Witch Slap

CHAPTER ONE

He’d been following me for nearly six blocks.

Not fond of being followed, just saying. It’s not high on my list of ways I’d like to spend my evening. There are lots of other things I’d rather do. Watch TV, eat a snack, read a trashy magazine, or even go through social media stalking boys I used to have crushes on in high school and convince myself I’m better off without them. Lots of things.

This guy? He thought that I didn’t know that he was there, but I knew. I had caught sight of him right away, when I left The Sunset Diner, the restaurant where I worked. I came out the back door, into the alley behind the place, and there he was, down at the end of the street. He was sitting on a bench on the adjacent street, and he wasn’t facing me. But he still stood out.

I suppose it wasn’t entirely his fault. This was a small town, it wasn’t easy to blend in. And it was especially hard to blend in as a gargoyle. In this area, magical creatures didn’t show up very often. They kept to the cities, or to their own places. Not that I have anything against magical creatures, per se. In fact, if I did, that would be pretty hypocritical, considering I’m a witch and all.

He didn’t give any outward sign that he’d seen me, but I could sense an alertness in him, and I knew he was here for me.

I’ve had more experience being chased than I care to think about.

And usually, I was being chased by things that were much less nice to look at than the gargoyle was. Things that stalked my dreams and haunted the periphery of my vision. I was always wary, always watching for them.

The gargoyle was tall. I had never met or seen any other gargoyles in real life, so I didn’t know if most gargoyles were tall or not. It can be hard to tell in videos and pictures. I can’t tell you how many celebrity crushes I’ve had that were dashed to pieces when I found out they were super short dudes.

But the gargoyle was tall. I saw that when he stood up, which he did after I cleared the alley. He had the sense not to follow me through the alley, though. Instead, he went around the block and was strolling along in the near-darkness of the early fall twilight. He had his hands in his pockets, nonchalant. He never looked at me.

I looked him over pretty good, though. He was completely gray. That was typical, all gargoyles were. They were living stone. I didn’t know exactly how that worked, owing to the fact that I’d never seen a gargoyle up close before. But, looking at him, he looked like a sculpture come to life. He was chiseled and perfect. He had rounded muscles and broad shoulders. His facial features were like a classical statue.

Admittedly, his being really damned attractive made him stand out too.

I stared at him for a long time, not moving.

He glanced up, looked over my head, and then ducked into one of the shops on the street.

Another girl might have thought she was paranoid and that she wasn’t being followed. But I knew better.

So, I took off down the street, the opposite direction from home. I wasn’t going there. I didn’t know who this guy was, but he was obviously following me, and I wasn’t going to be so stupid as to take him back to my house. My gran could probably hold her own, take care of herself, but my mother, well, half the time she was as helpless as a child. I always protected her, no matter what.

I glanced back to see that he’d come out of the shop and had stopped at a newspaper rack. He was taking a newspaper out, pretending to peruse it.

I kept going, down to the end of the block, out of town. We don’t have a lot of town here, maybe seven blocks of it. After that, the sidewalk disappears and the road narrows, and there are houses spread out with big yards. But before I reached the houses, I turned onto the road that goes down over the hill towards the river. I’d lead him there.

There was a bridge that went over the road, made of stone. It was an old railroad bridge, from back in the days when the only way in and out of town was the train. Nothing drove on the bridge anymore, so it was covered in vines and even had a few trees splitting up between the stone, their branches reaching for the sky. The plan was to get far enough ahead of the guy to get on the bridge and then wait for him to show up.

It wasn’t hard to manage getting up on the bridge. His little detour to get a newspaper gave me the time to get ahead. By the time he came to the bridge, I was crouched on top. I stared down at his stone head.

He had picked up the pace, clearly a little concerned that he seemed to have lost me.

I waited, taking his measure. I couldn’t tell if he was armed. I could only see that he didn’t have anything bulky, like a sword or something.

