The Cat turned and stared at me before responding. I wasn’t sure if it was a dumb question, or if he was looking at my soul - either could fit the situation.

“It depends on your Mana and the strength of your magic.” He longingly looked at his chicken before continuing. “The more complex action you are trying to accomplish, the more strength and Mana you need.”

‘It’s why dragons are the best,’ interrupted Indigo. The egg roll she’d dragged away was nowhere to be seen. ‘We have lots of both.’

“Dragons are not the only creatures to be strong with magic,” growled the Cat. “Dragons always think they are on top of the list.” He shook his head after a moment and focused on his chicken.

It felt like he had plenty he wanted to say to the young dragon, but was resisting. I wolfed down a bunch of my noodles. “So, Indigo… What can you do with your shadow magic?”

The little book dragon’s eyes opened wide. ‘Watch this!’ She launched herself into the air and then she faded, but only partially, leaving a faint outline of her flying around the room. I leaned toward the Cat. “Should we be able to see her still?”

“Most wouldn’t be able to.” His tail flickered in the air before he finished his plate. “Can I have some noodles?”

I nodded and poured a pile on his plate.

‘Did you see me? I vanished!’

“Yep, you vanished! I know you are good at disappearing into shadows.” I pointed toward my necklace. “Plus, you helped Lady Twilight shrink the feather.”

Indigo’s shook her head as she landed. ‘I watched, but I can only shrink non-magical things.’

That reminded me of the dice slowly getting smaller as we played the board game. “I guess you’ll be able to teach me how to use magic,” I said jokingly to Indigo.

“Absolutely not,” growled the Cat. His voice hung in the air. “I know someone who can help you.”

Indigo went from smiley to crestfallen and the Cat stuttered. “It’s… because Sable can’t learn dragon magic. She needs someone who can teach her type of magic.”

‘Lady Twilight can help,’ stated Indigo.

“The Lady Dragon can teach you magic, little one. Sable needs her own teacher.” The Cat quickly turned toward the noodles I’d given him. Each time he took a bite of food, it vanished from the plate. For a second I saw an outline of what I swore were much bigger teeth. I hadn’t seen that before, and it was almost like the outline of Indigo I’d still been able to see when he’d vanished while flying.

I reached out to Indigo and scratched under her chin, which perked her up. “Plus, Lady Twilight needs to focus on you. We can’t be taking up all of her time, she is an important dragon.”

The top of the island rippled and my phone rose next to my hand. I blinked, and then it vibrated as a message appeared. “Thanks, Betty…” I whispered.

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The Cat watched as I snagged it to see the messages. It also distracted Indigo from talking about how awesome dragons were.

I had four, no, five missed messages from Cerulean asking how I was doing, and what I was up to. It was a private thread without anyone else. As I read through them, another one came in with just a question mark. I shook my head in confusion. Cerulean never texted me. Heck, him even showing up with the gift for me was out of the ordinary.

Before I could respond, the phone started buzzing again. This time, his name flashed across the screen with him calling. My eyes narrowed as I answered the phone.

“Hello…” I said hesitantly, wondering if one of my other brothers had borrowed his phone.

“Hey Sable, how are things going?” asked Cerulean. “I realized we haven’t chatted since my visit.”

I paused for a second, my head tilting to one side. It drew Indigo’s attention, along with the Cat’s. “I’m fine, just eating some Chinese food for lunch, then I need to keep working on inventory. It’s been a pretty boring week.”

“Oh, nothing out of the ordinary?” In the phone call’s background, the sound of wind whistling echoed loudly for a moment.

“No… Just a normal day. Where are you?”

“Working, but I had a quick break, so I wanted to call, especially since you didn’t respond.”

I leaned back on the stool careful to not fall. “I keep my phone in my room while working, I only caught your call since I started my lunch break.”

“Well, if everything is okay, I gotta get back to work.” Someone yelled in the distance, and Cerulean responded, saying something about the storm coming in. “Talk to you later.”

My phone beeped, and he ended the call before I said goodbye.

‘Who was that?’ asked Indigo while creeping closer.

“My brother.” I quickly opened the text messages back up and sent along a reply.

Sable: I hope your day goes well! Don’t die!

A message quickly followed:

Cerulean: Of course I won’t.

“He’s being very weird.” The edge of the bracelet he had gotten me poked out from under my sleeve. “Cat, is it possible that my brother knew something happened with the bracelet?”

“Anything is possible, the question you wanted to ask is, is it probable.” The Cat licked his empty plate. “Only you can answer that.”

‘You should try some more magic. Make me fly backward,’ squeaked Indigo. Her voice cut across my thoughts as she giggled. ‘Make wind.’

“Maybe up on the roof, once I crawl into the hot tub. I don’t want to make a mess of the shop. I might miss and hit a bookshelf.” Though I bet Betty would straighten anything up that got out of order, I didn’t want to create more work for the shop. “Let me first make a drink to bring up.”

Indigo quickly launched herself toward the door, singing about warm waves and strong winds.

I shook my head as I packed up the leftovers. The Cat remained on the island.

“Are you going to join us on the roof?”

“No, thank you. You can deal with the teenager.” He jumped off the counter and padded out of the kitchen before vanishing.

Still, the text message thread with my brother made me wonder. Was it possible he knew about magic? Somehow, I needed to find a way to ask.

#

All I could come up with was that she didn’t want to know the truth. Mortals sometimes didn’t. Otherwise, there were too many shady moments surrounding her brother to not connect some dots. Eventually, she’d ask me outright, and I didn’t know what to say.

Neither Lady Twilight nor Lord Bennit had commented on her family, even after dangling morsels of potential family power with the bracelet. I stepped into my study, before leaping onto the table. The constant hum from the golden book agitated me, but I ignored it like always. Sable needed to be my focus right now. The magic she used appeared gold. Something about that tickled in the back of my mind, something important. Shaking my head, a tomb flew off the shelves and landed in front of me. Time to discover what.