Kissing Magic

by Day Leitao

  “And you left me all day. That’s rude.”

  He leaned forward, towards Karina. “Did you miss me?” He didn’t sound sarcastic, smug, or playful. If anything, he sounded slightly surprised.

  “Cause you’re the only person I know!”

  He chuckled. “Alessa’s a person too, you know?” His voice then became soft again. “I just… I had things to do. Also, I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” He said this word with none of his previous sarcasm and bite.

  “You don’t.” She met his eyes and had to look quickly away. She then smiled and added, “Most of the time.”

  He scoffed and leaned back. “I see.”

  Karina didn’t want him to lean back and become distant again, but she didn’t want him to look at her the way he had just looked. It was much worse than when he was being playful and joking about being interested in her.

  She decided to change the subject. “You said you’d explain magic to me if I came. I’ve been here for almost a day and I haven’t heard a word.”

  He looked around. “Here?”

  “Fine, maybe not the best place. Tell me about your lights then. It’s something I’ve always wanted to know. Not the ones here, but the really bright ones that look like daylight, how do they work?”

  Sian looked up, thought for a moment, then said, “Come, I’ll show you.”

  Karina followed him as he went to a hallway then upstairs to more empty hallways. Sian was wearing all black this time but had some fancier lace in the rim of his long coat and shirt. Of course, unlike her, he was dressed for the occasion. He opened a door, which led to a ladder. He climbed, and she followed. They came to the roof of the building. It was flat and had some silver spheres. From where she was, she could see some of the city and lights shining in the distance. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Is it? I’m used to flying above here.” He pointed to what looked like a high-rise building, with lights coming from its windows. “And I grew up there, in the military tower. But now that you say it, I’ll never see it the same way.”

  The city was indeed much bigger than Karina had first imagined. Streets had a yellowish glow, coming from the ground. A tower by the river, empty, with no lights, caught her attention.

  Karina pointed to it. “What’s that place?”

  “It’s an older observatory. To watch the river. It’s been abandoned for years, though. The army now does it all from the military tower. Come,” he walked to one of those spheres. “See this? It captures the light and multiplies it inside it.”

  Karina was interested. “How?”

  “It’s a special crystal. It doesn’t let the light fade. They reflect on each other and keep reflecting so that the light is always circulating. Then underneath the roof, there are many of these crystals reflecting the light, over a semi-transparent or transparent surface. It has to be big because the light is not concentrated. Not all places have it like that. The Darloom castle, for instance, which is older, is different. And here, they don’t use it at the Junction, only at the upper floors.”

  Karina was surprised that he knew that, and that somehow it was something that interested him enough to explain to her.

  “But how can it work at night?”

  “It keeps the light reflecting. But also all of these spheres usually have a light-absorbing mineral. It then releases it slowly.”

  “Wouldn’t it be easier to just have a lamp?”

  “It depends. You need to burn something for the lamp, right? These spheres don’t use any fuel.”

  He might have been meaning gas lamps, but it was true that electric lamps also used energy. And there was something else. “And how do these lights turn on and off?”

  “There’s another surface underneath, and it closes and opens. I know that in the castle, in the bedrooms, it closes when there’s no movement.”

  That made a lot of sense. Still, crystals, continuing light, there was something different about it. “Isn’t there some magic to it?”

  “Some people would consider it so. I disagree.”

  “Why?”

  He sat on a raised part near the edge of the roof, hair flowing with the wind. “Come. Sit.” His eyes were bright with enthusiasm. “That’s the greatest secret, and few people know it: the nature of magic.”

  Long lashes lined his bright brown eyes. As Karina sat beside him, for the first time she realized that Sian actually looked, uh… kind of good. Actually, way more than good. She must have been blind or crazy before. But she was too curious about magic for his looks to distract her. “And what is it?”

  “Do you know what the difference between science and magic is?”

  “People say magic is science we don’t understand.”

