Just Before Dawn

Chapter 18

"What?" I sat on the couch opposite him and crossed my legs. "What's the emergency?"

Zerek sighed and pulled the spell books out from behind him. I didn't see anything behind him, so I was kind of surprised when he did pull them out.

"I looked through the books and almost every spell there is has one ingredient that I do not have: thyme." I stared at him, quite not believing what I heard. I shut my eyes and let out a calm breath.

"So... you woke me up – very early at that – to tell me that you couldn't find one of the most common ingredients in the world." I said, trying to keep my frustration away from my voice. Zerek thought about it.

"Yeah, that pretty much wraps everything u–" I chucked a pillow at him. Then another. And then the very last pillow. Zerek had a smirk on his face which tells me everything I need to know. It was a joke. I picked up the closest thing to me and was about to throw it when Zerek raised his arms. "Okay! Okay! Calm down, child!"

"This is what you get for waking me up this early for utterly no reason! It's the weekend as well, for God's sake!" I stood up and stomped toward the stairs and up to my room. Zerek was on my tail but slammed the door on him yelling goodnight. I climbed onto the bed and wrapped myself in my fluffy cover and tried to fall asleep. Feeling someone's presence, I opened my eyes again to see Zerek's face atop of mine. I yelped and scrambled to the far side of the bed, very well away from him. I stretched my arm out in front of me too to try and keep him away.

"S-stay back," I stuttered. My heart slammed against my chest. I clenched my hands to stop them from shaking. Zerek was on my bed. I was on my bed. And nothing will – woah, woah, woah! Do not go there, Kaeya! I took a deep breath in, then a deep breath out.

"Get off my bed Zerek. There's thyme in the kitchen. If not go to the shops. We'll practice later, but right now I want some alone time." I looked away and for a while it stayed like that. Few seconds later, I felt the bed shift, then heard the door shut. He's gone. I collapsed on my back and let out the breath I was holding. What is wrong with me? My face feels hot and for some reason I feel embarrassed. Why? That was the question. Now I'm scared that I won't be able to act the same way again around him if I continue like this. I sat up and breathed again. No more heart attacks, no more tha-thumps, no more hearty stuff! He's just a friend. Keep telling yourself that... My inner voice whispered but I ignored it instantly. I couldn't deal with that right now. I practiced in my room, the four elements. I juggled water droplets when something came rushing to me. The water dropped on me, and I stood up, remembering what I had to ask Zerek. Then realized I have training with him in a couple of minutes. Drying my skirt up with the fire element (it came in quite handy), I rushed out to the park.

To see no one there.

Where was he? Am I early? Or did he forget? Nah, he never forgets... right? I waited five minutes. Which turned to minutes, then to hours. A cool breeze blew in my direction, and I shivered. What is taking him so long? Another cold breeze and something white slapped me across the face. I was blinded for a minute before I could see again. Took me a minute to figure out that whatever it was, it was on the floor. Picking it up, I unfolded the paper and read the message:

Sorry, won't make it today, try some of the easy spells yourself if you want.

Wow! Now he's ditching me. Great. I sighed and looked around the place to find where the spell books were but couldn't find them anywhere. I walked around the area thinking that he must've hidden it somewhere. Under bushes. Atop trees. I even started digging the ground! But I couldn't find it anywhere.

Then I smacked myself on the forehead!

Of course, it wouldn't be here because Zerek already brought it to my house. I came back home to find the spell books still on the coffee table. Looking at the title of both books I realized they were written in Latin. I never learned Latin but somehow, I could understand what it was saying. The first one read Attacking spells while the other says Defensive spells. For such simple titles, they are pretty long in Latin. I flicked through the defense and found they were spells I needed to make before-hand. The other book showed both before-hand spells and spells I could use during combat as well. IT apparently needs a lot of mind control though. I started with the defense since I'd like to practice the attack with Zerek. I realized while flicking through that he already marked the easier ones, so I decided to start with them. Or else I might be burning my house down and I won't even know it. I chose one that said Cloak. It makes the user invisible. But it doesn't work if the attacker knows the user is there. I need thyme, rosemary, grapevine, rose petals, any one jewelry and a bowl of hot water. Gotta say some words in Latin then it is made. The question is, where can I find grapevine and rose petals. The others I have at home. Oh, wait. There's a rose garden in the park, but not in the usual one I go to. Could shops sell grapevine? No, they sell grapes though! I sat there trying to think of something else, but nothing seems to pop in my head. Where do grapevines grow? With nothing else, I grabbed a bag and left the house (obviously packing the books away). It was worth a try to ask one of the shop owners about grapevines.