Dragon Witch ✔️

16 - Water Magic

August 6, Thursday

I spent all day yesterday collecting my magic books and all the random potion tools I had scattered around my room. Mom wanted all of them, plus my witch's kit. What am I supposed to do for the next month, just play outside like a normal person--albeit one from the pre-internet age? This is setting itself up to be a very sucky summer.

***

Where was Kyton? I hadn't seen him since yesterday at dinner, and I was supposed to be keeping him out of trouble. What if he'd gone after the dragon again? Grandma would kill me and him--if the dragon didn't kill him first.

I paused at the end of the art gallery to look out the window. At the bottom of the hill, by where the stream circled around the house, Kyton was sitting on a boulder. He lazily waved his hand back and forth, and a blob of water rose up out of the stream. It swayed side to side like a hypnotized viper.

Was he crazy? My parents could look outside at any moment, and they would see him doing magic. It would've been bad enough if he was a warlock, but as an Otherworlder, there was no telling what Mom would do. Even Dad might have a problem with him.

Shouting out the window wouldn't help him attract less attention, though. I hurried downstairs. In the entrance hall, a 30-something man with tattoos from head to toe was sweeping the floor. He must be the new housekeeper, Dorian. It was just too hard to keep a straight face when I looked at him. He had more holes in his face than swiss cheese--from lip piercings to eyebrow rings. Where had Grandma found this guy, at a biker club?

He glanced up from his sweeping as I passed. "You're Lilly, aren't you?" He had a faint lisp, and there was something about his voice that almost seemed familiar. Maybe I'd seen him in town before. Though, I was pretty sure I would remember someone who looked like him.

"Yeah." As I inhaled, I caught a curious scent drifting off of Dorian. It was kind of sparky, definitely a type of magic. He must've been a warlock. That would explain how Grandma knew him. Kind of.

"Where are you going?" Dorian asked. He straightened, becoming even taller than I was.

Mom or Grandpa must've told him to keep an eye on me. Like I needed more eyes on me.

"Just to the stream."

"Good. We wouldn't want you to encounter any... unpleasantries in the forest." He licked his lips with a forked tongue.

Was it surgically cut like that, or was he just born with a weird tongue? I wasn't sure if I wanted to know. Something about him made my skin crawl. It wasn't even just the tattoos or piercings--or the tongue. There was something else that I couldn't put my finger on. Ugh, I wished he wasn't a live-in housekeeper. I would have to see him all the time.

Without saying goodbye, I hurried out the front door. Getting Kyton to stop using magic in plain sight was more important than worrying about everything else that was upsetting me.

When I reached Kyton, his glamour made me pause. It'd been hard to tell from a distance, but the illusion that made him look human was fading. Spots of it were completely gone, revealing sapphire-colored skin beneath. What little of his illusion was left looked weary and sickly.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I came closer.

He jolted, and his water snake splashed into the stream. "Y-yeah. Why do you ask?"

I gestured at him. "Your glamour, it's-"

His glamour shimmered and spread over the thinning spots. In a few seconds, he looked perfectly normal again, even happy. It was just an illusion, though. That was clear by his slumped posture and how sick he'd looked before.