  “Yes, yes. It can be. That’s what a lot of people say. Magic has an aspect of unknown, things that can’t be quite quantified or understood, and that’s where the confusion comes from. I myself had no idea about it until a year ago. No idea.” He looked away.

  “Are you gonna tell me or not?”

  He looked at her. “I am telling you. Cause you’ll understand. With science, it can be replicated. It depends on the physical world, on nature, it doesn’t depend on human interference. Magic needs the human element. It’s unique, it’s individual, and, for the most part, it can’t be copied by another person, unless they have the same magic. It needs feeling, it needs the human touch.”

  Karina tried to picture how it would apply to lights or teleporting, and the idea was still quite vague. “Can you give me an example?”

  “Science is like a recipe. A cake recipe. Certain ingredients react a certain way. Any person can do it.”

  “But is that true? Some people,” she remembered her grandma, “they can do it in a way other people can’t.”

  He nodded and raised his eyebrows. “And why do you think that is?”

  She thought for a moment. Was that what he meant? “Magic?”

  He smiled. “That’s the principle of it. Once you know how to recognize it, you’ll see it everywhere. It’s that something special some people have. And even these people, they don’t have it all the time.”

  Karina looked around, thinking that there was magic all over that city she saw, in the little things. But there was more than that. “And what about, I don’t know, casting lights, teleporting from where you aren’t supposed to, making lifts explode?”

  “It’s the same, but it’s directed in a way that alters our physical reality. That’s what most people would call magic; practices that seem to go against how we believe the world should behave. Still, the essence of it is the human feeling. It needs a person who has the feeling behind it. And yes, there’s innate talent, and there’s study. It’s like music. Some people are born with the gift, but they’d need to study to get really good at it.”

  “But anyone can play a musical instrument. If they dedicate themselves, of course.” It wasn’t Karina’s case, unfortunately.

  “Anyone can play a musical instrument if they study. Not everyone can write a good song. That’s the difference. Magic is composing a moving song, or else playing an instrument in a way that’s unique, moving. The difference seems subtle, but once you think about it, it isn’t.”

  Karina thought of songs or performances that sent shivers down her spine or movies that resonated with her for a long time after they had been seen. She even thought about Zoe and her beauty, how it had something unique, special, something quite unquantifiable about it. “There’s magic everywhere then.”

  “There is. But it’s not everywhere that you’ll see magic that alters the physical reality. So that’s the thing. Also remember that for most people, that’s what they’ll call magic. Like the previous king,” he looked down, “and my father, when they forbade magic, they didn’t forbid anyone to make great food, or to speak in a way that’s uniquely inspiring, or anything like that. They looked at the study and practice of magic in terms of seeing through time and space, levitating things, altering the phy
sical world. That’s what they meant. But you need to understand the principle. So many people study the effects but don’t understand the cause.”

  “And you learned this only last year?”

  “Yes. There’s a special library at the Darloom castle. I read as much as I could.”

  “And why did you want to learn about that?”

  “To understand the world. To understand what happened. There’s no loss, no failure, only experience. But it’ll be useless if you don’t learn with it. I learned, or at least I think so.”

  He smiled but he spoke with a soft voice. He was sure of himself, but he had none of the smugness of before. Sitting there with him, the rest of the world seemed to have disappeared. Karina didn’t know if it was the night, the soft lights, or what, but at that moment she thought he was the best-looking guy she’d ever seen.

  “And do you have any magic?” she asked.

  Sian looked down and shook his head. “I haven’t figured that out yet.”

  He became silent, and she didn’t know what to say either. Their eyes met. At that moment, something clicked inside her. It was so scary she had to look away. There was no point telling herself he wasn’t trustworthy or that he wasn’t good looking—which was completely ridiculous. It hit her like a brick in the head; she was in love with Sian. Gasping for air, as if she were drowning in an ocean of newfound feelings, she looked at the city around them with its horizon of lights and a dark tower by the river.

