And not one he really wanted to discuss while sitting on the floor surrounded by inquiring minds.
He struggled to his feet and faced Nell’s new houseguest. “Hi, Elorie. Welcome to insanity, and sorry about almost passing out on you.”
Jamie was just contemplating whether he could skirt the whole issue of his precog episode when Aervyn’s voice piped up from the crowd. “See, Elorie—I knowed you were a witch.”
Aervyn! Jamie had just enough energy left to halt his nephew before he let anything else out of the bag.
Fortunately, Nell, who was very used to directing chaos, caught the edge of his mental blast. “Aervyn, can you and your sisters go get snacks and drinks for everyone from the kitchen?”
She herded the adults into the living room and raised an eyebrow at her brother. What the heck’s going on?
In answer, Jamie sent back a snapshot from his precog—Elorie, belly enormous, standing at Ginia’s right shoulder in the magical light of a full circle at peak power.
What is up with you and precog and pregnant women?
He shrugged helplessly. Now what the hell do we do? No one was better thinking on the fly than his sister.
Nell looked at him for a moment. Leave it be, for now. Precog isn’t a guarantee, so we really don’t know anything more than we knew before. One step at a time, brother mine. Let’s see if we can learn more about our maybe-witch via some slightly more scientific methods.
Damn, he hated precog.
~ ~ ~
Moira: Hello, Nell—do you have our Elorie?
Nell: We do. She’s settling into her room now, which really means she has my three daughters urging her to pull out every last piece of jewelry and show it off.
Moira: She makes truly splendid things. I have a new pendant she made for me with some lovely blue glass in it.
Nell: I hope she brought enough with her. I think half the witch population of California plans to visit her at the Art Fair.
Moira: I do appreciate that, Nell. She was a little nervous about bringing her designs to such a fancy exhibition. It’s a bit different than selling it in a few shops like she does here.
Nell: We support our own, you know that. And witch or not, Elorie is one of our own.
Sophie: Do me a favor and snag me a couple of things if you go, Nell. Something green, maybe.
Moira: And good evening to you, Sophie. I didn’t see you come in.
Nell: She’s a sneaky witch, our Sophie.
Sophie: Ha. I was brewing a couple of potions on the stove—sorry I’m a little late.
Nell: Can we switch to video chat? I spent a lot of time coding today, and my fingers are tired.
Moira: I’m not entirely sure how to do that on this new computer of mine. It doesn’t have one of those wee cameras sitting on top.
Nell: If it’s new, it likely has the camera built in—try clicking on the video chat button and see what happens.
Just like magic, Moira thought as she watched Nell and Sophie come to life on her screen. “Isn’t that lovely, now.”
“I’m envious of your new computer,” Sophie said. “Mine feels like a clunker, even though it’s only two years old.”
Nell snickered. “The witchlings in my basement are having fun melting laptop hard drives. If you want to donate yours to the cause, just let me know.”
Hard drive. Moira tried to get her creaky brain working. That had been one of the words Marcus used when he tried to explain what had happened to her old computer. “And why would you be melting computers?”
The guilty look on Nell’s face was timeless.
“Nell Aria Walker, what kind of trouble are you getting into?”
Sophie burst out laughing. “Aunt Moira, you do that very well, but Nell’s a grown woman. I’m guessing it won’t be quite as effective on her as it is on witchlings.”
Nell rolled her eyes. “It might. That was pretty good—I might have you give me lessons when I bring my crew out this summer.”
An old witch could still be embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Nell, forgive me—I’ve been a wee bit unsettled lately. This has something to do with Elorie, doesn’t it? Marcus is convinced she’s the one who caused my old computer to stop working.”
“It’s more than that,” Nell said, looking serious. “Someone utterly melted the insides of your laptop. That’s no easy feat, even with witch power. Aervyn couldn’t do it, even with an assist from Jamie.”
It was good to know there were things beyond Aervyn’s power just yet.