That night had been many things, other than restful. When my alarm rang, telling me it was time to get up and start getting ready for work, I groaned and turned off the damned thing. All I wanted to do was stay under my blanket and hope that Manon would miraculously cancel my shift. The worst part of it was the fact that I could not tell if I was feeling like utter shit because of how useless the police had been, because I had almost killed two people, because Cain had gotten hurt by my antics (I was now starting to remember that he was limping all the way home), or because my own body hurt as if a bulldozer had run over it.

My phone rang again, informing me that it had been ten minutes since the time I should have gotten up. I turned the thing off again and grabbed a pillow to bury my head into.

I was surprised when my hand brushed against something cold.

I quickly turned on the lights, to find that my katana was laying next to me. I must have fallen asleep while holding it. Then I glanced at my body, only to realize that I was still wearing clothes from yesterday.

With an annoyed groan, I got out of bed, and headed toward the bathroom. There was no way I was going to keep that grossness’ on me any longer than I already had. As I undressed, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. The massive bruise on my back did not explain the rest of the muscle pain, but I supposed running around with a sword, with my untrained body, was the culprit for that.

A warm shower made it better but didn’t make the soreness go away completely. By the time I was out, my alarm was ringing once again, telling me that it was half-past six, and that I should be out and about very soon.

As I entered the kitchen, Cain was sitting at the table, munching on some cereal. His expression was an unusual mixture of annoyance and disappointment, and something told me it wasn’t caused by the cereal he’d been eating. I wanted to thank him for his help yesterday, and apologize for stabbing him, but I couldn’t bring myself to say those words out loud. I felt as if the second I’d say those words, reality would come crashing down on me, and I would be forced to face the consequences of my actions. And I wasn't ready to do that, partially because I felt as if my actions yesterday had not been entirely my own.

“I should accompany you today.” Cain spoke.

“Yes, I was thinking that too.” I replied.

That thought had in fact crossed my mind, even if it hadn’t been my top priority.

“But I doubt those guys will be coming back anytime soon.” I continued.

“Perhaps not. I also doubt there are more of them, as what happened yesterday seemed like a last-resort kind of team-up. But there might be other dangers out there.”

I nodded. I didn’t know what it was about this particular moment, but I had forgotten how much Cain didn’t sound like a child when said things like these.

“Then we should head out.” I said, and led by example as I packed my bad, and put my shoes on. “If we walk fast, we should get there on time.”

***

“Is that your cousin?” Etienne asked as he approached Cain as we arrived by the store.

“Yep.” I confirmed.

I had explained to Cain that that was the lie we’d be telling everyone today. He didn’t say anything, but his expression at the time said plenty about how he didn’t have a single ounce of faith in it.

“Hi little guy, my name is Etienne. What’s yours?” Etienne asked, as he kneeled over to meet Cain’s eye level.

Cain made such an expression of disgust, that Etienne almost leapt away from him, before giving me a questioning look.

I had to cover my mouth with a hand to prevent laughing in his face.

“That’s Cain, he’s 12 and not 5.” I said, still trying not to laugh.

“And fully capable of speaking for myself.” Cain added in a displeased tone.

“Of course you are little g-”

Etienne cut himself short when he saw the way Cain glared at him.

“So is his school closed or something?” Etienne asked, after regaining some composure.

“Yeah…” I replied dismissively, having not thought this all the way through. “Do you mind if I take the kitchen shift today? That way we can sneak him in through the backdoor, and he can stay there with me.”

“Yeah.” Etienne agreed. “But you’ll have to go upstairs if Lady Manon decided to bless us with her presence.”

“You never said you worked for royalty.” Cian interrupted.

“No, she’d not that kind of lady.” I replied.

“You might be a bit disappointed if you thought your cousin worked in a castle.” Etienne added.

To that, Cain didn’t say anything, and only looked at us with a slightly surprised expression. I wondered if he had through thought I held some kind of fancy position. But then I remembered that we should not be chatting outside like this, or we might get caught by our manager, again.

So, we put out plan into motion, and a few minutes later I was letting Cain into the kitchen.

He looked around with curiosity, examining the ovens, the massive freezers, and the semi-defrosted trays of pasties covered in plastic film.

“I was expecting worse.” He said.

“Were you actually expecting a castle?” Etienne asked as he joined us downstairs, carrying a foldable outdoors chair and table.

“No, I knew someone that weak would never work in a castle.” Cain replied.

Although his words were no doubt meant as sarcasm, he lacked that conviction that usually filled his voice when he said things like that.

“It’s alright, Laura doesn’t need a castle, when she has prince charming right here, next to her, to protect her.” Etienne spoke, as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder in a dramatic gesture.

That would have been a cute and romantic moment, if not for the fact that he was pressing against the bruise on my back, from that icicle guy from yesterday.

“And where might this prince charming be?” I joked as I pushed Etienne’s arm away, hoping to come off as playful rather than rude. “Don’t you have stuff to do upstairs? Go.” I said as I gestured with my hand.

“What, are you trying to deprive me of my only joy in life; eating stale pastries for breakfast?” Etienne replied as he put a hand over his heart, pretending to be offended.

I dismissed him with a smile, leaving him to his devices, as I proceeded to try and turn the oven on. After a few seconds of fidgeting with the plug, I gave up.

“Etienne?” I asked.

“At your service my princess.” He replied.

I blushed a little, happy at the fact that he was still playing into this make-belief scenario. I then stepped away from the oven, letting him work his magic.

Sparks flew from Etienne’s hand into the oven. As soon as he activated his skill, Cain had tried to move toward him, but I blocked him with an arm, not wanting him to get hurt by the miniature arc of electricity. The yellow light in the oven illuminated empty racks, as the appliance turned on with a gentle hum.

“Did I scare you?” Etienne turned towards Cain, having also noticed his movement.

“No.” Cain dryly replied. “I’m not scared by sparkles flying around.”

“Well in that case would you like to see something cool?” Etienne asked with a grin.

I rolled my eyes as I replied where this was going. I didn’t know what Etienne’s class was, but he had more than one party trick he liked to show his coworkers.

Cain looked up at me with a questioning expression. I saw no harm in this, so I nodded, first at Cain, in a reassuring way, then at Etienne, to encourage him to do his thing.

With a bright smile, Etienne drew a circle with his palms in the air. It didn’t make much sense from a physical point of view, but stings of lighting formed where his hands had been. Then, with another hand gesture, Etienne duplicated the circle twice, and moved it in a way where each circle was inside one another, at an angle. Small arcs of electricity travelled from one circle of energy to the next, creating a hollow sphere.

“Pretend to look impressed.” I whispered to Cain, who looked anything but.

“This truly is marvelous. How did you do it?” He said with a flat tone.

With another hand gesture, Etienne made the sphere disappear before saying:

“I’m working with a tough crowd, huh? Well, I’ll make sure to win you over with this next trick. Right after a mandatory ‘work at the counter’ break.”

“I was impressed.” I said, before jokingly adding, “The first three times you did it, that is.”

Because that was the truth. It took me a long while to stop being impressed and fascinated by people using their skills. Be it Etienne with his lightning powers, or a stranger on YouTube.

“Then I shall take my leave.” Etienne said with a dramatic arm gesture, like a magician closing the curtains while exiting the scene.

“Bye.” I waved with an amused smile before getting to work as well.