I took a deep breath as I looked out the car window.  “Well, at least he’s agreed,” I mumbled to myself.

“Come on, just get out of the car.”  Dana nudged me a bit.  “He’s not going to hurt you and maybe you’ll finally get some answers about your somni powers.”

Lola was already waiting impatiently on the sidewalk, glancing between me and the building in front of us.

I closed my eyes for a second, tried to steady myself, and then got out of the car.  I kind of wanted Dana or Lola to lead the way, but I knew this was something I needed to take charge of – this was why we had moved to Avenglade, and I needed this.  I couldn’t afford to be tentative now.

So with as much false confidence as I could muster, I marched into the little office building and gave my name to the receptionist.

It didn’t take long for a sour-faced man to appear, sighing as he caught sight of us.  “You must be Nicolas.  And your friends?”  He asked.

“Dana and Lola.  They’re, um, my family.”  I explained.  “Or they are now.”

He barely managed to avoid rolling his eyes, now looking sour and tired.  “You need an entourage?”

“Hey,” Lola snapped, her eyes narrowing, “we’re here to support him.  He’s meeting someone new for the first time and we don’t know anything about you, so yeah, we’re here.  We’re not going to get in your way or anything, don’t worry about that.”

Henry seemed unimpressed by her speech, but at least he didn’t attempt to make them leave, instead motioning for us to follow him.  “We’re a firm that helps supernaturals,” he explained as we walked by a few cubicles.  “Things like getting a birth certificate when you start a new life, or the necessary paperwork for schools, whatever is needed.  We have several connections with people in records – not just in Avenglade, but nearby cities and even several in other countries, as well.  My abilities come in handy sometimes when we need to deal with records for somewhere we don’t have a connection with – I can get them to do what I need or let us in, add the new record, and no one ever knows we were there.  It’s a tricky business sometimes, but it’s necessary for supernaturals to survive.”

Lola and I both looked around curiously.  Dana was more familiar with the idea – she’d actually reached out to a similar firm to get paperwork for me after I woke up – so she just nodded along with what Henry was saying.

We reached Henry’s office and he motioned for us to take seats while he folded his lanky form into his own office chair.

“So,” he said, his eyes boring into me, “you seem to be a witch, but a very insistent council member said you needed help with somni powers.”

“My mom didn’t know who my dad was,” I explained.  “I didn’t realize I was a hybrid until I survived our mountain collapsing by falling asleep for 400 years.”

I was about to continue, when he jerked a little, his eyes widening.

“400 years?”  He repeated, clearly stunned.

“Yes.”  I paused, but he still seemed too shocked to comment on that, so I continued.  “I spoke with a researcher at the library, and he said the only thing that really fit was somni powers.  We’re assuming the man my mom slept with was a somnus, because otherwise we can’t really explain how I slept for that long – or survived the mountain collapsing on top of me.”

At least my story had startled him enough that his sour expression went away.  “Well…yes, somni powers are probably the only thing that could put someone to sleep for that long.”  He shook his head, disbelief still written across his face.  “That…okay, yeah, I can see why you want help with somni powers.”

“I did that by accident,” I added, “I didn’t even know I could do that, to be honest.  But since I now know it’s a thing, I figured it’s best to understand those abilities and make sure, well, that I don’t do it by accident again?  Or do it by accident to someone else.”

Henry nodded, his expression much more open now.  “Yeah, sure, okay, that makes sense.  Not exactly something you’d want to experience twice in your life, eh?”

Lola ignored his attempt at humor.  “I have one teeny question – Nicky was alone when it happened, so we assumed it was his own powers, but, well, that’s right, isn’t it?  It wouldn’t have been like a somnus using their powers on him instead of his own powers reacting instinctively?”

I was startled with this idea, because it hadn’t occurred to me, but now that Lola mentioned it, it did seem like it could be a possibility.

Henry thought about this for a bit, then shook his head.  “First, I’ve never heard of a somnus putting someone out for that long.  My guess would be that your own powers kept feeding your magic and keeping you asleep until it decided you were safe.  What arbitrary rules the magic decided for ‘safe’ are impossible to really say, but if someone else had cast the spell on Nicolas, it would have worn off long before that.  The only way to keep it going that long is if somni magic is being fed into the spell for years on end – and most likely his own.  If no one else was around on a regular basis, feeding the spell, then the only potential source is Nicolas.  Second, though, we can’t put someone asleep that far from us.  Usually we have to be a few feet away, maybe a few yards, max.  Our magic has to have a specific target when it leaves us or it doesn’t know where to go, so it has to find the target quickly.  If Nicolas was alone when he fell asleep, and no one was anywhere close by, then yes, it would have to be him.”

“I was alone,” I answered wryly.  “Alone, deep in the mountain, just a lot of plants and some fire potions for company.”

Henry processed this, then looked at me again, his face so much more friendlier than when we had first seen him.  “How about you tell me the whole story, then we’ll see what we can do?”

By the time we left Henry’s office, we were on somewhat friendly terms, with a schedule set up for when he and I could meet to practice somni magic.  Lola even volunteered to help us, if we needed someone to practice on, but Henry told her that wouldn’t be necessary to begin with.

