Magic Tricks 🔮 Book 2 || gxg

Person of Interest

Ever since that intentional visit to the astral plane, Ada found herself there more often than not when she went to sleep. Within days, her mana was restored to near full and her streak of misfortune came to a gradual end. Ada had a menage of bumps and bruises thanks to her clumsiness, as well as a new web of cracks across her phone's screen. So yeah, that was awesome.

Still, it was worth it to deal with a downswing in her luck. She took extra precautions throughout the day to avoid any catastrophic mishaps. She came close a couple of times.

Monster truck returned to the shop with a bent axle. How buddy managed that, she had no idea. As soon as she saw the fake bullet hole stickers on the side of the sleek paint job, Ada groaned and dragged Colin out of the break room and enlisted him to put it on the lift. If anyone would do it right, it was him. He rolled his eyes and called her superstitious. She didn't deny it.

That shift was supremely stressful, but she made it through all right. Only a couple of bruises that weren't related to the ugly machine.

As for Aria, Ada had had no luck in finding her thus far. She went in once more with Collette's guidance. They selected a different path this time, one that would take her far away from the ocean and its terrifying, unfathomable depths. Really, though, it was the library she wanted to avoid.

She expected to see the androgynous being everywhere she explored. After all, it could cross planes, too. Whoever, or whatever they were, she wanted nothing to do with them. If they were another human, then why did they have clothing in this plane? In all the planes she had explored, she had found no sign of clothes she could take for herself. Worse, if they were an indigenous being to the astral plane, why did they appear so human, and what did they want from her? And even worse, what if they, or something like them, was the reason Aria couldn't return?

Aria's body lived, but did that mean anything? Could one die in the astral plane? What horrors could the mind be subjected to? The soul? There was no one they could turn to for answers. In this, they were pioneers.

On her own, her search was much less productive. She had no true direction, so all she could do was wander and hope for the best. Since she knew that heading left would eventually lead her to the ocean, she took as many right forks in the hallway plane as she could. This direction took even longer to traverse. She was starting to think there was only one connection from this plane when she finally found herself up to her knees in powdery snow. Well, snow in appearance. It had no tangible temperature against her bare skin. It did impede her walking speed, though. She woke up before she had finished mounting the first hill in this plane.

Ada went back there a few more times and found herself no better prepared for the trek than the last. Each time she tried a different direction, and eventually she did find her way through it. Still, no luck. Beyond the thrill of adventure, she was beginning to believe her exploration was pointless. That being said, she had no intention of quitting.

The day of Cain's arrival came up faster than she was expecting. Sam reminded her while they were getting ready for work that morning. Antoine couldn't make it—he had woken with the flu—but Cain would be with them for a week. Aidan went to pick him up in Montréal in the early afternoon.

Ada was looking forward to seeing him again. He was a truly kind person, someone she felt immediately comfortable around. Not to mention, she was determined to get that recipe from him.

This was one of the first days she woke feeling secure, comfortable. She shouldn't have. Sure, Charles and Jocelyn had been completely silent since their last meeting, and this was still true. She was starting to think they might have gotten the message. No, it was something she should have seen coming, but didn't. Perhaps she hadn't wanted to.