The Problem With Black Magic (9 page)

Coming in 2 work at 4 as normal, btw MIKE KNOWS. Bring him????

Cassie sent Dwight a text before her next class, assuming Dwight would tell Sam the score. Mike often hung out
at DG while Cassie and Jay were working there, so Dwight would know who she was talking about. She wanted to bring Mike to DG so he could see for himself that magic was real, but she wasn’t doing it without Sam’s permission. She’d already pissed him off enough for one day.

As she spaced out in
pre-calculus, normally her favorite class, she thought of how funny it was that Dwight had basically become their unofficial secretary for demon business. It should be Sam’s responsibility, but he seemed to hate cell phones for some reason-- which was ridiculous, especially considering the fact that Dwight’s timely text to Serenus had saved both of them yesterday.

Normally she didn’t check her phone during class, but she couldn’t help herself and put it behind her pencil case, hiding it from the teacher’s view. Halfway through class, Dwight answered her text.

SAM SAYS FINE.

Cassie looked up from her phone to see Ms.
Servakis’ glaring at her from the front of the class, and hastily put her phone away. If she had been most other students, texting during class would be grounds for detention, but Cassie had a 99 average in the class; it was her first offense. Ms. Servakis turned back to the board without a word.

The rest of the school day seemed to pass agonizingly slowly. Cassie wasn’t sure if she was excited to see the amulets made, or if she was just looking forward to learning something, anything more about this strange new world she’d been tossed into; it seemed like everything she learned about magic, demons and their familiars just raised a dozen more questions. She wanted to know what the amulets did, and why Sam had scoffed when
Serenus had first made the suggestion to use them.

When the final bell finally rang, Cassie met Jay and Mike at the lockers, and after telling Mike he was invited, the three of them left together for DG. For most of the walk, Mike and Jay were both silent, an unusual occurrence that made Cassie uncomfortable. She eventually started talking just to clear the tension.

“I hope these amulets are pretty. I don’t want to have to wear a cat’s tongue or something freaky like that,” she said conversationally.

Jay looked at her with the same unbridled enthusiasm that was becoming his dominant mood lately. “So, is Sam going to like, stir things together in a cauldron? Or is it more like making items in Diablo?” he asked.

Cassie harrumphed. “Like I know-- you think Sam tells me anything?” she fired back. “For all I know, he could be mixing rat blood and poison ivy in a bubbling, cast iron pot.”

“I think Jay covered that with ‘stir things together in a cauldron’,” said Mike, and Cassie rolled her eyes at him, although it was mostly for show; she was glad he’d abandoned his whole “lie to me and I’ll kill you” mood, at least for now.

When they got to DG, Khalil was on the register, talking to a customer about the origin of the beans for the daily blend. The assistant manager waved the three of them into the back room, which is where Cassie and Jay were headed anyway. Mike scratched beneath his ear as he went behind the counter, like he was embarrassed to be infiltrating DG’s inner sanctum as a non-employee.

Before entering the break room, Cassie cast a glance back at Khalil, noting to herself that this was the second time he was opting to run the shop rather than be in the back room for demon business. Considering Khalil could pretty much run the entire store himself unless it got really busy, that made perfect sense, but she wondered if he was deliberately keeping away from all of it.

In the back, Sam was standing over the round metal table, standing watch over a small silver pot on a portable hot plate in the center. The hot plate looked brand new, leading Cassie to believe he’d probably just bought it that day for this purpose.

He was using the top of their broken sanitizer to hold what were apparently ingredients; Cassie saw several clear glasses holding liquids she couldn’t immediately identify, and what looked like herbs in little mesh bags. There were also some chunks of rock, and a large metal item that looked like a hamster cage, but she couldn’t imagine what he would need that for. She took a step closer to see the other items, while Sam looked up at their entrance.

“Great job keeping the secret,” he said, giving her his half-hearted glare; the one he gave you when he wanted you to know he was mad, but not mad enough to bother flaring up at you.

“
Ser told us we didn’t have to keep it secret,” said Jay defensively, putting his hands on his hips. Cassie ignored both of them and studied the amulet ingredients instead.

“No one FORBID you to tell, true. But I thought it would be common sense not to go around
--“

“Oh my God, it’s a rat! You’re putting this in there?” said Cassie, turning to face him. She had discovered the hamster cage’s hapless inhabitant. It was a small black rat, cowering in the corner of the cage as if anticipating its lamentable fate. “Why is magic totally disgusting?”

To her mild surprise, Sam didn’t take issue with her judgment, instead returning his attention to the boiling pot calmly. “Physical demon magic is inherently bloody, using animal parts for power. White magic is much neater, but unfortunately for you I can’t do that.”

Mike leaned back against the employee lockers and cleared his throat. Sam looked up at him while he began stirring the pot with a wooden spoon. “What?”

Mike crossed his arms. “So, you’re making magic amulets.”

“I’m making amulets; saying
magic amulets is redundant,” said Sam.

Cassie approached the table, keeping her distance from Sam. She leaned over towards the pot and took a tentative sniff, wrinkling her nose as she processed the unidentifiable smell. It was slightly acrid, but beyond that, she could tell nothing.

“This isn’t going to kill people again, is it?” she asked softly. She wasn’t sure what else to say: she could refuse to use it if it was more killer magic, but she didn’t think Sam would take no for an answer. Besides, did she really sympathize with these people who would risk their lives just for a chance to kidnap her? If anyone was still willing to try it after what Sam had done to the first pair, didn’t they kind of deserve it?

Wow,
she thought,
this experience isn’t doing a whole lot for my human compassion.

