Chapter 4: Control
After the circle, I went up to my room, and lay down on the bed. Now, it is very shocking, let me tell you, to be a very powerful witch, and suddenly have the breath knocked out of you like that. Very, very shocking. So now, I'm going to sleep. Sleep.
As soon as the image of his fucking eyes gets the fuck out my head, I will sleep.
Control, Morgan, control. It's all about control, my father used to tell me when I was younger. You've got to be in control; you have to wield the power. When your enemy gets into control, Morgan, you will lose.
Why did this idiot boy have this power over me, though? I thought as soon as I found out why, I could get rid of it.
Right now, I needed to sleep.
I closed my eyes, and I saw him again. For a moment I relaxed, and then I tensed, opening my eyes. I would kill him. I would, because Loren wanted me to, and Da would want me to, and it was my right to kill him.
Cal and I were sitting at the breakfast table. He had a piece of toast, and I had coffee and the newspaper. "So," Cal said, "What did you think of the circle last night?"
"Very…circular," I said, and admittedly, this is not up to my usual grade of sarcasm. I turned back to the newspaper. There had been a big landslide in some South American country. Fascinating stuff.
"No, come on, Morgan, what did you think of it?"
I closed my eyes. Why did he persist, and persist, and persist? I had a mental image of banging my head against the wall as I was thinking this. "I said I thought it was circular. Can I read my newspaper now?"
I turned back to the newspaper. Where was I? Oh, yes, landslide in South America. What fun.
Cal said, "What did you think of Sky Eventide?"
"She was pretty. If I was gay, I'd go for her." I said this without looking up. I picked up my coffee, and took a sip.
"And Hunter Niall?"
I dropped the coffee mug. It spilled on me and the smashed on the floor. Goddamit! Great sense of timing, Cal. I do a spell to fix the broken mug, and then one to dry myself off. I'm just talented like that.
After all that was over, Cal said again, "What do you think of Hunter Niall?"
It's all about control, and I could play this game with Cal. I'd always be the one in control with him, and I could get him away from the subject of that irritating Seeker. "Why do you care so much?" I snapped.
"I saw the way he was looking at you last night."
I suppressed the urge to say, "What?"
"Cal," I said, "You're an idiot." I grabbed Cal's car keys from their place on the kitchen counter. "I'm going out," I said, and then, promptly, went out.
I drove around for a bit, aimlessly, thought about counting cows, only there weren't any, played the license plate game with myself, only that was no fun, and somehow wound up in this place called Red Kill.
There was a magick store. Practical Magick. It sounded like a good store, and there were actually a couple of things I needed to get, actually. So I parked the car and went in. It was a nice store. Definitely, you know, not as nice as the ones in New York City, but one can't have everything.
I found most of the stuff I wanted, and then went up to pay for it. An elderly lady was working the register. "Hello," she said, pleasantly. "I haven't seen you here before."
"Oh, I'm here for the summer," I said, feeling strangely unguarded.
"I'm Alyce," she said warmly.
"Morgan," I said.
So I had my bag full of purchases, and I turned to go.
And there he was again. Standing right in front of me. Like he was some Greek god. Conceited asshole.
"Morgan, right?" he asked me.
"Yeah," I said.
"I wanted to talk with you. Alyce, do you think we could use your back room?"
Alyce nodded, and Hunter led me into the back room.