixing, honestly you can find a lot of information if you just read a Harry Potter book. JK Rowling must have been a sorceress herself.” She took a sip of her coffee. “It shouldn’t take you too long to acclimated to the process. I learned it on my own, since my mother died shortly after I was born, and I’ve been doing well. Dean’s come along quite well, though she’s not a sorceress.”

“Wait, she’s not? But you sent her to help me that day.”

She nodded. “I did. I should correct my statement, Dean’s not yet a sorceress.” She snapped her fingers and suddenly we were in a classroom, me behind a desk and her at the chalkboard. I was damned certain I wanted to practice this one first. She drew male and female restroom symbols and wrote Dean’s name down under both of them. “Much like you, Dean was born male but with a vast amount of sorceress power within her. It’s possible that something similar to you would have happened to her, but it’s also possible that her power would have simply remained within her body and never left the magical plane.”

“Magical plane?”

She drew four lines on the side of the board. “There are a few of them, and I don’t know all of them. One is dedicated solely to sorceresses and sorcerers.” She turned back to me. “And yes, there is a distinction between sorceress and sorcerer magic, that’s why you couldn’t just remain male and be a sorcerer.” She turned back to the board. “One is for succubi, and one is for magical girls.”

I raised my hand like this was a real classroom. “Can I get some clarification on the succubi/magical girl thing? Apparently they nearly trashed my school last year.”

She shook her head. “All I know is from my mother’s book, and she only knew one magical girl. Now, there’s a difference between all this magic, one main difference is where the magic is stored.” She drew a circle around the female restroom symbol. “Though there is a magical plane dedicated to sorceresses, our power is stored in our bodies. This is what causes us to be infertile, because our bodies can handle the strain of the magic, but it still causes damage.”

“What happens to sorcerers?”

“Sorcerers suffer much the same fate, they become sterile.” She pointed to the magical girl line. “Magical girls don’t actually connect to their magic, and it’s far more limited than ours. Their magic is pretty much cemented on fighting the succubi.” She pointed to the succubi line. “That leads us to the succubi, who somewhat store their magic in their bodies, but as succubi have no physical bodies and need to take hosts, they suffer no ill effects. Their magic is also concentrated almost completely on sex.”

I stood up and walked over to the chalkboard. “Okay, so back to Dean, how is she a sorceress now when her body is still technically male?”

“I was just getting to that. It’s her magical aura.”

“Aura?”

“Yes. Every magical being has an aura. This aura is connected to our magic, and also to our gender. Someone with a male aura, for instance, can’t use sorceress or magical girl magic.” She drew a line going from Dean under the male symbol and Dean under the female symbol. “When Dean confronted herself about what she wanted, her aura changed to female, even though her body didn’t.”

“So the aura isn’t tied to the gender so much as it has its own and the magic is tied to that?”

“That’s a way of looking at it, yes.” She erased the board. “Now, did any of this help you figure out what this Lucian might be?”

I sighed. “I dunno. He doesn’t just seem to be a sorcerer, or like his aura is out of sync with his gender. He just makes me feel cold around him.”

Ms. Malski snapped her fingers and brought us back to the coffee house. “Well, hopefully that little crash course gets you closer to understanding how to use your own magic power when the time comes.”

I stood up. “Honestly, I’m hoping the time never comes.”

She nodded. “I understand, but if Lucian is serious about his threat, you may have to do something about him sooner rather than later.”

I took one last gulp of the (surprisingly) still hot coffee. “I know.”

4.

It was dark by the time I got home. I collapsed on the couch next to Mom for some crappy reality TV (The Voice or something, I wasn't paying attention). She microwaved a bowl of popcorn and we mowed down on that through another hour of something.

I finally got up and went to my room to sleep at 11:40, finding probably a dozen messages from Gabby on my phone. That magic starter kit Ms. Malski mentioned was sitting on my desk. It was a cardboard box with some spell books and a smaller box of potion ingredients inside it. I took out one of the spell books.

I flipped to a random page and picked out what looked like the easiest spell to pronounce. “Alakatha… Alakathabaventu…” Okay, easiest was the wrong thing to say. I closed the book and set it down on my desk only to turn around and find a blow up clown behind me. Something told me I was saying it all wrong.

I deflated the clown, stuffed it in my closet and changed into a nightie. I was barely awake and super distracted, I shouldn't be trying magic in this state.

I crawled into my bed, pulled the covers over me and felt the comforting embrace of sleep take hold of me. Hopefully I’d wake up tomorrow and find Lucian was just a bad dream.

5.

A hand pulled my blanket off of me. I nearly wet the bed when I saw Lucian standing over me. He pulled me out of bed and threw me at my desk. “Trying to get help, Kenneth?” he asked. “Wrong idea!”

Flames kicked up around him, burning the posters on my wall and going straight through to the wallpaper. The flames split my bed in two, and then came together into his hand, forming what looked like a fire whip. “Now, young lady, get ready for your lashes.”

“Get the fuck away from me!” I shouted.

“I warned you, Kenneth.” He flicked the whip against the wall, tearing a hole in the room. I didn't see the hallway outside, just a blinding white light. “I warned you, and now this is going to cost you.” He flicked the whip out again, this time wrapping it around my wrist. “You’ll learn and then you’ll do what I want.”

I spat at him. “Go fuck yourself.”

He was on me in a second, his hand around my neck. He… Was trying to kiss me?! He brought his lips to mine and pressed them against me. I kept my mouth shut so as not to accidentally invite his tongue inside, but he tried to force his way in anyway.

I tried to knee him anywhere, but I couldn't get a good angle. I tried to bring my free hand up and punch him, but he grabbed it and forced it down. What the hell was his aim here? Did he want to kill me or fuck me?!

I tried my hardest to concentrate, to push him off of me, but it wasn't working. I could barely move, could barely breathe thanks to the hand around my neck. I was starting to lose consciousness.

That was when I started to feel something. Something welling up inside me. I balled my hands into fists and felt the whip around my wrist start to melt away. He moved his hands away from me then backed away. I wanted to rip his face off now that my hands were free.

That was when I realized I didn't need to. I was pushing him away without touching him. His face was twisted in pain and his eyes were red as dried blood. He tried his best to snarl at me, but he couldn't. Instead, he just turned into some sort of winged creature and zipped out the window. I heard him screaming the whole time.

I let my arms drop to my sides and collapsed onto the floor. Whatever I’d just done exhausted me. I crawled along the floor and pulled myself back into my bed. At about that time, the room started to morph, to return to normal. I was back under my blanket and the world was right again.

Had that whole thing happened in my mind?

As if to prove it to me, Mom opened the door and said, “Sweetie, keep it down, I’ve got work in the morning.”