‘So we have a chance then? I mean, if you’re his grand-daughter you must have some serious magical shit going on, right?’
Scarlet ignored Martin’s frown at the cuss, her eyes fixed on Lara who squirmed beneath their joint stares. She grinned weakly and shook her head. ‘Actually, I didn’t really believe any of the stories. Father used to speak about him all the time, but they were only stories, he didn’t know him either.’
‘So you don’t do magic at all, then?’
‘Magic?’
Scarlet looked at Martin, who gave her a wry grin and shrugged. ‘We have the book, and that is help enough.’
Lara looked distraught, all scared rabbit. ‘I’m sorry, really.’
Scarlet waved it away, swallowing her disappointment. ‘It’s no biggie.’ She turned to Martin. ‘So what does the book tell us, then?’
Martin looked up from where he was already reading. ‘Well, hopefully, it will inform us of the whereabouts of the Charms and how we use them, amongst other things.’
He cleared his throat, burying his head back in the book and Scarlet stood, watching for a second. He cleared his throat again, then looked up at her, forehead creased. ‘I’ll need a little time to read this, perhaps you two should find some way to amuse yourselves for a while.’
He was back to reading before she could open her mouth, so she turned to Lara. Lara was on her phone, tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. It was cute. Scarlet touched her arm, and she looked up, blinking. ‘Um, yes?’
She motioned to the door with her head. ‘We need to get out of here for a while, give the ‘great one’ time to digest the contents of your book.’
She ignored the grunt from behind her and headed for the exit, Lara just behind. As they stepped out into the afternoon sun, Lara asked. ‘Do you really do magic?’
‘What do think this whole thing is about? What do think the Undying is?’
‘I don’t know, not really, just that it sounded sort of exciting, and…’
Scarlet stopped, looking at her. ‘And?’
Lara’s cheeks reddened and she looked at her shoes. ‘And you looked really hot, you know, on your profile. Mum and Dad don’t really know I’m gay, and I’ve not really had a girlfriend, but you, well, you know, you aren’t someone my parents could meet, or anything…’
She trailed off, one side of her mouth pulled up, eyebrows high as she shrugged. Scarlet wasn’t sure whether to be doing cartwheels or really pissed. ‘So do you think I’m hot, or do you just want a relationship without your parents knowing?’
‘Both?’
Both. OK. Did it matter if her parents knew? She felt like the forbidden fruit, like she was a black guy back in the fifties having some illicit affair with a white girl, living in fear of daddy finding out and beating the crap out of him. It could have been exciting, but actually it was just really annoying. Scarlet didn’t make a thing of being gay, or bi, or whatever, at school, but mum knew and it was cool with her. Weren’t rich people supposed to be more open minded, better at dealing with this sort of thing? ‘Why haven’t you told your mum and dad?’
Lara let out a sigh. ‘I think, for my dad, the idea I might be dating is just weird. He thinks I’m still twelve. So I need to get past that, before they find out, you know…?’
Scarlet nodded and set off through the estate. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Lara caught up, puffing. ‘So, where are we going?’
‘Are we, like, going out, then?’
Lara stopped and Scarlet took another couple of steps before she turned round. Lara was wide-eyed and blushing. ‘Is that how it works then, that easy?’
Scarlet laughed, shaking her head. ‘I don’t know, I thought you were asking me out.’
‘Um, yeah, I guess so?’
They stared at one another, Scarlet’s face glowing, then they both smiled and burst out laughing. Apparently it was that simple. If she’d known, she’d have tried it ages ago. As they walked, Lara slipped her hand into Scarlet’s. The estate wasn’t the best place for that, but right now, she didn’t care.
‘So, I thought we’d go somewhere I can show you some magic.’
‘Cool.’
She sounded like a fan girl. It was cute. A few minutes later they were back in Scarlet’s bedroom, sat on the bed, the laptop open between them. She’d enlarged the horse picture and in doing so realised it wasn’t actually a horse. The stump of a horn protruded from between its ears.
There was a unicorn on her Tumblr and unless someone had done an amazing job with Photoshop, it was real. Once they’d both stopped geeking out, she’d had a brilliant idea.
‘So, it’s a finding spell. I’ve only ever used it to find Martin, but I figure there can’t be too many unicorns with their horn cut off, right?’
Lara nodded, open-mouthed. ‘You’re actually going to do some magic, aren’t you?’
‘Hope so.’
She set the ingredients out, picked up her spell book and was about to recite when she paused. ‘Uh, so, this might open a door, to somewhere else. Are you ready?’
Lara nodded, mouth still open, eyes wide. She closed her mouth and nodded again. ‘Yeah, I am. Hey—’
Scarlet stared at her, at her sky-tinted eyes and waited. Lara grinned, suddenly confident. ‘Do you need a kiss for luck?’
Scarlet giggled and leaned forward, and their lips brushed together. It wasn’t the sort of first kiss she’d read about, but it was like someone had run an electric current through her, in a nice way, and she was suddenly breathing hard.
Their eyes were only inches away, and she could tell from the way Lara’s tightened she’d felt the same thing. She opened her mouth to speak, and realised there weren’t any words that would make it any more perfect. Could something be more perfect? Either it was or it wasn’t, right?
She blinked, and lifted the spell book, and gave Lara a shy smile before she began to read. The words came easy now, flowing off her tongue and filling the room with the gentle cadence. She held the picture in her mind, zooming in on the stump of the horn and the dirty white of the mane, and Lara gasped as the light appeared.
Scarlet stood, took her girlfriend’s hand (girlfriend. Actual girlfriend. Heh.), and they stepped through the light.
Next Installment Friday 28th February
