January nudged her shoulder. “You okay?”
“I think my eyeballs might fall out of my head, but I’m mostly okay.” The microwave clock read three a.m., and they’d been scouring old books and the Internet since shortly after nine.
“Now if that happens, I know I can put them back in your head,” January joked, tucking her hair behind her ear and stretching her arms.
Poppy gave a tired laugh, rubbing her hands over her eyes as she slid her upper body forward on the island countertop, letting her head rest in her arms. “Being a familiar is hard.”
January stopped surfing some website about spells and gazed at her. “In all this madness, I forgot to ask how you’re holding up, Poppy. It’s not like you came into this already a paranormal. You have to be in shock.”
“I don’t know if shock is the right word. I guess finding out some of this stuff is real was definitely shocking, but when it happened, there was this weird feeling in my gut. Like I knew what Calamity was saying was true. You know? I dunno. I can’t explain it. I’m suddenly getting all sorts of weird vibes I never had before.”
Leaning into Poppy, she rested her chin on her hand. “Want to share?”
“Do I get a free session if I do?”
January laughed, taking a bite of a chocolate chip cookie Arch had made a batch of in order to keep busy. “Gosh, I just can’t shake the damn therapist thing, can I? Is it the glasses?”
“It’s definitely the glasses.”
“So the vibes? What’s happening? Tell me.”
Maybe it would be good to just tell all. Spit it out and get ’er done. “I feel things. All sorts of things, especially relating to Rick. For instance, I feel his deep sense of loyalty to his friend and partner, Avis. As another example, I knew Nina could be trusted almost from the moment I met her. I know something’s going on with Wanda she can’t identify. I knew Familiar Central was real. I knew—”
“Wait. Back up. You can feel Rick’s emotions? Are we talking literally?”
Now she tensed, sitting up straight. “Is that a bad thing? Wrong?”
“No. No. But it’s unique for such a new relationship. As familiars, you get to know your assignments over time. Sometimes there isn’t even a connection at first. I’ve had my familiar Farley forever, and every once in a while I still stump him. To feel emotions like someone’s loyalty and trust so instantly is huge, Poppy. It means you have the gift of intuition, which only enhances my thought you two were fated.”
She knew a little about what that meant after watching some movie or another. Or was that empathic? All these witchy catch phrases were too much to absorb.
“So now I’m an intuit, too?”
January smiled, warm and so supportive, Poppy’s heart clenched. “Yeah. And it can be pretty great. It has its pitfalls, too, I’m told. Not everything is rosy.”
There was validation in that sentence. Maybe she wasn’t so crazy after all. “Okay, so can I confide something in you then? Will you promise to keep it just between us?”
“As long as it does no harm to you or others, yes. Of course. I’m here to help in any way I can, Poppy. No matter what.”
She sucked in a breath. “Good, because this has been killing me from the moment I met Rick’s partner, Avis. He’s bad juju. I can’t pinpoint why, I have no proof to back it up, but I feel it, so strongly it almost doubles me over.” She pointed to her sore gut and reiterated. “Feel it.”
“Oh boy,” January muttered. “A man and his best friend are delicate issues. Definitely presents a problem. Maybe it’s all the other stuff going on mingled with these feelings?”
“Like the aura stalking me?”
January paused, giving her a thoughtful look before she said, “Could be. Sometimes everything gets muddied, and you need to isolate each incident with some critical examination.”
“That makes complete sense. A meltdown of my senses is a good explanation, but I have one more question.” Poppy explained her apartment building and Mr. Rush and all her neighbors, and the definite feeling something was very wrong at Littleton. “Could those waters be muddied, too—because I’m so upset that everyone is skipping off to greener fields like they didn’t spend most of their lives at Littleton?”
“That’s definitely a possibility, Poppy. You’re almost extra-sensitive at this point. Maybe you’re picking up on everything as you adjust to this way of life. I mean it’s pretty big. Everything that’s happened up to this point has been nothing less than life-altering.”
Wiping the crumbs from her cookie into her hand, Poppy considered. “So an overreaction?”