I feel safe when I'm with you

There were now 24 days until the arch ghoul fight, and Angelica finally decided to start reading again. It was true that last time she tried reading through the books Alexander recommended her brain fried itself and nothing was retained, but this time was going to be different! She had resolved to push herself through Alexander's course no matter what, and now that she had experience with magic such things should come to her more easily.

In reality her brain still short circuited.

"Impressive." Alexander's face didn't convey that however, beaming at the results of the test he gave her. "You got twenty out of a hundred, a huge improvement!"

"That's not really that much though."

"It is much. For example, this question here, that asks what process is used to convert mana into a fireball spell."

"Didn't I get that one wrong?"

"Yes, but you were rather close. Your answer was that the friction between mana vibrating itself made flames, and while the process is similar the specifics were off. The mana itself doesn't light itself or become fire, it merely emulates the properties of fire. The vibrations allow it to mimic the heat and destructive power of flames, and potentially burn some rather flammable materials. As you can see you were still close to the real answer."

"I guess." Angelica still wasn't the most pleased, but it was important to stay positive.

"Now for outdoor training. I'm going to teach you the theory behind enhancement spells."

"Enhancement spells?" Angelica's eyes lit up excitedly. "You mean buffing spells!? Spells that increase speed and strength and all of those things!?"

"You are a swordfighter after all. Such spells will be the most useful to you."

Those words nearly fell upon deaf ears, Angelica already racing towards the door.

And that was the schedule for the next few days. In the morning Angelica would train her mana capacity behind the guild building, in the afternoon she'd read some more and test her knowledge, and by night she was learning new spells while training her mana capacity a bit more.

There were now 20 days until the battle with the arch ghoul, and Angelica was rummaging through the library. Most days looking for books and encyclopedias on mana was Alexander's task, but Angelica offered she do it instead. The guy needed his beauty sleep, his eyes almost looked like they'd fall off from the exhaustion.
The moment Alexander fell asleep not even the loudest screams could wake him. Angelica wouldn't have been surprised if he was asleep the whole day!

But her teacher being asleep wasn't an excuse to slack on her training. She knew enough of the basics to figure out where she needed to search for this sort of information, and already located forty books!
Okay, maybe forty was a bit much. If she took out the ones with too many hard words, as well as the ones with no pictures, as well as the ones with concepts she hadn't covered yet, as well as the ones that just looked a bit boring...

She was left with just one book.

Surely there were more books that fit all of the requirements, right? That's what she was searching for.

"That looks intriguing." Angelica could just barely make out the title of the book on the top shelf. Forbidden Magic: A Dangerous History. There was no way a book in a public library was going to teach her forbidden magic, but the history behind it sounded interesting.
Unfortunately the book was just a slight bit above her reach.

"Need help?" A voice as sweet as a bell rang behind Angelica's ears, grabbing the book and lifting it down to Angelica's hands. "Was this what you were reaching for?"

"Yes, thank you." Angelica turned around to thank her helper, only to be flashed with the prettiest face she had ever seen. That perfectly smooth black hair, those cool blue eyes, that fair snow-white skin, did a painting just come to life in front of her!? Was this a fairy tale princess that stepped out of a book to greet her!?

"You're staring quite a bit."

"Am I!?" Angelica's face went red as she looked away. "I'm sorry, you were just too pretty!"

"Thanks, no need to be shy. My name is Cadence. Yours?"

"Angelica, but my friends call me Angel."

"Well then Angel." Cadence spoke with a smile, charming Angelica with every word. "Are you interested in magic history?"

"Oh!" Angelica nearly forgot about the book she held. "I guess. I'm more interested in what the forbidden magic detailed in this book is about."

"I see, I see. I'm a bit of a magic nerd myself. Any type of magic interests me for better or worse."

"For better or worse?"

"It's a bit of a long story, but when I was a kid I had the bright idea to attempt to recreate a tsunami spell in a book I read. It did not go well."

"I can imagine just from calling it a tsunami spell." Angelica shuddered just thinking about it. "How much destruction did you cause?"

"Oh no, I didn't physically destroy anything. I made it small enough to fit in the bath. I just happened to flub a line a little and poison the water we used for weeks..."

"HUH!!?"

"Not so loud!" Cadence quickly shushed her. "We're in a library."

"Sorry, but that's insane!"

"I like magic, but I'm a bit of a klutz when it comes to spellcasting. I can probably answer any question you have on mana and magic."

