Artemis Pov
I sat down on the couch.
I was wearing my dress and sweater again. My skin felt so sensitive that I imagined I could feel dust particles drift through the air.
Orion poured himself a glass of 7up. "Do you want some soda?"
"Yeah," I said. "Thanks."
He poured some into a large cup and handed it to me. I took a long drink.
I could smell the soda, it smelled very sugary. I could smell Orion too, he smelled like freshly baked bread. It was weird that I hadn't noticed before.
"It's starting to sink in," Orion said.
"I'm not sure how to fully explain. It started a really long time ago. I'm not sure I can remember all the important things."
"Start with what happened recently, then." Orion sat down on the couch. He was staring at me with what looked like a combination of fascination and admiration.
"I rolled on my grandma's lawn and then tried to do magic on my own." I gave an empty laugh at the absurdity of it.
"Why?" Orion didn't laugh at all. He was completely serious.
"I just was trying to cheer myself up."
"This is really real... so you are magic, then?"
I nodded slowly. "I guess so."
"And how did you find out? Who told you?"
"Ruby and my other ghost friends," I answered. And I told him. Told him how I'd known ghosts for as long as I could remember, how Whisper would perch on the edge of my bed when I was small and tell me stories about knights and princesses while Dreamer danced around the room like a ballerina. I told him how Secret taught me how to sing like a lark and described how Ruby was always predicting bad stuff in the future.
All the while, Orion stared with curious eyes.
"Who knew about your friends?"
I shrugged. "My mother, my grandmother..." I stopped suddenly. My voice sounded shaky, even to myself, and I took a deep breath. "My ex-boyfriend John. You. Selinda."
"Did any of these people see the ghosts?"
I shook my head.
Orion turned towards the wall, frowning in concentration. "And you can't call them?"
I shook my head again. "They find me when they want to, that's the way it's always been. Right now, that's the problem. I don't know how to control my magic."
"There isn't anywhere you can go to find out?"
"No," I said. "I already told you no. The river was the only place, and I was there all night."
"What are all your abilities?"
"I don't know," I said, thinking of Jay. That was definitely something I didn't really want to talk about right now. My head hurt enough already.
"Can you cast any spells?"
"I guess so but I don't really know how. I don't really know anything at the moment."
"Come to my room. Let's search online."
We went into Orion's room, and he flicked on his computer.
I flopped onto the tangled mess of his bed, stomach down.
Orion opened a web browser and started typing.
"Okay. Witches. Let's see. Hmmm. Porn names, don't go there."
