Cursed (Book # 3 of Hunted)

Mordecai Weatherstone

I grabbed a mug of tea and climbed stealthily onto her bed. I held the mug under her nose so that the fragrant steam wafted towards her angrily flaring nostrils. Her eyes opened, first the left then the right and she sighed raising her hands to pluck the buds from her ears. I could hear the voice of some gimmicky guru whispering affirmations.

Phoebe took the mug in both hands and breathed deeply closing her eyes once more. I got off her bed and went to retrieve my own mug. I had had a pretty rough day too after all. I took a sip, feeling the floating lavender buds kiss my lips and I relished the warmth. I set the napkin full of dark chocolate on the neatly made comforter and took a seat along the edge of the bed.

Phoebe grabbed a piece and nibbled the corner before taking a long drink of tea. I took a piece myself and we snacked for several minutes in silence. Finally, she took a deep breath and calmly said, "His name is Mordecai." More silence. Silence. Silence. SILENCE!

"And he is the most irritating, arrogant, know-it-all in the history of forever!" BOOM. She slammed her half empty mug on the nightstand and jumped off the bed disrupting the few remaining pieces of chocolate.

"My name is Mordecai Weatherstone. You know like the Derbyshire Weatherstones," she said mockingly, her voice a whiny drone. She gasped and continued, "What? You've never heard of the Derbyshire Weatherstones? What kind of witch hasn't heard of the Derbyshire Weatherstones? Our family line only dates back to the tenth century. Honestly what are people teaching their children these days?" She made a very unpleasant face, "Oh your parents aren't witches? Well, that explains it. No wonder your casting is so rough. I could perform a basic levitation charm by the time I was four and you're still mixing up the position of your thumb and middle finger. Here, would you like me to show you how to do it properly? Ugh!"

She flopped back onto her bed, and I hastily scooped up the remaining chocolate before she could crush it. She thrashed about and yelled, "I'll show you the proper position of my middle finger, you twit!" I stood up so I wouldn't spill my remaining tea.

She sprung up into a sitting position and exclaimed, "And he's in four out of five of my classes!" Phoebe's day ended at roughly the same time as mine, but her classes were over and hour and a half long. Students of the White Witch Program tended to be in their late teens. Some were even in their early twenties, so they were expected to be able to handle longer class periods.

"Oh Lori, what am I gonna do?" she howled grabbing her mug off the bedside table. I shrugged and replied, "I don't know, magic his mouth shut." She pursed her lips and said, "I may have tried something like that already. It didn't work. His personal wards are the shit." I frowned. So, there was indeed a way to protect oneself from physical magical attack. Good to know. I wondered if those without powers could place physical wards in addition to mental ones.

I smiled and said, "You could tell him to stop being such a show-off or your Hunter bestie will come and break all his fingers. Try casting then, huh?"

She grinned and said, "Yes! If he continues to be a douche, I will tell him that I have a bunch of third year Hunter friends who are just aching to test their abilities on someone." I nodded enthusiastically.

"So, how was your day?" she asked after several minutes of tea slurping. I shrugged and replied, "Oh, you know, pretty normal. I got homework in Hunter History and Financial Algebra. I was sexually assaulted by an Incubus in fourth period and Jiayen is in my Occult Texts class. I think he likes you."

She blinked at me several times before saying, "You were what by a what in fourth period?" I waved my hand through the air and said, "Brooke warned me that Professor Hardwicke liked to start off Intro to Creatures of Darkness with a bang, I just didn't think it would be literal."

"What?!" Phoebe shrieked nearly spitting out a mouthful of tea.

"Oh, not like that," I said, "He just sort of sucked out a little bit of my life force or something, but I'm fine really. It didn't even hurt." Actually, from what I could remember it had been quite pleasant. I felt an unexplainable heat fill my face and I looked away from her.

She shook her head and said, "Okay, you're going to have to explain from the beginning." And so I did, leaving not one detail out right up until we kissed. That part was still a sweet pink fog of blissful nothingness.