"But," Corinne jolted me from my thoughts, "it can also be used to reflect any negative or harmful energy that is sent your way or that you've manifested yourself."
"Like a curse," I clarified.
"Yes," she looked pensive as she spoke, "but while it is effective against most curses and psychic attacks, it also lifts a person's own negativity that they manifest and create themselves." She worried her bottom lip.
I frowned at her woo woo bullshit. "And?" I demanded.
"Well, as all that negative energy lifts, you may feel off-balanced for a day or two while your body adjusts."
"What does that mean?" I commanded.
"You may have a headache or you might just feel under the weather until you stabilise."
This girl was absolutely bat shit fucking crazy.
"And Arlo?"
"The same will apply to him," she offered.
I frowned at her as she drank the remainder of her milk in one fluid movement and began moving around the kitchen.
“Are you saying that we’re going to feel ill because of the shit you just did?”
I have no idea why I needed the clarification, but I did.
“Hmmm hmm,” she hummed, and I watched in frustration as she began opening and closing cupboards, eventually content to pull out a large, green mixing bowl.
"What are you doing?" I frowned.
She looked up at me in surprise, her blonde hair glossy in this lighting.
"I have to cast protection over this house, so that this estate becomes a safe haven."
“Isn’t that what the candles were for?”
She looked exasperated. Well welcome to the club Bambi.
“The ones I lit were only for you and Arlo - the remaining twelve that I prepared are for the house.”
She didn’t even glance up at me while she spoke as she focussed on the task at hand and filled the bowl with water.
I ground my teeth, my jaw aching from having to deal with her for the last few hours. It would be easier if I understood how this Magick thing worked - if I could understand the framework she dealt with, it may give me some sort of clarity on the situation as well as enlighten me on what to expect next - because right now, Corinne was a hattrick filled with surprises.
I stood in silence, having nothing further to offer other than to simply watch her work. She filled the bowl from the sink, dropping heaps of salt into the bowl of water, whispering words above the transparent liquid. My eyes seemed to be content to deceive me because the water looked as if it rippled, which was impossible.
Corinne positioned her remaining candles in key locations throughout the house, lighting them as she went. Warmth rippled through passageways and up the staircase, bursting into the rooms, despite the closed doors. It was as if the house welcomed Corinne and her Magick. Could Arlo could feel the difference? Feel the warmth? You don’t really realize how cold a place is until it’s warmed up, and standing in the haze of her work, I understood how cold - how lonely - this house actually was.
She dipped a paintbrush into the bowl of water and began sketching invisible sigils along all the doorframes and windowsills. In order not to disturb Arlo, we painted his windows from the outside, with Corinne mentally noting that she would need to redo his room from the inside the following day. Time seemed to either trickle slowly or move in the blink of an eye, and by the time she was finished with all those goddamn windows, the golden haze of the sunrise was beginning to creep in.
“You worked through the night,” I stated, my voice hoarse from not actually having spoken for the last few hours. We had worked in companionable silence - although I hadn't really worked, I had simply watched over her - monitoring her every move. It began as a way to establish that she wasn’t a threat, but after the first spell was cast, I remained to see what else this girl was made of - what else she could do.
Corinne gave me a tired smile, “It needed to be done,” she said matter-of-factly.
She yawned loudly and a chuckle tumbled from my lips. Her gaze found mine and she seemed perplexed by the sound.
“Come on,” I said gruffly, “we need to get a few hours of sleep in before we face the world.”
She nodded sadly, and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why her sadness bothered me so much. An ache began building behind my eyes and I knew that it was truly time to call it a day - a night - whatever.
“What was that thing you summoned in the bathroom?” I asked as we walked down the hallway towards our respective rooms.
Her hand lingered above her door handle, “Isis?” she threw the name over her shoulder before shrugging and adding, “She’s my deity.”
And before I could even delve into the next string of questions, she had slipped into her room, her door shutting firmly behind her. No fucking doubt I would be Googling what a deity was in terms of the Witchcraft she was doing. It seemed that every time I asked a question, her answer only highlighted how little I knew of her world.
I fired off a couple of texts to Ravi and Madame Elise at the burlesque club and put myself to bed. A strange fucking night for a sinner like me indeed.