"Anything?" If Cadence was as knowledgeable as she said this may have been a good opportunity. "I've only just started practicing a few weeks ago and I haven't really used magic in combat yet. I'm an adventurer."

"You are? Your arms do look a bit muscular."

"Thank you. I'm mostly learning combat spells. What sort of chant would you recommend for a fireball spell?"

"That's tricky." Cadence put her finger to her chin and started to think. "Speed is very important when it comes to combat, so I'll assume you want the shortest chant possible. However, I would advise against needlessly shortening to any less than fifty segments. Any smaller than that and you'll just warp the fireball into something unrecognizable."

"But that's kind of long." Angelica sighed. All of the spellcasters in her party were much slower at responding to imminent threats compared to the other party members. Was this why they all took their time to charge up slow and powerful spells?

"That's why it's better to leave spellcasting to the dedicated spellcasters. In a well-balanced party setup sword and spear fighters can respond to quick threats, allowing the spellcasters a chance to charge up and strike with their more powerful spells."

"I get it but..." Something just didn't feel right. "But someone I know told me that learning magic is useful no matter what type of fighting style I have."

Cadence's expression froze, as if she had heard something completely unexpected.

"And now that I think about it that fireball I made a few weeks ago was definitely not fifty segments long. That one was twenty segments? No, a bit longer, but I don't think it was thirty. I need to count."

As Angelica counted the segments on her fingers Cadence could only stare at her, her pupils shrinking as they focused on the target before her. All of her hairs stood on their ends. Magical sparks danced atop her fingertips, ready to rain havoc at the creator's command.

But before the sparks could rain anywhere Cadence took a deep breath, and in just a second she was back to her serene smiling self.

"It was twenty-six!" Angelica was none the wiser once she responded. "I managed to make a fireball in just twenty-six segments!"

"Wow," Cadence said with a smile. "You must be talented in magic. Are you part of an esteemed family?"

"I'm flattered." Angelica chuckled. "But no, not really."

"No need to hide anything from me, I can keep a secret."

"I just met you."

"Or maybe you're part of a branch family? There's no need to be embarrassed, you can't control where you're born or who your parents are."

"AGAIN, I'M NOT PART OF SOME PROMINENT FAMILY!"

"Quiet down," Cadence shushed. "You're in a library."

"Right..." That comment brought her back to reality a bit. Of course she was in a library, she was here to train! "Nice talking and all, but I really need to get going."

"Where to?"

"I mean I have some reading to do and training to get to. It's basically homework."

"Can I watch?"

That was not a question Angelica was expecting.
"I don't think that's the best idea."

"I'll be quiet! I'll make sure I don't disturb you! I just want to watch you use your magic! Please!?"

Her eyes were dazzling, glittering like a puppy's, but was it really the best idea? Angelica was learning magic from Alexander, Alexander was teaching based on Rex family teachings, and Rex family teachings weren't supposed to be spread outside the family. She could only imagine the sort of trouble Alexander could get in if she learned his techniques and started to spread them.

"Again, it's not a good idea."

"Please?"

"Stop begging, you won't change my mind!"

"Pretty please?"

"Hey look, a bird!"

"In the library!?"
Yet somehow she fell for it anyways, looking behind her and allowing Angelica a chance to dash off.

Angelica ran and ran, not once looking behind her as she sprinted out the library door. She ran across the street, right to the field behind the guild building. The grass was slowly starting to regrow, and while there were still some ashes the field was mostly green. Some other plants had sprouted as well, like little flowers, dandelions, bookshelves...

Why were there bookshelves behind the guild?

"Surprised I got here so fast?" Sitting atop one of the bookshelves was Cadence, her painterly smile now unintentionally taunting Angelica. "I used a wormhole spell to get here as fast as I can. Accidentally made it a bit too big and sucked up some of these bookshelves though."

"Isn't that public property!?"

"Don't worry about that, I just want to see you use some magic already!"

"All this just for some magic?" Angelica was starting to feel sorry to Alexander for comparing him to someone crazy like this. "Look, I was being nice, but I sort of have my reasons for being a bit wary about this. And also, how did you even know I was coming here in the first place?"

"You're not even going to show one spell?"

"Answer the question!"

"Fine." Cadence dropped down from atop the bookshelf, leaving her footprints in the ashes. "I guess you can't use magic without something or someone to use it against."

"That doesn't answer the question."

