Just Add Magic: Hotel Of Secrets

Chapter 9 - Just Add Dinner

It had been two days since the girls managed to get Leo home safely from the hotel. It was a Sunday night and the Selliti's were about to head downstairs for dinner. Leo was sitting alone in his room.
"Leo?" KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
"Come in." he said.
"Come on, we have to go down for dinner." Zoe said.
"Yeah, I'm coming, give me two minutes." Leo said, not very happily. Zoe noticed.
"What's the matter?" She asked him.
"NOTHING JUST-" he sighed after saying this and dropped himself onto his bed.
"I can't stop thinking about all that's happened in the past week. It was...SCARY. Being out there alone, kidnapped, with two men who would barely feed you and then say the words 'The downside will be much worse'! what do they want from us? Is it really possible to bring someone back with magic?" he said finally.
"Leo, ANYTHING, is possible with magic. Look I understand how you feel but we need a way to-" Zoe said.
"That's it I'm telling our parents!" He shouted as he got up angrily from his bed and marched towards his bedroom door. Just as he was about to grab the door knob, Zoe stopped him.
"What?! ARE YOU CRAZY? No protector has ever broken that rule before! If they f-" She said but Leo cut her off.
"What rule? Nobody said it was a rule, they're our parents, they should kn-"
"And what if they don't believe us? It's too risky, we can't-"
"Everybody knows that the book only chooses very yound people for its protectors, we need an ADULT to help us or one of us is going to die!"
"Leo! It's not that simple, if Ish finds out she is going to flip! And you're right, the book chooses young people for a reason. We can't just drag our parents into this!" Zoe finished.
There was a brief pause between the two after the arguement. The silence was soon broken when Erin walked in.
"What's going on? I heard screaming." She said, confused and worried.
Leo and Zoe just looked at each other with dissapointed faces.
"Were you guys...fighting?" Erin asked.
"Uhh, yeah! We were but, we're okay now, see?" Zoe said, faking a smile and putting her arm around Leo ad they stood in front of their mother. Leo mimicked his sister's actions.
Erin scoffed. "Alright but, just be down in 5 minutes okay? Your father's waiting." She said and left the kids by themselves.
The two sighed and sat on Leo's bed. They instantly regretted their actions.
"We shouldn't have done...THAT. It was wrong of us to be at each other's throats like that." Zoe said.
"Yeah you're- you're probably right. I'm sorry." Leo said and the duo hugged.
"Come on, let's go have dinner at the world famous Selliti's!" Zoe exclaimed and the two soon rushed off.