  “Are you disappointed?” he asked.

  Karina was startled. “What?”

  “That I don’t have any magic.”

  That was a weird conclusion. “Why would I be disappointed? I don’t have magic either.” Her voice was shaky.

  He laughed. “What do you call your teleporting from impossible places?”

  “Oh. That. It’s not something I do in my normal life, in my world, so I didn’t count it.”

  “You must have something that is manifested in your world. You just haven’t recognized it yet.”

  “Maybe you do, too. Not that it matters.”

  He sighed. “I guess for you it doesn’t matter.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Her eyes met his. There was something open, vulnerable, real, in them.

  “Karina, I have a question for you.” Her heart sped up, unsure if it felt dread, eagerness, or curiosity. He rose to his feet. “Do you want to know what Faria told me?”

  That was it? Karina got up and laughed a shaky, nervous laugh. “Of course. Is that your question?”

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Sort of.” He then opened his eyes and looked at the city. “She told me you already love me.” He turned to her. “Is that true?”

  Karina felt as if the floor below her had disappeared, but that wasn’t teleporting. With no idea why he was asking that, she didn’t know how to answer. She feared that she had shown too much of her feelings, and feared, feared… She didn’t even know what. And he was standing up, at a distance from her, as if… Her mouth opened, but no sound came. She had no idea what to say.

  He looked sideways and scoffed. “No need to answer. I got it.”

  Was he making fun of her now? Karina’s heart raced, but it was anger. “I’m sure she meant as a friend. That must be it. You can’t think—”

  “Well, she is blind.”

  “She’s not blind. She cooked for us.”

  “Didn’t you see her eyes? She must know her house well, that’s all.” He then smiled again, and spoke in a normal tone of voice, as if nothing different or important had just happened. “Let’s go downstairs, we have to plan for tomorrow.”

  Karina sat. She wanted to stay there, or rather, she wanted to dig a hole and hide. She wanted to turn back time and not have gone to the roof with him. Now she wanted to purge away all the feelings she’d felt just a while ago. Sian was stuck-up, ugly, and annoying, and Karina must have been hallucinating a few minutes before. And still, it hurt, and made it difficult for her to breathe. Oh, that’s what she got for not following her own advice. She knew she shouldn’t have fallen in love. She knew it. But she was smart and would fall out of it. She would remain in Whyland only long enough until everything with the Darloom castle was figured out. After that, she would be gone, leaving Sian and the painful memories behind.

  Sian crouched in front of her. “Karina, I know I upset you. I’m sorry. But don’t stay here on your own. You’re still in danger.”

  Karina realized she had been frozen in her seat, shaking. Her mouth tasted something bitter. But then, she would be mortified if he guessed how bad she felt.

  She smiled. “I was just looking at the city.”

  “We can come back another time.” He smirked. “As friends, of course.”

  Perhaps it was true that blood could boil.

  Sian continued, “But let’s go and plan our trip. Tomorrow we have to go to the castle and that’s when things will start to get tough.”

  Right. For him perhaps. Karina realized that facing Kyons was better than being in love with someone who didn’t feel the same and have the humiliation of having the fact thrown in her face. But then, it was Karina’s fault for being silly and reading too much into people. Either way, she wouldn’t show she was upset. She wouldn’t.

  Karina smiled and got up. “I’m ready. Let’s plan.”

  They went down the stairs to the upper hall where Karina had sat before. A blonde girl with long and very bushy hair saw Sian and came running towards him.

  “If it isn’t my sunshine!” She then frowned. “That disappeared for a long time.”

  He looked down. “Just some clouds. I was always here.” He pointed to Karina. “This is Karina.”

  “Hello, I’m Raja,” the girl said as she looked at Karina up and down.

  “Hey,” Karina replied.

  The girl turned to Sian. “Don’t tell me you’re replacing me.”

