"Well, not this kind of food," said Charlie. "I still need some kind of sustenance. Wood in fact. Well, wood is best, but other things will do."

"So, you eat wood?" I asked.

"I burn it," Charlie said, "and absorb the nutrients. Dani doesn't need food either."

Dani returned at that moment with a new plate of pancakes for Charlie. "Nothing but water," he said.

I sat quietly, processing the fact that neither of them needed food. I was still having trouble accepting it all. It wasn't that I didn't believe it, it was just a lot to take in. Mariana arrived and joined us. I hadn't seen her since before finding out about magic, and I studied her while we all exchanged greetings. It made even more sense that she and Dani were married; they both probably spent a lot of time in the water. I wondered if the streaks of green in her hair became more pronounced when she was a mermaid. If, that is, she actually grew a tail and turned into a classic storybook mermaid. I wondered for a bit, while everyone talked, and finally my curiosity grew too strong.

"Mariana, I have to ask, do you have a tail?"

For a moment she looked shocked. Then, she laughed quietly. "I forgot you were told," she said. "Yeah, I do. I'm like TS, but with water."

I stared at her in confusion, I couldn't quite figure out what to make of that.

"Sorry, let me clear that up," she said, looking embarrassed. "Magics like Dani and Charlie look human all the time. But they aren't. Right now, I'm human." She picked up a lock of her hair with a pronounced green tinge. "Technically, I'm still a magic, but there's a lot I can do in the water that I can't on land. Like how TS can turn into a wolf, but only at night."

TS laughed. "I think you're just confusing her."

"Give her a chance," Dani said to him.

"I think I get it," I said. "Like how I could see Dani's eyes changing color, right?"

"Exactly," Mariana said. "Non-magics can't see that. They wouldn't be able to hear familiars either. I can, even though I'm human. Now, in the water, I can still appear human, but I can do things that I can't now, like spit ink. Then, if I want to, I can shift into my mermaid form. If I'm in the water, I'm always a mermaid. I just don't always have a tail."

"Okay."

"Did that make more sense?" she asked.

"It did. Thanks."

"I take it back," TS said. "Good job."

"Yeah, nicely explained," Dani said. He ruffled Mariana's hair affectionately.

Even though she swatted at Dani's hand and muttered, "Don't do that," she looked pleased.

"Hey, did anyone else hear that?" Dani asked suddenly. He gestured up in the direction of the ceiling. I heard an announcement being made, but hadn't listened to it. It seemed that nobody else had either. "That was the last boarding call for the boat for your trip, Char."

"Clinker," Charlie spat. He jumped up and shoved his ID into his pocket. Then, his eyes got wide and he patted himself down. "Oh, ashes! My wallet's in my room!"

"Hang on," Dani said. He pulled out his wallet and handed it to Charlie.

"Will you need cash?" Charlie asked.

Dani shrugged. "I wasn't planning on buying anything, today. Just get me something splashy. And use my MCU card, not the company one."

Charlie gave him a scathing look. "I'm not going to buy souvenirs with your company credit card." He pocketed the wallet and jogged out of the dining room. “Thanks, Dan!" he called over his shoulder.

"And try not to max it out!" Dani yelled after him.

Had he seriously just given Charlie his credit card? Nobody else seemed at all surprised. Apparently I had a lot more to learn about the magical world than I thought. I could understand lending a friend some cash, but I didn't think I'd give even my best friend my credit card.

"I hope you have a high credit limit," TS said with a laugh.

Dani pulled Charlie's abandoned plate to him. "Probably not high enough." He started eating the pancakes.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"If you end up needing money today, you're not getting it from me," Mariana told him.

"Love you too, honey," Dani said.

Mariana rolled her eyes and turned to TS. "Where's Thomas?"

"He was still asleep when I got here," TS said. He cocked his head thoughtfully. "Em... he's up now. Not sure if he's planning on breakfast."

He could tell if Thomas was awake or not?

Dani leaned across the table before I could ask. "Is it just me or is he sleeping a lot?"

TS looked uncomfortable. "He's... been pretty tired."

"Did you tell him what I said?" Mariana asked.

“Right, he said no," TS said.

"Then, he's an idiot," Dani snapped. His eyes had gotten dark. TS jerked his head around and actually curled back his upper lip and growled at him. Dani didn't flinch. "You know I'm right."

TS dropped his head down in a way that reminded me of a dog getting yelled at. "I'm sorry. I'm just... I'm trying to get him to change his mind or something. I dunno."

Dani slumped back in his chair. "I know. Forget it. If he won't listen to you, he won't listen to any of us."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

They all exchanged a glance. "Nothing you need to worry about," Dani said after a moment.

