A Hidden Witch (A Modern Witch Series: Book 2) (15 page)

“Of course. And a light globe, if that would be
preferable.”

It might be. He didn’t really want to scorch
Realm if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Mia and Shay already had
enough cleanup to do. Not all coding work was glamorous.

Jamie realized he was going to have to code a
flower-opening spell. No self-respecting witch warrior had anything
that soft in their stash. Or maybe one did. “Hey, Ginia, you got a
blooming spell already coded that I can borrow?”

His message box pinged almost instantly.
Warrior Girl has gifted you a spell.

“Cool. Thanks, cutie.”

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “Look it over
carefully. It’s probably got a couple of mercenary fighters hidden
inside.”

Ginia giggled. “No way. I sent Uncle Jamie the
safe one.”

And this was the girl who had Realm trembling.
Hopefully it kept her out of bigger trouble, at least. “So, Marcus,
this is pretty straightforward for us. Trigger your spell and hold
the power flow as steady as you can. I’ll do the same, and we’ll
see if Ginia can join our magics.”

Onscreen, Marcus’s avatar walked over to the
garden and lit a fire-globe on his palm. Jamie grabbed a random
flower bud, and then triggered the blooming spell. Ginia stood
between them in warrior stance, a look of fierce concentration on
her face.

And then she held out her own hand, and a
blooming ball of light slowly took form.

“Wow,” said Marcus reverently. “She’s going to
wipe the ground with all of us, isn’t she?”

Jamie looked at Warrior Girl, power shining in
her hands and glee on her face. “I suggest you find some Net
witches, dude. You need allies, and fast.”

Marcus just put his head on his keyboard and
groaned.

Sophie:
Aunt Moira, since I’m
packing, do you need any more chamomile lotion? Crystals, anything?
I have some new floral tea you might like, too.

Moira:
Tea would be lovely,
and another jar of your lotion. And perhaps you have something that
would make a gift for my Elorie? It’s her birthday next week.

Nell:
Glad you mentioned
that. Do you have any ideas for what she might like?

Moira:
I wish there were
something we could give her to replace Jamie’s force-field gizmo.
It’s an ingenious little device, but my poor granddaughter is not
pleased about having to use it.

Nell:
Maybe getting your mind
witchlings fully trained is the long-term answer. I’m sure Lauren
would be happy to help with that.

Moira:
I’m sure Marcus will
appreciate her assistance.

Nell:
I’ll warn her :-).

Moira:
My nephew is a bit
brusque, but keep an open mind. I think your daughter is having an
interesting effect on him.

Sophie:
She’s about to kick
his butt in Realm.

Moira:
Sometimes men need to
be taken down a peg or two before they can pay attention. Marcus is
a bit old-fashioned, but he’s coming around.

Nell:
I’ll believe it when I
see it.

Sophie:
I have some
crystals that might help Elorie a little, but it sounds like she
needs barrier training, no?

Nell:
Lauren tried,
but it seems like Net power has some important differences from
mind magic. We’re in unknown territory. I assume we’ll figure
something out eventually, but until then, Jamie’s gizmo is better
than streaming out your every though to Marcus, a couple of
ten-year-olds, and any other mind witch who happens to be
nearby.

Sophie:
Ouch. Amen to that. I
need to go finish getting ready. I can’t wait to see both of you
tomorrow. Blessed be.

Sophie put down her laptop, looked around the
disarray of her bedroom, and sighed. Packing was one of her least
favorite things. She wondered how the healers of old managed to
travel with a rucksack of herbs and potions, and little else. They
probably didn’t have five pairs of shoes to take.

She had a fragrant pile of salves, teas, and
assorted goodies from her store. Other piles contained a stack of
books to return to Aunt Moira, a small fraction of her shoe
collection, and enough clothes to survive a week of beaches,
witchlings, and potions brewing.

Cripes. She could really use a butler, or an
apprentice, or whoever it was that used to pack your bags for
you.

“Need some help?” asked a voice from the
doorway.

Sophie whirled. “Mike! What are you doing
here?”

He held out his arms and grinned. “Looking for
more of a greeting than that.”

