ALL NOVEL 47. Someplace Special
"Cass are you sure?" Kaylee asked, looking up from the fancy leather-bound menu. She lowered her voice and added, "This place is expensive!"
I nodded, "Yeah I know. I looked at the menu online the other day, so I knew what to expect. It's fine Kaylee. And it's my treat ok? I'm the one who asked you out, and I picked the restaurant."
She gave me a warm happy smile, "Thank you. Except now I'm wondering if there's a special occasion or something, because this is a lot more fancy than anywhere else we've gone on dates."
"No occasion," I replied with a smile and a shrug. "I just felt like taking you someplace special."
That made her smile even wider, then her attention returned to the menu again. I looked at mine too, though I'd already picked out what I wanted when I checked it out online.
It was Friday night, our hike in the fae woods was a few days ago, and tomorrow was the last day of July. The summer was already almost half over, and I wanted to make the most of it. The weather outside was perfect, a warm pleasant mid-summer evening, and we'd walked together to this fancy steak-house restaurant on Main Street.
I was positive we were the only teens in the place, the other diners we'd seen were mature couples, or small groups. Like this definitely wasn't the place you brought your kids, it wasn't a family-style restaurant. We were in a big comfy private booth, everything was dark polished wood, soft leather, and shiny brass. And the food was pricey but it was supposed to be really good.
The staff were all in black slacks or skirts and white shirts or blouses, and most of the other customers were dressed up too. So were me and Kaylee. She was in a long burgundy skirt and a cute pale orange blouse, and she had a navy blue jacket but she'd taken that off when we got here. And I was in a cute black skirt that my parents said was too short but I thought was just right. And I had a pink blouse with a deep v-neck, and a tight little black jacket that went with the skirt.
Eventually Kaylee set her menu down so I did the same, and soon the waiter came by to take our order. Then he brought our drinks, water and cola were both served in big wine glasses, and a basket of warm fresh bread rolls and whipped butter seasoned with herbs.
After he left I looked over at my girlfriend and asked, "So I know it's only been a couple days, but I was wondering how the research is going? Do you think we'll be able to close that fae portal?"
Kaylee adjusted her glasses and had a sip of her cola then nodded, "We'll definitely be able to, I'm sure of that. If a door can be opened then it can be closed again too."
"The question is how. And how soon," she added with a little grimace.
I asked, "Any leads yet? Or ideas? Or um, I don't even know really. Like, what's involved in doing this?"
She shook her head, "Like I said last week, the problem is there's so much information about fae it's hard to know what's real and what's fiction. There's so many stories, myths, and legends? And all those stories come from so many different cultures and places."
"It's hard to know where to even start," she continued with a sigh. "Plus there's a good chance we'll find more than one possible solution? Like me, Paige, Marissa, all three of us could come up with different answers. Then we're stuck trying to figure out which one's right. Assuming they aren't all wrong."
I frowned, "If we come up with a bunch of options why not just try all of them till we find one that works?"
She shook her head, "Because playing with unknown magic can be really risky. Messing with unknown fae magic is even worse. There's too much chance of things backfiring on us."
"Huh," I frowned. "What if we used other magic? Can we close a fae portal with witchy magic? Or could we close it with divine magic? Or demonic magic?"
"I don't know any spells to close a fae portal," Kaylee replied with another sigh. "And I'm sure if anyone else in the club did they'd have spoken up on Tuesday Cass. And we can't exactly go and ask May to teach us something like that anymore."
She sounded like she was still disappointed or upset about our club sponsor leaving town, but I just rolled my eyes. Then I asked, "So what about the other options?"
My girlfriend fidgeted with her glasses again before answering, "I guess you could ask your moms if you wanted? They'd know better than anyone else if they could do it. Except maybe you should talk to Paige first, before asking your parents? Even if your moms already know about the club and everything, I think you should check with the club leader before asking for outside help on a club problem."
For a moment I thought she wasn't going to address my other suggestion at all, but she did after a couple seconds.
"As for Ninaya, I'm really not comfortable with any demonic magic Cass. But if you think it's a good idea, then same thing as with your folks. You should talk to Paige about it first," she said quietly.
I sighed and finally had a gulp of my drink before asking, "Why do you refuse to call her Nina? And why won't you accept that she's part of the club? Everyone welcomed her at the last meeting. Everyone but you that is. And she was welcome on our hike on Tuesday. Is it because she's a demon? Is it a prejudice thing? You know I'm like half demon too right? And Nina is family to me."
It was probably a bad topic to bring up while the two of us were on a date, but the name thing really annoyed me. I kind of equated it to someone insisting on using a trans person's deadname, even though I knew that wasn't really the same. That's where my head kept going though, and it irritated me. Like whatever the real reason, the fact that she wouldn't treat Nina like part of the group and refused to use her friendly name and everything really rubbed me the wrong way.
"I use her real name because I don't want people to forget she's a demon," Kaylee replied quietly. "She might look and act like a cute shy unassuming kid, but she's an ancient supernatural creature and I think it's important we all keep that in mind. I don't trust her, and I don't think we should let our guard down around her."
I shook my head, "But why? Why don't you trust her, why don't you like her? And who cares that she's an ancient supernatural being? So are my parents, you don't hate them do you? That just leaves the fact that she's a demon."
"It's not because she's a demon Cass," she stated. "It's because of what she did to you when you were a baby, and what she tried to do to you last month. Maybe she's being helpful now, but up until last month she was working for Socha and part of a plot to kill you."
"And I don't understand why you've been so quick to forgive her for that," she added with a frown.
