Carina's POV
"Are you sure that's how this is supposed to look?" I asked in complete distress staring at the heavily disfigured blob that used to be an apple
"Fairly positive" she answers with a nonchalant shrug
"Fairly positive isn't going to get me in that school!!" I throw my hands up in defeat flinging my wand across the hidden library, Felicia watches the little stick from the moment it left my hand, soar through the air hitting the large bookcase by the archway and sparking furiously before landing on the floor, she watches the sparks blitz like a loaded firecracker before dying out leaving a scorch mark on her pristine green carpet then turned to me
"You should be careful with that..." she says while raising her hand beckoning the discarded stick which floats off the ground at her command racing into her hands and catching it effortlessly, "...would you like to try that again?" she asks calmly handing the wand back to me
Quite frankly "No, no I do not" I huff dropping to the ground of the study and crossing my hands over my chest in defiance trying to hide my shame at my utter incompetence toward magic
Poppy approaches me slowly nudging me at my side and rubbing herself against me, I can't believe I used to be terrified of this cast iron puppy, I couldn't help but smile at her attempt to cheer me up as I rubbed her rims lightly
It's been two months since I agreed to help Felicia with her mission to find out who was behind the string of disappearances and I feel swindled
All she said was that I had to go to university and get close to Elli McRichparents and get information, and that was it!! so please tell me why am I now burying myself under mountains upon mountains of dusty textbooks in languages I refuse to believe are English all in the name of studying for an entrance exam?!!!
"Aren't the Leblancs a prestigious family tasked with upholding the peace or something?! Can't you pull a few strings and get me in the school without having to take the exams?!!" I whined, even after two months of studying and inhaling toxic amounts of dust that could kill a living human I was still unable to levitate a freaking apple without setting the house on fire!!
"No, I can't...." Felicia says coming to sit beside me on the ground "...and quite frankly after seeing how incapable you are, I fear releasing you into the witch world without proper training would be the equivalent of giving a child access to tactical nukes"
"Geez, I feel so motivated" I glared at her which had the opposite effect I intended seeing as it made her laugh
"Oh come on..." she snickers placing her hand on my head and roughing up my afro causing me to shove her hand away in annoyance, she doesn't relent and puts both her hands back in my hair attempting to pull my head closer to her or yank my hair clean out of my scalp, I try to resist because I was angry and didn't want to give in to her but she immediately dug her fingers into my mass of curls massaging my scalp lightly and I folded reluctantly resting my head on her shoulder releasing a frustrated sigh while she continued massaging
She makes it hard to be angry with her, and her being the only person I can physically touch makes it even worse, I close my eyes and accept her comfort because Lord knows I need it, just thinking about the examination was enough to give me a migraine
The exam consisted of three parts, a written exam of both essay and multiple choice, a practical exam and an interview, a freaking INTERVIEW, how was I supposed to pass when I can't even levitate a freaking apple?!!
"You're doing great you know.." she says and I scoff rolling my eyes dramatically into her shoulders
"Don't insult me" I've always hated it when people patronized me
"I'm being serious, for a person who was suddenly thrust into this world with no prior knowledge and asked to be prepared for an exam that's less than a month away now, you've been progressing at a steady pace, I genuinely mean it....." she might just be saying it to make me feel better but the sincerity in her voice made me want to believe her "...so you blow stuff up every now and then, big whoop, every witch had her training phase, infact when I started learning magic for the first time my training wand had to be double fortified because I kept setting the people around me on fire, one time I burnt my dad's eyebrows clean off....." she laughed taking her hands out of my hair to wipe a stray tear, she stops mid laugh, her eyes looking pained while her lips were curled up in a small tortured smile, she heaves then leans back sprawling her body on the floor, I pulled myself away otherwise she would have dragged me down with her "...he had to draw them on for weeks" her laughter died down quickly, her face grew somber though her cheeks still flushed, I didn't realize a once happy memory could bring a person so much pain
It's moments like this when I don't understand her, when she stops being that mysterious mischievous witch and is just a regular person who happens to own an undead mystical Tiger
In my time here I learned that this side of her was a rarity and this also happens to be the first time she has mentioned other members of her family
When I agreed to the deal she modified the glamore charm to give me bright purple eyes and taught me how to summon my makeshift witch's crest, she said crests appear in different places and take different forms for different witches but for the Leblanc household the most common location was the eyes, it was also a tedious task adding me into the family roster, she put me down as her niece which lead me to believe that there were more people in this family than just her so why didn't she ask any of her family members for help? isn't upholding the safety of the witch world their entire thing?
