Caffeine and Magix

A Gym of Garnet and Rain by Catelyn Winona

Garnet is a running stone. Feet pounding on wet concrete, laces tied too tightly, soles worn down to slick rubber but, still, never slipping.

He knows it can be a healing stone, a purifying, stone, but has never felt the sort of peace howlite or quartz (rose or otherwise) bring him from its red depths.

Garnet tells him to seize his opportunity between his teeth and run. Run upright, wind in your hair, hands clenched around a phone blasting drums, towards the finish line. Run like the world is being created under your feet. Run like your soul is begging you to, fast and hard and free.

A car horn honks, ripping past screeching guitars, and grabs his attention.

Andy pulls his headphones from his ears, keeping light on the balls of his feet so his legs don’t begin to cramp. His mom is looking at him from the driver’s side of the family’s mini van, one eyebrow raised.

“Do you,” she yells over the roar of the river on his other side, “have any idea how far from home you are?!”

“Seven point two miles,” he says before his teeth can click over the words. He wasn’t keeping track, but he’s always been able to gauge distance like that. He rubs the back of his neck. “I…I lost track of time. Sorry.”

His mom huffs and leans over to open the passenger side door. “I’d worry about you running away if it weren’t for the fact I saw your laptop on the kitchen counter.”

“Mom,” Andy says, ignoring her comment. It’s true anyway. “I can’t get in the car, my legs will cramp–”

“We’re supposed to be over at the Jimenez’s in an hour,” she tells him and pats the seat. “If you were really worried about cramping, you would have remembered that.” At the look on his face, her eyes narrow. “Unless you did remember and that’s why you’re seven point two miles from home.”

“No,” Andy denies and forces himself to laugh. “I love going over to see the Jimenez’. For sure. Unquestionable.”

“Unbelievable,” his mom mutters and waits to pull a u-turn until he shuts the door and puts on his seatbelt.

——————————————————————–

It’s not that he doesn’t like the Jimenez family. He does. It’s just that no one in his family believes that their youngest, Marin, is trying to place a curse on him.

“I don’t,” his dad says, hands tight around the steering wheel, “want to hear anything about magic or spells or, or, demigorgons tonight. Am I clear?”

Andy, rubbing the cramps out of his thighs, manfully ignores him.

“Don’t include me,” Jenna, Andy’s sister says. She’s sitting opposite Andy and crocheting a flower. The weave sparkles under her deft fingers, lingering bits of magic and power.  “I’m not the one trying to out us to all our friends.”

Andy’s always has a hard time ignoring his sister.

“If you can’t smell the magic on them,” Andy snarls at her, “then I’m clearly the better witch.”

She carefully pauses on a double stitch and turns slowly. “Excuse me? I’m the eldest, I’m the better–”

“Kids,” their mom says. She’s fixing her lipstick in the front seat and doesn’t look away from the mirror to scold them. “Jenna, Andy, you both are very gifted witches. Your father and I are very proud. And, Andy, Marin is not a witch.  None of the Jimenez’s are. So we would very much like for you not to accuse them at the dinner table, hmmm?”

“I didn’t say they were witches,” Andy says, throwing his hands up. “I just asked if they were practitioners, that’s not even close to outing us–”

“It would be nice,” their dad says, “to not have to get Council permission to wipe their memories. Just a thought.”

“You’re all nose blind,” Andy says and nothing else for the rest of the drive. He’s got garnet in his pocket, as usual, and it’s not a passive protection he seeks.

He’s going to prove Marin’s trying to curse him if it’s the last thing he does.

——————————————

Marin is, in a phrase, a snake in the grass. They’re a junior, a year below Andy, and no one has ever offered a reasonable explanation as to why they’re in every single one of Andy’s classes. Not to mention that Andy has never seen them look the same. Some days, they’re very slight with arms tucked in long sleeves and collar pulled up to their chin. Other days, they’re sturdy enough to stop Ingrid Jameson–the school quarterback– from knocking them over in the hallways. Their eyes are like molten gold some days but, on others, are just a very light brown.

(No one but Andy ever notices the color of their eyes.)