She stepped toward him, shock fading as delight
blossomed.

Mike swung her up and kissed her thoroughly.
Like most earth witches, he knew how to sink into a moment in time.
By the time he was finished, Sophie’s brain was gibbering mush.

He cuddled her in tight, and then looked over
her shoulder and laughed. “I guess somebody’s happy to see me.”

Sophie followed his gaze. The flowerpot sitting
in her bedroom window was a riot of flowers and blooms. They were
practically dancing. Wow. She hadn’t lost control of her magic that
badly since… well, since the last time Mike had visited, but it had
taken a lot more than a kiss then.

Her poor plant was getting a lot of exercise
lately.

She
was
really happy to see him. However,
they had a small logistics issue. “I’m packing to head to Fisher’s
Cove. I’m so sorry—I obviously forgot to tell you. The trip got
moved up kind of last minute.”

He kissed the top of her head. “So Jamie said. I
haven’t been to witch school in a while, so I thought I might tag
along for the ride.”

He was coming to Nova Scotia? With her? Sophie
gulped. That was serious. She tipped up her head to look at him, a
question in her eyes.

The answer in his was clear. Yes, this was a big
deal—and he knew it.

~ ~ ~

Elorie grabbed the vase just before it tumbled
off the table. “Sean James O’Reilly, since when does dusting
involve knocking things on the ground?”

“It’s okay,” Lizzie said, popping up the last
two stairs. “He’s getting pretty good at repair spells. I bet he
could fix it just like new if it broke.”

“That’s no excuse,” Elorie said, trying not to
grin. She whacked Sean on the head with a pillow and winced as she
barely missed the vase herself. It was hard to model good
housecleaning behavior when she really just wanted to goof off too.
It was her first full day back home, and vacuuming hadn’t been in
her plans.

However, the witch deluge was descending
tomorrow, and Aaron would accept no less than perfection in each
and every guestroom. Not that she disagreed with him. She just
wasn’t thrilled about leading the commandeered cleaning crew.

“Have you finished fluffing all the pillows,
Lizzie?”

“Uh, huh. And Kevin is bringing some nice books
over for everybody. Aaron only has books for old people, so we’re
sharing some of our kid books.”

True—with Ginia and Aervyn coming, the inn would
likely end up full of kids. Elorie shrugged and picked up the
flower vase. They might as well start witchling-proofing now.

Aaron came up the steps with a fresh set of
linens. “Small change of plans, troops. We’re going to need one
more room set up—apparently Sophie is bringing a guest, so they’ll
be staying with us, too.”

Usually Sophie stayed in Gran’s tiny guestroom,
but that wasn’t what attracted Elorie’s attention. “Sophie’s
bringing someone?”

Aaron winked. “Some guy named Mike.”

“Sophie’s bringing a
guy
?” That was hard
to imagine. There had been no end of matchmaking efforts over the
years, but Sophie had always been far more interested in her plants
and potions. “Does Gran know?” Gran’s sense of propriety was a
little old-fashioned, and she loved Sophie dearly.

“She does.” Aaron grinned. “She says to make
sure they have a bottle of her special cider waiting.”

Elorie felt her jaw hit the floor. Gran made
only a few bottles of her bespelled sparkling cider each year, and
it was a major occasion when one got opened. Not only did she know
of Sophie’s guest, but clearly she approved.

Fascinating.

Elorie took the linens from her husband as Kevin
arrived with an armful of books. “We’ll take care of this. Sheets
are hard to break.” She signaled to her witchlings. Time for a
magic lesson.

“Okay, you three. I want you to put the new
linens on this bed.” She waited a beat, just long enough to see
Sean’s scowl forming. “No hands. Show me how your circle work is
coming.”

Sean grinned. “Easy, peasy.”

Elorie doubted it, but one of the first rules of
being a witch trainer was to lay down the rules and then get out of
the way. “No spellcasting, either. I want you to do this as a team.
Spell out loud so I can tell what you’re doing, but no other
talking.”

She watched as they called power and linked
together with ease. That much, she expected. It was the next part
she thought might challenge their teamwork.

