Funny Tragic Crazy Magic (Tragic Magic Book 1) by Sheena Boekweg Page A

ever uses a rune, I will tell you. Just don’t hurt him.”
    I
looked over at Giara. My mother’s face smiled at me like that was what she
wanted all along, and I realized what I said.
    I
just promised to be the Grandmothers’ spy.
    She
pulled the car into my driveway, and then held her hand up to shake mine.
Reluctantly I raised my hand, and she wrote a rune on the back of my palm. My
own color code, a light purple, and hers, a dark green, twisted together into a
braided rope of runelight that circled my wrist and ended at the rune, tying
our hands together in a binding of light.
    “Do
you have your notebook?” she asked as the runelight nestled into the skin on my
right hand and then sank in, binding me to fulfill my promise to betray Joe.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
     
    It’s
funny, sometimes you want something so much, that when you get it, you just
feel empty. That’s how I felt. Empty. Eerily calm. Different, really, as I sat
on my front steps with my notebook in my lap. One hundred and thirty seven. A
hundred and thirty seven runes.
    That
was the cost of selling out the one person I’d ever loved. And I did love him,
line in the sand or not. My only hope, really, of liking myself when I died was
that Joe wouldn’t ever use a rune again.
    And
you’ve probably figured out by now that wasn’t how it happened.
    I
waited on my front steps for Joe to show up. It was cold, freezing actually, but
I didn’t care that Giara had taught me a rune to stay warm. I didn’t have a
single rune on. I wasn’t thin. My hair felt flat around my face, and I had acne
on my skin.
    Didn’t
care.
    Joe
didn’t notice anyway. About a half hour after Giara left, he walked up my
driveway with a gigantic smile on his face. He fanned the imitation notebook in
front of his face, and when he reached me, he picked me up and spun me. “We did
it.”
    “Can
I see it?” I asked.
    Joe
handed it to me as if it was a trophy. The runes inside were wrong, lines drawn
backwards, dots where slashes should be. I wrote the rune for fire on
the top, and the notebook burst into a cloud of flames. I tossed it down on the
snow, and it melted some of the snow until there was a hollow spot where the
grass showed through.
    “What
are you doing!” Joe yelled.
    I
stood and walked up the stairs. I turned when I reached the doorknob.
    “Are
you an Instinct or a Rune, Joe?” I said. “You don’t get to be both. You don’t
have any right looking at runes. And if you learn any more, it’s just gonna get
us both killed.”
    I
opened the door and took a step inside it.
    “Good
girl,” Joe said. I froze. “But next time don’t push him so far away, you need
to be close enough you can still see what he’s doing.”
    I
stood in the doorway with my eyes closed.
    “Have
a good trip, Giara.” I said and then turned once to get a look at her handy
work.
    She
got it all right. Joe’s black earrings, his deep v neck tee shirt and green
jacket, his amazing smile.
    “I’ll
be in touch.” She said in his voice.
    I
locked my front door from the inside, and banged the back of my head once
against the wood. The cold from outside followed me in.
    I
walked to the kitchen to grab the phone, and I dialed Joe’s number while I
glanced at the clock on the microwave. It was only eight forty five, so it
wasn’t too late to call.
    Ms.
P. answered. She got Joe for me with a warning that it was getting late. I
could hear Joe’s breath crinkle through the receiver.
    “Hey,”
he said, and then I heard the sound of a door closing. “So, that was easier
than I thought it would be. And I know full well how awesome I am, so that
really says something.”
    “Giara
knew,” I said.
    “What?”
    I
sighed into the phone, “She had a version of the protection rune on her
notebook, so all those runes you copied are wrong.”
    Joe
swore, “I’m gonna need a new notebook.”
    “For
what?” I said. “Joe, you are an Instinct. The more runes you know, the more
danger you are