He tries to sit as far away from Marin as he can, thinking that the distance would at least give his family more time to notice the curse, but before he knows it they’re sitting right across from each other. Andy looks up the table at the adults, next to him at his sister, then across the table at Marin’s sister, Lupe. He finally looks at Marin, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Marin blinks innocently at him and passes the salad to Lupe.

“Thanks,” she mutters and goes back to scribbling something on the notepad she always carries with her. As a sophomore in college, she’s always seems to be studying. Andy thinks Marin, who he never sees studying even for tests, could probably learn something from her.

That and Lupe’s completely normal ability to not creep him the fuck out.

Andy’s parents are at the other end of the table, sitting across from Mr. and Mrs. Jimenez. Mrs. Jimenez is a slight woman with sharp, brown eyes and long hair that she keeps carefully pinned up. Mr. Jimenez, in comparison, seems massive, big shoulders, big stomach, wide face and more laugh lines than wrinkles. They hold hands on top of the table unlike Andy’s parents who, more reserved, keep their hands politely in their laps.

Underneath the table, something brushes Andy’s foot. He jumps, calf screaming as his cramp reactivates and his knee hits the underside of the table.

“Watch it,” Jenna growls  at him, eyes narrow. She has to turn almost completely to do it, what with them sitting next to each other. She goes back to listening to the grownups conversation without acknowledging his indignant expression.

Marin studies him, chewing salad slowly.

Andy’s jaw clenches and he very deliberately moves his feet back under his chair, out of reach. “If you,” he tells Marin, “think that I don’t think you’re up to something–”

“Andy,” his mom interrupts, voice like a whip. She smiles winningly but he can read the warning her eyes. “Why don’t you tell Mr. and Mrs. Jimenez about your next meet?”

Andy’s movements are a little jerky as he forces himself to turn away and not keep yelling at Marin. He remembers his parents threats in the car and he clears his throat, going for normal. “My meet. Uh, the July one? It’s State techni–”

The smell of smoke and green things hits his nose just as a phantom warmth brushes against his ankle, so light that he’d think he imagined it if it weren’t for the magic in the air. Andy chokes on his words and looks wildly at Marin who raises an eyebrow back at him.

“Technically?” Mrs. Jimenez asks, her own brow raised. She looks remarkably like Marin like that only not entirely evil. “So it’s like finals?”

“Yep,” Andy says around his dry mouth. Was this the curse? Did Marin actually manage to curse him? He grabs hold of the garnet in his pocket, but it doesn’t tell him why his family didn’t smell that. “Exactly. Track and Field finals.”

Mr. Jimenez laughs, a full and warm sound that successfully drags all of their attention to him. “I wish Marin would get involved in something physical. You know Lupe was scouted by…”

The grownups are dragged back into conversation.

“You,” Jenna tells him, “are the worst.” She once again goes back to ignoring him in favor of agreeing with their mom that sports really do provide an outlet for over imaginative youth.

“Relax,” Marin advises him. They look like butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth, dark hair flopping over their forehead. “Mom made tiramisu for dessert.” They pause, golden eyes glittering. “Of course, maybe you’re sweet enough without it.”

Lupe snorts but doesn’t look up from her project and that’s all the reaction anyone gives at the table. Andy checks twice.

“I think so,” Marin says after a moment and shovels some broccoli into their mouth like they didn’t just blow his fucking mind.

Andy looks at them for a long, speechless moment.

———————————————–

It occurs to him that Marin might not be trying to curse him.

——————————

Look, when Andy first met Marin, he liked them. They’re funny, in a quiet way, and they were reading the same book as him. They used to talk to him between races at the meets the school made people go to and they were always really cool to hang out with. If he’s honest, he hadn’t not been interested in Marin, especially when they laughed after Andy managed to think of something half as witty as they usually said.

Then, of course, their parents became friends some way or another and he saw them once or twice a week at outings and dinners. It’d been so easy to fall into what Andy had thought of as a friendship, but it soon became clear that Marin didn’t feel the same way.

They’d stopped talking to him, stopped meeting his eyes, and had stopped making so many jokes. When the school made them go to Andy’s meets, they’d sit all the way in the back of the bleachers where Andy didn’t have time to go. They disappeared when it was time to walk home and stopped going to his classes.

