Conjuring Dragons by Chante Francis (tools of titans ebook .TXT) 📖

I felt a rush of air move the paper pouch into my grasp. I pulled my cobweb and dust covered hand out, and Veronica, without moving slid the board back into place with her powers.

"So it’s fine if you use your powers but if I do it’s dangerous?" I ask with a small smile on my face and a raised eyebrow.

"I never use my powers in a place where people can see me." She says sticking her tongue out at me as the rest of her face mimics mine. I narrow my eyes slightly and the door thumps as though someone just rammed it. Veronica gets thrown forward a bit and I laugh as she scowls at me while rubbing her backside. “Besides, I can only do the little stuff. Enough to make sure we’ve got a little extra protection, no more. Our powers are dangerous Jypsie, really we shouldn’t use them at all.”

"Come on then. Let's go before our new wardens change their minds." I say, moving to get up and grab my bag, pretending that I didn’t even hear her last sentence. We both know that I did though.

"Alright, but give me my ring first. I think we should keep them on us just in case anything happens.” She pauses and her once relaxed face slips into an angrier expression, “That does not mean use your powers for the hell of it Jypsie, and don’t let anyone see it.” I look at her and smile, “I’m serious. You already know they’ll raise way too many questions. After all there is no way two orphans with no money and no family would be able to afford something like this, let alone two."

I nod slowly, and tip the envelope on its side so that they slide out, she catches them both, and waits to hand mine over.

“I promise to try to be as careful as I possibly can so that you won’t be exposed to danger.” She thinks on my pledge for a moment before shaking her head, sighing and handing over my ring. We put them on at the same time and turn them so the jewel is palm in. I watch as the ring seemingly vanishes into thin air. The only way I can tell that it’s still there is by the slight weight of it on my finger.

"No matter how many times I see that. It still amazes me, I don’t think I’ll ever be used to magic."

"Come on." Veronica says as she grabs her bag and proceeds out the door.

"You’re so damn impatient." I mumble as I follow her retreating figure.

We get to the front room and see a young couple with an excited little girl talking buoyantly with our caretakers. Numerous other strays are in the room moving in ways to grab their attention in hopes of being adopted as well. Surprisingly, none of them notice us enter the room, and we're able to hear the last bits of a conversation where Gladys and Mij make us sound like angels. Veronica scoffs as they play up our intelligence and skills, never once mentioning all the schools we've been expelled from, or all the trouble we've had with the authorities.

We can use this to our advantage.  I hear Veronica's voice in my head.

How?  I project back into her mind.

Just follow my lead.  She replies, before saying out loud, "Miss Gladys, Miss Mij." Everyone turns as they realize we’ve entered the room. I watch as our new family appraises us, appearing to once again ignore all the other children in the room trying to catch their attention.

The little girl’s mouth drops open and she screams excitedly, "So pretty! How old are you? What’s your favorite color? Mines pink! You look the same! Is that magic? Will you teach me? How powerful are you? What kind of witches are you?" She has a lot more questions, but we see her father whispering something and as he finishes, she goes mute. The little girl continues to move her mouth spiritedly, but not a sound escapes. She stops and rubs her ears before trying to talk again. When she still can’t hear herself she rubs her ears and looks at her hands. Panicked now, she looks up at her mother worried.

As if nothing is out of the ordinary, her mother picks her up and cradles her head into her neck, effectively keeping her mouth shut, "Ignore her, she has quite the imagination. She was right about one thing though," She smiles widely at us and continues, "You two are very beautiful young ladies."

Veronica and I stand there looking confused and probably a little freaked out, but we manage to nod as we plaster fake smiles on our faces. An awkward silence falls on the room as the couple continues to study us, and the other children change their tactics. Miss Mij and Miss Gladys have both significantly backed away from all of us. We don’t have to use our powers to know what they’re thinking, it’s written all over their faces.

That was a spell.  Thinks Veronica,

Are you sure? ...It couldn’t have been, they’d have to be...

I think they are. She says, like I should already know it.

Do you think they know that we’re--?

Yes. I mean what’s the coincidence of them adopting us out of everyone else if they were only here for normal kids?

I don’t trust them.

You don’t trust anyone.

Learned it from you. I nudge her with my elbow, but maybe a bit too hard because she turns and glares at me. What should we do?

