There were some audible gasps near me. A few people in the audience said, “Yeah.”
Victor looked down at Ruby and plastered on a fake smile, which made me instantly dislike him. “Sophie is not a Descendant. The local police are working on her case in earnest—”
“So, no one at the Guild cares about her because she’s a Normal?”
The smile disappeared. “No. That’s not the case at all.”
“There could be commonalities between all the cases. The same people could have taken poor Sophie, thinking she was a Descendant.”
He frowned and I noticed that he either had a scar across his left eyebrow or he had deliberately shaved a little section to be trendy. “I assure you that we are working closely with the police on all cases, Miss Parker. We will solve these disappearances once and for all. Honestly, I thought you would know me better than that. I am totally dedicated to this job. I have your best interests at heart. Always.”
She didn’t look convinced. In fact, she seemed to be the only one here who wasn’t totally captivated by the man. Besides me, of course.
He took her silence as his cue to move on. “I have appointed someone within the Guild to head up the missing persons cases. We need to get this solved as soon as possible.”
He shuffled some papers on the lectern and looked around the crowd. I looked around too. There was still no one on their phones. No one looked bored or uninterested.
“Now, on to another important matter. There have been an increasing number of individuals with higher levels of magic than normal and the Guild is actively investigating. This is important because, as you all know, the power levels of the Descendants worldwide have been slowly declining and even our breeding efforts to help keep the bloodlines as pure as possible only delay the inevitable. The only way to increase our power would be to open the portal. We need pure fae blood to boost magic here on Earth. But opening the portals is impossible. Many have tried over the last century, with no success.”
So we were on our own and eventually, we’d go back to having no magic here on Earth. That was a sobering thought. I didn’t want it, but I wouldn’t want it taken away now that I had it.
There was a flurry of conversation around the room that fell silent when Victor put up a hand. “We will investigate this further. If another way to boost our power exists, we must find it. Now, there is another matter to be discussed.
“You are no doubt aware of the many factions of Descendants who refuse to accept the truth of our origins and have formed their own opinions and groups. There are strong feelings within all of these groups and that sometimes results in fights between them. Recently, there have been incidents with the Witches and the Naturalists. The Witches have been using poisons to covertly attack some of the leaders of the Naturalists and the Naturalists have been attacking the covens directly. It has been causing a lot of problems at the Guild in trying to cover up the incidents so that we are all safe from exposure to the Normals.”
I turned to Kellie. “Naturalists?”
“Yeah. I’ll tell you about them later.”
I pictured a bunch of hippies sitting around in a circle in the grass, swaying and singing and casting spells. And smoking pot.
Victor continued. “In the past, cover-ups were easy to enact, but now that technology has progressed and everyone carries a camera, videos of these events go viral across the internet before the Guild is even aware of it happening.”
I tried to imagine trying to keep ahead of something like that. It would be impossible.
“The Guild’s Seers cannot keep up with this. We need more Seers to help prevent these incidents from happening. If you are experiencing any signs of becoming a Seer yourself or know of anyone else, please come forward. We can help you or the other person refine your Gift and help you to be a vital part of keeping law and order here in Australia. Thank you.”
And with that, he nodded and strode off-stage, even though a dozen or more people were calling out questions.
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The next day at work when there was a quiet period in the afternoon, I kept thinking about all the things that were discussed at the meeting. Kellie had told me afterwards that the Guild used Future Seers to try to prevent crimes by trying to pinpoint when and where an incident reported by a Seer would happen.
She had also explained that the Naturalists believed that magic flows all around us here on Earth and that some humans naturally evolved to be able to harness the magic. So they didn’t believe we were witches or descended from fae. They totally rejected any and all other theories, especially the ones that said that we were possessed by demons or that we were messengers for the devil.
Jeez. Some people believed in some crazy shit.
To me, it didn’t really matter where these abilities came from. It’s what you chose to do with them that counted. Why spend all your time and energy fighting people who disagreed with you?
I sighed. There was no changing peoples’ minds.
I looked at the counter, the shelves, and the floor for something to do, but there was nothing. Everything was clean and in its place. Jackson had kept away and I hadn’t seen him since maybe Sunday afternoon, which was the longest I’d gone without seeing him. I should have been happy — he could be so annoying — but it made me feel anxious. Was he okay? Did he cross over somehow? Did he go to that waiting area place and didn’t want to come back?
I looked more carefully at the darker corners of the shop, but there was no sign of him. I felt disappointed, but I didn’t miss him. He was a pain in my butt. I could get along just fine without him. I would find something else to do to pass the time.
I sat on the chair behind the counter and listened to the ticking of the clock. Ruby needed to pipe some music into the shop. That would give me something to listen to and provide a nice atmosphere for the customers. I would have to suggest it to her.
I looked at my phone. No new texts from Blake. He hadn’t texted much since Friday night. Maybe he was embarrassed.
Tick, tick, tick.
The clock’s hands ticked over to half-past-three and the door chime made me jump.
Jade wandered into the store and I tried to mentally prepare myself, but she wasn’t alone. A guy with red hair followed her in and was talking to her in low tones. As he turned toward me, I gasped. It was Hunter.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbbWKgr5Dcy
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Author's Note: What do you think of the things discussed at the meeting? I hope it piques your interest.
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