Sam began stirring more rapidly. “No, it’s a little more nuanced than that. Anyone that tries to touch you with evil intentions will experience unbearable pain as long as they’re in contact with you. It won’t protect you from guns or bombs, but it’s a s
olid anti-kidnapping spell. And...”

“What?” asked
Cassie.

Sam seemed to think better of completing his thought.
“Nothing.”

Jay had walked over to the sanitizer and was checking out the ingredients, careful not to actually touch them. “Can’t you just make it so, like, there’s a force field around us or something? That’s more like how protect
ion spells usually work in games.”

“How do you not feel stupid saying that out loud?” asked Mike, under his breath, but they could all hear him.

Sam seemingly paid Mike no attention. “That’s more or less how white magic protection spells work, but like I said, I can’t do those,” he muttered. “This is the best I can do.” Cassie raised an eyebrow at the rare show of humility. “It has limitations, but it should protect you from harm for months.”

“How is a bunch of crap thrown into a pot going to protect anyone from anything?” said Mike.

Cassie and Jay shared a panicked look; was Mike suicidal? Even if he didn’t believe in magic yet, he should know Sam well enough from their encounters at the shop to know better than to antagonize him. However, Sam continued stirring slowly, like he took no notice of the rudeness of the question.

“It can because it’s a bunch of specific crap: specific items with specific properties that mimic the spells a demon or a witch can cast. Like a chemical formula, only for magic. I could cast individual protection spells on each one of you, but that would be tiring to maintain-
- doing this nets the same effect at a fraction of the energy. I’m using the magical properties of these items to take the place of casting with my own power.”

Cassie widened her eyes; for Sam to give such a complete response to any question, especially on this subject, was unexpected. She wasn’t sure if it was for Mike’s benefit, or just because
Serenus wasn’t there that he was actually being informative.

More importantly, that was the first time either he or
Serenus had made any mention of a witch. Interesting. Cassie sniffed the brew again, trying to discern what was in it so far. The pot made pleasant noises as it continued to boil furiously.

“So there are witches, huh?”

Sam paused before he answered. “Yes. And stop smelling it.”

Before she could ask more about this topic, Mike interjected again. “Look, if this is a prank,
gotta admit it’s a really well-organized one. But I still haven’t seen anything to convince me that any of this is for real.”

“What about the dead bodies outside Cassie’s house
?” asked Jay.

Mike shook his head slowly from side to side. “That’s weird, but you can’t say they definitely died from magic.”

“Only because you didn’t see them,” said Cassie, trying to excise the gory images that were trying to worm their way back to the front of her mind. She pursed her lips: she would not think about it. Period.

Sam put down the spoon on the metal table and went to the sanitizer, picking up a cup with a small amount of golden liquid and what appeared to be a
salt shaker. He returned to the table and began pouring the liquid into the pot. “That’s not my problem, Mike. When I finish this, you’re going to wear it for your own protection, because I’m responsible for you now. What you believe is your own business.”

Cassie looked at Mike and shrugged, as if to say
I told you he would be like this.
Mike looked like he was angry, but unsure what to do about it.

“Hey,” said Cassie, suddenly remembering another frightening image she was keeping tucked away in the back of her mind. “Sam, you could show him your eyes.
Your real eyes.”

Sam tightened his jaw like she’d just insulted him. “I will not.”

“Why not?” she said, knowing she sounded pouty. If that wouldn’t convince Mike, nothing would.

“I. Will. Not,” he said slowly.

Okay then, a bit touchy about that are we?

“Hey, is this the recipe?” said Jay brightly. He held a piece of loose leaf paper in Sam’s direction. It must have been on the sanitizer, perhaps behind the hamster c
age where Cassie hadn’t looked. “Can I look at it?”

Sam sighed. “If I was trying to hide it from you, would I have put it somewhere you could easily find it?”

“Awesome!” said Jay, beginning to read the recipe. Cassie and Mike walked over to read over his shoulders, Cassie standing on tiptoe. She squinted at the ornate handwriting, which she assumed must be Serenus’; she couldn’t imagine Sam writing in flowery, cursive script. Jay started to read out loud, but the other two shushed him immediately.

Classic Protection Amulets

Makes: 12
units

Prep Time: 48 hours

Craft Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

2 cups amber water

5 diamond studs

1 fist-sized chunk of onyx

1 chunk rose quartz, small

12 ounces bay leaves

12 ounces rosemary

1 ounce extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons sea salt

1 goose liver (cat liver may be substituted)

1 cicada husk, hollowed out

1 live rodent: rat, ferret, or mouse can be used.

2 ounces demonic essence

Preparation:

Make sure the amber water soaks for at least 48 hours for potency. Force-feed the rodent with grain so that its belly swells the day before crafting. Extract demonic essence 24 hours before crafting.

Craft:

Heat the amber water in a saucepan over a medium flame. Slowly add the herbs while stirring constantly, over a period of several minutes. Add the olive oil and sea salt. Allow it to boil ten minutes.

Next, add the demonic essence while stirring. After the liquid has begun to take on a purple hue, add the diamond chips, onyx, and rose quartz. When the gemstones have dissolved and the potion starts to turn black, add the rodent, live; put heat on low, and let rodent dissolve for the next half hour, stirring once every few minutes. After the rodent has completely dissolved, add the liver and cicada husk, which should dissolve within minutes. Turn off heat after all ingredients have dissolved.

Let mixture cool for another hour; if mixed correctly, it should return to a purple hue. Divide potion into whatever you are using to mold the amulets before mixture hardens into rock.