August 6, Thursday

I spent all day yesterday collecting my magic books and all the random potion tools I had scattered around my room. Mom wanted all of them, plus my witch's kit. What am I supposed to do for the next month, just play outside like a normal person--albeit one from the pre-internet age? This is setting itself up to be a very sucky summer.

***

Where was Kyton? I hadn't seen him since yesterday at dinner, and I was supposed to be keeping him out of trouble. What if he'd gone after the dragon again? Grandma would kill me and him--if the dragon didn't kill him first.

I paused at the end of the art gallery to look out the window. At the bottom of the hill, by where the stream circled around the house, Kyton was sitting on a boulder. He lazily waved his hand back and forth, and a blob of water rose up out of the stream. It swayed side to side like a hypnotized viper.

Was he crazy? My parents could look outside at any moment, and they would see him doing magic. It would've been bad enough if he was a warlock, but as an Otherworlder, there was no telling what Mom would do. Even Dad might have a problem with him.

Shouting out the window wouldn't help him attract less attention, though. I hurried downstairs. In the entrance hall, a 30-something man with tattoos from head to toe was sweeping the floor. He must be the new housekeeper, Dorian. It was just too hard to keep a straight face when I looked at him. He had more holes in his face than swiss cheese--from lip piercings to eyebrow rings. Where had Grandma found this guy, at a biker club?

He glanced up from his sweeping as I passed. "You're Lilly, aren't you?" He had a faint lisp, and there was something about his voice that almost seemed familiar. Maybe I'd seen him in town before. Though, I was pretty sure I would remember someone who looked like him.

"Yeah." As I inhaled, I caught a curious scent drifting off of Dorian. It was kind of sparky, definitely a type of magic. He must've been a warlock. That would explain how Grandma knew him. Kind of.

"Where are you going?" Dorian asked. He straightened, becoming even taller than I was.

Mom or Grandpa must've told him to keep an eye on me. Like I needed more eyes on me.

"Just to the stream."

"Good. We wouldn't want you to encounter any... unpleasantries in the forest." He licked his lips with a forked tongue.

Was it surgically cut like that, or was he just born with a weird tongue? I wasn't sure if I wanted to know. Something about him made my skin crawl. It wasn't even just the tattoos or piercings--or the tongue. There was something else that I couldn't put my finger on. Ugh, I wished he wasn't a live-in housekeeper. I would have to see him all the time.

Without saying goodbye, I hurried out the front door. Getting Kyton to stop using magic in plain sight was more important than worrying about everything else that was upsetting me.

When I reached Kyton, his glamour made me pause. It'd been hard to tell from a distance, but the illusion that made him look human was fading. Spots of it were completely gone, revealing sapphire-colored skin beneath. What little of his illusion was left looked weary and sickly.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I came closer.

He jolted, and his water snake splashed into the stream. "Y-yeah. Why do you ask?"

I gestured at him. "Your glamour, it's-"

His glamour shimmered and spread over the thinning spots. In a few seconds, he looked perfectly normal again, even happy. It was just an illusion, though. That was clear by his slumped posture and how sick he'd looked before.

"Better?" he asked.

I shrugged and climbed onto his boulder. When I sat down with my feet dangling off, my toes touched the stream. Kyton's scent was more subdued today, like there was something wrong with his magic.

"Something's wrong, and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but-"

"I don't want to talk about it." He flicked his hand, and a fistful of water flew up to hit me in the face. His cheeks reddened. "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."

Sputtering, I hopped off the boulder. My first instinct was to leave, but it wasn't like he'd hurt me, and a little water on a hot day was nice. There was no reason to be worried. Mom was wrong about magic, and she was definitely wrong about Otherworlders.

Hopefully, everyone was wrong about monsters. Either that, or maybe I wasn't one at all. Maybe Kyton was wrong about changelings and how their powers worked. I hadn't slept at all last night thinking about it, and he had to be wrong. I wasn't a monster.

No, I was just a normal witch who was going to get some watery revenge on an Otherworlder. I crouched by the stream and cupped water in my hands. With as much effort as I could manage, I tossed the water at Kyton. Some of it hit him in the face. The rest went long.

Kyton chuckled and hopped off the boulder. "Is that how it's going to be?"

Maybe I'd bitten off a little more than I could chew--challenging a water sprite to a water fight--but it was worth getting drenched if I could cheer him up a little.

"Yeah, that's how it's going to be."

He wiggled his fingers, and what felt like a wet hand grabbed my ankle. It dragged me into the stream. I was dunked for a second before it let me go. But I didn't surface. I had big lungs, and I'd taken a good breath. Time to give Kyton a little scare.

I went still in the water. Kyton jumped in, and a jet of water shot up under me. It hurled me a good five feet into the air. Yelping, I splashed back down.

He laughed as I sputtered into a standing position. "I can sense your heartbeat in the water. You can't play dead with me."

I stuck my tongue out, and he splashed me. Sputtering, I splashed him right back. Without any magic, my splash was kind of pathetic. For a second, I thought about using magic to hide and get in a sneak attack, but I couldn't risk it. Not after the deal I'd made with my parents.

Normal splashing it was.

Ten minutes later, I was even more soaked than before--which shouldn't have been possible--and I was absolutely exhausted. I flopped on one of the low rocks at the stream's edge. Kyton flopped next to me, shaking his head.

"Thanks for that."

I panted. "For what?"

He raised his eyebrows. "You were trying to cheer me up. It worked."

"Then you're welcome." I brushed wet hair off of my cheeks. "It was kind of fun, even if you creamed me. You're weirdly normal for an Otherworlder."

"I'm not an Otherworlder." He propped himself up on his elbow.

I did the same. "What are you talking about? I thought you were a sprite."

"I am, but I've never lived off-world. I hatched on Earth, and so did my parents and grandparents."

"Oh." So he really wasn't an alien at all. "Have you ever visited off-world?"

He nodded. "MMU is in a pocket universe, and I went there last year."

I should've figured that Mixed Magics University wasn't on Earth, since Grandma said people from all types of planets went to it. But I just hadn't thought about that. It would be weird to go to MMU after I was done with my obligatory week at Rothworth's. Though, it would be pretty awesome at the same time.

"Have you ever been to a real planet?" I asked. "Besides this one, obviously."

"I visited my great grandma on Faerie once. It was when I was two, so I don't remember it." He sat up suddenly and scooted a little away from me.

"Why-"

"Lilly, it's time for lunch," Mom called from the top of the hill. "And make sure you stay inside the barrier."

"Of course," I called back. I rolled my eyes as she went back inside.

Kyton stood and offered me a hand. I took it. When I stood, we were close on the rock. Cheering him up had had an unforeseen side effect; his magic was flowing freely again, buffet-style.

I stumbled back. "We should go inside."

"Don't worry. The barrier will keep the dragons and the changelings out."

"Right." I hoped he was right. That would mean there was no way I could be a changeling, because I'd passed through the barrier. But what if he was wrong? What if a changeling could fool the barrier into thinking they were human? The changeling that had attacked us could be inside the barrier right now, and we would never know it.