Cadence lifted a few ashes from the ground, and spread them across her palms as she began her chant. The ashes flew into the air one speck at a time, swirling into the sky in a circle above her head, glowing and sparkling as if they were made of crystal dust.

Angelica was mesmerized, but she could tell waiting around was a bad idea. She turned around immediately, ready to walk away and let this be someone else's problem, only to have her path blocked by a short little creature.

Its head wasn't higher than her chest, its limbs were skinny and boney, and it had no armor or hide to speak of. The nose and ears were long and pointy, and the skin was a pure putrid green, the marks of one of the weakest monsters of all: a goblin.

Angelica looked up, noticing the specks of ash finally dropping down. As they approached the ground they grew in size, expanded, became more solid, formed limbs and bones and flesh. By the time they hit the ground each one was a fully formed goblin, so many goblins standing there that it was impossible to see the grass below.

"Goblins?" Angelica felt a bead of sweat drip down her forehead. "Is that even possible?"

Cadence shrugged. "Clearly you didn't read that book on forbidden magic."

"Excuse me?"

"Chapter 20."

Angelica quickly opened up to the table of contents.
Chapter 20: Necromancy, Monster Creating, and the Nature of Creating Life with Magic
Clearly it was possible.

Before she could turn another page the goblin in front of her grabbed the book in her hands. With one quick tug the book was ripped in half, top half split from bottom half and thrown away.

"Hey, watch that!" Angelica screamed at the monsters, only for goblins to strike rather quickly and ferociously. Their bony hands grabbed at her limbs, trying desperately to pin her down. Their teeth bit down on her skin, trying to tear it away. As her body fell to the ground she was kicked and stomped on relentlessly by their nobly feet. She tried to push them off, but without a sword there wasn't much she could do.

"Come on, come on, use magic already!" Cadence was goading her from atop the bookshelf. "Surely you're not just going to fistfight all of these guys, right?"

Angelica was buried in a sea of monsters, stomped and battered and beat and bruised to the point it was hard to think. Using magic here was a bed idea, using magic here was dangerous, using magic here could hurt Alexander, she tried to tell herself all she could to stop herself from using magic here.

But this was the last straw.

A blue inferno began to spread. A swirl of blue flame grew and encompassed as many goblins as it could, burning them to crisps before sending their charcoal bodies out into the sky.
And in the center of this inferno was Angelica, her hands burnt through the flames.

"Cool spell." Cadence clapped. "Seems impractical though. You'd hit all of your party members if you tried that."

"SHUT UP!"
Angelica pointed her palms to the ground as blue flames danced around her. Just a few days ago Alexander had taught her some chants for wind spells. Theoretically if she just aimed one of those spells downwards and increased the power enough she should be able to boost herself off the ground. It was rougher than a dedicated flying spell, but it would definitely do the trick.

"OW OW OW OW OW!"
Once she completed the chant it was like she was yanked into the air by the arm, shot into the sky like she was held by a rocket. She nearly screamed her lungs out, her arms in pain like it was getting ripped right off. She really shouldn't try this sort of thing again.

But now that she had a bird's eye view she had the perfect angle to strike the one who started this.

Cadence was quite the distance away though, and if there was anything Angelica struggled with it was incredibly long ranged attacks. She once tried to learn how to use a bow and arrow, only to learn that her accuracy was pretty horrible. She couldn't get a consistent hit unless the target was right in front of her.
That said, there was an easy way to get around that with a fireball spell.

With one quick chant she launched a purple fireball towards Cadence. It missed, flew to her left, only to burst into an explosion of red and blue and purple fireballs that spread in every direction, including towards Cadence.

Yet right before any of them could hit her golden shields protected her body.

"Hey, you're supposed to be fighting the goblins!" Cadence pouted.

"Shut up!"

What sort of spell was that? Alexander hadn't covered defense spells in his curriculum yet, was it possible to make a spell that went past it?

That said, there were far more pressing matters. Angelica's body was plummeting towards the ground, and it was plummeting fast. That wind spell from earlier felt like it was going to rip her arm off, but it felt like she had no other choice but to use it.

But first, she chanted a physical strengthening spell. Reddish orange mana wrapped around her body, infusing itself into her muscles and filling them with power. Maybe if she did this using the wind spell to fly wouldn't hurt so much.

"OW OW OW!"
It hurt even more than before.

That wasn't entirely the fault of the spell. Angelica aimed it sideways in order to avoid crashing into the goblin horde, and ended up bashing into the forest behind the guild. Branches and splinters poked and stabbed all over her, leaving her an itchy and dirty mess, but at least she wasn't surrounded by goblins.

