Trust Avery to crack me up even when I was feeling down.
I smiled at all of them gratefully.
“Thanks for being so understanding and not being shocked, you guys,” I said to my coven-mates. “And thanks for fixing my clothes, Avery.”
“Any time.” He made a shooing gesture. “Would you like me to fix all your other clothes too? I don’t mind.”
“Well, I do have some uniforms for work at home and some casual clothes that don’t fit anymore,” I said. “Maybe I could go back and get them sometime tomorrow and you could fix them then?”
“Sure.” Avery nodded. “Now tell us more about your new friend, Lachlan.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “Any chance he walks on the other side of the fence?”
“I don’t think so,” I said awkwardly. “I, uh, kind of heard him and Bran talking about me right after I had a run-in with our landlord and he seems to be into, um, girls not guys.”
“You mean he’s into you,” Megan said shrewdly. “And if I’m not mistaken, so is Bran.”
“Of course he is! Why else would he offer to take that awful skink you had in your ear?” Kaitlyn remarked with a shudder. “But what do you mean you had a run-in with your landlord?”
So then I had to tell them all about Mr. Groperson demanding the rent a week early. And, because they were my coven and we were all so close, I also told them about the disappearing cigarette butts and the gold coin I had somehow found in my pocket, too.
When I finished, they were all gaping at me.
“But don’t tell Bran or Lachlan about it,” I said quickly. “Because they already have some kind of crazy idea that I have magic and I really don’t think I do.”
“Let me get this straight,” Avery said. “First of all, you get transformed into a gorgeous Fae, but iron nails don’t hurt you, and also you tamed a kelpie, and then you made a handful of cigarette butts disappear and a gold coin appear in their place but you still don’t think you have any kind of magic?”
“I don’t!” I protested. “Nothing I did felt magical. I mean, I didn’t have any kind of pain or tingling sensation and I didn’t have to work any spells or prick my finger to draw blood or any of that. Those things all just…happened.”
“Maybe you’re so magical you don’t even have to think about it—your magic just comes out,” Megan suggested.
“Can that happen?” Kaitlyn asked, frowning.
“I don’t know.” Avery looked thoughtful. “I wish I knew more about how Fae magic operates. But most everybody from the Realm keeps their power a big secret—they don’t practice it out in the open like the Sisters do.”
“I wonder how powerful it can actually be,” Megan murmured.
“Powerful enough to conjure a gold coin when her creep of a landlord was asking for the rent, anyway,” Kaitlyn pointed out. “It’s a good thing, too—he sounds awful!”
“He is.” I grimaced. “He’s raised our rent four times because he knows we can’t go anywhere else.”
“Why not?” Avery asked. “Why not move to Shady Pines?” Which was the other apartment complex in Frostproof.
“Or my Aunt Deli has been looking for someone to rent out one of the rooms in her house,” Megan offered. “You know how huge her house is and since I’m at school almost all the time, she wants someone to share the place. I bet your mom would get along great with her.”
“I don’t know,” I said doubtfully. “See, the reason we can’t move is that my mom’s a chain-smoker. Seriously—one cigarette after another after another after another.” I mimed puffing on an imaginary cigarette. “Shady Pines is a non-smoking complex.”
“Oh…” Megan’s face fell. “So is my Aunt Deli’s house, I’m afraid. She’s kind of a health nut. Everything organic and all natural—that kind of thing. She hates smoke.”
“So does just about everybody else,” I said, sighing. “Which is why we’re stuck at Groperson’s place.”
“Well, now that you have magic, maybe you can do something about him,” Kaitlyn suggested.
Avery frowned at her.
“You know what would happen if Headmistress Nightworthy found out—she doesn’t like anyone using magic outside of school grounds. Especially on Norms who aren’t supposed to know about magic in the first place.”
“Guys, I don’t have any magic,” I protested. “I swear I don’t. I don’t know what happened today with the coin but it was just…weird. That’s all. And it’s certainly nothing I did.”
“Not on purpose, anyway.” Avery still looked skeptical. “But if you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to, Emmers.” He leaned closer and grinned at me. “We can talk about what you overheard Bran and Lachlan saying about you instead. So come on—spill it.”
Later, Avery made everyone in the Norm Dorm supper and it was decided that Bran and Lachlan could take the other boys bedroom, beside the one Avery and Saint shared.