I sighed, "If it wasn't for her I'd have died as a baby. She saved my life. And all the magic stuff she did to me when I was little led to my magical transition last October. Without that you and I never would have met."
She continued frowning as she responded, "Saving your life so she can sacrifice you later on doesn't make her a hero Cass. And you can't be sure we wouldn't have met, even without the magic. Maybe it would have taken longer, but we shared three classes this past year so we were bound to get to know each other eventually."
"Kaylee we shared at least three classes every year since grade nine," I stated in a flat quiet tone. "And you never so much as looked at me once in all that time. It wasn't until I turned into a girl that you noticed I existed."
She went quiet at that point, and from the slightly guilty expression on her face I knew I was right.
It was during that awkward silence that the waiter finally showed up with our food, and for a while all the other stuff was forgotten as me and Kaylee looked at the small feast that had been placed in front of us.
I got a little filet steak wrapped in bacon, with a side of roast veggies and a little stack of skinny fries, and it all looked and smelled amazing. And Kaylee had a small slice of prime rib, with roast veggies and a scoop of garlic mashed potato. She also got a little pot of warm gravy to go with it.
Neither of us wasted any time getting started, and the food tasted as good as it looked. The waiter came back a minute or two later with refills for our drinks and to check on us, then after that he left us alone again.
And we were both quiet for a bit, mostly focused on our meals. The only conversation was asking each other how the food was and stuff like that.
Eventually as we both started to fill up we got back to talking about other things again. Kaylee started it off with a question she'd been asking a lot lately.
"Have your moms made any more progress on helping you with the magic problem? Or do they have any idea how much longer it'll take, before it's safe for you to start using magic again?"
I shook my head, "It's only been a week since the club meeting. They're still working on it, Nina's still helping them. But I get the feeling there's no easy solution."
She frowned as she finished her cola, then asked "Do they at least have some sort of idea how much longer it's going to take?"
"Nope," I shrugged. "They're still trying to decipher everything Socha did before they're ready to even begin planning something. Like I said last week, there's still a lot of questions and stuff they don't know. My folks don't want to risk doing something wrong, since any wrong move might accidentally kill me. Or unleash Socha on the world."
Kaylee sighed and her frown got deeper. She finally asked, "Cass how can you act so calm and casual about all this stuff? You sound like you don't even care."
I had another sip of my drink then sighed as well. "Of course I care Kaylee. I don't want to die, and I don't want Socha to show up and hurt you or my parents or any of our friends. But it's not going to help any if I cry or make a scene or mope around all the time."
I lowered my voice and added, "If I let it get to me I'd end up hiding at home and probably never leave my bedroom again. You know there's all sorts of supernatural people around. Any random encounter with magic could accidentally kill me. Or on purpose. Brian could pop up unexpectedly and hit me with a spell and there's nothing I could do about it."
"All I can do is be myself and not worry about that stuff," I stated with another little shrug. "I don't want to die, but I don't want to be constantly scared and spend all my time hiding in my bedroom. So I'm going to try to have a normal life, and not let that stuff bother me. If my folks find a solution then that's great. If not, I'm not going to let it bother me."
She was quiet for a few moments after that, just sort of staring at me with a little frown as she processed everything I said.
Eventually she asked, "What about magic though? You didn't even mention that. Don't you want to be able to cast spells again? We worked so hard, spent almost the whole school year teaching you all kinds of magic and spells. Don't you miss that?"
I shrugged once more, "It was fun but I only ever did one important thing with it, and that was finding you after Mrs. Reeves kidnapped you. And apart from that I was never very good at it anyways."
"And we both know I'm not a real witch," I added quietly. "I never was. I'm a supernatural freak that shouldn't exist, and being able to cast May's spells was a fluke or something. That's why I never found a specialty, why I never felt drawn to any particular set of those spells."
Kaylee frowned, "So you really don't care that you can't use magic anymore?"
I shook my head, "It's not the end of the world. Compared to the possibility of dying and leaving you and everyone else I care about in danger from an unpredictable chaos goddess, whether or not I can keep using May's spells is kind of a minor thing."
"But once your moms fix everything you'll be able to use magic again," she responded. "So you must be looking forward to it?"
"Sure, I guess?" I sighed. The whole conversation was starting to feel repetitive but she didn't seem to want to let it go.
I added, "I don't know that I'll use it much even if I do get it back. Like I said, I only ever did one meaningful thing with it. It's not like I brought some unique talent or skill to the club, not like you or Marissa or Paige or Brooke do. I was more of a hindrance than anything else, breaking circles and stuff."
By that point we'd both finished eating, and the waiter came by to check on us and take the plates and stuff away. Then there was the question of whether or not we wanted dessert, so we focused on that for a bit.
And we both ended up being tempted by the dessert menu, Kaylee ordered the cheesecake with fresh raspberry sauce while I got a decadent fudge brownie sundae thing. It was super rich and really tasty, but also very filling. We ended up eating slowly, with lots of breaks in between to keep talking about magic and club stuff and all that.
More than once I felt tempted to remind her there were other kinds of magic than Miss Hawthorne's so-called brand of witchcraft. I was even tempted at one point to demonstrate that I'd already learned some demonic magic and could safely use that whenever I wanted. I held back though, because I knew Kaylee would freak out about it. Despite what she said I was positive she was prejudiced against anything demonic.
And finally when we were both finished with dessert the waiter brought the bill over. I took care of it and left him a good tip, then me and Kaylee put on our jackets and headed out for a nice quiet walk back home.
