Morana

-----

"It's a really nice bike," I said and let my hand wander over the leather seat. I didn't know enough to say what brand and model it was. But it was dark red and black and looked fast. "Been ages since I rode one."

"Can you drive?" he asked and reached for a helmet.

"Learned that before I learned how to drive a car."

He smiled and nodded, then weighed the helmet in his hand before handing it over to me.

"You have two?" I asked.

"Na, but it's not like I will crash anyway," he shrugged.

"Considering that I survived being hit by a truck yesterday, you probably need the helmet more than me," I laughed, but he just shook his head.

"Just put it on, will you?" he said before swinging a leg over the motorcycle.

I sighed, but did as he asked and got on behind him. My arms immediately snaked their way around him. He wore a leather jacket and a T-shirt underneath. My hands went around, so I had them placed with just the tiny fabric of the T-shirt between my hands and his stomach. I could feel the warmth of his skin and I wished the T-shirt wasn't in the way.

I pressed myself close to him, tried to tell myself I only did it because it would be safer. But the truth was, I knew very well that I did press myself closer to him than necessary. It just felt right being close to him.

As he drove us to his apartment, I mainly focused on all of the questions I wanted to ask. I tried to sort them and come up with a good place to start. Halfway through the drive, I realized what the first question would be.

I couldn't believe I hadn't questioned that earlier. How had he known where I worked? And also, how had he known where I lived? Magic, obviously. Or I assumed. Maybe he was just good at internet stalking. But I doubted that.

When we got into his apartment, I had to work hard to hold back the giggle building inside of me.

The place was still messy, but it was also clear that he had cleaned since yesterday. There wasn't trash lying around anymore. Rather just things that seemed to have their permanent places out and about. Like a rug sack on the floor. Three pairs of shoes next to the shoe stand. A newspaper on a chair.

As if to prove my assumption right, Alejo took the helmet and simply put it in a corner, kicked off his shoes without watching where they ended up, and threw his jacket onto the chair.

I was glad he had his back to me as I took off my jacket and hung it on one of the hooks by the door, before taking off my shoes and putting them on the shoe stand. That way he didn't have to see as I worked hard to keep a laughing smile off my lips.

"Want something to drink?" he asked as we moved over to the living room.

"Na, I'm good," I answered and plopped down onto the same spot on the couch I had sat on the day before.

He sat down on the other side of the couch. "So, do you know what question you want to start with?"

"How did you know where I work and where I live?"

Alejo got up and went over to the poster. He reached in and took something out before coming back and spreading the things on the table. It was a map and a crystal.

"Scrying," he said. "It's kinda like magical GPS. You need a crystal hung like a pendent and a map so that it actually can show you where the person is. And then something for the crystal to feel the energy of the person you want to find. Like a strand of hair that got stuck to a couch."

"So no matter where I am in the world, you would be able to find me simply by having a piece of my hair?" I asked and took up the crystal to examine it. It looked like any old crystal to me, nothing special or magical about it.

"Yes, sort of. There are places that are magically protected against scrying. Some have it over their houses, a few magical places are naturally protected like that. All covens protect their headquarters from scrying and other things, I think. And it is possible to make yourself or someone else un-scryable."

"Is there anything magic can't do?" I put the crystal back down and knew I probably sounded silly with that question. But I also couldn't help it.

"No. Though there isn't really one magical being that can do everything. Except perhaps the Gods and Goddesses..."

"There are Gods and Goddesses?!"

He laughed lightly. It was such an easy laugh that made him look more like a boy than a man.

"Yes," he answered when the laugh was over, though traces of it remained on his face. "Though they haven't been on earth for a really long time. But all magical beings are considered children of different gods and goddesses. Witches are the children of Hecate."

"Isn't she considered evil?" I asked, while doing my best to remember what I knew about Greek mythology. As far as my memory went, all I could remember was that Hecate was connected to the Underworld somehow.

"What scares people usually is considered evil, and the unknown tends to scare them," he shrugged. "One of the types of magic she was most interested in is magic related to death. What I've been taught, her first children were witches, but she later mothered children with different abilities that rather were related to death. Necromancers, for instance, are said to be her children as well."

"Necromancers? Like people that can actually control the dead?"

"They don't control the dead," Alejo shook his head, "but they have the ability to bring people back from the dead. At a cost though."

"What's the cost?" My heart pounded and head spun with all of the information. I was both fascinated and wanted to know more, at the same time as it scared me. The idea of people having control over life and death felt very unnatural.

"I don't know for certain, but I would assume that there is some sort of a life for a life thing," he answered me.

I couldn't help but to shudder.