Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
I’m the catalyst, but for what?
A war between good and evil seems too obvious as well. I set the books I’m reading aside, craving a sampling of a different flavor, a new direction to find answers. I stand and rift toward the bottom level of the library, and when rows of books are before me, I do not know how to choose, so I request aid. “House,” I say softly. “Please choose the book I need to see most urgently.” I hold out my hand, and a book appears.
Anxious to see what it might be showing me, I settle into a chair and start reading. The book is not what I expected but rather a spellbook. Apparently, the house is in conflict with Micah, and it believes me working on my magic is more important than me gaining knowledge, though one could argue the two things align, I suppose.
I open the book and scan several paragraphs of the introduction and pause on a line: Inherently, magic can be jumpstarted and fully realized with a spellcasting. I quickly search the book for more details, which include discovery spells considered to be awakening spells as well.
Excitement rises inside me. After my first attempt at spellcasting, I suspect Micah isn’t eager to empower me in that manner, but here I am, talking to the house, and the house is answering me through a book.
Abilities the text claims I might inherently possess include everything from turning water into fire to extracting my familiar and using her as a weapon, and everything in between. Apparently, to wield fire, one must first learn to create it from water. My grandfather would have said there was a snowball’s chance in hell that would happen, considering water extinguishes fire, and the premise of wielding fire sounds like an accident waiting to happen. How do you stop yourself from burning down buildings?
And while I can see the value of using my familiar as a living, breathing killing machine, I’ve only just met her, and I’d prefer to keep her tucked safely inside me. My lips curve as I think “her.” I know my wolf is female, and I think she needs a name. Sara, I think. I love the name Sara and even had an imaginary friend named Sara growing up. Only she wasn’t imaginary at all, I realize now. I’d seen her as a princess, but she’d been my wolf. Maybe that’s how Sara was trying to wake me up. I close my eyes and reach for my familiar, stunned when I feel her shift inside me, feel her joy. She is pleased I remember my friend of the past. Now, I’m smiling as I whisper in my mind, Sara, and somehow, someway, I know this pleases her. It tells her I now know she was always with me.
My eyes pop open, and I try to remember when I stopped feeling her with me as a child. When the serpent found its way inside me, I think bitterly. It all makes sense now. Jeremy needed to control me, ensure I never grew strong enough to fulfill the prophecy by killing him instead of joining him. And he started young. There must have been a reason he couldn’t kill me or fully possess me before my coming of age. I’m about to ask the house for a book on demon-human servants when I determine I shouldn’t need the house for such a thing. If I can order myself food and rift, I can spellcast a book choice. I wish for what I want, and it appears in my hand. Pleased with myself, I decide food is a good idea as well, and I spellcast a slice of banana bread and a Starbucks non-fat white mocha in a mug, the perfect treat for a lazy day of reading.
After a good bit of reading up on the history of the Eagles, I return to the spellcast book, and the pages flip for me, a rapid turn until they open the spell to create fire once again. Is the house telling me I can wield fire? Several books fall off the shelves, as if to answer my question. Okay. I think that’s a yes. “Yes?” I call out to the house. The books return to their locations on the shelf, as if my understanding has made things right again in the world—this world, at least—or at least a few bookshelves.
I sigh. Seems I’m going to try to create fire. And if I’m really going to do this, I think I should protect the house so kindly helping me figure things out, and Micah with it, which lends to another question. Can Nephilim die in fire? A book appears on the table next to me and opens to a page. I snatch it up and read a moment. The answer is maybe. We heal from most things, but if burned too severely, we might die. The list of ways to kill us includes decapitation, destruction of the heart, and loss of eighty percent of our blood—all of which work equally well on demons. I shut the book. Jeremy could easily do any of those nasty things to me in my present state of almost human. I need to flush his serpent out of me and burn the damn thing to ash.