  Sian took the girl’s arm, pulled her to a corner, and whispered something in her ear. The girl looked at Karina, then back at him, smiled and punched him playfully on the stomach. Karina could feel her heart beating in anger, and wondered if it was noticeable that there was smoke coming out of her head. What was he doing? Telling the girl that Karina liked him? Were they making fun of her? If Karina could, she would scream and run, but she was too proud for that. She preferred to act cool and pretend nothing was happening. Maybe he would think he’d come to the wrong conclusion on the roof. Karina hated that roof, hated Sian, and hated being there.

  Raja smiled at Sian and went in another direction. Sian approached Karina. “Sorry for that.”

  Karina had her most natural, uninterested voice. “For what?”

  “No matter.” They descended the stairs to the main hall and approached a table where a young couple was sitting. “This is Joel,” Sian said as he pointed to the boy, who had blue eyes and blond hair. The girl next to him was very pretty and had short dark hair and brown eyes. “This is Aline.”

  Karina waved and smiled. “I’m Karina.”

  Sian sat, and Karina did the same.

  Liam approached their table and addressed Sian. “Hey.” He pretended not to notice Karina.

  Sian put his arm around Karina’s chair. What was he doing? He said, “Liam, we’ll need to talk.” He then gestured for him to come closer and whispered in his ear.

  There was something captivating about the way Sian leaned forward. His hair fell sideways revealing smooth skin and neck. Against her better judgment, Karina couldn’t avoid staring, and couldn’t shut that little part of her that wished Sian would lean over and be that close to her. Terrible call. Sian turned and caught her eye. His lip curled in what seemed to be disgust. Karina wasn’t completely sure, as she looked away as fast as she could. She caught a satisfied smirk in Liam’s face before looking down to her juice.

  “Sounds good,” Liam said.

  The boy left. At Karina’s table, they ordered dinner. Karina had no idea what to order, so she
just said she’d have whatever everyone else was having. While Aline and Joel decided what to eat, Karina saw Alessa in the distance. The girl made eye contact with Karina, nodded in acknowledgment, then her posture and shoulders relaxed. Her sister was with her. Karina felt relieved as well. Alessa winked and left. That meant Karina was left without a bodyguard. She felt a little sad because at that moment she would rather be with Alessa than with Sian because he never even talked to her or looked in her direction—not that she looked at his.

  A waitress came with their food. Karina’s was some sort of wrap with vegetables and meat inside. But it was weird, as much as had been hungry an hour before, she now felt as if there was a knot in her stomach preventing anything from getting in. She forced some of the food, just not to be rude, but ate very little. Sian ate in silence. After they finished, some people came by their table. Sian was all smiles and smooth talking. Sometimes he got up and had engaging conversations. Karina was careful and only caught him from the corner of her eye. He was boisterous, confident, charming. He knew how to be polite alright, just not to Karina. She ended up staring at her juice a lot. Too many faces looked at her with curious and inquisitive looks, as if she were the brand new animal in a zoo.

  Sian sat down, after an engaging conversation with an old lady. Karina wanted to make it clear that she wasn’t romantically interested in him, so she said, “Raja is pretty. Why isn’t she sitting with you?”

  Sian snorted. “Half the Junction is pretty. That doesn’t mean they’ll sit with me.” He paused for a couple seconds, then shrugged. “If you want to know where she is, I have no idea.”

  “I thought you two were together,” Karina said with the most neutral and even cheerful voice she could muster.

  He grimaced. “No. She’s a good friend, though.”

  Karina was thinking about what to reply when a sound distracted her. Joel and Aline were making out. That was so awkward.

  Karina turned to Sian. “Don’t we have to get up early? I wanted to rest.” She wasn’t really tired, but she didn’t want to stay there.

  Sian nodded, still avoiding looking at her. “It’s a good idea. I’ll find Raja. She’ll share the bedroom with you. For safety.”