Alpha Divided

“Nice.” I was a total klutz, so this could actually come in handy. I might never crack another iPhone screen again.

“The key is starting and ending the knot in the same place. That’s what holds the spell together,” Daniel said.

“Wait. Do we literally draw the spell? Like with a pencil or something?”

“Nope. It’s mostly mental. You trace a knot with your fingertip wherever you want to spell applied.”

Okay. This was getting ten times harder. “If you’re not using a pencil, how do you know where the knot starts and ends?”

“That takes practice. It’s best to envision a point and start there. Then you just have to remember to go back to that point when you end. Don’t worry. We have plenty of glasses to work with, so we can do some trial and error. By the time you’ve gone through the box, you should have that knot down.”

“Got it.”

He started me off by tracing the paper with a finger over and over. It seemed like a waste of his time to stand there watching me, but every time I messed up, he corrected me. It was harder to stay on the lines than I expected.

Once I made a successful knot twenty times in a row, Daniel said we could move on to the first glass. “Remember to make sure you’re incorporating your will into the knot. You have to believe—you have to know—that the glass isn’t going to break.”

That seemed a little counterintuitive. How was I supposed to know it was going to work if I’d never done it before?

“Here goes nothing,” I muttered to myself as I picked up the first glass. It was a tall one with a slightly squared shape.

Don’t break. Don’t break. Don’t break. I thought to myself as I traced the knot onto the glass with my fingertip. When I was done I placed the glass on the table.

“What now?”

He reached into a cabinet and dug out a large plastic bucket, a hammer, and two pairs of goggles. “Now, we try to break it.” He handed me a pair of goggles, and I popped them on.

I placed the glass in the bucket and lightly tapped it with the hammer.

The glass didn’t just shatter—it turned to dust. It completely disintegrated as soon as the hammer touched it.

“Whoa!” Daniel said. “You barely tapped it. I’ve never seen a knot backfire like that.”

I tried to keep my cheeks from heating. That was a total disaster.

“Let’s try again. This time really focus on thinking about protecting the glass.”

“Right.” Because I’d totally done the opposite before.

I did the same thing. I put all my will into believing the glass wouldn’t break. I chanted it in my head as I drew the knot.

Once again, I put the glass in the bucket.

Instant dust.

Okay. Something wasn’t right. “Are you sure this is the right knot?”

“Pretty sure. That’s why it says ‘Unbreakable’ at the top of the page.” He grabbed a glass from the box and started tracing a knot on it. When he was done, he threw the glass on the floor. It bounced. Literally bounced. Like a ball.

“Clearly, I’m not very good at this.”

Daniel scratched his head. “I don’t know. It’s so odd. I’ve seen knots not work before, but I’ve never seen a glass turn to powder.” He grabbed a short glass this time. “Again.”

By the time the doorbell rang a few hours later, I’d nearly gone through the whole box and there was a thick layer of glass dust on the bottom of the bucket. My stomach growled and I knew it was past time to eat. This whole thing was testing my frustration, and on an empty stomach, that wasn’t wise.

“I need a break.”

“Yeah.” Daniel sifted through the glass powder with a long-handled spoon, still partly in shock at my total spell ineptitude.

A knock sounded on the door.

I opened it and saw Mom. She pulled me in for a hug. “How are you doing?”

“Okay. Frustrated. My first lesson isn’t going so hot.”

“Then I’d say you need a break. Help me with the groceries. I want you to see what I got.”

I stepped into the living room to see two worker men hauling in another fridge. “What’s that?”

“I didn’t want you to worry about the food so much, so I brought another fridge. Call me when you start hitting the secondary fridge. That way you’ll always have enough.”

That was an incredibly good idea. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it. “Thanks, Mom. This is above and beyond. I really appreciate it.”