I say we just keep an eye on them for now, anything has to be better than staying here.

Do you think they may be able to help us in some way? I question, looking at them appraisingly.

I don’t know yet, but let’s keep an eye out on their minds.  I look at her with confusion that she brushes off with a raise of her shoulder. We may be able to learn some interesting new things, like that muting spell.

The man, our new father, clears his throat rather loudly and breaks Gladys and her sister out of their thoughts. They begin to shake slightly and their eyes cloud over in unwarranted fear. Mij looked like she was about to scream bloody murder and run screaming, while Gladys looked like she was on the border of consciousness and sweet oblivion.

David walks back in the room smiling, giving us a slight shock, we hadn’t even realized he had left. Strolling over to our new father, he hands him two manila envelopes, his easy going attitude and presence starts to slowly ease the awkwardness as it always does. After all he is the type to make friends with everyone, everywhere he goes.

I watch as Veronica clears her own throat before repeating, "Miss Gladys, Miss Mij."

They both turn towards us sharply with sneers on their faces and an unkind retort on their tongues. Quicker than I thought possible, they realize that there is still a guest in our midst and they need him to relieve them, "What is it dear?" Miss Mij asks with a forced smile. She was being nice, most likely because they were still present in the room. This would be easier than we thought.

"Our mother left some things in your care when she deserted us. I believe she requested that you return it to us on our 17th birthday. I doubt we will be here then, so do you think you could give it to us now?" I ask sweetly, as Veronica puts on her award winning innocent expression, puppy dog eyes and all.

We watched as they deliberated, biting their lips and playing with their fingers, it was so obvious they didn’t want to do it. They didn’t want to hand over anything that would make life easier for us in anyway, even if they weren’t sure that’s what the items would do.

It would seem that mom left us quite a bit.

What are you on about? I throw yet another question at her.

I was reading their minds, it would seem that mom left us quite a bit of cash. She also left us keys and two bank accounts.

Tell me more. I start to briefly fantasize that we were left a house and enough money that we wouldn’t need to work for a few years to come.

There’s about $1,500 in cash. They don’t know how much is in the bank account because we're the only ones with access to them.  All sorts of inquiries started cropping up in my mind.

Keys?

They look like car keys.

What kind of car?

They never went to the warehouse where the car is supposedly held so I have no idea. I can tell she doesn’t feel like answering anymore questions, so I ask her just one more.

Why not?

It’s out of state.

Huh. I guess mom must have some pretty good damn reason for leaving us. I mean after hearing that, it’s not like she didn’t have the money, and it’s not like she didn’t care. Obviously. I say to her, testing to see if her views on the woman that gave birth to us has changed.

I wonder if she’s alive.

We can cast a location spell later. Although considering this is the first time we've ever tried finding a person I'm not sure if it'll work.

No harm in trying I suppose.

I’m surprised that you’re suddenly willing to help me in my quest to find her.  Veronica just shrugs and starts to make her way down the stairs.

I follow after her, both lost in our own thoughts until we reach the bottom. We hear a rubber ball hit something to our left and turn to see what broke. At first we speculate at the little children freaking out about the vase they just destroyed, but then I shift my eyes over. I stare at my sister’s reflection and our resemblance, wondering if we look like our mother or our father.

 Feeling my stare on her, Veronica too looks into the mirror that the children are lucky not to have broken. I don’t bother to see what she’s thinking about, I just stand there and stare into her eyes. Physical appearance so like my own that no one has ever questioned whether or not we were identical, but mentally different. I wonder if she takes after another family member we’ve never met and have little hope of meeting.

"Veronica! Jypsie!" We both snap our heads to the demanding shrill that is the voice of Ms. Mij. Standing there in all of her glory with a large box in her hands, and an angry expression on her face. "Do you have any idea how long I’ve been calling you?! Stupid little twits."

She hands Veronica the box with a sneer as I look around the room for the gentleman from earlier. "They went to wait for you in the car." David says answering my unasked question.

Without a goodbye or a single glance backwards, Veronica and I leave our current hell hole, for another new start with yet another family. This time promising each other that we would behave. We promised each other that this time we wouldn’t get caught using our powers and this time we wouldn’t get in trouble, so that we wouldn’t have to return here. Basically, we were repeating to each other the same promises we always seem to break.

We walked across the front porch, climbed down the stairs and slid into the car with our new family.