Chapter 13: *CHAPTER 13*

I nearly choked on the bite of waffle I'd just shoved into my mouth, coughing around it as I sputtered out my shock.

"Caleb," Jenna sighed, half scolding as she reached over to pat me on the back as I worked to clear my throat.

"Sorry," he snickered, not sounding apologetic in the least, "It's not every day I get to show off to someone who's new to magic." Jenna rolled her eyes at her son before sending me another worried glance.

"It's okay," I told him after I'd managed to clear my throat, "I guess I should have been expecting something like that after last night." He handed me a mug of coffee as I spoke--with his hand this time, thankfully. I took the warm porcelain between my cold fingers. I filled it with the sugar and cream that Jenna handed to me. After a huge bitter sip, I looked back at them.

"So you both have magic too?"

"As Caleb so generously demonstrated for you," Jenna mumbled sarcastically, shooting her son another reprimanding glance, "He has an affinity to Air Magic. So does Richard, and my daughter Cara who's in California for school. Magic affinities tend to run in families. Malcolm has fire as you saw last night. And my magic is Earth-based."

"So you can move air currents, that's how you were able to move the mug?" I asked Caleb whose mouth was overflowing with food.

He mumbled a muffled, "Mmmhmmm," around his mouthful of food. I couldn't imagine how nice it would be to not have to ever stand up to get anything. Or turn off a light switch.

I glanced over to Jenna, "What kind of things can you do with your Earth Magic? If you don't mind me asking."

She wiped off some syrup from her mouth with a napkin, taking a sip from her own mug before responding, "I can move earthen objects around, which makes cleaning up easy," she winked at me and I smiled, "But the best part of my magic is being able to work with plants. I can use it to make certain plants I've grown myself more potent,"

I thought back to last night, "Like the special tea blend you made?"

"Exactly," She smiled.

"Mom grows a lot of stuff out back that she uses for healing," Caleb said.

Jenna shrugged modestly, "I make my own tinctures and teas and things like that."

Caleb continued, "They work better than medicine most of the time."

I looked between them feeling a little in awe, "That's amazing."

"It comes in handy." Jenna agreed.

The sound of a muffled awoo coming from the glass sliding door had me glancing out the back window. The red-eyed Hell Hound nudged his nose against the doorknob, pawing petulantly at the glass door. I watched as the Hound eyed the door and the click of the lock snapped open before the monstrous dog came bounding into the room, prancing over to the counter in a few giant leaps, sniffing around the counter for scraps of food.

"That little monster," Jenna huffed affectionately, and with a shake of her head, she stood up from her stool, taking her plate over to the sink, "Bad Winnie, we don't open locks." She scolded.

He pranced around the floor, eyeing me curiously through strands of black fur that nearly engulfed her blazing red eyes. He looked massive rummaging around the floor, I couldn't believe he was a puppy. How much bigger could he get? He was probably already up to my waist at least.

"So Winnie can use Air Magic too?" I asked, a small smile tugging at my lips as I watched him stumble over his own feet in his rush to get to the food Jenna was laying out for him. It was like watching one of those videos of the baby elephants tripping over their new bodies as they chased birds around.

"You're right," Jenna nodded, "There are many species of creatures out there like Hell Hounds and other things that people these days chalk up to myths and fairytales because they've gotten much better at disguising themselves from the general population. Hiding has become second nature to them. They do it survive."

Richard had said something similar last night, about how people with access to magic, Magi, hid their abilities for survival as well.

"It's just kind of hard to imagine that there are all of these creatures running around and no one's seen them," I admitted. Or recorded them on their phone. Took pictures and plastered them all over the internet.

"People do see them from time to time, but the people brave enough to speak out about them are usually chalked up to being crazy," Caleb said, handing me a cloth so I could dry the dishes after he scrubbed them in the sink, "It's not only that though, but the Magic community has their own system to help keep the different species hidden from the general public. We call them the Oculus."

He handed me a glass bowl to dry, and I took it barely noticing the water dripping down my arm so engrossed by what he was saying. He moved another bowl around before continuing, "They're kind of like the go-between for the general population and the Magic community."

Jenna came up beside us to lean against the counter, "The Oculus help erase public knowledge of the magical species to protect those species since they're at a huge risk of dying out. And likewise, they protect the general population from Magical creatures who pose a danger to the non-magic community."

"I'm surprised Malcolm didn't say something about them last night," Caleb said offhandedly, "He works for the Oculus."

I felt my eyebrows raise as I thought back to what Malcolm had said last night. The card he'd shown me, "The private investigation place he works for is the Oculus?"

"He does. I know it seems deceptive of us to hide this information from people, but those of us with Natural Magic abilities have been slowly dying out for years," her tone turned earnest, her brow lowering over her eyes, "It's been something we've hidden for so long we don't know another way to live. And it's been so long that we've kept it secret that we don't know how the people would react now."

From one perspective it did look kind of sketchy to be hiding something like this from people. But I could also see why they would want to. People had a hard time accepting things and people that were different than them. I couldn't blame them for wanting to protect themselves and creatures like Winnie.

I had my own stuff that I didn't want people to know about. I liked my privacy. Sometimes the more that people know about you, the more they can hurt you. How could I judge these people for doing the same thing I was?

"I don't blame you for hiding it from people," I told her, "And you don't have to worry about me saying anything to anyone. It's something that you should tell people when or if you want to."

"Thank you, Kassie." I glanced up at the sincerity in her voice, and I wasn't sure if I was imagining the subtle shine I saw in her eyes, "I can't believe how well you've been taking everything. Not many people who find out about the Magic community handle it well."

She put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed giving me a genuine smile that warmed something in the center of my chest and I couldn't help but return it.