A Life Beyond The Mirror

As I lay on my bed, reading the book potion book my grandmother has me studying. I have nearly finished half of it, surprised to find, I have enjoyed reading it more than I thought. The number of spells that would have helped me over the years making me wish I knew about this life earlier. There is a potion for everything! I could have lived an easier life than the three sisters of charmed with this book and it creates a little angry monster inside of me at the thought of not being told about half of my being.

“Are you ready dear? We have about an hour until your mother gets home.” My Grandmother shouts up from the bottom of the stairs.

“I’ll be down in a second!” I shout. closing the book and tucking it neatly under my arm as the mirror pulses three times.

I hesitantly move towards it and tap on the glass and Finn’s face comes through, pacing my dad’s old chambers. I step through the portal.

“Are you alright?” I ask, placing my hand on his back. He stiffens, before turning towards me.

“I thought you weren’t home.” He rubs the back of his neck, uncomfortably.

“So why were you knocking?” I raise an eyebrow.

“Okay, I just wanted to see If you would go out with me tomorrow? I want to show you something.” Taking a step towards me and placing his warm hand against my cheek. The contact making my skin tingle and send electricity zipping through me. I lean into his touch, the comfort of it filled with the feeling of rightness.

“That sounds perfect.” I smile. “But I have to head off now, Gran is making me study the potions and testing me on what I have learned.” He kisses me softly on the forehead before kissing my cheek and finally my lips.

“See, now tomorrow seems too long to wait.” He murmured against my lips. I giggle, lightly smacking his chest, before pulling him in for one more kiss. He pulls me firmly against the hard plains of his chest before pushing me away with his eyes closed. “If I look at the kissable face of yours one more time, I’m never going to let you leave. You should go before I change my mind.” He says seriously.

I place a soft kiss on his cheek before scurrying through the portal.

“There you are! Couldn’t stay away, could you?” My gran wiggles her eyebrows giving me a knowing look as I close my bedroom door behind me. I feel the crimson flush burn my cheeks.

“Don’t we have a test or something?” I change the subject, moving past her to head down the stairs.

“Yes, without a moment to lose! How far did you get?”

“I got to the section on using mistletoe berries in an antidote to most poisons, which intrigues me as mistletoe is poisonous.” She nods in understanding.

“Some things, when made into the right concoction can be something entirely different.” I raise my brow at her.

“Did that even make sense?”

“Maybe not in this world.” She winks.

As we get to the kitchen, I can see she has laid out ingredients ready on the kitchen table, the stove is pre heated and the kettle is whistling adamantly on the stove.

“Right. We are going to work on defensive potions as they are the most important. We will also make a few more healing potions, location tonics, protection charms and also a sleeping tonic. So, lets get started. We will start with a protection charm. These usually last 12 hours and you can’t take more than three in a row. You are going to need to grab the Lavender, Aloe vera and Jasmine to start.” She says pointing towards the arranged table. I flick through the vials and collect the ones needed before adding them into the mortar. Once grounded I boil them in sea water, adding a little magic and watch the white cloud of smoke spill over the sides of the pan like a blanket.

“Great job.”

“Why can’t you take more than three in a row?” I ask, as I collect the laid-out vials to pour the pale liquid into.

“Because it has very addictive qualities like the drugs used in the world and over consumption can cause all sorts of problems.”

“Like what?”

“Well, you would build up an immunity to it, which wouldn’t be good, and as your tolerance increases you would need to take more and higher doses can cause things like heart failure, psychotic episodes and the worst case I have seen caused a rash so itchy the man scratched his skin clean from the bone.” She said, taking the bottles from my hands, ignoring my horrified expression.

“Well, then.” I say, moving on to the next potion gran lined up, making a mental not to stay away from the protection charm as much as I could.

It turned out making the potions came easier to me than cooking. I was always an awful cook, always burning, over boiling or adding too much of an ingredient to make it taste disgusting, but this, this feels like I was meant to do it. Every puff of magic the pot released had excitement soaring through my veins and I automatically wanted to do it again, learn more concoctions and use them to see their effects.

“Hey, maybe next you could teach me how to make a good carbonara.” I laugh. Gran raises her eyebrow and nods awkwardly.

“I’d like to try one more thing.” She says, placing the last of the vials in the cabinet. “I want to work on your telepathy. I know we have already been practicing a lot, but this time, I want you to read my mind.” She says, taking a seat at the table.

“That isn’t something I have been able to do before.”

“You forget. We have only just begun to see the depths of your gifts.” I give her a look that tells her I don’t think it will work. She tuts. “Just humour your Gran. Come sit.” She says pulling out the chair next to her. I follow suit and she takes my hand, closing her eyes. “Now clear your mind. This is different to sending messages, but not too different to seeing what another person is doing. So, clear your mind and think of me. Think of how we are connected. Now find the right station and tune in.”

I close my eyes and picture my gran. I imagine the little tv box that is her mind, but instead of tv screen like before, I imagine an old radio. I flick through the channels slowly until I pick up a line. Chicken, mushroom what?

“Chicken and mushroom?” I laugh and Gran joins me.

“Close. I was asking whether you preferred a chicken or mushroom carbonara. The more you practice the clearer it will get.

“To be honest, I don’t really want to read people’s minds. It just doesn’t feel right.”

“It doesn’t have to be so invasive. By opening up this door, it will allow you to read people’s intentions, their feelings and when they are lying. It’s a good trick to have.”

“I suppose that’s not too invasive.”

“Just make sure you practice. Physical contact helps. I think you should make sure to keep that door open for the foreseeable future. It may save your life.”

“Good point. It may mean I have to make awkward contact with people, but I need to know who the unseelie Princess’s spies are.” My gran nods in response, rising from the table to put the kettle on.

“Oh look, Len has a friend.” Gran smiles, pointing to the window. I gasp, dropping back down to my seat as I find a yellow canary.