Lesson 96- Sleepovers might be fun, but everyone needs to sleep sometime.

Eventually, Catcher heads home to his family and Kyle excuses himself to the kitchen. He insists that if Laura eats something she will feel better, but I think he mostly just wants to cook to comfort himself. But I’m certainly not complaining. He promised pancakes after all. Torin retreats to his office pretty quickly after the other guys leave. He’s still acting kind of weird, but I’ll talk to him about it later. I’m not about to ditch Laura right now, she seems kind of shaken up. I don’t think she ever thought her mother would go so far, she has to be feeling betrayed. I would be. It sounds like her family are kind of nightmarish. I know the feeling. My dad sucked too, although in the opposite way. Laura’s mother is overbearing, where my dad barely seemed to remember that I exist, and when he did remember, it was because he wanted me out of the way. Either way, I have a lot of sympathy for her.
“Are you okay? Like mentally I mean.” I ask her. Laura sighs.
“I suppose so. I mean obviously I’m not thrilled by all of this, but I accepted that my relationship with my family was kind of screwed up years ago. I did quite literally sign up to work for a demon just in the hopes of avoiding them. Mostly I’m just… Really embarrassed.” Laura groans and leans back in the recliner.
“Embarrassed? Why would you be embarrassed? You didn’t ask for all this to happen.” I remind her. She just shrugs.
“I know that, but still… I’ve caused a huge fuss. I worried everyone and Torin had to come and rescue me. From my own parents. I feel like a little girl who just got called to the principal’s office. Not to mention, Torin was absolutely terrifying. I haven’t been so scared of him since the first time we met.” She shudders and I frown.
“Torin? But he went to rescue you. He was being nice. Isn’t the fact that he went to scare your parents into handing you over proof that he actually does care about you? You’ve been working for him for years now!” I argue. Laura shakes her head.
“Come on Rina, it’s obvious to me and to everyone else that he only came after me to make YOU happy.” Laura says with a raised eyebrow. I shake my head in refusal.
“You’re being ridiculous. Of course he would have come to rescue you!” I insist. Laura scoffs.
“Maybe, maybe not. But either way, your opinion is the only one he really cares about. You have to know that by now. I was the one who needed rescuing, and yet the first thing he did when we got back was rush to see if YOU were okay.” She points out. I sigh.
“I know he cares, that has never been in question. Honestly I think he cares about everyone a lot more than you think he does. He’s just not quite sure how to show it.” I reason. Laura sits forward, a smirk on her face.
“You know, I’m fairly sure that he’s halfway in love with you.” She says slyly. I have to fight the urge to cover my ears and go ‘la la la.’ These are not emotions that I am prepared to deal with right now. Mostly because I also have the conflicting urge to squeal, giggle and clap my hands together which is very concerning. I refuse to feel this way. It’s a stupid thing to do when there is far too likely a chance that I will end up heartbroken and trapped here, forced to see him every single day, and I mean every day because I swear the guy never takes a day off.
“I know no such thing.” I deny. I deny it with everything I have. Laura’s expression tells me that she one hundred percent does not believe me. But that’s fine. She doesn’t have to believe me. She just has to accept it and move on which, thankfully, she does.

Kyle feeds us enough pancakes for a dozen people and the result is that I am super tired. I wore myself out worrying and crying. Now I’m fed and comfortable and I badly want to go to sleep. But there’s one problem. Sure, Torin went and rescued Laura. But what’s to stop her family from just taking her again? Yeah he could go and save her again, but I suspect that if they took her a second time, they would probably hide her better. Or just not answer the door when the demon comes knocking. If she was taken again he could probably still rescue her. But it would be harder, and to be honest it’s something we would all rather avoid.
“I have no idea what to do. If they know I work here, then they probably know where I live too. I can make wards, but to design wards powerful enough to keep out my mother’s entire coven… That’s definitely not something I can do in a night. I have normal wards for safety, not ones to defend against a whole coven of witches. Not to mention I’m still reeling from the stun spell that I took. I need to rest.” She looks slightly panicked.
“I have nowhere to go.” Okay, now she looks like she wants to cry, and that’s way worse.
“I mean, there are the wards you set up here… But someone does keep coming after me, you’re not necessarily that much safer here. Plus I can confirm that being stuck here all day and night is not thrilling.” I add dryly. Torin frowns and I shrug. It’s true.
“Are there any other places where you’ve set wards already?” Laura glances at Torin and shrugs. Huh? Torin answers for her.
“She set wards at my home previously. They’re a lot more strict than the ones here. It’s safe, but…” He looks uncomfortable. I don’t need to ask to know that he REALLY isn’t comfortable with the idea of Laura coming to his home. I’m betting he’s even more protective of that than he is this bar. Laura doesn’t look keen on the idea either though so I doubt he’s going to need to find a polite way to turn her down.
“Right, so that doesn’t really work either. Is there anywhere else that’s safe to stay? As I said, crashing here is an option, but if it’s for more than a day or two we might struggle. We don’t exactly have space for another bed.” I joke awkwardly. Kyle clears his throat loudly, drawing everyone’s attention. His face looks a little red.
“You… You can have my spare room. My place is well warded, and I doubt that your family would think to look there either.” He adds. Damn! Why didn’t he say something sooner? This is a great idea! Laura seems confused.
“Why is your home warded well enough to block out a coven of witches? Have you got enemies we don’t know about?” She wonders. He shakes his head no.
“Nah, I just have nosy relatives. They keep letting themselves in. I hoped wards might help.” He explains.
“But… Wards don’t work on dwarves.” I point out. Kyle rolls his eyes.
“I know that. It’s why I have such strong ones. I was hoping I might find one that does work. They didn’t work, BUT I have a couple cousins that are only half dwarf. The REALLY powerful wards worked on them at least. I could have had them removed, but why bother? They don’t affect me and all it means is my home is extra secure.” He concludes. I grin happily.
“Well that will work out great then.” I say cheerfully. Laura seems unconvinced.
“I don’t know… I wouldn’t want to drag you into this Kyle. It’s my problem, not yours.” She says doubtfully. Kyle scoffs.
“You insisted on driving me around when I was injured, now it’s my turn to help out. Besides, I’m the perfect person to stand up against witches, magic doesn’t work on me!” He points out. Laura still seems uncertain, but she agrees to stay with him, at least for the day. When Laura is looking away, I wink at Kyle encouragingly. He glares at me and I beam a smile, making him roll his eyes. That decision made, Laura and Kyle finally head off. Torin hovers for a while longer, but I basically just get ready for bed and he takes the hint, says good night and heads off. Wow, that was a long night. I am EXHAUSTED.