————————

Back at the Gupta's, Ish was in her room, studying the cookbook and also having a hard time believing Leo's story. She actually couldn't believe that she was trying to look for a spell that could 'bring people back from the dead'. She flipped and flipped through the book for minutes, occasionally bookmarking ones she found interesting. About a minute later, she found a strange looking recipe, strange enough for her to believe it might have to do something with the two men. The recipe didn't look very modern. It looked like it belonged to the first people who used magic, possibly to cure their loved ones because of the lack of medicinal technology. All the ingredients were drawn in the margin of the page, but there was this one ingredient that caught Ish off guard. It was dark brown, almost black, small and round. Ish was seemingly unaware of this spice, as well as its family, but her subconcious told her it was crucial. She reached into her school bag, digging until she found the spice chart  Hannah made her. She was searching for all the spices that hadn't come in use for the new protectors yet. Their spices' power levels were also given next to them. Ish found one that had a rather strange name. It didn't sound like the rest of the family names. She widened her eyes on reading the power level and quickly grabbed her phone. She scrolled through her contacts till she landed on all the "H" names. She tapped on "Hannah", giving her friend from Saffron Falls a call.
Hannah wasn't picking up. Ish assumed she was sitting in a history tution or something, even at this hour. She tried Kelly, but she also didn't pick up. Ish had no other option left but to call Darbie, who probably wasn't busy, unless you count watching Earls of Wembly with your father. Ish thanked God, and Darbie of course, when the girl picked up.
"Hey Ish, how's it going?" Darbie greeted, seeming all happy.
"Uh yeah, hi. Sorry but...it's not great." Ish spoke, all worried.
"What happened?"
"Long story but uh, i called to ask if you happen to know a spice called Morbium?"
On hearing this, Darbie's phone slipped from her hands. Luckily, she caught it.
"What's wrong?" Ish asked.
"Just...WHY DO YOU NEED A MORBIUM?"
"BECAUSE I FOUND THIS RECIPE THAT- Oh man! Where do I start? Okay let's just say, uh, these two men are trying to bring someone back from the dead and for obvious reasons you would need something powerful enough for that and-"
"The power level of the Morbium, it's the strongest spice family in all of magic, it can be very dangerous if you don't use it properly, IT COULD-" Darbie stopped.
"It...could...WHAT?" Ish's heart pounded as she asked.
"Curse...someone?" Darbie said.
"...OH." was all Ish could utter, and without breathing.
"Or worse but- wait WHAT DID YOU SAY? Who's trying to bring people back from the dead?" Darbie asked.
"Oh um, these two men who tried to uh, to...KILL LEO." Ish was frozen. Yes, she could talk, but her brain was barely functioning at this moment.
"Kill Le- Okay um, this is a lot to process? We were the protectors for nearly two years and even we had no idea you could use magic to bring someone back to life! So I assume killing off a protector is the downside to bringing someone back to life?"
"That's what Leo told us! Ugh, no wonder they're using that morbium thing! The spell must be very powerful! But how powerful?"
"Ish!"
"But is it even going to work? Who'd gonna get hurt by it? Who's NOT gonna get hurt by it? Are there people who are immune to magic? What if famous people are immune to magic?-" Ish was having a panic attack and was saying all of this in one breath.
"Ish calm down!" Darbie spoke from the other side, worried about her friend.
"What if famous people are NOT immune to magic? OH MY GOD I WILL NOT LET THE GLASS JACKETS DIE BECAUSE OF THOSE TWO!" Ish finished, but she was still hyperventilating.
"ISH! Calm, down! And don't worry, me, Hannah and Kelly will help you all. I'll tell them as soon as possi-" Darbie was saying but Ish's phone ran out of battery.
"WAS THIS THING NOT PLUGGED IN?!" She screamed, looking under her table at all the tangled wires and cables.
"Ish?" Mrs. Gupta's voice came from afar. Ish quickly hid the cookbook in her bag.
"You okay?" Her mom asked as she stood at the door of her room.
"No! My phone wasn't charging all this time. I think this charger is spoilt or something." She said to her mom, masking the rest of the truth.
"Just use mine until you get a new one." Her mom laughed, kissed her daughter's cheek, then left the room.
Ish sighed. She knew the Selliti's were downstairs having dinner, and she didn't want to go down and physically disturb them. She decided to text them on the group chat.

————————

Zoe and Leo's phones simultanously beeped. It was a text from Ish. Leo was talking to Erin and Nick, so Zoe took a quick look at her phone while the others were busy.
'I found a really strange recipe in the cookbook. I think it's important for us. Can you guys beg your parents to let you stay up a little late? Just say it's a school project or something.' The text read.
Leo was still busy chatting, Zoe tried to get his attention.
"Psst, Leo!" She whispered. He listened immediately.
"What?" He asked.
"Look." Zoe said, showing the phone to her step-brother.
Leo mumbled the words as he read his friend's message.
"Strange recipe?" He seemed frustrated. He was getting sick of this mystery. Zoe said something pretty factual as she slipped her phone back into her pocket.
"Yup. Things just get weirder and WEIRDER."

Look who's back! Hey ya'll, it's your author Lara. It's been around a year, but now i'm back and i wrote this chapter for ya'll at last! Though it's been a while, i hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it. The reason i moved away from writing for a while was because i was going through something crucial at this time of the year last year. And after that, school started and it was a very important (yet frustrating year because if all the drama) year because of exams and stuff so i was completely occupied 24/7. But now I'm back, i have holidays and I'm here to stay this time. I apologise for the chapter being shorter than usual, I just got back into the flow of writing. Love ya'll and I appreciate the wait. Thank you for reading Hotel of Secrets!

(Okay second a/n ig? It's Lucy, you know, the one posting the story for her. For those of you readers who know me as well, I apologise for not being online much nowadays. I'll try and upload these chapters as soon as Lara sends them to me. I love you guys too, thank you so much for all the reads and love! The formatting for this chapter is a bit weird at the moment but I'll fix that in a while. I hope you enjoyed!)