“That I was interrupting The Real Housewives of Atlanta and to leave the room,” I replied.

He rolled his eyes. “Typical,” he muttered.

“If it’s not magic then what else could it be?”

“I don’t know,” he said then slid the martini glass across the surface toward me. I didn’t ask what it was he’d mixed up for me. I didn’t care. I took a drink and remained silent because I knew he wasn’t done speaking. When things were serious and he needed to focus, it took him several minutes to finish a thought.

“Do you think she felt anything, Cat? Did she say she did? I didn’t feel it but that could only mean it’s something I’ve not been taught. Like before I was taught to cast spells. I didn’t understand Latin. I had to learn it.”

I sat there and thought about that for a moment. He took a drink of the amber liquid in the new glass he had in front of him. My mother didn’t say she felt anything. She only said it wasn’t magic. That wasn’t admitting she did or did not feel anything.

“I remember the first time I heard my mother cast a spell and the Latin was so odd. It was confusing. You may have been taught whatever power is out there, and I haven’t. But it depends on if your mother really felt something.”

“I wondered the same thing but she seemed scared of whatever it was,” I paused and then frowned at Duely. “I didn’t know you had to be taught to cast. My sisters did, too. I always understood the language. Why is that?”

He paused mid drink and stared at me a moment, before pointing his finger at me while still holding the glass. “That. That right there. That shit isn’t normal. Casters aren’t born knowing Latin, Cat. We are taught it by our mothers. You’re more fucking powerful than you realize, and your mother knows. You scare her. I think you scare them all.” He grinned then. “Damn wish I knew what you were. Why you’re so badass. Better yet I’d like to see you unleash that shit on my dear aunt and cousins.”

Duely was never going to let that go, and I had blown the idea off but maybe there was something about me that was different. Was it possible I’d been ignoring him because I didn’t want to believe that?