“Oh, okay.”
“Do you want coffee or anything? I was just about to put on a pot.”
“Yeah, that’d be great. I didn’t get as much sleep as I hoped last night.” I follow her into the kitchen.
“Really?” She turns and raises her eyebrows.
“I didn’t mean because of that, though it was a little because of that. But mostly because of creepy dreams.”
“Did that bird-demon thing happen to be in your dream? Sorry to sound eager. I just don’t have much to go on.”
“No, it was just an outline.” I shake my head. “Sorry not to be more help.”
“Oh, it’s fine. It was adult-sized, right?”
“Yeah. Maybe a little taller than me, and I want to say it had clothes on, if that helps. I think. And I get the feeling it was smart. Like it had a plan and things were calculated. Which probably doesn’t help, and I’m not even sure how to explain how I know.”
“Is that like a witch thing?” she asks, trying to sound casual, but I see the way she looks at me.
“Hell if I know,” I say with a snort of laughter. “I’ve been a witch for like two days now. Well, I’ve been aware I’m a witch, I should say, right?”
“You really had no idea you were a witch?” She plugs in the coffee pot and looks at me for a whole half a second.
“No. I wish I did. Things would have made a lot more sense, ya know?”
“Yeah. And your aunt…she never dropped any clues until after she died?”
“No,” I say honestly, because if Aunt Estelle did, I don’t remember them.
Julia gets a bag of coffee grounds from a cabinet. “And the rest of your family?”
“They’re the least magical people on the planet. My mom is a doctor and believes in science. And my brother…I’ll just say I love him, but it’s probably a good thing he doesn’t have powers.”
Julia laughs, sounding a little forced. “That can be said about a lot of people, I’m sure. What about the fact that you can see ghosts? No one else has any sort of other power like that?”
“Not that I know of. I used to tell my parents about the ghosts because it scared me so much, but they insisted there was a logical explanation and eventually, I learned to keep my mouth shut about it. I’m not ashamed to say I can see the dead, and I did work as a professional medium for like a hot minute, but it’s not something I go around telling people.”
“I get that, and it sucks having to hide part of who you are. We don’t really get to meet too many people outside the Order, but we can’t introduce ourselves as hunters from the Order, right?”
“Yeah, I’d imagine it’s not something you can share with too many people.”
“Not at all.” She gets two coffee mugs down from the cabinet. “It’s nice you and Ethan found each other.”
My heart does a weird skip-a-beat thing, and I try hard not to smile. “Me too.”
Julia’s gaze goes to the coven pendant hanging from my neck. Her smile disappears for half a second. “He’s really happy, I can tell. He’s one of the best demon hunters I know, and I’m not just saying it since we’re family. He has that whole natural athletic thing that’s so unfair. I mean, I can’t follow along to kids’ Zumba, but give Ethan some daggers and a room full of demons…” She rolls her eyes. “Like I said, not fair. He’s good at killing demons, but the whole taking orders thing…it’s not for him. Having to leave Chicago to come here was hard on him.”
“I kinda picked up on that.”
“So, what I’m getting at is, it’s nice seeing him happy again, and you make him happy.”
“Jesus, Jules.” Sam’s voice comes from behind me. “Are you encouraging him?”
Julia frowns at her sister. “Of course not.”
“Encouraging him?” I question.
Sam purses her lips and rolls her eyes, walking past me to the fridge. “You don’t understand the Order and I really shouldn’t even be talking about it.” She pulls out a beer, and Julia quickly takes it from her hands.
“It’s the afternoon,” she says dryly, shaking her head. “The Order is full of drama sometimes,” Julia tells me, putting the beer back. “It’s not that different than politics, really.”
“Oh, okay,” I say with a nod though her words only confuse me more. A powerful, large organization who knows about demons and magic is a little scary though. It’s like every conspiracy theory about the government and supernaturals come to life.
Julia gets coffee creamer out of the fridge and pours us two cups of coffee. She adds as much creamer to her cup as I do, and we sit awkwardly at the table together while Sam makes no attempt to hide her seething as she looks through the fridge for something to eat.