What? It’s not a crazy idea. People sometimes fight with swords. Especially weird magical creatures.

Even if he was armed, I was going to take my chances. Gargoyles were magical creatures, but they didn’t have any magic, like, say, dragons or something. Their bodies didn’t create magic just by existing. Gargoyles had been created by magic, but they themselves couldn’t use magic unless they had a talisman.

Most beings couldn’t. Magic tended to come from dragons. Their bones and claws and scales were used to make magical talismans. Crazies might even go far enough to drink their blood and become a vampire, or eat their flesh and become a drake. That was pretty hardcore, though.

Me? I was unique. I wasn’t a dragon, but I had my own kind of magic. Not dragon magic. Something else. It was one of the reasons that my gran was always saying that I was a challenge.

I couldn’t wait forever. He was close now. I had about two seconds to decide what to do before he went under the bridge.

I jumped down. Sprang up into the air and fell down directly on top of his shoulders.

The force from my fall knocked us both to the ground. I landed on top of him. I punched him right in the jaw.

It hurt like hell. I crumpled away from him, cradling my hand. Wow. So that was what hitting living stone felt like.

He was startled. He took a moment to get himself together, rubbing his jaw with one hand. He looked me over. Well, I didn’t see that coming.

I got to my feet. What do you want with me?

He was still rubbing his jaw. Who says I want anything? I was strolling along, minding my business, and you jumped down and punched me in the face.

I tilted my head to one side. Oh, please. You were following me. We both know it.

He chuckled. Well, it seems they were right about you.

Who was? I said.

The Order of Ash, he said.

I’m supposed to know who that is? I said. I have no idea what you’re talking about.

The Order of Ash is an organization of mages who run Ravenridge College. I work with them. I’ve been tailing you to assess your potential, he said. I was supposed to observe you for a few days, get an idea of who you were and what you could do. He shrugged. I’m guessing that’s not going to work since you know I’m here.

Assess my potential? For what?

There’s a space for you at Ravenridge College, he said. That is, if I determine you’re qualified for it.

A school? I don’t want to go to a school, I said. Much to my gran’s chagrin, I had foregone college. She didn’t like it, because I still lived at home, and I still had the same job as in high school, waiting tables at The Sunset Diner in town. She said I was never going to be able to make a career of that. Maybe she was right. These days, I didn’t much feel like I had the ability to see far enough in the future to think about things like a career. It was all I could do to live from day to day. Gran didn’t understand. She didn’t know how hard things were. Part of that was my fault. I hid things from her. I hid things from everyone. Talking about it sometimes just made it worse.

It’s not a regular school, said the gargoyle. It’s a magic school.

I raised my eyebrows. For serious? No thanks.

No thanks? He raised his eyebrows too. You don’t even know anything about it. And anyway, I haven’t determine if you’re qualified.

Maybe he was right. Maybe I was being hasty. Magic school? Maybe I was interested. I shoved my hands in my pockets. Fine. What do I have to do to qualify?

Magic.

Magic? I said. That’s it? I pointed behind me at the bridge without looking at it. With my other hand I reached inside my shirt and clutched the dragon claw talisman my gran had given me. I could feel the magic inside the talisman without touching it, but touching it sometimes helped. This kind of magic, dragon magic, I had to pull the magic out of the talisman, through my body, and then into the object I wanted to move.

The object I wanted to move was a piece of stone on the bridge. I used the magic to lift it into the air. I felt it move, rather than saw it. I let the object pass over my head and then floated it down so that it set down on the ground between the gargoyle me. There. Magic. Do I pass?

He held out his hand. Give me your talisman.

I let out a disbelieving laugh. What is this? Everybody knows that the only way you can do magic is with a talisman, unless you’re something else. Dragon. Vampire. Drake. I’m not one of those things. I need a talisman or I can’t do magic.

That so. It wasn’t a question.

I lifted my chin and answered him anyway. That’s so.

He shrugged. I guess you don’t qualify after all.