Read Funny Tragic Crazy Magic (Tragic Magic Book 1) for Free Online Page B

some other world.
    He
shook his head, looked me in the eye, and smiled, “I saw my first rune when I
was five. This was when we lived in California. It just looked to me like a
pretty pattern, you know. I kept trying to draw it, once in blue crayon in the
corner of one of my mom’s library books. I saw another one of them when we
lived in Maine. I was, what nine then? I wrote them both down all the time. It
was like they stood out to me.”
    “Well
duh, they glow.”
    “L.O.L.,”
he spelled out with a straight face.
    I
laughed.
    He
continued, “Anyway I just started hunting for them. When I was fifteen, this
was when we lived in Utah, I used to trace the runes with my fingertips, and a
few times I swear I saw sparks.”
    I
stopped moving. “You can do runes, too?” I asked. A chill ran up my neck.
    “No,
I’ve tried. I was up all night last night trying, and all I could do was an
occasional spark.”
    I
can’t tell you how much that relieved me. My mom used to tell me stories from
our history of men and women who were both Rune and Instinct... stories that
made me stay up all night with my light on.
    My
mom always finished telling me these stories with this sentence, “Larissa, if
you ever meet an Instinct who can do runes, hide.”
    The
fact that the woman in the silver convertible said the same thing to me right
before she died didn’t make me feel any better.

CHAPTER TEN
     
    Erica
Fisher came to school that day. No one, other than me and Joe, thought that was
a weird thing. I stopped by her locker before first period. I tried to talk to
her, to look her right in the face and reassure myself, but I never felt the
heat of an Instinct’s look. She was as big of a rube as they come, excited to
talk to me about fashion magazines, hair products, and who that gorgeous new
kid was.
    I
only cared about the last thing on her list. But I tried to pretend otherwise.
It always seemed like Erica didn’t like a guy until she knew someone else
wanted him. In seventh grade, she found out my best friend, Meg, liked this boy
Sam, and by the end of the day, she was making out with him in front of Meg’s
locker. It wasn’t as if she was an intentionally mean person or anything, not
as if she kicked cats, or played Celine Dion out her car speakers. She wasn’t
evil.
    She
was just annoying. I made it clear that I had no feelings whatsoever for this
new kid, (Josh was it?) and she was welcome to date him if she so chose.
    Besides,
I wasn’t worried. Joe had seen a version of her die and turn into an old woman.
That wasn’t the kind of memory you could just wipe clean because a girl looked
pretty without the aid of transformation runes.
    Anyway,
it didn’t matter, because I didn’t like Joe. I had no feelings for Joe. He was
just a nice person who could help me get back my mother’s notebook. I needed
him, but I had no feelings for him.
    I
had no feelings for Joe.
    I
repeated that mantra in my mind as I walked into my second period class. Joe
looked up when I entered the room and smiled.
    Crap.
    I
took the seat next to him. I tried my best to ignore him and pay attention to
Mr. Beaman instead. It didn’t work. Joe kept slipping me notes with questions
on them.
     
    How
does runelight make magic happen?
     
    I
sighed and then wrote a note back.
     
    I
don’t know, but I’ll ask Giara next time I see her.
     
    Before
I handed him the note back, he had another question ready for me.
     
    Was
your mom a Rune or a rube?
     
    I
pointed to the word Rune, and then he glanced once at the teacher and wrote
again.
     
    So
is the hormone thing genetic?
     
    I
nodded. He was quiet for a while, so I snuck the note from his desk and wrote.
     
    Your
mom is a rube, right?
     
    He
looked over at my writing and nodded. I wrote again.
     
    So
where’s your dad?
     
    Joe
looked over, crumpled the note we had both written on and stood and walked out
of the classroom.
    I
sat back in my desk. At least the door was open so no one saw him walk