Judging from their configuration, Kevin and
Lizzie had automatically defaulted power to Sean. That alone would
probably dig them into trouble. Sean sailed into his first
spell:

“
I call on Air of wind and breeze

Lift this sheet, free of fleas

Hold it high over my head

Then drop it down onto the bed.

Perfect sheets for all to see,

As I will, so mote it be
.”

Elorie tried not to giggle. It was a good thing
Aaron hadn’t been around to hear the “free of fleas” part. Making
up rhyming spells on the fly could be tricky for the younger ones,
but Gran insisted on it. Not all witches needed rhymes, but for
most, they were a nice power boost. And for Gran, they were a
matter of tradition and discipline as well.

She watched her team at work and sighed. Picking
Sean as leader had been the first problem—the second appeared to be
that he didn’t make a whole lot of beds. The sheet was upside-down
and sideways. Lizzie glared at him and tried a spell to flip the
sheet over.

Tension rose as Sean kept trying new spells to
get the sheet to settle back down on the bed, and Lizzie kept
trying to turn it over. The result was a really impressive sheet
tangle and two frustrated witchlings. Kevin just leaned against the
wall and watched. Which was probably smart, but not particularly
helpful.

Elorie intervened just before Lizzie exploded.
“Stop and freeze.” She’d learned the hard way not to intervene in a
working circle. The three dropped their circle connection and
retreated to their respective corners.

“One at a time, I want you to tell me the
biggest problem in what just happened. Just one, and no
name-calling.”

Lizzie was fastest off the mark. “Sean doesn’t
know how to make a bed.”

That was a good start. Elorie looked at Sean,
who was red-faced and mad. “No one was helping me. Lizzie was doing
something stupid, and Kevin wasn’t doing anything at all.”

That came precious close to name-calling, but
she’d let it slide for now. It was more insightful than Sean
usually managed. “Kevin?”

“We picked the wrong leader.”

There we go. Now to dig one step deeper. “A good
start. Now tell me one thing you did that wasn’t helpful for your
team.”

Sean looked blank. “I didn’t tell Lizzie to
stop?”

Elorie sighed. Why were all the mind witches in
her part of the world so dense? “Lizzie, any ideas?”

She crossed her arms in an excellent unconscious
imitation of Gran. “I could have said no to working in such a
disorganized circle.”

Youch, but not entirely incorrect. “Kevin?”

He looked down at his shoes. “I could have
mindsent a plan to Sean. Lizzie knows how to make a bed, and we
kinda don’t. I could have made him listen.”

Ah, now they were getting somewhere. “And why
didn’t you?”

Kevin looked up, oozing frustration from every
pore. “Why does Sean always get to be the leader? Even when he
doesn’t know what to do, and his magic isn’t always the best for
the job?”

She touched his shoulder gently to drive her
point home. “Because you always let him.”

Sean looked flabbergasted. “You want to lead the
magic, Kevin?”

“Sometimes.” Elorie hurt for Kevin as he tangled
with his inner demons. “But Lizzie is the smartest person for this
one. She knows how to make beds, and she has the strongest water
power. Sheets are kind of flowy like water. So she should lead, and
you and I should mindread and follow what she wants us to do.”

That was a lot of growing up in thirty seconds.
Elorie squeezed his shoulder in approval.

Lizzie stepped up to the bed, all business.
Kevin and Sean moved to where she pointed, with Sean still looking
utterly confused. Poor boy. With his spellcasting talents, they’d
spent too much time training him to take the lead, and not enough
time on being a supporting circle member.

After assessing the tangled mess on the bed for
a moment, Lizzie closed her eyes. Given the look of concentration
on the twins’ faces, she was visualizing the process for them.

Kevin cast a spell to lift the sheet into the
air, and Sean fluttered a small wind to untangle it. It didn’t go
entirely smoothly, but within a few minutes, they had a basically
untangled sheet. Ironically, it was still sideways and
upside-down.

Lizzie did something nifty with the air to push
on the sheet in waves, eventually getting it oriented in the right
direction. Then she closed her eyes, clearly sending guidance, and
called her element one more time.

“
I call on Water of ebb and flow,

Put this sheet where it should go.

On waves of air, lay it straight,