Dana beamed as we got back in the car.  “Well, that was a success!  I wasn’t sure at first, to be honest – he seemed so reluctant – but he seemed to be looking forward to it by the end there.  And you have something with your potential coven tomorrow night, right?  It looks like Avenglade is working out for you – for us.”

“Which means it’s time for us to settle in?”  Lola asked hopefully.  “You know, I was thinking about it, and Avenglade has several good colleges in the area.  I haven’t gone to college yet, maybe this would be a good time.  Nicky could, too!”

I shook my head reluctantly.  “I’m not opposed to the idea entirely,” because honestly, learning had interested me from a very young age, but maybe that was mostly because it had been denied to me so much, “but I don’t think I have enough basic knowledge yet to qualify for college.”

“Hmm.”  Dana tapped her fingers on the steering wheel.  “It’s early summer yet, so Lola, go ahead and apply to wherever you’re interested.  Nicolas, we’ll add that to all your free-time – we’ll see if we can sign you up for GED classes or tutoring, whatever you need, see if we can’t get you to where you could go to college if you want.  I know you originally wanted to, but mostly to get free of your coven, so if it’s not what you still want to do, that’s fine.  You can also just learn things from the library or internet, you don’t have to get a formal degree to learn whatever you’re interested in.  But if you want to, we can work on that.”

“And you?”  I asked pointedly.  “Are you going back to school, too?  To go along with a career change?”

She didn’t answer immediately.  “I thought about it.  I thought about getting a psychology degree so I could counsel people, because you both know we know a lot about people who need counseling in their life.  But I’m not sure that would be any easier than being a medical doctor – it might be more tense for some people.  I’m honestly having trouble coming up with any career that sounds interesting, that is neutral to both light and dark magic, that isn’t mostly dealing with humans, and still involves helping people.  Don’t worry,” she threw us both a fleeting smile.  “I’ll figure it out, but I still need some time yet.  Maybe I’ll come to the library with you, Nicolas, and just check into some vocational resources, see what ideas they might have.”

In a way, we were all trying to figure out what we wanted to do with our lives.  At least Lola was excited about the idea of being a university student, and while I similarly liked the idea of officially doing the work to get a high school degree or GED, right now I had other things to focus on.  Like learning somni magic and trying to get Angelique’s coven to accept me.

The following night, I showed up at Angelique’s house, a little nervous.  Tonight was my first meeting with the coven where Dana and Lola weren’t going to be with me, because it involved some witch magic.  Which meant tonight would also be the first time I was going to get to actually see a coven doing magic together, since I had never been allowed to watch my own.

As I settled into a chair in Angelique’s basement, hoping I didn’t look too eager, one of the witches came over to me, carrying a small child.

“Would you mind holding her?”  She asked.  “I don’t have a partner to watch her during this.”

I had gotten somewhat good at dealing with all the shifter kids, and I assumed a witch child wouldn’t be that much different.  I accepted the toddler, who gave me a grumpy scowl before trying to figure out if she could escape my grip and then getting distracted with my charm bracelet almost as quickly.

“Her name is Sophie,” the witch added.  “She’s about a year and a half old, and she’s sleepy but since I don’t have anyone else at home to look after her, she had to come with me.”  She made a face.  “But she should be good, she knows to be quiet during these meetings.”

“You’re a single parent?”  I asked softly.  Her face tensed up in response, maybe expecting a negative reaction to that, so I tried to explain quickly.  “My mother and I were like that.  She didn’t know who my father was, she was just with him the one night.  So I guess Sophie and I are a little alike.”  I suddenly hoped that wasn’t too forward, just in case she was bothered with me comparing her daughter to a male witch.

Thankfully, her face softened instead.  “There’s times it’s not easy, but if your mom is anything like me, I’ll take the hard days for the end goal – Sophie’s worth the struggles.  Seeing her grow and smile – well, when she’s not being a grump – is worth all the bad days.”

I watched as she gave the small witch a kiss on her forehead before rejoining the other witches, and felt a bit of warmth at that.  My own mother hadn’t been extremely affectionate with me, but it was nice to see another relationship similar to mine where I knew this child would be happy and loved even if she, like me, didn’t have her father.

I was impressed with Sophie over the course of the evening, sitting there quietly as her mom had said.  She started yawning halfway through and ended up falling asleep in my lap, which was fine.  I was still able to watch, fascinated with seeing real witch magic for a change, not just potions and random spells designed to make people trip or whatever, the stuff the girls my age had teased me with growing up.

When the event concluded, Sophie’s mom took her back, thanking me for the help; Ty stopped by to see how I was doing; and Angelique came to talk with me, surprised and then aggrieved that this was actually my first witch ceremony to witness.

“Your coven wasn’t that kind to you,” she shook her head, looking like she wanted to go back in time and scold them.  “I guess I should make some allowances for it being a different time and all, but there was no reason for that.  We sometimes let non-witches watch, though usually only if they’re family, so there seriously shouldn’t have been a problem with allowing a male witch to observe.”