Part Three

Walking into her grandmothers shop she went straight to the message board. Any letters that her grandmother or she got were pinned up on here. Looking through her grandmothers pile she tried to find something from Lucas the head of the night world. If there was going to be anything about the wild power it was going to be from him. Reaching the bottom of the pile she saw one letter with a black Ilex on the front. This would probably be from Lucas… She was about to open it when her grandmother walked in.

“Kirsten what are you doing?” She asked.

“Oh just looking through the mail but there’s nothing here for me. Are you okay?” Kirsten walked over to her and removed her coat and then placed it on the coat rack. “Do you want some herbal tea?”

“Stop fussing over me! I’m fine! I will need you to look after the shop for a while. I’m going to see Lucas.” Her grandmother said as she looked through the account book. Her grandmother had owned a small herbal remedy store in a small side street. To humans it was just a new age store with a few herbs and gems but to witches and the rest of the night world this was the central point for any magic that needed to be done as her grandmother was the mother of all the witches. Humans always came in through the front doorway but night people came in through the back so that the person who was serving would know how to speak to them. She had only been here a week and yet Kirsten k new the ropes.

“But Lucas lives in Las Vegas!” Kirsten cried out. Her grandmother had been looking particularly weak lately so a long car ride wouldn’t be the best thing for her.

“I’m very aware of where Lucas lives but we need to discuss a few things.”

“Are you going to talk about the wild powers?” Her grandmother turned to her immediately and stared at her intently. She could feel her grandmother trying to probe her mind but she wouldn’t let her. Putting up walls and smoke so she couldn’t see anything she felt her grandmother pull back.

“What do you know about the wild powers?”

“Not a lot… I just heard there’s a big coup in the night world over them and that there’s going to be a battle that we’re trying to win.”

“It’s a lot more complicated than that. There’s so many under hand deals going on that we’ll never win. I’m telling you this now for your own safety, don’t get too involved with chatter over wild powers. Try and stay as oblivious to it all as you can. This is going to be a rough time in the night world and I don’t want you to get involved. Now I have to go see Lucas. Please look after the shop for me.” Her grandmother got her coat off the rack and walked out of the shop and onto the street where her chauffer was waiting. Kirsten waited for them to leave and then went back into the shop. If her grandmother didn’t want her to know about the wild power then it must be something very serious… which really just made it more appealing for her to find out what was going on. Going back to the letter pile she tried to find the letter she was about to open before her grandmother interrupted her. After searching for half hour she realised her grandmother had taken it away. How she had done it she had no idea but she had managed it.

Playing with gems and herbs had always been her favourite part of magic. She liked to feel the power beneath the pretty casing and then squeeze it in her palm until she could feel the power running through her veins. All afternoon she had been doing glamour magic, changing the colour of hair, making things float and basically just doing the things magicians usually did but in her heart she knew that wasn’t what real magic was. If she tried she was sure that she would be able to do something more powerful but she didn’t see the point if she had no reason for it. It was better to wait until the time was right and it was needed. The bell ringing above the door rang making her pay attention to what was going on in the back of the shop. Walking through the crimson beaded curtain she prepared herself for a complicated problem. Every time a night person came through they expected her to know everything about anything they wanted to buy. Unfortunately Kirsten was still only a maiden and really didn’t have an extensive knowledge on a lot.

“Merry meet!” Kirsten said cheerfully as she made it behind the counter. When she saw who was there her jaw nearly dropped. There he stood looking as bewildered as she did whilst he played with the small gems in the baskets. He looked at her for a moment and then dropped the gem he was holding.

“What?” He asked looking confused.

“Oh it’s the shops logo.” Kirsten said trying to cover up the fact that she had just said a witchy thing.

“Okay. I don’t actually know what I’m doing here but I saw the funny door and thought I would check it out. I didn’t know you worked here.”

“I just started.”

“So how did you like your first day at school?” Christian asked as he fiddled with the little worry dolls.

“It was okay I guess… was different from my last school.”

“You mean all the girls hate you at this school and they didn’t at the last?” Christian said smiling slightly. He bent down and looked in the glass cases that contained the special herbs whilst Kirsten just stood there trying to think of how to reply to that. How did everyone know?

“What do you mean?”

“I mean how every girl glares at you as you walk around the campus? Don’t think I don’t notice and it isn’t just you either. But I think they hate you the most.” Christian said grinning.

“And why would that be then? Please enlighten me.” Kirsten said smiling. She knew why Darla thought they hated her but it would be nice to see what a guy would say.

“It’s because you’re so beautiful. They feel threatened.” When he said that he wouldn’t meet her eyes, as if he was shy about saying it. If he wasn’t shy she sure as hell knew she was. She had never been able to take compliments very well.

“Look I had better go. I have homework to do…” Saying goodbye briefly Christian walked out leaving Kirsten alone. She was about to go into the shop front when she realised something. Why had Christian used the back door?