No, I guess we should keep this predicament to ourselves, for now, Peter finally agreed, managing to convey his grouchiness even when speaking in my head.
“I’m feeling a little bit unwell,” Nic said.
“I’ll get him a glass of water,” Peter muttered and left the room.
“I’m so sorry I roped you into this. It’s all my fault,” I said as I continued rubbing Nic’s back while we waited for Peter to return.
“Did you manage to see anything?” he asked, and I shook my head.
“All I saw was darkness. No visions of the past.”
“Me, too. I wonder what went wrong.”
“I have no idea, but when it comes to magic, I’m cursed. I shouldn’t be let anywhere near a spellbook, to be perfectly honest.”
Before Nic could reply, Peter re-entered the room with a glass of water and a spellbook tucked under his arm. He handed the water to Nic before sitting down and opening the book.
We sat in silence while he scanned a page, and I noticed it was the same book I’d taken the spell from.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Peter said.
“What doesn’t?”
“We cast the spell exactly as the instructions show. There’s no reason why it should’ve failed.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Nic added. “I triple-checked the ingredients and everything.”
“I told you. It’s just me. Magic doesn’t like me.”
“Magic doesn’t discriminate, Darya,” Peter said. “Something’s amiss here, and I won’t rest until I figure it out.”
“I need to go,” Nic said, still looking worse for wear. “My parents will be wondering where I am.”
“That makes two of us. I’ll drive you home,” I said before glancing at Peter. “Let me know if you find anything. I’ll do some digging in my mother’s library when I get home. She has an extensive collection of spellbooks.”
“Okay,” Peter replied, then came to help me with Nic. Guilt nipped at me as we guided him outside and into the passenger seat of my car. Peter shot me a worried look as I drove away, but I didn’t hear his voice in my head again. He must’ve been freaked out by it and making a concerted effort to be silent.
I dropped Nic off at this house, though he refused to let me help him inside. I suspected he was a little embarrassed that the spell had taken so much out of him. When I reached my own house, it was past midnight. I didn’t have a curfew, and my family operated on a semi-nocturnal schedule. We tended to go to bed just before dawn and wake a little before midday.
Nobody was around, so I went straight to the study to dive into Mum’s spellbooks. I was going to figure out what on earth had gone awry and why a clairvoyance spell had somehow resulted in telepathy instead.
I’d been buried in spellbooks for well over an hour when Peter’s voice shocked me out of my reading.
Have you found anything yet?
It was incredibly jarring that he was talking to me using only the power of his mind. Our houses were on opposite sides of the city, miles and miles apart, and yet I’d heard him clear as day. Now that there was some space between us, and I’d had some time to process everything, I was even more stressed about the whole thing.
Darya? Can you hear me?
Okay, quit panicking and answer him.
Yes, I can hear you. And no, I haven’t found an answer to whatever mistake I made tonight, but I won’t rest until I do. As though in protest, my body ached with exhaustion.
There was a momentary pause on his end before he replied,
You need to get some sleep. We’re both exhausted, and we aren’t going to find any answers without a clear head.
At this, I tensed.
How do you know I’m exhausted?
Well, I’m exhausted, so I just guessed that you might be, too.
Silence fell before I forced myself to ask my next question.
Peter …
What is it?
You can only hear my voice when I speak directly to you, right? You can’t hear my thoughts or anything, can you?
He didn’t answer right away. Then, finally, he said,
No, I can’t hear your thoughts. Why? Can you hear mine?
If I wasn’t mistaken, he sounded a little panicked by the idea, just as I had been.
No. I can only hear your voice when you speak directly to me.
Good.
I know, right? How awkward would that be?
Very awkward, Peter agreed, and then both of us fell quiet.
Well, I better go. I have a few things to do, but maybe we could keep researching tomorrow after class? I suggested.
Yes, good idea. Meet me in the reading tower at the south end of the library at eight.
Okay, see you then.
Goodnight, Darya.
‘Night, Peter.
I closed over the book I’d been reading and set my mother’s library back to rights. Then I fought my tiredness as I threw on a coat and headed out. I still wanted to spend a little while scoping out Angela’s neighbourhood before I went to bed. I bumped into two of the vampires who worked for my father when I got there, and they assured me nothing suspicious had happened during their watch. I thanked them for letting me know before continuing my walk around the area.