Adelaide drove her and Christoph to a nearby coffee shop. They drove in silence, with her hands white-knuckling the steering, and Christoph's crossed neatly across his lap. He didn't say anything, but his eyes never left her as they drove the ten minutes to the coffee shop. Adelaide squirmed under his gaze, wishing his attention wasn't so focused on her.
"This is much better." Christoph stated as they entered the coffee shop. Adelaide breathed in the smell of coffee grounds and warm pastries, letting the warm air fill her chilled lungs.
Christoph stepped up to the counter and ordered himself some tea, and Adelaide ordered a hot chocolate and a blueberry muffin. She'd skipped breakfast that morning in a rush to get out the door, and her stomach was yelling at her.
After they both had their orders, they found a table in the back corner of the shop. A man typed rapidly on his laptop on the other side of the room, and a college student sat at the bar with headphones blaring in her ears and a video playing on her phone.
"So," Adelaide started, taking a long sip of her hot chocolate. They'd sat silently at the table for a couple of minutes, and she was growing impatient, "are you going to start explaining what the hell is going on?"
"You're rather impatient, aren't you?" Christoph commented, stirring his tea calmly and taking a small sip. Adelaide narrowed her eyes, but kept her gaze focused on the cup in her hands.
Christoph's nonchalance and condescending tone about the whole situation was irritating to her. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew it was something serious enough for "Lorenzo" to try and attack her. If Christoph wasn't going to take it seriously, she'd have to find answers somewhere else.
"Alright, alright, calm down. You're upsetting my tea." Christoph dropped the lid to his cup on the table and let out an annoyed sigh. Adelaide looked away from her own cup to see that bubbles hard started to form in his tea as it boiled over the top of the cup. Her eyes widened at the boiling liquid, but as quick as it had come on it stopped.
"How did you do that?" Adelaide asked in shock. She picked the cup up, checking underneath for a gadget of some kind. Christoph snatched it away from her, putting the lid back on so he could drink it.
"I didn't do it, you did," He took a sip of the tea, wincing slightly at the temperature, before continuing, "You're a witch."
Adelaide couldn't help but snort at the ridiculous statement. Christoph sounding like James, always dreaming up witches and goblins and fairies and a world aside from their regular, human world. She'd always admired his imagination, glad that it gave him an escape from living in a world with their parents. But Christoph - he just sounded like a stranger who'd gone crazy.
"I know it sounds mad to you, but I'm not making it up. You're a witch, I'm a witch, Lorenzo's a witch. Witches are very real, despite what we let humans believe," Christoph explained calmly, with another sip of tea. Adelaide raised her eyebrows at the man sitting across from her. With his expensive wool jacket on, wavy brown hair, and calm demeanor, he really didn't seem like someone who'd fully lost their brain, but he was certainly acting like it.
"You're bonkers. I think I would have known if I was a witch by now, right?" Adelaide countered with an eye roll. She turned in her seat and reached to grab her backpack. She'd entertained Christoph's stories and requests, but she wasn't going to waste anymore of her time.
"Wait, Adelaide." Christoph reached across the table and grabbed her hand. She froze in place when she felt his warm hand on her wind chilled hand. Her name sounded odd in his accent, and she realized he hadn't called her that before. Adelaide was suddenly very aware that he'd been watching her and knew a lot more about her than she did about him.
"I know it's a lot, but I promise I'm not lying. Think about all the things that have been happening. How else can you explain the car alarms, the broken coffee cups, or my boiling tea?" Christoph asked her sincerely. Adelaide shifted in her seat so she was facing him again, but he kept his hand on hers. When she didn't say anything, he kept going.
"Look, I can prove it." He looked around them before his eyes landed on the bookshelf sitting against the wall next to them. It was decorated with leftover Halloween decor - little glass pumpkins, skull candles, and pieces of candy. Christoph moved his hand from hers, picked up one of the candles, and put it in between them on the table. He glanced up at her to make sure she was watching. Adelaide's gaze was on him and the candle, waiting curiously for his "proof".
"Watch." Christoph instructed, pointing at the wick of the candle. He picked his hand up, snapped his fingers, and a flame appeared on top of the little skull candle. Adelaide stared at the small fire, her mind running through every possible illusion or trick he could have done to pull that off.
She came up empty.
"Okay..." Adelaide started cautiously. She knew, rationally, that she should've been more freaked out by the display. But she also knew that the day's events had surpassed logic a while ago.
"Let's say you're right, and I am a witch. Why am I just now finding out? Shouldn't there have been a Hogwarts letter when I was eleven or something?" She questioned him, squeezing her hands together in front of her. Adelaide eye the candle, that was flickering between them, before looking back up at Christoph.
"It's...complicated. You are a witch, and you've always been one, but your magic has been sort of inactive, or dormant."
"Okay well why is it active now? Can't you just make it dormant again?" Adeline questioned, internally hoping that there was a simple fix that would help make everything go back to normal. Christoph, however, laughed at her suggestion.
"Yeah, there's no stopping it now. Your magic is...restless. It's been bottled up a long time." He explained, looking her up and down as if he was looking through her. Adeline audibly groaned at his response. She clenched her hands together tighter, digging her nails into the skin on the back of her hands.
"That key," Christoph nodded his head towards the pocket of her jacket, "is what activated your magic. Now that you've found it, there's no going back."
