Chapter 8

I nodded, "I'm Alice."

"What are you doing in Paris?" Alec asked.

"I have a…task," I said. I didn't want him to press on any further, but apparently he didn't get it because he asked, "Which is?"

I sighed and said, "I have to find Calithea's mirror."

He pressed further, "Why?"

"I'm on a quest," I said.

"What is it for?"

"I don't know…" I said trailing off. I looked ahead of me; we were surrounded with people carrying shopping bags on both arms. Some had the bags running up to their shoulders. We stopped to look at the roads—if anyone was driving—and crossed a street.

"I could help you…" he offered seconds later.

"I don't know…" I said uncertainly. "Why are you here?" I asked. It was my turn to ask the questions.

"I don't know…" he replied.

I looked into his mind. It felt wrong, but he seemed like he was lying. His mind had something off of it. There was a block that kept me from his memories. I could hear what he was thinking—thinking about who I was—but I couldn't see his past. Someone had placed a block in it.

"That's weird," I said.

"I know," he replied.

"No, not that. Your memories, they're blocked. Someone blocked it from me," I said.

He looked at me with his eyebrows raised.

"Mind reader," I said pointing to myself.

"Nice," he broke out into a smile that could light up the whole city of Paris. "You could hear what I'm thinking of right now right?" I nodded, his smile widened.

"Do you remember anything?" I asked, hoping to get a little information about him past.

"No…" He lost his smile. "All I know is that I'm an enchanter. I woke up…near the Eiffel Tower and boarded that bus. I don't remember anything. Except that I knew how to speak French. And that I had been in Paris for days," he ran his hands through his hair. "When that vampire woman appeared, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew I had done it before though, it all felt familiar," he said.

His eyes had dulled down to a darker shade of green, he looked so sad.

"Can you…try to remember?" I asked hopefully. Why would someone block his memories and take them away? This guy wascreeping me out, but I also wanted to help him.

I looked back up at Alec; he had this look of concentration on. By the looks of his face he was trying to remember. He cried out in pain.

"Alec!" I pulled him to the side of s shop so we wouldn't bother any pedestrians. A couple of them were already swearing at us."What's wrong?"

"That always happens," he said.

"What does?" I hissed. He had his head in his hands.

"I've tried remembering," he grimaced. "And this," he pointed at his head. "Always happens."

I smacked his on his shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me?" I half screamed. "You could've died!"

He grinned, "I wouldn't have. I've tried it before remember?"

I rolled my eyes. He was sweating; he looked like he had just ran 5 miles. His blond hair was stuck to his forehead and a little damp. His eyes were back to their shade of bright green. "Do you need anything?"

"No," he was still grinning.

"Why are you still smiling?" I hissed.

"Nothing," he grinned and walked ahead.

I stood there like an idiot for about 2 seconds then ran to catch up to him. When I joined him, he once again grinned. I tried to read his mind, but he was trying to remember again.

"Stop that," I scolded him.

"What?"

"You're trying to remember again," I replied. "If you have that attack again, I'm not going back for you."

"Attack?" he asked chuckling.

"Whatever," I said walking ahead of him. He left me alone, but I knew he was following me a couple of feet back.

He was whistling casually, sometimes signing a couple of lines of My Girl. I ignored him, and looked around. I was just outside a store called Hermés. I was about to walk on, but a woman whisked past me and walked into the store.

She was wearing a coral peplum dress with skin toned 5 inch pumps. Upon her head sat diamond-encrusted Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses. She was carrying a light coral green purse. She had dark brown hair with ombré highlights. Her lips were full and curved. Her eyes were lined with a thin line of gold eyeliner. Her eyes were also gold—I was sure they weren't contacts.

I screamed, "Alec!" and ran into the store. Before I could get to the front doors, Alec was already there. He was holding the door open for me. I stood there looking up at him in astonishment. I'd never seen anyone move that fast—not even the Magi.

"What happened?" He asked, his face contorting in curiosity.

"Calithea, she's inside." I ran in, leaving Alec to follow.

I stopped and looked around; Calithea was already carrying 5 bags up to the register.

"Would you like anything else mademoiselle?" The attendant next to her asked.

She looked at a rack of scarves that were 50% off.

"I'll take the mint green one," she said in a melodious voice.

"Okay. It's not half off though, somebody must have misplaced it."

"I would like it half off," said Calithea.

