After a few minutes, a store employee lumbered out of the back and to the counter. He was a large man with a heavy five o’clock shadow and disheveled clothing. I could tell by his appearance he didn’t want to be here any more than I did. The candy bar wrapper rustled as I slid it across the counter. My heart was beating so hard against my ribcage I was certain the man could hear it. There was a moment while he scanned my items I considered just paying leaving.
But this was my last chance. The only way I could see Soren again.
“$2.50,” the man grunted at me once he had finished scanning my stuff.
“I need something else.” My voice held a hard edge I didn’t feel on the inside.
“What?”
“Something from Marty’s personal collection.”
I felt like I was in some bizarre improv group. Nothing about this came naturally to me. The word around campus was that this was the place to get what you needed, but the words tasted awkward as they fell off my tongue. I was sure the man was about to tell me to get lost. He’d figure out I was an imposter. To my surprise, he raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms. His eyes flicked up and down.
“Oh, yeah? I’ve not seen you here before. Who sent you?”
“Margo.”
An aquantance from class. She’d bragged about coming to Marty’s last semester in one of my classes. So here was hoping she wasn’t lying.
“You can’t work a spell, can you?”
“No.”
Heat rose in my cheeks. My chin jutted out.
“I’ll need something ready to use.”
“What do you need?”
“I need to sleep.”
“Forever?”
Was that a real question or a test?
“No. But I need something that’s just on this side of forever.”
“Wait right here.” He disappeared in the back.
I waited. No sound came from the back except the mindless drone of a tv. I leaned against the counter and tapped my foot. The urge to leave overcame me again. I ignored it.
I’d been waiting for ages. I yanked my phone out of my pocket. It’s only been three minutes.
“Cool it, Blair,” I muttered to myself.
The man returned, this time with a small pouch. He handed it to me and I stuck it in the pocket of my jacket as fast as I could.
“Fifty dollars.”
I thrust a $50 bill at him. I grabbed my pop and candy bar and turned to go. The bell chimed again. Wait. I turned back to see him watching me.
“Um—how does it work?”
“Mix it with water. Wait ten minutes and then make sure you drink it all. Good luck. It’s a toss up how it affects people without magic.”
I resisted the urge to run once I got out of the store. I pulled my hood back up against the rain and walked back to my apartment. My phone buzzed in my purse, but I ignored it.
Cassandra had been trying to call me all day. I didn’t want to talk to her. She’d made it clear she didn’t believe me. I wasn’t interested in wasting energy on people who wouldn’t help me find Soren.
Once I was back at my apartment, I locked the door behind me. After making sure my roommate wasn’t home, I grabbed a glass of water and a spoon and locked myself in my bedroom. I sat the glass of water on my nightstand. With shaking hands, I pulled out the packet. Light blue power filled the inside.
With shaking hands, I dumped the powder in the glass and stirred it until the powder had dissolved. The water was now a deep blue color and foamed at the top. I sniffed it. Lavender and something else with a warm, relaxing note in it. I set a timer on my phone for ten minutes.
I sat with my legs crossed and my chin resting on my hands as I watched the timer count back toward zero. Someone rattled the door to the apartment, but I ignored it. My roommate and I were always coming in and out without talking to one another. Her footsteps came down the hall. The timer was getting close. Just thirty seconds now. I wanted to grab the potion and get it over with, but I waited. A cold sweat started on my forehead as the timer got closer and closer to zero.
The timer buzzed and someone knocked at my bedroom door at the same time. I jumped up off the bed and grabbed for my phone, coming close to knocking off the glass. A deep breath centered me again.
“Yeah?” I called. “Who is it?”
“Blair, it’s Cassie. Let me in.”
“Crap.” What was she doing here? I picked up the glass off my nightstand. I needed to drink the potion, but I couldn’t with Cassandra standing outside my door.
“What do you want?”
“Blair, what’s going on? Your roommate called me because she said you didn’t go to classes today and you’re acting weird. Why is your door locked? Let me in.”
My doorknob rattled as Cassie tried to get in on the other side.
“I’m fine, Cassie. Go home. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Blair, let me in right now. I know you went to Marty’s. What did you get? What are you trying to do?”
“Leave me alone!”
I was running out of time. I lifted the glass to my lips.
My door exploded with a crash. The reverberation knocked me onto the bed. I barely managed to keep the glass upright. I threw my head back and tried to gulp the drink before the dust settled.
Cassie yelled, and the liquid disappeared just as the glass touched my lips. The glass in my hands was empty. Anguish unlike anything I had ever known welled up inside me. I threw the glass at Cassandra. She dodged, and it shattered against the wall.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Cassie
