It had been around a week now that I was "convalescing" at home with my Aunt with this fake illness she had cooked up, while in actuality I was recuperating from a horrible magic disease that our towns resident, magical serial killer had set on me. My hands and arms had now gone back to their natural colour and the soreness and aches had completely gone too, so I was thankful for that. At least I wasn't waking up in the morning feeling like my arms were freezing cold and boiling up at the same time now. My Aunt had however managed to get us both sick notes from the doctor to prove our illness. Though the truth was she had rang up one of her witch friends from a different coven who just so happened to be her own GP and she wrote us up a few notes; no questions asked. I'm just glad that I wouldn't have an unauthorised absence on my school record now.

But now I was back in my stupid school uniform, back in stupid class just waiting for this stupid serial killer guy to make himself visible again so we could end his dumb tirade. Nothing had changed much at school though and it didn't seem like I had missed much, but Katie and Victoria had kindly taken notes for me from our classes so I could catch up. Catching up with school work was the last thing on my mind, as I had spent most of my first Monday back daydreaming about being at Arne's mansion. Honestly, I had a blast staying there. When Auntie M wasn't teaching me more about our craft and helping me practice; we'd spend our time with Arne and his clan of vampires just doing normal stuff. We'd all watch TV shows and films together, chat about what was going on in the world, go on walks and we'd even play board games together. It felt like I had been accepted in to some family unit which was nice. I never really had anything like that growing up, but this was a pleasant experience. It was the same with being in the coven too, it made me happy just to be included in something.

I had also been messaging Duncan. And that hadn't gone unnoticed by my friends.

'What's that face for?' Victoria asked me at lunch time. I had been smiling and chuckling at my phone.

'Oh, nothing much really.'

'Okay, so who is he?' Katie had joined the conversation, pointing her fork at my phone.

I sighed knowing that I'd be better off just telling them, as neither Katie or Victoria would leave me alone till I fessed up. Remembering the cover story I used to explain my absence from the schools Halloween party, I continued.

'I met him at the party I went to with Auntie M. He's called Duncan and he's... he's really nice.' I could feel myself blushing, the heat in my cheeks was increasing. I put my phone down and took a bite of the tuna mayonnaise baked potato I had got for lunch, in some vain attempt to hide my embarrassment. I kept quiet as I chased half a cherry tomato around my plate.

'Well, go on then! What's he look like?' Katie squeaked at me. I finished chewing before I said anything.

'He's um, kinda tall about five foot ten or so or taller you know I'm not good at heights. Um, brownish hair, blue eyes. He's quite handsome I guess. And he's Scottish too.' I smiled as I spoke. Yeah it was totally apparent I liked this guy. I just left out the main fact that he was, well... dead.

I got bombarded with more questions. Could I show them a photo if I had one? When was I seeing him next? When could they meet him? I told them I wasn't sure and no, I didn't have a photo of him yet.

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'To be honest, I thought you had a thing going with Liam.' Katie announced. 'You've been spending a lot of time with him recently.' She looked coy as she spoke. It was true I had been spending some time with Liam, but not for the reasons Katie thought.

'Yeah I have, but it's mainly because of Auntie M and Mr. Evans and the whole them being work colleagues thing.' I lied. I didn't feel right lying to my friends, but I was trying to steer away from even thinking about the whole witch and warlock thing, in case I did accidentally blurt anything out. At least my friends bought my little fib.

After lunch I had my particularly boring English class and then the class after that was my Art class, in which I got very little done. At this moment I was just willing my time away so I could go see my Aunt and study more magic; which was massively more interesting than my boring as hell Monday. I had found my happy place stood in front of the family spell book located in my Aunts room. Domino was with me also. My Auntie M had suggested I do a glamour spell on him so the others wouldn't see him so as far as they knew; I didn't actually have a cute little black and white kitten who helped me with my magic. I say help but right now he was rolling about on my Aunts bed.

'Okay book, you have anything good for me today?' I asked the large leather-bound tome. He flapped his front cover a few times then ruffled through each individual page quickly until he landed on one full of neat writing and little doodles.

'A Witches Exorcism Spell.' I read aloud. 'You think this may come in handy book?'

The book flapped his pages a few times signifying it was saying yes.

'Okay I'll write it down.' I got my own book out along with my pen and started writing the spell down. The spell itself was odd in the sense that it split several times; the instructions telling you to use some other ingredient or do something differently if you didn't have this or that. If you don't have salt, use sage. If you don't have sage, use salt. If you don't have either of those use a feather or lavender and don't forget string or twine for binding if necessary. I wrote it all down regardless figuring I could ask my Aunt about it later.

'Book, turn to the binding section please, there's some good ones there. And head to curses after that.'

'Auntie M! I didn't hear you come in.' I said to her, slightly startled.

'Yeah just been trying to keep a low profile, especially as I've been absent this past week.' She replied.

'So, you want me to start learning curses now?' I asked her as the book was flicking through the pages on its own. 'Isn't that a bit too advanced for me?'

'Nope. To be honest Maddie, you're actually coming along quite well. You listen and you practice which is all you need to do. And you've shown that you can call on your magic when you need it. So yeah, of course you can go on to the more... advanced stuff.'

'And that's, curses?'

'Sweetheart, the meat and potatoes of any real witch is always healing and curses. Even lesser witches.'

'Lesser witches?' I looked up from my spellbook I had been copying in to.

'You need to read your handbook more Maddie. It's literally all in there.' Auntie M shook her head at me.

'Aw but I like asking you Auntie M. You usually tell me stories too.' I whined.

'That's another thing too. As you're developing, you need to stop relying on me as much.' Auntie M looked serious when she said that. 'You need to start trusting your powers and your knowledge and hopefully you can get to the point where you don't even need to use ingredients or incantations.'

'That feels like it'll take forever.' I snorted.

'No, no it won't Maddie.' Auntie M smiled at me.'You've shown that you can do it. And remember, you're a Taylor. All Taylor women are naturally talented witches and our bloodline hasn't survived this long by being shit.'

I felt better after after my Aunt's pep talk. I finished off writing down the stuff she told me to then agreed to meet up with her shortly in the dining hall for dinner. She had stuff to do after, as I had asked her if she wanted to join me; Victoria and Katie in watching telly later on. But that was fine. I figured I should spend a bit more time with my friends as I'd barely seen them recently. It would also be a great time to let Domino out for a bit so he could prowl round outside.