Marcus: Your family, my dear. If this is a talent that runs in family trees, I’d predict it runs straight through you.
Nell stared at her suddenly blank monitor. Dammit, he’d just called her “dear” again. The man had no social skills and some seriously outdated ideas about women, but he’d jumped to a plausible theory faster than any of the spellcoding geniuses in her household.
She looked at her hands ruefully. Spellcoding came so naturally she’d never really tried to break down how it worked. Leave it to some crusty old hermit witch to ask the obvious.
Time to page the troops. She’d set them loose on Marcus’s brainstorm before heading to the airport to fetch Elorie.
~ ~ ~
Nell had a strange moment of déjà vu as she waited with Aervyn in the always-bustling San Francisco airport. Why was it that her fetching spell kept finding these women who were unhappy to be witches? Maybe next time around they could grab some nice person who would say “thank you” and show up for the occasional solstice circle.
Lauren’s first days as a witch had been more than a little rocky, and Elorie’s didn’t look to be any easier—hell, they couldn’t even reach consensus that she was a witch.
“Mama, do you need a snack?” Aervyn asked. “You feel grumpy.”
Nell grinned. He was probably right. He was also angling for one of the cookies she had stashed in her bag. She pulled out the cookie container and handed it to her permanently hungry son.
Aervyn opened the tin and studied the contents for a moment. Then he handed Nell two of the three cookies inside. “Here. I think you need more cookies than I do. I’m only a teeny, tiny bit grumpy.”
Punk witchling. She rubbed his head and took the two cookies. Passengers started flooding out the arrivals gate, and Nell tried to spot Elorie.
“I see her, Mama!”
Elorie waved and walked over to meet them, carrying the world’s biggest backpack.
“That’s a huge bag, girl,” Nell said. “How’d you get that on the plane?”
Elorie sighed. “I’m not sure, exactly, but it has most of my work for the show, and I wasn’t about to let it out of my sight. Customs was a small hassle, but I’m here now, and grateful.”
Aervyn held out half his cookie. “Here, have some of my cookie. It’s good for making the grumpies go away.”
Elorie smiled, clearly used to questionable witchling manners. “I’m not really grumpy, just tired, but thank you. I feel like I ate breakfast three days ago.”
“You didn’t eat for three days?” Aervyn’s eyes got big. He wiggled his fingers just a little and held out the much larger cookie canister he’d obviously just teleported from the kitchen at home. “Here, have lots of cookies. Mama can make more if we run out.”
Nell shook her head and laughed. “Welcome to Witch Central, where life is always a bit crazy. Aervyn, send the cookies back home, please. Elorie already has enough to carry.” And the smell of Nutella cookies might cause an airport stampede.
Aervyn contemplated Elorie for a moment, and then wiggled his fingers again. Nell didn’t have to wonder what he was up to for long. Elorie squealed and spun around. “My backpack!”
Nell tried to reassure her with a look. “It’s okay. Aervyn just ported your bag to our house.” The look she gave her son was more pointed. “That bag has some things in it that are really important to Elorie. You scared her when you made it disappear without asking.”
She could see his brain twisting that around for a minute. “I’m really sorry, Elorie. I didn’t mean to scare you. Do you want me to bring your bag back?”
Elorie shrugged her shoulders. “No, actually. Thanks, it’s a lot lighter this way.” She reached for the cookie tin Aervyn was still holding and grinned. “Besides, now I have two hands free for cookies.”
Phew, thought Nell. Thank God for visitors who could roll with witchling antics. That would make the next few days a lot easier. Normal life at the Walker house tended to register pretty high on the chaos scale.
Aervyn reached for Elorie’s hand to lead her out of the airport. “So, how come you don’t want to be a witch?”
Didn’t I tell you to wait until she was settled before you asked questions like that? Nell sent to her son.
I did, Mama. I gave her cookies, and ported her bag, and everything. Besides, you want to know, too. Everybody does.