Magic and Mayhem: How To Train A Witch (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Baba Yaga Saga Book 1) (6 page)

In the youth of his regenerative change, Jezibaba had met the young Emeritus when Morgana had sent the Bennu to be her familiar. She’d fallen madly in love with him the day they met, but he’d told her from the very beginning that no female born could take Morgana’s place.

She could have asked for a different familiar, one she hadn’t cared for so much, but Emeritus had begged her not to and vowed to learn shape-shifting so he could serve her better. They had been professional friends for nearly three hundred years. Now she thought of him as a rare, true ally—of which she had few that had proven incorruptible.

Did she still feel a twinge of desire for Emeritus now and again, especially when she remembered she was still a woman with needs? Certainly. It was strange he’d come to visit now since throughout the evening she pondered if a dragon with the nicest ass she’d ever seen might actually have the power to cure her from longing for a man who would never grace her bed.

Jezibaba walked to where Emeritus stood glowing in the dim moonlight. “To what do I owe this rare pleasure, old friend? I didn’t expect to see you again today.”

“I wanted you to know that I checked in on the children for you this evening. They might fight in front of people, but last I saw, they were both fast asleep in one bed with the kittens curled around and between them. Their friendship will be tried sorely as they age, but to sleep with someone is to trust them with your very life. It makes me hopeful for your replacements.”

Jezibaba smiled and nodded. “I’m sure they’ll be fine until some unworthy male comes along and gets between them to screw things up.”

Emeritus laughed. “Still cynical about love I see. Perhaps the dragon might soften that a bit, if you choose to let him.”

Jezibaba snorted. “You know I think males are pricks one and all… even you, Emeritus. But my weakness is that I adore them regardless of their flaws. Now what does that say about me?”

“That you’re an optimist under all that cynicism?” he offered, smiling at her chuckle.

Jezibaba shook her head. “No, Emeritus. I’m a needy woman. That’s worse than being an optimist. Being female gives me a foolish heart that can be won over by poetry and gallant actions. My body craves a devotion I have never found in any male’s arms. I have come to think of it as a curse to even hope. Low expectations are easier to live with.”

“Well, you haven’t slept with the dragon yet. Your caution denotes progress for you, right? Normally you try a male out immediately and cast them aside when they disappoint. You seem to be standing your ground against the dragon’s eagerness.”

“And you know bloody well why…” Jezibaba declared.

“Do I?” Emeritus asked. “Do you? Morgana has placed no prohibition on the species of your suitors. That’s all in your mind. Isn’t it time to release the past?”

Her laughter rang out, despite her need for discretion since it was after hours for the students. “Even if I did—which I doubt is possible—I would still not trust the dragon. Perhaps I could be more discrete about bed partners in general, but for what reason should I make such a change? I take what I need wherever I can find it. There are plenty of males without adding dragons to the mix. Here is the reality, my friend—the bad males don’t want much and the good males are always taken.”

Emeritus bowed his head. “Not always, El. Not always. This dragon serves Morgana. He has pleased her so far. If he helps you save the chosen ones, it will free his family from their debt to her. It would be unwise of him to betray her at this late date, even if it means never having you. Denying his desire for you will be a harder war for him to fight than any he has seen in his long life to date. He already cares. That’s why he left this evening.”

“Right.” Jezibaba snorted at the mysterious pronouncement. The Consort, like the Goddess, often took pleasure in tormenting her. “So you’re saying if I decide to sleep with Professor Hottie, it’s okay because he’s mostly a good guy?”

Emeritus shrugged. “It is not my place to say and
good
is a subjective opinion. Dragons are arrogant… and possessive. He will tend to forget your power and be shocked when reminded of it. Even if your union were true, it would never be an easy pairing. I once kept company with a dragoness. This was before Morgana. I knew we were not meant to last, but the dragoness would not let me go until I found her true mate for her. It took me two hundred and fifty-three miserable years to find someone she liked more than me. I even tried to regenerate and didn’t escape her. She raised me like a son for decades and then forced me to service her when I was of a proper age. She killed every other female who caught my eye.”