For a while.

Then the stalking (?) started and Andy’d figured he must have done something to earn their hatred. But if what Marin just said was meant to be a come on then maybe he’d been reading them wrong? They’d definitely been glaring at him that one time in the cafeteria, but maybe they had just been having a bad day?

And if it was, how did Andy feel about them?

Andy is not any closer to figuring things out by the time the entire evening goes to shit.

———————————————-

Mrs. Jimenez is carrying the tiramisu into the dining room when she trips.  That’s not when the evening goes to shit.

No, the evening goes to shit when, in an attempt to catch her, Mr. Jimenez bolts out of his chair and catches the tiramisu in one hand and his wife with the other. The move requires a violent twist, belying a hidden strength, and his stomach bumps the table which knocks over the candles. One candle hits Jenna’s plate and she almost instinctively spills her water onto it, dousing the flame immediately.

The other candle falls right into the napkin holder, seemingly igniting every single napkin simultaneously. They all stare in shock at it for a moment, trying to understand how some thick, paper napkins could be so flammable. The flames start licking at the low, dried bouquet in the center of the table. When that catches fire, they all stop staring and start moving.

Andy swings his chair back, hand diving into his pocket where his garnet is ready to take the heat of the flame into its heart. He stutters when his fingers touch the surface though, remembering what his parents said. They can’t out themselves to the Jimenez’, especially not now when Marin might not hate him after all–

Andy’s Dad reaches towards the flames, green glow of magic already in the palm of his hand.

His mom’s eyes widen and she jerks out to grab at it. “Bill, don’t–!”

Dad’s giving us away, Andy thinks in shock. If he weren’t wearing his magic-suppressing bracelet–designed to contain accidental flare-ups–he might spark with the surge of adrenaline that shoots through him. When he looks to his sister, her eyes are glowing. Or Jenna.

But then the overwhelming smell of molten things fills the room and the flames–nearly a foot high–are sucked away from the table completely. They spin through the air and right into Mr. Jimenez’s open mouth and down his throat, making his skin glow an ominous red. Andy can see his throat almost turn to stone for a moment, crackling and hissing with steam, as the fire makes its way down. Then, just as quickly, his flesh returns to a normal tan color and he’s left looking just as he did a moment before.

“Oops,” Mr. Jimenez says, completely understating the matter. Mrs. Jimenez rolls her eyes.

“Witches,” Mrs. Jimenez tells him, jerking her chin to where Andy’s Dad’s hand is still extended. She rights herself, plucks the dessert from her husband’s hand and places it on the table. Then she looks down her nose and glares at Andy’s parents. “Aren’t you?”

“Yes,” his dad says. He settles back into his chair, seemingly unconcerned that they’ve been identified. He rubs at his chin. “Let me guess, fire elementals? No, no, I saw some stone in that and the magic–”

“I told you,” Andy blurts out. Marin jerks and Andy, embarrassed, clears his throat. “Sorry, but I did.”

“–I’d say volcano spirits,” his dad finishes as if Andy hadn’t said anything. At the apprehensive looks on the Jimenez’s faces, he waves a hand. “Don’t worry, I’m neutral, all academic.”

Dad declaring himself neutral is meant to reassure. Between the three factions of magic–Light, Dark, and Neutral– Neutral witches are quieter, less likely to be combative, and tend to be more balanced.

Andy can see Marin and Lupe relax across the table. They think that that means they’re all neutral witches, uninterested in the power elementals can offer their kind. They think that means that none of them are affiliated with the dark or light councils or their political motivations.

They think that they’re safe with all of Andy’s family.

The smell of an icy wind explodes in the room, ethereal lights in blues and purples threading through the air like snakes. The windows slam shut, the door disappears, and the Jimenez’s are thrown back into their chairs, purple and blue chains locking them in place.

Andy’s mom delicately wipes her mouth with her napkin and sets it on the table. “I,” she says redundantly, “am not neutral, unfortunately.”

Oh shit, Andy thinks. He slowly scoots his chair back, eyes watchful. He loves his mom, really he does, but she’s in Work Mode now. She’s someone he doesn’t recognize in Work Mode, less nurturer and more Dark Council secret assassin. Next to him, Jenna does the same, keeping an eye on the murderous look Lupe has on her face.