The shift in her mood made me hesitant to ask but I've held off long
"Hey, Felicia...."
She replied with a lazy "Yeah..."
"Am I going to meet any other members of the Leblanc household? I mean, if we're going to pull this off we need to inform them, right?"
Her face fell, evidence of her giddy from before nowhere to be found as her entire mood soured creating a suffocating veil around us
"No, you won't..." She pushed herself back up into a sitting position crossing her legs
"Why? Isn't this a family thing? or are they pushing all the work on you?! Are you...."
"... please, if they could help me they would...." she replies in a whisper "....The Leblanc family have gone by many names, the protectors, the hounds, the shield, the warriors.....have you ever wondered what happens when a shield takes one too many hits?...." she asks turning to face me, the look on her face sucked the air right out my lungs ".... it breaks, the Leblanc family dwindled over the years, from subsects, branch families, distant relatives, to just us, me, My father and my Older siblings, now, now it's just me" she finishes with a smile, a beaten, wounded smile
What I didn't understand was "Why are you still doing this? Are you bound by some duty or obligation? An oath maybe?" my question might sound insensitive but it made no sense to me
"Something like that.." she says running her hand over her right hip, I notice she does this a lot "....so, how are you settling into that charm?" she changes the subject her voice perking up almost instantly
I desperately wanted to know more but I felt prying any deeper would just be pushing my luck, grabbing hold of the charm around my neck, I had asked her to turn it into a necklace because I was never one for rings or hair ornaments so I felt a necklace was the perfect option for me and Felicia didn't disappoint
She embedded the jewel into a golden frame with golden thorn-covered vines wrapped around the hem and a golden chain that stopped right in the center of my chest, I always catch myself running my finger over the jagged pendant whenever I studied
"I'm settling into it quite nicely, the purple eyes took a lot of getting used to...."
"...and the crest, show me the crest"
Summoning the crest was something I could do easily it just took a little concentration, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes pushing the crest forward, when I opened them I saw Felicia smiling warmly
"Do you like it?" she asked
I had seen the crest multiple times in the mirror, my crest looked like a rose, a twisty, bendy, thorn-covered rose with vines shooting up the side, a total contrast to hers which looked like a tree with branches twisting into the same shape as mine, it was a beautiful crest but I had my concerns
"I love the crest but didn't you say Family have similar crests? don't you think ours are a little too different?"
She shook her head before answering "That's not a problem, your crest resembles my sister's who I wrote down as your birth mother..." So that's why "..... any luck tapping into your mana pool?" she asked and this time it was my turn to be crestfallen
Felicia told me that everyone had the possibility of being a witch and that Magic was something that existed all around and deep inside us all, the moment you tap into that pool of mana in your body it unlocks an intricate network of channels all over your body that allows us the ability to use magic and turns you into a witch, unlocking those channels is what gives you your Witch's crest and yet I couldn't even find my mana pool
"No.." I heaved falling onto my back beside her throwing my hands over my face trying to hide my shame
"Don't worry about it, it takes a lot of witches a little extra time to tap in so there's no rush at all, in the meantime, you ca,n continue using the stored mana in the glamour charm, it's probably harder to control because it's not yours but right now it's the best you've got so come on..." she slaps my thigh so hard it stings a little forcing me to scream in pain as I glare at her, How am I even capable of feeling pain?! I'm dead!! "....come on, let's take it from the top" she stands up stretching a hand out to me, I was tempted to slap her hand away but sadly she was right, she's the best I've got