Funny Tragic Crazy Magic (Tragic Magic Book 1) by Sheena Boekweg Read Free Book Online Page B

cobalt blue, the kitchen a screaming red. The little green sitting room
held the family’s computer and bookcases full of books. Half full cardboard
boxes perched in the corners of almost every room. The house looked like chaos
and felt like home.
    Ms.
Penrod was in the kitchen making peanut butter sandwiches. She made one for me
without asking. There was something so comforting about eating food that you or
fast food workers didn’t make. It’d been a while for me since that had
happened.
    “Hey,
you want a tour?” Joe asked.
    He
was abnormally proud of this old house as he showed me the kitchen, the front
room, and the tiny sitting room. A warm yellow covered the walls of his
mother’s room, and a gold and red bedspread covered the queen bed.
    We
stood for a moment in front of the final door. It was Joe’s room. He looked at
me for a second like he wasn’t sure if he should let me in. Just when I was
ready to go back to the front room, he opened his door.
    His
room was white, except for one wall. It seemed like every color of paint used
in the entire house made up this crushing wave of a mural. The bulk of the
color was the cobalt blue, but the red and the green took space in the wave. It
made me feel like I was watching the ocean, and hidden in the random waves were
various runes painted in perfect patterns. I walked to the wall and ran my
fingers about an inch away from the paint. Sparks flew from my fingers as if
the entire wall was magic.
    It
was amazing. I looked over at Joe.
    “It’s
not done yet.” He looked embarrassed.
    “It’s
magical.” I said stating the obvious. He looked at me and smiled, and I was
glad I came. “Where were you today?”
    “It
was the weirdest thing, after second yesterday I just came down with something,
so I came home and slept for like fifteen hours. I could barely move when I
woke up this morning.”
    “You
okay?” I asked.
    “Yeah,
I feel fine now,” he said.
    “The
water, was that you?”
    Joe
cleared his throat, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “The
rune,” My voice felt too loud when I remembered his mom didn’t know about the
magic and was only a wall away.
    I
stepped closer to Joe and lowered my voice. “Did you draw the rune for water?”
    “I…
Look, I was mad because… My mom was raped when she was sixteen. That’s how she
had me. The fact that my… sperm donor… had magic was just a little much to
take, you know?”
    I
nodded and he continued. “So I went to the guy’s bathroom. Whenever I’m
agitated, my fingers kind of draw one of those three shapes, those runes I
carried around with me since I was little. Anyway, so I put my hands against
the mirror, and without knowing what I’m doing, my fingers just drew the rune
for water . This burst of runelight came out my fingers and the sink just
exploded with water. It was amazing. I’ve never felt so powerful.” A chill ran
up my back when he said this. “I grabbed my bag and ran home, because I didn’t
want to get in trouble again. By time I got home, I was ready to pass out.”
    “Joe,”
I whispered. I started again with a stronger voice. “Don’t… ever… whatever you
do, don’t do runes. Instincts aren’t supposed to do runes. Please, promise me
you will never do a rune ever again.”
    “Why?”
    “Promise
me, and I’ll tell you, dumbie.” I said.
    “Okay,
I promise, Riz. Why should I not do this horrible thing?”
    I
took a deep breath. “The kind of magic Instincts can do, like you walking
through walls, is way beyond the strength of magic a Rune can do. When an
Instinct does runes, the magic doesn’t come out like ink from a pen, it’s more
like a fire hose. That much energy exploding out… You could have died, Joe.
Worse than that, there are people in our history that are both Instinct and
Rune, and they have done terrible things. Keep-you-up-at-night things. That’s
one of the reasons the Grandmothers exist. To protect us, from… people like
you. If