Heirloom Magic (Paranormal)

Chapter Five

The more Harper read, the more surreal everything got. The spell book was old and worn, with authentic leather bindings that seemed to suggest it was from a bygone era. Harper traced her finger across the thick parchment pages and squinted—despite the potion, she was starting to get a bit of a headache—though it had nothing to do with the concussion. All of the spells were in Latin. Of course, it could never be as simple as bippity, boppity, boo.

Harper pulled out her phone and downloaded a translation app. The first spell in the book that she flipped to was for...boiling water. Harper thought about Jasper's taunt and snorted. Unbelievable. "I guess we will see, won't we?" she muttered as she quickly filled a pot of water before she could lose her nerve. She set the pot on the stove element, just to be safe, then she nervously chewed her lip as she examined the spell:

et vapor sizzle, turbent ut aqua, his ulcus magicae potionem.

Harper tapped the foreign words into her new app and grinned. Great, magical spells rhymed, apparently. Steam to sizzle, water roil, magic makes the potion boil. Harper read the translation out loud in English and as the last word left her mouth, she felt a jolt of power ripple through her body that made her feel more alive than she'd ever felt before.

The pot on the stove hissed to life, the water instantly boiling out of control. Harper jumped back to avoid being hit by the spitting, angry drops of hot water, but a large drop landed on her arm anyway, forcing a small cry of pain from her lips. Harper turned to the pot, puzzled. She was far enough back that it was impossible for the water to reach her. Unless... she heard an angry hiss to her left and turned to find that the bouquets of flowers that had been delivered after her gran's funeral were also boiling out of control. The flowers, six vases in all, were limp and wilted as the water continued to scorch them mercilessly. Even the sink was steaming as the stray beads of water clinging to the stainless steel began to heat up and evaporate.

"No!" Harper cried as the flowers lit on fire and became six separate, small infernos. Harper raced to the sink as the fire alarm started going off. She turned on the faucet, but as soon as the water came out it was influenced by her magic and evaporated into steam. Sweat began to pop out on Harper's body and began to sizzle and heat up as well.

"Oh my God!" Harper shouted, having no idea what to do. She'd only just inherited this house and now she was going to burn it to the ground and herself along with it.

"God isn't the one here with a fire extinguisher..." his words startled Harper, and she turned to find Jasper standing in the doorway of the kitchen with a perplexed look on his face. "...So I told you that you weren't ready to boil water, and it's the first thing you decided to try?" he asked with a quirk of his dark brow. Harper wanted to smack him, but her entire body was heating up the more she sweated and the fire was starting to spread from the flowers to the countertop. She released a deep breath, trying to calm herself enough to quit sweating so profusely—it didn't work.

"Can you help me or not?" she demanded as her shirt started to smoke, and Jasper nodded, suddenly serious. He produced a fire extinguisher from behind his back and set to work putting all the fires out. It only took him a minute as he moved through each one like a terminator, and then the flowers were extinguished and he was standing in front of Harper with the nozzle pointed in her direction.

"You look a little hot—do I need to spray you down too?" he asked, only half joking. His expression turned serious as he took in the tiny burn marks all over her body and the smoke roiling from beneath her t-shirt. She was about to go up in flames any minute!