“Scorned women can be cruel,” Jezibaba said dryly.

“Tell me about it,” Emeritus agreed.

Jezibaba looked at the building where her future replacements lay innocently sleeping. Emeritus might be too pushy about the dragon, but he had agreed to watch over Carol. His service demanded a genuine gratitude she didn’t express often or easily.

“Thank you for taking on the wild one for a while. I have another familiar in mind for Carol, but he is serving out a sentence. The timing should be right for him to come to her in about twenty years.”

“Not a problem. The time is a mere blink in my life,” Emeritus declared.

“But probably going to feel like an entire lifetime in mine,” Jezibaba stated in return. “I don’t see both chosen ones rising to the challenge of the job equally. Carol has a dark side. Controlling it will be hard for her. Goddess knows, I’ve struggled to control mine. Hildy is still a mouse. She’ll be eaten alive in any real fight. Those two are going to make my life a living hell. I just know it.”

“Taking a mate might have served you better than the emotionally unfettered life you’ve chosen. As the one who taught you self-control, I feel qualified to say you’ve just never found a proper outlet for that pent-up energy that so frequently builds up inside you.”

Jezibaba shrugged. “That sounds very sexist. Does a proper outlet even exist?”

“Morgana, whose temper exceeds yours, would say yes. She says peace is the greatest gift I have brought to her. She says I know every dark thing there is to know about her nature and still choose to stay at her side. But I tell you truthfully, I stay only because our Goddess brings me true joy in return. Our stability has allowed me to pass into much higher thinking. Our pairing is very satisfying in many ways… and I must take my leave of you now to go to her.”

As Jezibaba turned her face to Emeritus, she caught the utter sincerity of his words shining in his human face just before he changed back to his true form. It made her sad to know his personal devotion was not for her, and yet hopeful that her “proper outlet” might truly one day cross her path. Maybe after her retirement… when she could be less on guard with all creatures.

Sighing, Jezibaba pushed aside all wishing for what would never be. Emeritus had been with her for her entire service and never once let her down. He would never love her back the way she wished was possible, but he would always be her standard for loyalty. Older than dirt Nathaniel was the only other male who had earned her trust.

“Blessed be, Emeritus. Give my love and well wishes to the Goddess.”

Never bothering with goodbye because he didn’t believe in them, her oldest friend showered her with silver mist before he faded from her sight.

Damien shook his head as he sorted through pile after pile with no results. Many treasures in these hidden collections were imbued with magic. Some were of his own design. Some were the creations of the druidic mage who’d trained him. At his death, his teacher had bequeathed all of his possessions to him, including his magical ones.

What he searched for now was something he’d snorted over at the time he’d first seen it, but he distinctly recalled it had been among the items delivered by the mage’s acolytes.

In his arrogance, he’d never dreamed of needing something that would allow a human to survive a dragon’s fire and transmute it if they possessed the power to take it in. Humans belonged to the Gods. Dragons who did bad things to them disappeared never to be heard of again. The majority of dragons thought of humans the way humans probably thought of ants. Dragons flew over them so they wouldn’t risk accidentally destroying them.

Unless the dragon served the Gods directly, as his family had done for nearly two millennia now, then you saw humans and other magicals through the eyes of the deity you served. In his case, Morgana The Red was most fierce about the young human witches who had yet to come into power. They must be like grandchildren to her or something.

He’d come to care for them as well as he interacted with them. Like most powerful children, they were majorly flawed in their youth, more irritating than a hundred young dragonlings, and yet absolutely mesmerizing in their grasp of life. His children were grown with children of their own. In some cases, those he’d sired had mated through three or four more generations. He’d often lost count because his grandchildren and great-grandchildren had dispersed to the houses of their mates—except for the one that chose to remain with his mother.

His eldest daughter had mated locally. The couple ruled his house well in his absence while he served their family’s debt to the Goddess for all of them. He visited the castle frequently, but no one really missed his company because he had been serving Morgana for most of their lives. It was an absent father syndrome, but he visited whenever he could.