“Let my family go,” Mr. Jimenez says, not wasting time with shock. He jerks his chin up and glowers with real, fiery heat in his eyes. The flames creep out under his skin, turning it to stone before it can burn. “They’re not spirits. My kids take after my wife. Human.”

The look of fear and rage on Mrs. Jimenez’ face looks very inhuman to Andy.

Andy’s mom tuts. “Sorry, Jorge, I would believe that if it weren’t for the fact my son’s been trying to tell us Marin has magic for weeks. Really bad parenting not believing him, huh?”

Marin shoots Andy a betrayed look, golden eyes wide. Andy feels his stomach roll over at that look and wishes he could take his eyes off his mom long enough to explain. He didn’t know what they were. If he did…if he did they wouldn’t be here now.

“The Council will definitely be interested in two volcano spirits,” his mom continues. She stands, dusting herself off and stretching out her fingers in preparation for spellwork. Blue and purple spin around her nails. “They’ve been looking into acquiring you for a while. Binding your powers will hurt, I admit, but it’s safer to take the time now rather than risk an eruption in transit. You understand, I trust.”

Mr. Jimenez struggles harder, face twisted with rage. “No! Marin’s too young to have a witch’s power on them and recover! Leave them alone–”

Lupe snarls,  teeth sharp and Andy really wonders what exactly Mr. Jimenez thinks of as human. “You are not touching my sibling–”

“Please,” Mrs. Jimenez says through gritted teeth. Her eyes are almost all whites, the threat cracking through her anger to her fear. “Please, don’t—”

“Can I help?” Jenna asks, talking over the frightened woman. She stands and takes her place next to their mom, slipping off her magic-suppressing bracelet. She looks excited. “I haven’t been able to introduce myself to the council yet.”

Andy feels her words like ice shooting down his spine because she means that she’s gone dark. She’s the right age to Decide but, for some reason, he’d thought she was a late bloomer, like their dad.

Their dad, completely taking the situation in stride, hums. “Oh ho, decided to follow your mother, did you? I thought you always looked up to me?” He leans back into his seat, hands folded over his stomach.

Jenna rolls her eyes. “Yeah, until I realized how boring the life of an academic is. Mom has way more fun. And light magic is just so ugh, you know?”

“The council will love you,” Mom says, smiling at Jenna. She’s still in Work Mode, but there’s something warm creeping through the ice of her dark magic. She claps her hands together.  “Oh, I always had a feeling, but I didn’t want to pressure you! The Baxter girls, bringing in volcano spirits! They’ll talk about us for weeks.” Then, remembering Andy, looks at him and says, “Don’t worry, sweetie, we’ll think of something for when you come of age and Decide. Jenna won’t have all the glory–”

“Just most of it,” Jenna says and laughs.

Andy doesn’t.

He eases to his feet, very aware of Marin’s eyes on him. There’s sick guilt in his stomach at the fear he smells around the table and he knows he can’t ride this one out. He didn’t want this to go down this way. “Actually, Mom, Dad, I had something I wanted to talk to you about. I, uh, actually Decided already. So, um, yeah. That’s a thing I should have said.”

His parents and sister stare at him, brows furrowed.

“That’s a little early,” Dad says finally. “You’re barely seventeen.”

Andy winces. Normally witches Decided at 20, after their first Gauntlet. Some, however, were provoked into Deciding much earlier. “There were extenuating circumstances.”

No one notices as he slides his bracelet off and palms it. It serves to keep any unexpected magic flare ups contained, but he’s been able to control them since last summer. He just hadn’t been sure how to tell his parents that he’d come into his powers so young. They tended to freak out about everything when it came to him, the first born son of his mother’s family in three generations.

“Extenuating circumstances?” Jenna parrots.

“When were there extenuating circumstances?” Mom asks. Her expression darkens and the magic floating around the room crackles like lightning. “What type of extenuating circumstances?”

“Track camp last summer,” Andy admits. He slips his hands into his pockets and lets the garnet chips filling them comfort him.  “And, um, like…life or death circumstances? There was like a bear and a cliff and some lightning. And a murder? It was really complicated?” At the look on his family’s face, he hastily adds, “But I’m fine! I’m fine. So that’s–that’s good. Haha.”

