JESSE

"There you are!" Luke stands as soon as he saw me running, struggling between my kendo stick and the weight of my bag, "Where have you been, man? We tried to call you like hundreds of times."

"It's the worst day ever! Like, ever ever forever! The new English teacher is a definition of total no-fun!" I said between my breath, "She extended my detention time, and confiscated my phone and turned it off since it didn't stop ringing! I told her it's an emergency, but since the caller is you, she thought it was just an excuse so I could left the detention early. And the worst of it, Quinn couldn't pick me up so I have to walk here, and stepped on dog poop with my new shoes" I raise my leg so they can see that nasty thing, "So, what's the magic emergency?" I'm looking at the guy who flooded my inbox with messages about this meeting, but he doesn't seem to listen to me at all, "Heath!"

"Hey! Yeah… It's… This book." he took out a hard covered, A5 paper-sized book which doesn't look appealing even for a display in an antique shop from his bag.

"Is that—?"

He nodded, "A Book of Shadows. And it looks ancient."

Luke takes a closer look on the book, "Where did you find it?"

"Near a fallen big tree not far from my usual jogging track inside the Bremin Forest. It looks like it was buried there before, right under the roots. I tried to open it, but I can't."

"You're right." Luke finally giving up after a few failed attempts of opening the book with his bare hands, "No seal, no lock… It's like the pages are super-glued."

"Not glued." Nicco talked for the first time since I've arrived, which is so weird because I know that she won't be able to hold the urge to act like she knows everything. It's not that hard to tell that she has something going on inside her head, something that either too bad or too good. Whatever it is, that kind of Nicco does need help, or at least a comfort. But as always, she's too prestigious to ask.

"It's sealed with magic."

"Magically sealed?!" I turned my voice down after my friends hushed me for saying it too loud, "Cool!"

"Then maybe we shouldn't bother to try to open it." Luke said, "What if by doing that, we accidently release somekind of another mega demon into this world?"

Heath answered with another question, "What if this book has something that we're looking for? We owe Ellen. She did help us, a lot. At least we can do something to help her helping her friends get their magic back."

I raised my hand, "Felix is not just a friend. He's her boyfriend."

"Thanks for the correction, Jesse. So, what would you say?"

"I'm in!" I said in excitement while looking at the rest of the group, "Oh, come on! Luke?"

"Uh… I'm not sure. But, yeah… I'll do it. But if something DOES come out…"

"Then we'll fight it together like before. We're so much better now, aren't we?"

"Nicco?" Heath was clearly whispered to her, but his sight is focused on… I don't know, the remaining poop on the tip of my left shoe?

"Then we need an unlocking spell." she took out her phone, "I think I wrote that one here…"

"You know it's too risky keeping spells in your phone, right?"

She squinted her eyes at me, "I know, Jesse. Just didn't have the time to write in in my Book of Shadows yet… Here. First we have to put our elements in, then say the spell together." she cleared her throat before start reading it, "Keeper of wisdom, heed my call. Transcend your bonds and reveal to all. Earth… water… air… fire…"

A few mojo dojo later, the pages of the book suddenly open by themselves before stopped at a random page.

"See? No demon thingy."

Luke frowned, "Then why did you grab your kendo stick?"

"It's an act of prevention." I put my stick away and look at the open page, "What's that?"

"It's a spell…" Nicco stopped to read the title, "A… restoration spell?"

"Restoration?! What kind of restoration?"

"No way…" her eyes widened in disbelief, "Elemental power restoration."