"Ma'am, I'm not sure I can-"

"Give it to me, half off!" Calithea said, her voice losing its soft musical touch. I could've sworn she had morphed slightly bigger for a split second too.

"Anything for you miss," the attendant said with blank eyes. She rang up the scarves without even looking at them. "You can have them for free if you'd like."

"That would be excellent," Calithea replied in a smug voice, as she took the bag without handing over any cash.

She turned around, and almost walked right into Alec. She looked at him with a slightly surprised look on her face, but then when her eyes fell on me, an understanding look flitted across her golden eyes.

"Hello Alice," she said.

"Um…hey," I said, not quite sure of what to say. "That was pretty cheap what you did back there."

"Oh, you mean getting stuff for free? I do that all the time. There's no magic required when a guy is the one helping me," she said with a small smirk.

"I'm glad to know that you're helping out the stores," I said rolling my eyes. "Right Alec? Alec?"

I looked over at Alec, who had a dumb grin plastered over his face, as he was staring at Calithea.

"Alec. Alec!" I snapped, pinching him slightly.

"Wha-what?" he mumbled, trying to look at Calithea again.

"She is a goddess!" I snapped.

"So what?" Alec said, trying to sneak a peek at Calithea again over my shoulder. His eyes were glazed over.

"Alec, I regret doing this…" I said. I wound back my hand, and smacked him as hard as I could across the cheek.

"Ow!" he said, rubbing his cheek. "What was that for?"

He looked upset, but his eyes had lost their glaze, and his senses seemed to have returned to normal.

"I'm sorry about that," I said to Calithea as I turned around.

"No problem," she said with a wink. "Now let's go find somewhere comfortable to have a chat."

Calithea walked ahead of us in her high heels. She walked out of the store and down the street, carrying all of her shopping bags and acting like she owned the place. I few guys wolf whistled at her, and she ignored them, only giving a few winks out to some of the cuter boys. We finally made our way into a crowded café, where she found us a small table.

"Isn't this a bad spot for us to talk? I mean, a lot of people could over hear us," Alec pointed out.

"No, this is actually a perfect spot. The more people there are, the noisier it will be. Everybody will be too distracted to listen to us," Calithea said. She took off the dark brown sunglasses that had been perched on her head, and shook out her hair before putting them back in. Then she folded her hands on the table and looked me in the eyes, with her strange golden ones.

"Let me get straight to the point. I know you want my mirror. But...I'm a little reluctant to give it to you. You see, it's very special to me," Calithea said.

"But-" I protested.

Calithea held up a perfectly manicured hand, silencing me. "However, if you guys are willing to do an errand for me, I'll give you my mirror. Sound like a plan?"

I was about to agree, when Alec cut in. "What kind of errand?" he said suspiciously. "The gods aren't exactly known for being fair."

"And I'm a goddess," said Calithea with special emphasis. "I promise this won't be too hard. It's more of an inconvenience that I'd rather not go through. Besides, it's not even possible for me to give it to you without you doing this for me."

"Whatever," I said. "Just tell us what it is."

"Well, uh, my boyfriend and I broke up recently," Calithea began.

"Really?!" Alec interrupted. "You mean you're single!?"

Calithea responded with a pointed glare, and then continued on. "I already have a new boyfriend. Anyways, that's not the point. The night I broke up with my old boyfriend, I accidently left my purse at his house as I stormed away and…I'm getting off track. That was my magic purse. You know, the magic purse of Calithea? Well, that has my magic mirror, my magic lipstick, and all of that stuff in it. I need you guys to sneak into his apartment, steal the purse, bring it back to me, and then I'll give you the mirror. Deal?"

Alec and I glanced at each other quickly, making a silent agreement. "Deal," I said, sticking out my hand and shakingCalithea's warm one.

"Deal," Alec repeated, sticking out his hand and takingCalithea's a little too eagerly. They shook, and he kept holding on. Calithea finally wrenched her hand away, and then told us where her boyfriend lived.

"He lives in the apartments a block away from here, on Guerrestreet," Calithea told us. "He lives in apartment 37, on the third floor. Be careful though, he has all sorts of defense mechanisms set up to keep me away…"

"Great," I said sarcastically.

Calithea rolled her eyes, and then shooed us away…

…

Hey guys! Finally Chapter 8 is done! I had a little help from ArianaWeasly, she wrote the bottom half of this chapter!

Chapter 9 is in progress!

~Kat

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