That said the goblins were rushing towards her. If only she hadn't left her sword at home, fighting them off would be so much easier. She picked up a few pretty long sticks off the ground instead, hoping they'd substitute for a sword somewhat.

With one slash a goblin was obliterated, and the problem with using sticks instead of swords immediately showed itself. The twig snapped in half, barely lasting the full slash before becoming unusable. And the power behind a stick was laughable, it was likely only due to her strengthening magic that she managed to defeat the goblin in one hit.
Yet there were still so many.

Okay, new plan! Ignore the goblins whenever possible, just try to take down the one who made them. With all of her muscles strengthened on jump allowed her to leap atop the bookshelf, swinging her next stick down like an axe ready to split wood.

And yet another barrier appeared before Cadence, blocking the attack.

"Come on," Cadence said with a yawn "You're not using much magic, it's getting boring."

"You filled the guild's backyard with goblins," Angelica growled. "This sort of thing is a crime!"

"And who cares? Do you notice anyone else even noticing these guys?"

Now that it was pointed out to her Angelica found it rather odd. Some of the goblins were starting to spill into the streets, so many of them it was impossible to walk by the guild without noticing them, yet not a single person looking by stopped to care for the monster infestation nearby.

"You did something," Angelica growled. "Didn't you?"

"And what did I do? If you know as much about magic as you let on maybe you can figure it out?"

"What is your goal? Why are you even doing this?"

"I'm just a really suspicious person. I only came to see if he spread some of his knowledge to you by mistake."

"He?"

"Doesn't ring any bells?" Cadence smiled. "Either you really aren't connected to him or you're just slow on the uptake. Whatever it is, certainly a stronger foe can reveal it."

Cadence spun her finger in a circle and chanted, and as a result a creature began to emerge from the ground. Its arms were as thick as tree trunks, its skin was deep blue and felt like leather, and its face was like that of a monstrous pig with tusks large enough to nearly stab its own eyes.

"An orc!?" Angelica froze, its mere power and presence enough to make her shiver. "You've got to be kidding-"

Cadence shoved Angelica with both hands, pushing her down to the ravenous goblins below.

The orc roared before smashing its fist into the ground, nearly caving Angelica's head in if she didn't manage to roll away. The orc wasn't content with just trying once however, trying two, three, four, five times to turn Angelica's brain into paste yet the girl managed to weave past the attacks somehow.

"ALL THIS JUST TO FIGURE OUT IF I KNOW SOME GUY!? YOU COULD KILL ME!"

"Like I care. I use forbidden magic, I can just revive you."

For a moment the thought of just letting herself get killed and revived so she can be over with this crossed Angelica's mind, but one barely missed attack from the orc told her it wasn't worth it. Besides, reviving the dead had to be forbidden magic for a reason. She'd probably come back to life as a zombie or something equally crazy.

It seemed obvious when said like this, but she didn't want to die.

Angelica rocketed away from the beast's arm, knocking herself through goblins like she was a bowling ball and they were the pins. Surprisingly her arm didn't hurt as much with this use. Maybe rolling around in the dirt managed to dull the pain a little. She was safe from the orc's grasp for now, but she was still going to have to get close if she wanted to slay it.
She had three sticks left in her pocket, or basically three swings left of the sword. It was time she made use of them.

The orc held its fists together, ready to hammer them into her face, but Angel was too nimble to catch. With yet another gust of wind she managed to roll between the beast's legs, landing right behind it. She leapt as high as she could, holding a stick in each of her hands, and screaming the entire way up.

"UP HERE PIGGY!"

The pig-faced creature instinctively looked up, and it immediately saw two sticks aimed right at the eyes.

The orc squealed and squealed as it fell to its knees, holding its eyes in pain. This was the time for the finishing blow. Angel leapt in the air and twirled through the sky, like an angel that had descended on this planet. Her final stick looked like a sword for just a moment, the golden sword of the heavens, ready to slice through the monster's neck and send it to the afterlife.

The stick shattered before it could fully decapitate the beast. The orc's neck and hide were far too tough, and a random tree branch found on the ground wasn't enough to cut through it no matter how strong each swing was.

The orc swung its arm wildly, and Angelica nearly saw her life flash before her eyes. Each of the arms could fit three of her inside them, and the individual muscles were much stronger than the average human's. There was a good chance that just one hit could shatter her completely, turning her body into nothing but paste.

