A Hidden Witch (A Modern Witch Series: Book 2) (31 page)

Marcus was the first witch on his feet.

Moira walked out into the early morning mists of
her garden. Sleep had done a wondrous job of reviving her old
bones. She was more than a little surprised to find her nephew
taking a soak, and downright astonished when he smiled and stood to
help her in.

“You seem rather cheerful this morning, my
dear.”

Marcus shrugged. “I woke up early. No idea why.
I was up half the night working with Jamie to organize the new
spellcoding library. We’re already being pelted with spells.
Witches can be a rather disorganized lot.”

Moira hid a smile. “They’re just eager to
help.”

“They could help by sorting.” Marcus snorted.
“And by using their heads. Young Sean’s already uploaded a pirate
illusion spell and an eavesdropping spell.”

“How delightful.” Moira laughed at her nephew’s
scowl. There was the Marcus she knew and loved. “You never know
when a pirate spell might come in handy.”

His eyebrows nearly crossed. “You can’t possibly
be serious.”

“It’s getting the witchlings involved in helping
others, and that’s a beautiful thing. An eavesdropping spell just
needs a little reshaping to become a seeking spell that could find
a lost child. Why don’t you ask our Sean to work on that for
you?”

He grunted.

She took that as a hopeful sign and pushed a
little harder. “He’s a strong and very imaginative spellcaster. It
will take a creative trainer to get the best out of him.”

“Hmm. Perhaps partnering him with Kevin will
help. His twin shows a little more sense.”

Moira had to turn away and gaze on her flowers
to hide her smile this time. Elorie wasn’t the only witch coming
out of her shell lately. Marcus training witchlings, and with only
token protests—who could have imagined?

“It’s a very important responsibility Elorie has
now,” Marcus said. “You’ve prepared her well.”

“I’ve helped her become the woman she was meant
to be.” And so very proud she was of who her granddaughter had
become. The witching community had gained a new leader yesterday,
one who would use her new magic to strengthen the old ways.

“She’s got a firm grounding in tradition, and a
strong sense of obligation to those around her.”

Moira’s heart twisted a little. “You speak of
obligation and responsibility, but Elorie does this out of love.
She has a truly magnificent heart.” And perhaps a tiny ray or two
of that love would seep into the fortress her nephew had built
around his own heart.

He’d been such a sensitive boy. The day Evan had
died, something in Marcus had broken. The healer in her had ached
for that small boy for almost half a century now. Even for a witch
steeped in tradition, that was a very long time to hold onto
hope.

He’d smiled at her this morning. At the start of
a glorious summer day, she was going to hold tight to that.

And she wasn’t above meddling. “I hear that
Jamie and young Aervyn are meeting in that lovely online living
room later today to work on an alert system. I’m sure another mind
witch would be a welcome addition.”

Even Marcus couldn’t resist Aervyn. That wee
boy’s most powerful magic was his contagious love of life.

~ ~ ~

Nell:
This feels really
old-fashioned after our new Realm meeting space.

Moira:
Aye, but we can’t be
wasting transport spells to do that too often just yet. Maybe after
we have more of them ready.

Nell:
My triplets are working
Aervyn and Jamie hard. Ginia says they’re figuring out how to do
more of it with coding and less with teleportation magic, so
hopefully the Realm taxi service will be up and running soon.

Moira:
I look forward to it.
It was so delightful to cuddle your sweet boy in my lap. He won’t
be little enough to do that much longer.

Nell:
Pretty soon you’ll have
far littler ones to hold.

Sophie:
Yes. We need to get a
rocking chair installed in that room. Aunt Moira’s skills with
fussy babies are legendary, and I, for one, would like to be able
to call on them.

Nell:
God, what I would have
given for an instantly available virtual babysitter when the
triplets were little.

Moira:
And what I’d have
given to be there.

Sophie:
Well, Elorie and I
will be happy to benefit from the wonders of modern technology.