“We,” his mom says, frowning, “will talk about this at home. But if you’re already Decided, then you might as well help your sister and I bind them. With your help and reserves it shouldn’t take long–”

“Susan,” his dad says slowly, “why don’t we let Andy tell us what he Decided?” His dad stands, arms folded. His mouth is pressed into a thin line. “Andy?”

Andy flinches, but he’s already Decided what sort of witch he’s going to be. That’s not something he’s been raised to take lightly. He glances at Marin, pale and bound in their seat. That’s not something he’s even able to take lightly.

He curls his fingers around his garnets and pulls them from his pocket. They’re different now, charged with his power and warm.  He lets his hand unfold, revealing mountains of the gems in his palm, more than his pants could physically hold without magic. Each one begins to shine, rising into the air to spin lazily, glowing with the red of his power.

A hum fills the air as the crystals hang above him, pure and good and Light.

“No,” his mom says, pressing a hand to her mouth. She looks heartbroken. “You used to look up to me.”

His dad looks tired. “Susan,  you know that’s not how that works.” He gives Andy a strained smile. “I am proud of you, Andy.”

“We both are,” his mom says, shaking her head. She reaches out to his dad, taking his hand to get the strength she needs to offer Andy her own smile. “Very, very proud. You’ve come into your own.”

His garnets are spinning faster over his hands, spreading out slowly until they reach the Jimenez’s. “Thanks.” His mouth quirks. “That, uh, means a lot.”

They’re all avoiding saying what this means. They’re all avoiding the fact that here, now, they’re enemies. Not family.

After this, things will never be the same.

“We’ll expect you for Christmas,” his mom says. Her feet ease apart and ropes of her power begin to weave through the air again.

“You are such a loser,” his sister says, her eyes glowing a little brighter. “You should have tried to take us by surprise.”

“Well,” Andy says as magic warms his legs. It’s another gift from last summer, one that he hopes they can’t sense. Not yet.  “I thought you deserved a little fair warning.” His smile is a little more real, but bittersweet. “Since, you know, I am the better witch.”

“Liar,” Jenna says and lunges.

—————————————————

Andy’s always felt a little off. His mom would take them for midnight picnics in graveyards, balancing chocolate chip cookies in one hand as she pointed out constellations, and he’d fall asleep. He didn’t feel alive like Jenna did and he was more interested in the wind in his hair than the wind under his feet.

There’s really no shame in either, but it’s the nature of light and dark to balance each other, fight against each other, try to dominate the other.

That, more than anything, is why if Andy’s mom wants to take the Jimenez’s somewhere, Andy definitely doesn’t want them to go anywhere.

(And maybe the way Marin looks at him has something to do with it. Maybe the way his heart speeds up when they touch him has something to do with it. Maybe it’s more than his magic that tells him to stop the fear in their eyes.

Maybe.)

——————————————

Andy flips backwards, dodging out of the way of Jenna’s lengthening nails. He lurches to the side, legs taking him up the side of the wall until his body is parallel to the floor and the only thing keeping him up is inertia and magic.

His dad sits back down and serves himself some tiramisu as Jenna crashes into the wall.

Andy’s not an idiot–his mom’s been one of the premier battle witches for the dark council for decades. He’s not going to win against her.

That’s why he’s got to play a little dirty.

“Sorry,” he says to Jenna. “This is probably gonna hurt.”

“What–” she starts, halfway on top of the dining table in an effort to jump on top of him. Then a handful of garnets shoot into a ring around her, spinning faster and faster. “Whoa, what’s going–”

Electricity shoots from the crystals, red like his eyes,  and knocks her unconscious.

Hit where they’re weak, Andy thinks, already lunging away. And wait for them to show another weakness.

It’s a lesson he learned at his mother’s knee.

He thinks it’s kind of funny that this is one strategy even she falls for.

“Jenna!” His mom starts forward, hands already reaching out to cushion Jenna’s head as she arcs back towards the floor.

Andy bites into his power like the garnet tells him to and moves so fast that he can feel the sick slip of rubber against the carpet as his shoes melt. He skids under his mom’s outstretched arms, bending so that he can slip his bracelet over her hands and onto her wrist.