All she could do now though is dodge. While she managed to make this part much easier for her it looked impossible to continue the attack with the way things were going.
Or was it?

With the creature on its knees, its head close to the ground, its other natural weak spot was close enough to touch. Angel kicked off the ground, gliding past the flailing arm and shoving her arms right into its mouth. With reckless abandon she shot as many purple fireballs into the beast as she could, blasting it over and over again without stopping.

The orc choked. Its body started to balloon, red and blue and purple light starting to line its skin as it expanded and expanded and expanded and expanded and...

Just like that the beast exploded, fiery lights sent in every direction.

"Pretty." Angelica just couldn't help but admire the show. The lights and the colors that shot up to the sky were so dazzling, and the angels dancing in the flames were beautiful, and her head was starting to feel weak...

She should've paid more attention to her mana levels as she fought. If she continued to fight now she'd probably end up knocking herself unconscious. And she was still in the middle of danger. There were still way too many goblins around her to ignore. And Cadence...

"BORING!" Cadence faked a yawn. "I wanted to see new spells, not you using the same few spells over and over again."

Angel just couldn't help but laugh. She laughed like this was the world's most elaborate and funniest joke. She laughed like she was possessed. She laughed and laughed and laughed, like she wouldn't be allowed to laugh any more.

"SHUT UP!"

Angelica leapt towards Cadence, her fist balled before she smashed it down on the beautiful girl. The barrier predictably appeared once more, so hard and solid it felt like she was punching steel, but she didn't care and wailed on it. She battered it, hammered it, smashed it, rained her fists down on it until they started to bleed, but the material didn't budge. Even as her punches slowed, crawling to a slow halt, the barriers still blocked her.

"Give it a rest." Cadence sighed, and her entire face seemed to change. Her eyes grew dead, the light beneath them fading away. Her smile disappeared, now the universe's most blank expression. It looked as if someone had taken Cadence's place or completely changed who she was as a person. "Fine, I admit it, you're not related to the guy I'm thinking of, so buzz off."

"Huh?" Angelica's eyes widened like she heard the impossible. "What do you mean-"

"Buzz off means buzz off. I targeted you because I thought you might be learning something you shouldn't be, but it turns out you aren't. Now I can drop the act and have no need to be around you anymore."

Angelica still wasn't processing what she was hearing. "What act?"

"I shouldn't need to explain it to you. I was never that into magic, I just made it up to get close to you. Didn't expect you to be so shy showing it. The most you've achieved is simple chant compression, you haven't learned more complex topics like item enhancement or conjuration. I was afraid you'd tap into forbidden magic, but there's nothing to worry about.

"Why?" Angelica was just speechless, but if there was one thing she wanted to ask it was:
Why would you do this?

"Why am I telling you this?" Cadence completely misunderstood. "Because your memory is getting erased anyways."

"Excuse me?"

Cadence snapped her fingers, and all of the goblins that surrounded them returned to ash. What looked like hundreds of creatures that had spawned out of nothing had returned to nothing just as quickly.

Cadence reached out her hand towards Angelica's head, bright white lights glowing on the fingertips. Angelica may have never seen those lights before, but it wasn't hard to guess that this was the memory erasing spell Cadence just mentioned.

But before they could reach her forehead Angelica grabbed her by the wrist.

Cadence tilted her head like a confused animal. "What are you doing?"

"Finally touching you," Angelica said with a chuckle. "Do you remove the barrier whenever you try to touch me or can it just not defend when you try to reach me? Not like it matters."

Angelica tightened her grip, nearly crushing Cadence's wrist to smithereens. For most just this level of pain would be enough to make them cry, but Cadence merely looked at it like a confused animal.

"Any last words?"

Yet Angelica's threat seemed to fall on deaf ears, as all Cadence did in response was chant. Her chant droned out so quickly it sounded less like words and more like TV static, like a meaningless noise that filled Angelica's ears.

Next thing she knew, she was fifty feet in the air.

"Did the angels lift me to heaven?" Angelica giggled at first, only to slap herself awake. The angels weren't real, she needed to remember that! The fact that she was up here was probably some sort of spell Cadence casted. What sort of spell? How did it work? Shouldn't she be more worried about plummeting down towards the ground? Thinking was exhausting.

Angelica dove towards the ground with a surprising smile on her face, ready to make bloody impact.

"Caught you."