Apparently, they weren't going to answer all of my questions, after all. I supposed that, even though I was a witch, they weren't just going to automatically trust me. Dani picked at his pancakes during an awkward silence. It turned out that Thomas wanted breakfast, after all. He arrived in the dining room a few minutes later and sat down next to TS.

"You okay?" he asked. TS nodded, and Thomas turned to Dani. "And you?"

"Fine," Dani said softly. "Just a tidal wave."

I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but Thomas seemed to accept it. He nodded and held an orange out to TS, who stared at it for a moment.

"I can't fetch it, if you don't throw it."

Thomas chuckled. "You're not fetching it, you're eating it."

TS groaned. "I was afraid you were going to say that." He frowned at it. "Please tell me that's not an orange."

Thomas set it on TSs’ plate. "Eat it. It's good for you. Lots of vitamin C."

"Oranges are antiscorbutic," Dani said with a grin.

"You're so helpful," TS muttered.

"Teth," Thomas insisted. "You need it."

TS sighed heavily. "You know I hate fruit."

"Isn't it annoying when people insist you eat right?" Thomas asked.

After a moment, TS reluctantly picked up the orange and started peeling it. I wondered if TS gave Thomas a hard time about eating right. Thomas was really thin, bordering on unhealthy looking, and from what I'd seen, really didn't eat properly. He had a festively frosted danish and nothing else on his plate. But it was odd that he was encouraging TS to eat oranges and things. It seemed sort of hypocritical of Thomas to worry about what TS ate, when he didn't seem to eat very well himself. Then again, TS had looked sort of sick the other night. Maybe he had a cold or something. That is, if werewolves could even get sick. Dani and Mariana both picked at their plates, while TS and Thomas ate.

"Trivia question," Thomas said. We all looked at him expectantly. He had a smug grin. "Who is the only professional football team to lose all sixteen games in a season?"

TS swallowed a slice of orange with a grimace and smirked. "I believe that would be the Lions, Tom."

Dani flicked a perfectly round ball of maple syrup across the table at Thomas. He dodged it, and it splattered on the wall behind him.

Thomas laughed. "I'm sorry, they aren't that bad. It's not like they've never qualified for the Superbowl."

Judging from the look on Dani's face, they hadn't. Thomas and TS both laughed.

Mariana leaned over to me and whispered, "I have no idea what they're talking about. I don't watch football."

"Neither do I." We giggled.

Then, the speakers chimed, and the next departing lifeboat was announced. They listed my trip among the ones that should board, and I quickly got ready to go.

"Let me know when your trip is over," Thomas said. "We'll get those seventeen narrowed down."

"I will," I said. "See you later!"

Narrowing down the wands was just as tedious as it had been the night before. I tried, again and again, to make sparks. Even worse was the almost palpable silence. I really wasn't sure what to say to Thomas once I knew he couldn't use magic. I wondered if he could even still do things like see elementals' eyes. But, I didn't want to ask. Thomas encouraged me as I made my sparks, but he didn't seem to be in the mood for conversation either. At last, when I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, I had eight wands left.

When the ship left Panama the next day, it was much different from the night it left Mexico. For one thing, we were anchored instead of docked, so there were no runners. It was also a lot less dramatic pulling up the anchor and just moving away than it had been watching them undo the mooring lines and seeing the dock slowly vanish. Then, there was the fact that I didn't feel like I was just leaving another country; I felt like I was entering a new world. Looking forward to the next country, like I had been when we left Mexico, paled in comparison to what I was looking forward to now. Dani was at the rails with me again, but this time I knew that he wasn't human. I knew that when we all went back inside, I was going to get my wand and use magic. It was a strange, but exciting, feeling.

After people started to trickle back into the ship, I went to my room and grabbed the eight wands I had set aside. Thomas met me in his room, and we got right back to work. He had me try to set a piece of paper on fire. I went through each wand and managed to get a tiny spark that hardly singed the paper. After a few more tries, the holes I burned in the paper got a little bigger, but nothing else happened.

"Tired?" he asked when I paused between wands.

"A bit." I hadn't imagined that using magic would be so tiring; I was hardly doing anything.

Thomas leaned back against the wall, looking unconcerned. "We'll take a break."

"You're sure I'm a witch, right?" I could think of a dozen books where a new witch picked up a wand and started doing cool things. It was never this tedious. I had spent three nights just trying to get my wand!

"Positive."

We sat in silence for a while, and my thoughts drifted, once again, to why Thomas couldn't use magic anymore. Was it permanent? I studied him while I thought. He was extremely skinny. He had said that magic works better if you're healthy. Maybe he was sick.

"Thomas?"

"Yeah?"

"Are there, I dunno, diseases and things that only magical people can get?"