Adelaide's head spun with the information. She remembered picking up the key at her office. It hadn't felt like she suddenly gained magical powers at the time. But Christoph was right - weird things were happening around her, things she couldn't explain.
"What does any of that have to do with you or Lorenzo? Why are you here?" Adelaide questioned, tapping her foot restlessly below the table. Christoph eyed her hands, still clenched tightly together next to the candle, before looking at the cup of tea he'd pushed to the side. Despite being almost an hour old, the liquid was bubbling rapidly.
"Hey, relax," His voice softened, and he reached a hand across the table again, wrapping it around both of hers, "I'm not with Lorenzo. I'm not going to hurt you."
Adelaide pulled her hands away from him, placing them on her lap to calm her shaking leg. She sent Christoph an apologetic look, taking in a deep breath to calm herself.
She thought back on the other strange events she'd been noticing. The books flying off the shelves when she was yelling at James, or the car alarms going off when Richard scared her. She'd always thought of herself as pretty in control of her emotions - or at least in control of the emotions she let others see. It seems her magic had other ideas in mind.
"Lorenzo is a witch from Risoluté coven. They're from Europe, mostly Italy, France, and Spain. They're a bit...rebellious, you could say," Christoph explained, attempting to search for the right words, "They're main motivation in life is to do whatever the want, even if that means endangering humans or hurting other witches."
"I am from the Ellora coven. My ancestors spent entire millennia ensuring that humans didn't know of our existence. We protected them from afar, but lived in peace with our own kind. The Risoluté coven doesn't see value in protecting humans, they just see potential power. We've been at odds with the Risoluté coven for the last century or so, making sure they don't run wild and take over all of Europe."
Adelaide was reminded of James again and his fantasy stories. He would be so excited if he were there, hearing about this coven war between witches. She almost wished she could have his childlike excitement and not the pit of anxiety she felt building in her stomach.
"I still don't understand. What do I have to do with your war?"
Christoph hesitated to respond, which meant Adelaide wasn't going to like his answer.
"There is this prophecy that we call the proroctví osudu. It speaks about a war, and how neither side is strong enough to win on their own. It says they'll fight for years and years, but nothing will come of it. That is, until one side finds a secret weapon. They say this weapon is strong enough to win the war in a day, and end the years of fighting. But it never says what kind of weapon, or which side will find it. People have searched for years, imagining all kinds of cursed objects and powerful items that could be this secret weapon. We've continued fighting, but we both know it's no use until one side finds this weapon."
"That's why Lorenzo is here, and why he wanted you to go with him. That's why I'm here protecting you. Because you are that secret weapon, Adelaide."
A shiver went down her spine when Christoph finished. The urge she'd been fighting since he arrived to run fast and run far was bubbling over inside of her. He may be right about magic, and maybe she was a witch, but she was not about to get in the middle of someone else's war.
"Look, I'm sorry that you guys think I'm some 'weapon'," Adelaide put air quotes around the word, hating the way it sounded in her mouth, "But you're wrong. I'm just a college kid. I have nothing to do with this war, and I intend to keep it that way."
Adelaide didn't leave Christoph a chance to try and stop her this time. She stood up and snagged her backpack in one swift motion, and bee lined for the parking lot. She knew he was going to follow, but she didn't plan on looking back or stopping.
"Wait!" He called as she reached the door of the shop and pushed it open. The harsh wind slapped her in the face, making her falter for half a second. But Adelaide was on a mission, so she did her best to ignore the wind, and searched the lot for her car. She dug around in her pocket for the car keys, clicking open the locks.
"Adelaide," Christoph was keeping up with her far too easily, and intentionally stayed a step behind her as she raced towards her car, "I know it's a lot, but this isn't just going to go away because you want it to. They're convinced you're the weapon, so neither side is going to stop until they've got you on their side, whatever it takes. "
"Is that a threat?" Adelaide spun on her heel when she reached her car. She clung to the keys in her hand so tight, they dug into her palm. Christoph put his hands up in defense, continuing to stay a foot away from her.
"No, of course not. I told you, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to protect you because of the people who are here to hurt you."
Adelaide shivered again. She felt vulnerable out in the open, like Lorenzo or one of his friends could be around any corner. She didn't like it.
"I don't want to be a part of your war, okay? You've got the wrong person." Adelaide repeated harshly. She yanked open her car door, throwing her backpack into the passenger seat.
"Adelaide, wait -" Christoph reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her from getting into the car. She snapped her head towards him, and glared at his hand.
"Don't touch me." Adelaide's body trembled with anger and anxiety, but her words came out strong and certain.
When she moved her eyes up to look at him, the sound of glass breaking erupted around them. Christoph instinctively moved between Adelaide and the sound, removing his hand from her arm as he turned around.
She looked past him at the coffee shop, where every store window was completely shattered. The man typing on his laptop sat with his mouth open as the wind blew his grey hair into his face. The woman at the bar had screamed, and the baristas were scrambling.
Christoph was still looking at the shop, analyzing the scene for signs of a threat, so Adelaide didn't waste any time. She slid into the driver seat, slammed her door shut, and locked it. He spun around outside her car, and knocked on the window hurriedly, yelling at her not to leave. She didn't listen. She threw the car into reverse, backed out of her spot, and had sped out of the parking lot before Christoph could do anything to stop her.