“This’ll probably hurt too,” he says.

His mom turns, eyes wide as her magic inexplicably dissolves from every surface in the room. The Jimenez’s are moving as soon as they’re free, Lupe and Mr. Jimenez herding the other two to the far side of the room, but neither Andy or his mom notice. His mom catches his sister on autopilot, still staring at him in shock.  “Andy–”

He shoots red lightning from his palm and, Jenna in her arms, his mom can’t block it. She collapses into a heap on the floor, right next to Jenna and doesn’t move.

The silence in the room is oppressive.

Finally, his dad sighs and pushes back from the table. “Nicely done, Andy. Your mother underestimated you.” He smiles. “And so did I.”

“Yeah,” Andy says, also sighing. He’s still tense, but pretends otherwise. His dad used to be dark, he knows that much, and he doesn’t know how committed the other man is to his new neutrality in the face of this mess. In the face of half his family on the floor.  “Not exactly how I wanted this to go.”

He’d imagined chocolate chip cookies, for some reason, at his own kitchen table where his mom was just Mom and not an enemy. His mouth twists into a frown.

His dad hums and snaps his fingers. His mother and sister are lifted into the air, green cushioning their bodies so they’re laying down rather than sagging. He spares a glance to the Jimenez’s. “Sorry about this, but you know how it is. Light and Dark and all that. Entirely exhausting. Maria, the tiramisu was delicious. Thank you for dinner.” He nods to Andy (doesn’t even try for a hug and doesn’t that burn) and walks towards the far wall where the door once was. His mom must only have illusioned it, because it reappears at the last moment, allowing his dad to take the family outside and down the driveway.

Andy doesn’t let his garnets drop until his dad, mom and sister are in the car.

Then, like a man facing his death, he turns to where the Jimenez’ are poised in the corner.

He half-expected Mr. Jimenez to be in front of his family, all fire and stone, but he’s not. Instead, Mrs. Jimenez and Lupe are planted to strike, shoulders back, eyes sharp, and fists at the ready. Behind them, Mr. Jimenez is shielding Marin, fire in his eyes and smoke curling out from the corners of his mouth.

Andy’s just lost his entire family and he doesn’t know when it will be safe to go home to get his things, but he does know that he’s part of the reason why this family is now in danger.

“I–I don’t know if the Light council can make anything better,” Andy says, rubbing the back of his neck.  He wants to fix this, somehow, and doesn’t even know where to start. “I can try to contact them? Maybe they can relocate you–”

“Is that a joke?” Mrs. Jimenez interrupts him. Her lips are curled. “The Light Council wants my husband and child just as much as the Dark. If you think you can trick us, you’re wrong.”

“I didn’t- I wouldn’t–” Andy can’t seem to find the words. His shoulders slump. “I’m new, okay? I didn’t know that, I’m not trying to trick you.”

“You’re Light,” Lupe snarls. She’s grabbed a weapon from the table. A fork. She menaces him with it. “All your kind know how to do is trick.”

That hurts, though Andy knows it shouldn’t. He knows she means the Light Council, the institution that’s given Light witches like him such a bad reputation, but she doesn’t know he’s not part of them.

“I’m not with the council,” he tells them. He feels like he’s in front of snakes, ready to strike. He keeps his hands carefully at his sides. “I just–I just kind of wish this hadn’t happened. I don’t know how to make this right.”

“You can start by leaving,” Lupe says. She jabs the fork at the door. “And never coming near my sibling or my dad again.”

We go to the same school, Andy thinks but doesn’t say. Instead, he nods and backs out the door. He pauses halfway onto the porch. “I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry.”

“That,” Mrs. Jimenez says, eyes like chips of ice, “doesn’t make it better.”

Andy nods again and closes the door behind him. When they can no longer see him, he lets his face crumple. His legs are running before he tells them to, taking him far, far away.

[End]

So I did actually post this one much earlier on my Patreon here (X)! If you want to see my stories days to weeks early and to support my work, you can check me out there! Either way, I hope you enjoyed this story, I had a lot of fun writing it!

(via byjillianmaria)