Protecting the young magicals at Witchery U had at the very least made the last seventy-five years much less lonely than they might have been if he’d been ruling his house alongside his female parent. And now the bewitching witch had come along to wake his body from its mating sleep.

In Jezibaba’s company, he felt more alive than he had in years. His instincts were on full alert in her presence and he knew something evil zeroing in them. Feeling like he did, he couldn’t let anything happen to the witch if he had the power to stop it. She served the Goddess Morgana also, though he imagined Jezibaba hadn’t been tricked into it as his ancestor had been.

“Damien, what in dragon’s hell do you search for in your private vaults? You’ve been in here all night. Alastair and Jasmine have made doubly sure no one has touched your possessions. You don’t have to count it all under the cloak of darkness.”

Damien laughed. “I’m not counting anything, Mother. I’m looking for something. And I have to be back in class at Witchery U in a few hours.”

Celeste tilted her head. “Very well. Perhaps if you tell me what it is, I could help you search.”

“It is an amulet that protects the wearer from dragon fire. The chain is silver and the dragon charm looks like a small replica of Grandfather Relis, beard and all.”

Celeste scrunched up her face, remembering how much her father had secretly detested humans. It was ironic and yet made perfect sense to her, that his likeness would be used by a mage to make an anti-dragon fire charm.

“Finding any specific charm is not going to be easy in all these piles of jewelry. We really should buy some stands or chests or something. I know piles are more aesthetically pleasing to dragon males, but order has its purpose, even in a horde treasury.”

Damien stopped searching and imagined the sheer number of jewelry stands it would take to hang just what he’d inherited from the mage. Then he snorted. “What am I thinking? There is a much easier way to do this.”

“No,” Celeste said warily, not trusting the look on her son’s face. “Damien, remember—you promised not to practice mage magic in the castle. Only dragon magic is allowed here.”

He chuckled at her concern. “This simple spell will harm none, Mother. That is the oath all true magicals take before their spells will work. Black magicians pay a stiff price for those powers which grant them even the slightest ability to bypass spell casting laws. Now please step out of the piles for a moment. Don’t touch anything until the spell is in full effect.”

Damien walked until he reached a center point where the piles surrounded him. Now what was that word the Jezibaba had used? Oh yes.
Inhabitus
… it restricted the spell locality very neatly to the single room you were standing in.

He concentrated and then waved his large hand. “
Inhabitus liftus upacus
,” he invoked. Damien grinned widely when the piles of treasure lifted and sorted out until every single piece dangled in the air alone.

“Okay. Now help me search. Everything will go back into piles in about ten minutes. My spells still don’t last long unless I call on Morgana to help with them. I try to do that as little as possible.”

“With good reason,” Celeste exclaimed, but chuckled as she walked among the jewelry. “Where were you when I cleaned out my closet yesterday? I hate magic, but I must say, this is quite a handy spell.”

Damien laughed at her teasing. “While you were cleaning out last year’s fashions, I imagine I was busy insulting the Jezibaba when I met her.”

Celeste stopped and glared. “Damien Smoke. That witch deserves your utmost respect. The woman is not like other humans—or witches for that matter. She’s the chosen one and the true keeper of balance in my opinion. We’ve had hundreds of years of peace because of her.”

“I agree she is powerful. She’s also a very beautiful woman with incredibly nice legs.” When Damien looked up, he knew his mother caught the interested gleam in his eyes. He shook his head. “It’s not like that—not really. I just reacted like a man before I knew who she was.”

Celeste went back to searching. “Didn’t the witch have her warlocks with her? She travels everywhere with them.”

“Yes, she asked me the same thing, but all I saw was her.”

Celeste felt her eyebrows raise. “Really? You’re having personal conversations of that nature already? Oh, dear, Damien. She’s not a dragoness. What will you tell the rest of the family?”

“Ah ha!” Damien exclaimed, plucking the amulet from the air. “I’ll worry about that if there’s ever anything to tell them. I’m not intending to mate her, Mother. But she stirred something in me. I would like to explore it. For that, I need to make sure she stays alive.”