Psychic

XVII

"So, do you guys want to ask what the specials are?" Bella asked hopefully.

I grunted in response as Magnus stayed as silent as ever.

"Okay . . ."

It was now Saturday evening. Magnus and I hadn't spoken since that afternoon on the sidewalk, which, quite frankly, confused and infuriated Bella. She was doing everything she could to make us speak to each other.

She didn't know about the kind of person Magnus really was. But I bet by now she would've figured out what creature he is. She knew enough to know that I couldn't read him, and seeing as his necklace with his potentia Source wasn't exactly hidden, if she had any basic knowledge of that Hunter book, then she'd know he's a Warlock. And she probably already figured out why he was here, to capture me. So even with just that basic information she should've understood why we weren't talking and why she shouldn't have forced us to dine together on the day before I was supposed to end Hawthorne's regime and possible be killed before I could do so.

But Bella's mother being a hunter still never came up in our conversations at school. Somehow she forgot to mention that her family was full of rednecks who like to hunt imaginary creatures like me.

Somehow she forgot to mention that they were after me. Maybe she thought I didn't know about hunters, or that I wouldn't believe her, but I still had a right to know.

Which was why I would rather prefer to be at home, or maybe even running away to escape to Canada or something. I wanted to do anything to escape my destiny and run away from the fact that I had no one left to trust, not even my best friend. The one person I thought I could trust with my secret.

But, no. Bella just had to force us all to come eat dinner for my pre-birthday party. The only one who seemed to not notice the tension was Bryce, who was happily making conversation with Bella and ignoring the two of us completely.

My silent agreement not to talk to Magnus would stay true until he agreed to be open minded about the whole situation. But, since I figured he was about as stubborn as I was, we were both silent.

"Guys!" Bella whined, "Why can't you be happy? It's a birthday celebration after all!"

Yes, a celebration for a birthday were I might die before I could complete some stupid prophecy. I wasn't feeling considerably joyful about the celebration.

"So, I think I'll have the salmon, what about you all?" Bryce continued ignorantly, staring at Magnus.

I actually looked at the menu for the first time since arriving and picked the first thing I saw. "I'll have the salmon too." I said quickly and shortly, but this seemed to appease Bella for the moment.

Great, five words is an improvement over none.

I almost laughed out loud at that, but I stayed quiet. My silent plea included no visible acts of enjoyment in the presence of backstabbing traitors like Magnus Moore.

Bryce smiled. "That's great. I've heard it's amazing. What about you Magnus?" He inclined his head to Magnus, who was looking at everything in the restaurant except for me.

"I'll have the steak."

Yay, we're talking now!

I didn't put much enthusiasm in Bella's thoughts.

When the waiter came we all put in our orders. There was another couple of minutes of silence before Bryce flashed a smile and looked at us all individually. "So, anything interesting going on in your lives recently?"