Elorie:
Indeed. Sorry to be
late. Aaron’s meeting with a friend of his to make some plans for
our new house. I can’t stay long, or they’ll have added several
thousand square feet for each child. Why do men always think bigger
is better?

Nell:
That, girl, is a
question for the ages.

Sophie:
Where are you
building?

Elorie:
Right between the inn
and Gran’s cottage. We want our own separate space with little ones
on the way. I don’t figure people on vacation want to hear babies
crying, or stampeding little feet.

Moira:
You might be
surprised, my dear. However, I think it’s lovely you and Aaron will
be just a wee bit closer. I won’t be minding the sounds of little
ones at all.

Sophie:
Can Aaron cope with
two pregnant women in a month or so?

Elorie:
Only if I get fed
first :-). Just kidding—mostly. I’m suddenly starving all the time.
Is that normal?

Nell:
Oh, yeah. Enjoy it
while it lasts. Hopefully you’ll skip the nausea part, but
eventually babies take up enough room that there’s not much space
left for food.

Moira:
I used to swear my
babies stole my food and fed it to the faeries. I ate like a farmer
in those first months of pregnancy. So are you coming to visit us
in the fall then, Sophie?

Sophie:
Sort of. Mike and I
were trying to figure out the wedding thing.

Elorie:
Oooh, are you getting
married here?

Sophie:
Not exactly. Hang
on…

Nell:
Type faster, girl, and
don’t be so cryptic!

Sophie:
Sorry. The thing is,
we have family all over the place, and lots of places that are
special to them and to us. Mike’s parents have a beautiful
sanctuary down in Mexico, Ocean’s Reach where we did our first full
circle together, and of course your garden, Aunt Moira. We tried to
pick one, and we just couldn’t. So we eloped.

Nell:
What???

Elorie:
You’re married?

Moira:
Ah, my sweet girl.
Blessed be.

Sophie:
We had a ceremony
right here in my garden. It was very small, and so sweet. And now
we’d like to come share our joy with all of you. We’re going on a
marriage celebration journey. We’ll start in Mexico with Mike’s
parents, and then head up to Berkeley, if that works for you,
Nell.

Nell:
We never, ever say no
to a party. Congratulations, Sophie. He’s a wonderful man.

Sophie:
Don’t I know it. And
then we’ll work our way over to Nova Scotia for the finish, Aunt
Moira.

Moira:
We’ll have ourselves a
proper gathering and celebrate your joining, child. It’s the way of
the Irish—it’s the party that truly matters.

Sophie:
Nobody’s mad?

Moira:
You’ve always been a
solitary witch, darling girl. You’ve had your private joy, and now
you’ll come celebrate with us. There’s nothing but happiness
here.

Elorie:
I’m so thrilled for
you, Sophie. Truly.

Sophie:
I love you all, so
very much.

Nell:
The triplets might be
mad that they didn’t get to wear frilly dresses.

Sophie:
Party dresses can be
as frilly as necessary, by bridal decree.

Nell:
That’ll work. Aervyn
would appreciate less frills on the small-boy front.

Sophie:
Done. This bridal
decree stuff is easy. How are the girls, anyhow? I know Ginia was
missing her sisters by the end of witch school.

Nell:
Yeah. They’d never been
separated like that before, so they’re awfully happy in each
other’s company right now. Jamie has them all hard at work coding
for the new spell library.

Sophie:
How’s that coming? I
got my latest assignment—it seems amazingly organized.

Elorie:
You can thank Marcus
for that.

Sophie:
Seriously? Jamie said
he was pretty involved.

Elorie:
He’s figured out this
amazing tagging system that will search and match the closest spell
to your needs. Even Jamie was impressed.

Nell:
My girls think he’s a
genius.

Moira:
He’s kept that talent
well hidden. Maybe I’ll have to put him to work sorting my
books.

Elorie:
Kevin would be
delighted to do that, Gran. He might never come out, though—you’d
have to check on him every so often and make sure he doesn’t starve
to death.

Moira:
I might just do that,
but I’ll wait a bit. He and Sean are preparing some interesting
spells for your little project.