But right before she hit the ground a well-dressed figure managed to grab hold of her. With a snap of his fingers he floated to the ground like a fairy, his black hair shimmering through the wind.
And his name? Who else would it be?

"Alex!" Angelica gave him a big childish hug. "You almost missed the angels! No wait, the angels aren't real, it was... um..."

"Don't worry about that." He patted her head and placed her down like a puppy. "The angels are definitely real."

"They are? Yay!"

As Angelica sat there, giggling like a baby, Alexander glared up at the one who caused this. The intense waves of magic he could detect woke him up from his slumber. The many multicolored lights brought him to behind the guild. And now that he was here he was ready to show whoever attacked Angelica just who...

Alexander crumpled to his knees, each of his limbs shivering and quaking like a cold chill rushed down his spine. His eyes were locked on the girl standing on the bookshelf, the cause of the current predicament.

"Sister Dearest..." His voice was like a whisper as he bowed his head towards her.

"Speak up," Cadence said, her voice unfeeling and cold. "It's your fault this has even happened."

"Sister Dearest!" Alexander nearly shouted it right after. "What is it you desire of me?"

"You know what it is." Cadence jumped down from atop the bookshelf, gracefully landing on the ashy grass below. "You know, out of everyone in our family, I was the one who was kind enough to vote that someone as worthless as you should stay. Do you know why?"

Alexander shook his head.

"You know why!" Mana swirled around Cadence, making Alexander flinch a bit, but the magical display quickly died down. "If you're too dumb to realize, then I'll tell you why. It's because no matter what kind of creature you are you're still a part of the Rex family. You still hold valuable family secrets that should not be allowed to leak to anyone. I don't want to go around erasing so many people's memories, understand?"

"And that's why you-"

"Don't interrupt me." Cadence's voice made Alexander flinch. "As I was about to say, I've been keeping track of you for a while. Where you go, the people you talk to, all that sort of stuff, and I noticed you've been talking to this girl a lot. She refused to spill anything so I'll just have to speak to the suspect directly."

Cadence put her hand on Alexander's shoulder, her eyes sparkling with intense bursts of mana.
"Have you been teaching her anything you don't need to?"

Alexander's body shook, beads of sweat dripping down his face.
"No sister."

"Sister?"

"No, Sister Dearest." He quickly bowed his head. "I would never."

"I'd use a lie detector spell on you, but I know you know your ways around that." Cadence sighed, before turning around and walking out of the field. "Just know I'll be watching you."

Each step that Cadence took felt like an eternity, the crunch of grass and ashes below her feet making Alexander's heart skip a beat. Every second she was around him felt like pain, every minute she stood near felt like fear was getting injected into his bones, every slight movement he saw from her felt like he was getting skinned alive.

The moment he couldn't see her in the distance he finally fell to his knees and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I thought I'd never have to see her again," Alexander admitted to himself.

"Who was she?" Angelica tugged on Alexander's pants while sucking her thumb like a little kid. "Why did she do all those mean things?"

"She's..." It took effort to force the words out. "She's my older sister."

"Does your family not like you anymore?"

"I wouldn't say anymore. They were always looking for a reason to kick me out, it's only now that I've turned 18 they were allowed to do so."

"Why don't they like you?"

"That's because... I'd rather not say."

"I see."

Alexander sat down in the grass, sighing as the exhaustion of the previous encounter got to him.

"Is this my fault?" Angelica sounded guilty. "Did this happen because you started teaching me?"

"Don't blame yourself. Anything wrong happened completely because of me."

"But I asked you to teach me."

"And I chose to teach you despite knowing this would happen, so that means I'm responsible. Relax, I'm not going to stop just because of that scare. She may be watching, but whatever methods she used clearly can't hear us, so as long as we're extra careful nothing should happen."

Angelica didn't fully like calling him fully responsible, but whatever pleased him was okay with her.
"If you say so," she said with a giggle.

"I guess that's enough training for today." Alexander laid back in the grass, only awake for about an hour but already exhausted. His family would probably kill him if he said it out loud, but he enjoyed the company of Angelica far more than any time spent with them.
"By the way, aren't all of these library books?"

Angelica froze as she looked at the scraps around her. A few of the bookshelves got damaged in the battle, and one book she was itching to check out was torn in half.
"Let's just leave and keep this a secret between us, okay?"

"Okay?"

And so the two tiptoed out of the field, while the pages of the very torn book flew through the wind. The title was Forbidden Magic: A Dangerous History, a book by bestselling author Cadence Rex.