(x) Irregular Magic

chapter 23 - meander in the forest

Mattie collapsed, completely out of breath, onto cool, damp ground. She thought she had gotten used to the sensation of being transported after using tele-stops for so many years. But the queasy feeling in her stomach made her think otherwise. The twinkle in Lucas' eyes made her think he had made it more difficult on purpose. In response, Mattie glared unhappily at her very tall companion, fighting the desire to puke.

"Where are we?" she asked once she had caught her breath back.

"I didn't have much time to think," said Lucas, shrugging his shoulders. "We're just sort of in the middle of nowhere."

"What does that even mean? How do you teleport so badly you don't even know where we are?" Mattie winced and forced herself to take a deep breath. "I'm sorry. It's been a rough few days."

But Lucas looked more amused by her outburst than anything else. "To be completely honest, I'm not sure. I sort of thought—here!—and here we are." He shrugged again, looking completely at ease with the fact that they were, his words not hers, in the middle of nowhere. "I can do this all day. Just tell me where."

She blinked. "What'd you mean? Do what all day?"

Lucas tilted forward, as if he were falling, and then suddenly disappeared in a flash, reappearing on her other side a few seconds later. At first, she thought he had tele-stepped but the flash of movement seemed different from spatial steps. This was more like he had teleported, just a shorter distance than before. Evidently, Lucas was waiting for her to be impressed with his display of magical prowess. "Teleport," he said after a moment, visibly disappointed with her reaction. "Just tell me where."

Frowning, Mattie crossed her arms across her chest. "Uh, right. And you haven't hit your max yet?

"My max what? Distance? Well, I've not tested it out, prob'ly a ways out—"

"No, no, your max. As in how many can you do before you're clear out of juice."

Lucas' face mirrored hers as his eyebrows creased and his lips jutted out slightly as he silently mouthed juice. "I don't understand," he said bluntly. "What juice?"

Mattie made a noise in her throat that was a cross between a grunt and a sigh. "Okay, forget the juice. It's just, my sister's the best I've known at teleporting, and she can do maybe six to eight teleports in a day before she knocks out. Everyone has a max."

An arrogant grin slipped onto his face. "Just because your sister is the best teleporter you know doesn't mean there's someone out there who's better." As if to prove his point, Lucas repeated his tipping trick to teleport several more times. He reappeared behind her, speaking directly into her ear, "That's nine, now."

"Are you sure L is the annoying one?" she asked tersely, ignoring the raised hairs on the back of her neck. "You're doing a pretty good job of it."

Lucas immediately stilled, as if hit by a stunner spell, eyes narrowing reproachfully. He seemed to take the comparison to L as a serious insult. "Okay, okay." He held his hand out to her again. "Let's go, then. Tell me where."

The address appeared in her mind, repeated often enough that it had become second nature, but it refused to leave her lips. She was going to go back home. Without her sister, without her mother, without Inness. And she would never see her father there again. The thought suddenly forced all the breath out of her lungs, as if she had just been knocked down.

"Mattie?"

The words tumbled out. "2991 Wickerdam Quarter, Somerhall Manor."

Lucas glanced at her sideways. "Are you okay?"