"My magic had awoken," Cassie said, smiling slightly at the memory. "It's strange now to think of my life without magic. Strange to remember that most people go through their lives without knowing that magic is a real and vital force in our lives, oblivious to the beings of magic that live in secret alongside them. I don't think even Carmilla, with her fascination in the occult, ghosts and vampires, really in her heart believed in them at the time (though she would never have admitted that)."
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Ophilia Villa, Willow Creek, 2000
I had believed more than most. I had performed seances with my father, heard the voices of the spirits who responded to him. I was fascinated by family stories of witches and magic, but I had always believed that that deeper magic was gone from the world, lost in an age of science and technology.
Now, I called magic, and it answered me. Ok, so I'd set fire to the room... but I was encouraged by Edwards's words. I needed to be careful, but I didn't need to be afraid.
My mother was going to teach me magic. If she had been the Raven, I thought, now I was the Raven's Apprentice.
Early the following morning, before school, I looked through the Book of Shadows and found what my mother's notes called practice exercises.
I think, with that fire spell, she had wanted to start me out with something impressive. That's always made me wonder a little what it would have been like to learn from her in person.
I was a little nervous. Had I really done what I thought I'd done or had the fire just been some kind of freak accident? Was any of this actually real? Was I going to burn down the house?
The centering exercise came easily. I could almost hear Gwen's voice, guiding me through it. Then, in a rush of shivering power, the magic flowed through me again. It was real (and this time I didn't start any fires)!
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Gwen...
Even in the excitement of the night before, I hadn't forgotten my last words to her. I really owed her a big apology. Would she even listen to me? Did she hate me now? Seriously, being a teenager was not fun.
I spent my morning classes imagining nightmare scenarios in which Gwen refused to forgive me, called me a total freak and ultimately declared her undying love for Elly. I avoided my friends entirely over lunch, hiding out in the exercise room of all places, enduring Elly's jibes and trying not a fall on my face on a treadmill.
By the end of afternoon classes, I had pretty much decided that my best option was to move to Senbamachi and live out the remainder of my days as hermit on the slopes of Mount Komorebi. I seriously considered making a break for the car after school, but I decided to just get it over with and ruin my life completely.
So, I steeled myself and intercepted Gwen on her way to the bus.
"Gwen," I said in a voice I imagine is usually reserved for last words before a firing squad, "I..."
"Oh Cas, I'm so sorry!" Gwen said tearfully, before I could say more. "I handled that all wrong. Of course I know how important your mother is to you. I totally should have..."
"No, I'm sorry!" I insisted, talking over her. "I reacted in completely the wrong way. I was just..."
"... considered your feelings," Gwen continued, "but that really was Roac's message. I thought you'd be happy... but I should have realized how hard it would be to hear."
"... so caught off guard and Edwards is right about me being emotional and," I said.
"Can you ever forgive me?" we both said at once.
At that point, what else could we do? Laughing and crying, we all but fell into each other's arms.
Everything was alright between us again.
"So," Gwen smiled at me, "Did you find the book Roac was talking about?"
"Yes," I smiled back. "It's... Gwen, it's amazing. I want to tell you everything!"
"OK, I... oh no, the bus!" Gwen jumped suddenly. "Cas, I have to go. Lilian is waiting for me. She's taking me down to the City for a couple of days, to see the big gallery there. I'll be back for Carmilla's sleep over. I'll see you there. Tell me everything then. I l... uh... I'll see you there."
"Oh... Ok," I said. "I... I'll see you there... I guess."
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Of course, now it was absolutely imperative that I convince Bella to let me go to Carmilla's sleep over.
"I mean, it's not like a party party," I explained, trying to sound as 'polite and respectful' as I could manage. "It'll just be me and my friends, hanging out..."
"All night, at Carmilla's house, with her mother out of town," Bella put in dubiously.
"Mrs. Duplantier will be there," I insisted, "and she's very responsible..."
"She's also very old," Bella pointed out, "and will probably be asleep long before your 'not-a-party' party really starts."
"It's not like we're going to have boys and a keg," I snapped before I could rein in my frustration.
Bella gave me a look that suggested that was exactly what she thought we were going to do.
"I'll consider it," Bella said. "On the following grounds - no boys, no booze or pot or God forbid anything harder."
"Bella, we don't," I started, shocked that she would even think that.
"No leaving the house," Bella continued, "and wandering over to the graveyard, or pulling Halloween pranks on the neighbors."
"Then I can go?" I asked, practically quivering.
"I'll consider it," Bella said again.
"Forget it," I huffed. "You're just going to say no anyway. I'm just going to my room... alone, where I will live as a cloistered nun for the rest of my life."
"Cassandra," Bella said, equally exasperated.
"Let her go. She needs to cool off and you need to 'consider,'" My father said soothingly, adding to his chess partner, "Check."
"If you don't mind an old man's opinion, Bella," Count Straud put in, "I have two daughters of my own - Lilith and Marie-Belle. Head-strong and rebellious, both of them... though in very different ways. Still, sometimes we need to give our children the freedom of their little rebellions. They grow stronger for it."
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"Wait, wait, wait," Miranda said. "Count Straud? Vlad Straud? Vlad Straud, the master vampire who had just wiped-out Gwen's family and has tried to kill us all! Vlad Staud was in your living room, playing chess with your father?!"
"Yes," Cassie nodded.
"What?" Mariah gasped.
"He and my father were good friends," Cassie said. "At the time, I had no idea he was anything but a slightly odd old man. Yes, he'd been giving me increasingly creepy looks since I'd grown boobs... but honestly, that was true of most of my father's friends.
"Looking back, I think my father knew Vlad was a vampire," Cassie continued, "but for whatever reason he wasn't worried that his old friend might eat his family. I have no idea what Bella knew or guessed at the time. She did keep close to me whenever he was in the same room as I was, but I put that down to his creepy looks and her overprotectiveness.
"Honestly, I'm amazed that we avoided a disaster that night. If, as I now believe, Vlad was in Willow Creek looking for the daughter of Ari Silveroak, all it would have taken was one wrong word from any of us, one probing question from him, and he would have found her. If I'd just said Gwen's name out loud, he might have guessed. God, I must have been thinking of her so loudly I'm surprised he didn't pluck it from my mind. I don't know what fate or luck protected us that night, but I'm glad of it."
