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"Have you ever had to deal with something like this before?" Tina asked her grandmother as they ate dinner.

Charlotte shook her head, "No, but I've heard of it happening before. Usually we'd let the authorities handle it and make him out to be crazy, which they often are. But if he's as talented as they say, we may have to do something different to keep magic a secret."

"Like what?" Tina asked worriedly.

"I don't know. Hopefully it won't be an issue." Charlotte replied.

They ate in silence after that. After cleaning up they returned to the attic and continued working on deciphering the spell forms. Although she only had a few hours to work on it, she managed to breeze through the spell forms she'd been studying and examine a few more.

"So what have you learned so far?" Charlotte asked after awakening Tina from her trance.

"I'm not sure. There's so much stuff in my head right now it's hard to make sense of it all. But I think I'm really starting to get a feel for how magic works." she replied dazedly.

"Then it sounds like it's time for you to get some rest. Go on to bed and we'll talk some more tomorrow." Charlotte said.

Images of spell forms danced around in her head all morning and it wasn't until lunch that Tina noticed that both Tiffany and Sarah seemed upset about something. That didn't distract her from the images in her head for long, though. Even on the walk home from work she found it hard to concentrate on anything else. After nearly getting run over while crossing the street she was finally able to focus and hurried back to help her grandmother close up her store for the day.

The only people in the store when she got there were her grandmother, the two women from the previous day, and a fidgety guy who kept glancing around him like he expected to be attacked at any moment. He didn't seem very pleased to be there.

"Tina, let me introduce you." Charlotte said when she saw her granddaughter enter. "This is Willow, Rose, and Nathaniel." Willow and Rose were both wearing t-shirts and jeans, but Nathaniel's clothes seemed to mostly be made up of straps, buckles and spikes. Over it all he wore a long trench coat with an overabundance of zippers, only some of which were probably practical. His boots had a four inch platform, his hair was short, black, and spiked like an anime character. And his makeup made him look like a vampire.

"Uh, hi." Tina said hesitantly. It wasn't so much his outfit that put her off, though it was more ostentatiously goth than anything she had ever seen before, but his manner. He somehow combined arrogant, skittish, paranoid and angry in his expression and seemed to never be completely still.

"Hi Tina. So you're studying with Charlotte?" Rose asked with a nervous glance towards Nathaniel.

Tina nodded, "Yeah. She's been teaching me since I was little."

"Cool. I wish I came from a magical family." Willow said wistfully.

"Then how did you learn?" Tina asked.

"The coven. I've been friends with Rose since junior high and she invited me into the coven. I don't know much yet, though." Willow explained.

"That's because they're holding out on us!" Nathaniel growled.

"I assure you that's not the case Nathaniel." Charlotte said. "Some covens do restrict what new members are allowed access to, but Kerry doesn't operate that way."

"Kerry?" Tina asked.

"She's the High Priestess of our coven." Rose replied. "And my aunt."

"Then why hasn't she told me how to make a talisman?" Nathaniel said angrily in reply to Charlotte's statement.

"What's a talisman?" Tina asked.

"I read about it in one of the old books. It lets you cast spells without a ritual circle, but they won't tell me how to make one!" Nathaniel said.

"We don't know!" Rose snapped. "How many times do we have to tell you? That book is in Latin! We're not sure if our translation is correct, and it doesn't say how to make one anyway."

Nathaniel turned to Charlotte, "You're supposed to be a big wig in the magical community, you must know?!"

Charlotte was shaking her head before he'd even finished speaking, "No, I don't. I've never seen the book you're talking about. I know that spells were cast without circles in the past, but I have no idea how."

"See?!" Nathaniel yelled to Willow. "The magical families are keeping us in the dark so they can have all the power to themselves!"

"Wait a minute, Grandma wouldn't lie to you!" Tina said.

"Shut up!" he said, slapping Tina aside as he stepped closer to Charlotte. "Now, tell me how to make a talisman!" he demanded.

Rose and Willow caught Tina before she could fall to the ground from the blow. Seeing Nathaniel advancing on her grandmother she stepped towards him. "Leave her alone!" she yelled, trying to redirect his attention.

He glanced her way and growled, reaching down to something sticking out of his odd outfit. It turned out to be the handle of a small dagger. Pulling it from the concealed sheath he turned on her. "Stay out of this, bitch!"

He stepped towards her, moving the dagger back and forth threateningly. Everyone else stepped back in surprise, but Tina was frozen in fear. She couldn't believe how quickly this situation had gotten out of control. Suddenly several symbols came together in her mind and she began tracing them out in the air in front of her without thinking. With each movement a line of pale blue light appeared, until the full spell form was drawn out in the air. As soon as it was complete it flashed and slammed into Nathaniel, knocking him to the ground.

"What...?" Tina mumbled as everything went dark.

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To Be Continued…

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