Elorie:
Uh, oh. The last one
I saw involved a cleaning spell that sings Bob Marley while it
works.

Nell:
Awesome. I’ll take that
one in triplicate!

Sophie:
Me, too.

Elorie:
You might want to
wait until it does a decent job of cleaning. The singing part is
pretty good, though.

Sophie:
Have the cleaning
spells been recategorized yet?

Nell:
Yes. I think Warrior
Girl gave Marcus a serious piece of her mind over that.

Moira:
Whatever happened?

Sophie:
Marcus put cleaning
spells into a library category called “women’s spells.” I found
them when I went to file a spell to ease menstrual cramps.

Moira:
Oh, did he now.

Elorie:
Don’t worry, Gran—he
got a piece of all our minds. I don’t think it will happen again.
Ginia’s threatening to create a “grumpy old men” category if it
does.

Moira:
Well, I might just be
adding a small reminder of my own. My cauldron’s due for
polishing.

Sophie:
Sweet! I can tarnish
it a little more, if you want.

Nell:
Aervyn’s added a rain
spell that could take care of that. Marcus has a pretty thick
head.

Moira:
Do you all really
think I don’t have a good tarnishing spell handy? How do you think
I’ve kept troublemakers busy over the years? It’s wonderful that
the witchlings are all getting so involved, though—a rain spell
sounds like a lovely contribution.

Nell:
It will be, if you’re
sitting outside when you access it. Some of the Realm players are
having trouble getting used to real-life spells. I think Govin’s
living room is still soaked.

Sophie:
Oops :-).

Moira:
I have a request, if I
may. Sophie dear, could you cast me a gentle sleep spell? It’s
getting harder to do for myself, and I do so appreciate a good
night’s sleep.

Sophie:
That’s a wonderful
idea. I’ve also uploaded a couple of spells for joint pain—try
those for your hands. I’d love to know how they work.

Elorie:
Oh, I’ll try one next
time I’ve been working in my studio all day. My hands ache after
that.

Moira stepped away from her computer for a
moment to go fetch some tea. Witches helping each other wasn’t a
new thing—it was one of the oldest of things. But now they could
get the right help to the right witch so much more easily, and oh,
the generosity she was seeing.

Small gifts, freely given. It was the heart and
soul of magic—and now it had new life. With her granddaughter at
the helm.

Sometimes the rewards for a long life were rich
indeed.

~ ~ ~

“Ouch!” Jamie said. “Wow, that’s still way too
loud. Aervyn, dude, we need to ratchet back the volume on that a
whole bunch.”

Elorie giggled at the antics on her computer
screen, glad she hadn’t been the guinea pig for this last test.
They were trying to work out an alert system to page Net witches in
an emergency. The spell library could meet an increasing array of
needs, but there would always be situations where a real, live Net
witch was required.

Coming up with the alert spell hadn’t been a
problem. Convincing Aervyn it didn’t need to be as loud as a fire
alarm was proving more difficult.

Ginia shook her head. “I think I can control
volume in the code, Uncle Jamie. We might want it loud to get
some
people’s attention.”

Jamie considered for a moment. “So customize the
volume depending on who we’re trying to page?”

“That makes sense.” Elorie fingered her heart
pendant. “We might need to change the volume once everyone has
pendants instead of phones, too.”

She’d sent a batch of her biggest pieces of sea
glass off to Jamie only that morning. He and Aervyn were going to
work on shrinking iPhones into the glass. It was a more reliable
method of portable Net power, particularly for the witchlings—sea
glass was well used to getting banged up and wet. iPhones weren’t
proving quite as durable.

Ginia looked up. “Okay, I’m going to ping you.
Lemme know if it’s too loud.”

Elorie squeezed her eyes shut. The last time had
sounded like a monster gong inside her head. Fortunately, Ginia’s
idea of volume control was more precise than her little brother’s.
“Much better. A little quieter yet would be fine for me, but that’s
tolerable.”