A Hidden Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,34
and maybe a little scary.”
Moira giggled and thought for a moment. “Ah, I have just the thing. How about Hecate?”
That didn’t sound very scary. “Who’s Hecate?”
“Your witch history is lacking, child. We’ll have to fix that when you come visit.”
Ginia had no idea how they’d gone from Realm avatars to witch history, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t a good direction to keep heading. “We want something really scary, Aunt Moira. Gandalf isn’t gonna be easy to scare.”
“Ha!” Moira laughed. “Marcus knows who Hecate is. He’ll be plenty scared, I promise you. She’s the Greek goddess of magic and witchcraft, and a fierce warrior. She has a great big dog as her familiar—can you perhaps make me one of those, and some wee arrows?”
Ginia grinned. Oh, yeah. She most certainly could. Game on.
“Okay, Aunt Moira. Let’s teach you how to move your avatar around now.”
~ ~ ~
Elorie looked at Lauren, Ginia, and the big bowl of soup waiting for her and grinned ruefully. “What is this, ambush witch lessons?”
She wasn’t all that excited about more of those, but she’d sold out of jewelry, and she was heading home in the morning. Nothing could dim her good mood.
Ginia held out a basket of garlic bread. “I made this from garlic I grew—it’s really good. We’re gonna have a lesson, but you can eat first.”
Be grateful for small gifts, Elorie thought, amused. She bit into the garlic bread, and butter oozed over her tongue. To heck with lessons. The garlic bread rivaled Gran’s.
Lauren grinned and snagged another piece before handing the basket back to Elorie. “You probably don’t realize it, but your mind is really open right now. We need to help you barrier a little, so you can keep your privacy.”
She blinked. They were reading her mind?
Lauren shook her head. “Not most of us, just the mind witches in the group, and we’re all trying pretty hard to stay out.”
Her inner thoughts were flapping in the wind? Cripes. It had been that way with Uncle Marcus, but she’d just thought he had bad manners. “Have I always been this way?” That didn’t even bear thinking about.
“I don’t think so. No one remembers this from the last time you visited. We’re thinking that maybe working with your magic a little is opening your channels. That happened when Jamie first started helping me with my mind powers.”
It had happened with some of their Nova Scotia trainees as well, but it was very different to be the one with the leaky head. Uncle Marcus had very little patience with undisciplined minds. Oh, God. And the twins. She looked at Lauren, trying not to panic. “Please tell me how to fix this.”
Lauren squeezed her hand. “Basic barriers are pretty easy. In your case, you just need to block outgoing thoughts, and that’s easier still. Don’t worry. We’re not going to send you back to the evil Marcus with a naked brain.”
Ginia giggled, and Elorie felt her cheeks fire up. She focused on her soup, trying to refuel for the work ahead. She was not leaving this room until she could keep her thoughts to herself.
An hour later, she was almost ready to rethink that promise. Lauren was a thorough and patient instructor, but they were making exactly zero progress. She had a strainer for a brain, and she couldn’t plug any of the holes. So far, being a witch sucked.
The three of them leaned back against the couch. “Take a short break,” Lauren said, “and then we’ll try again.”
Ginia twiddled with an errant curl. “What if we’re doing this all wrong?”
Elorie couldn’t stop her groan. Good grief, she was beginning to sound like her students, complaining about a little hard work.
“What do you mean?” Lauren handed out cookies, which seemed to be in constant supply at Nell’s house.
“Well, what if Net power is a little like mind power, but not all the way? It turned on the same, but maybe other stuff works different.”
“Okay…” Lauren considered, and then shrugged. “So, what do you think we should try?”
The gears spinning in Ginia’s head were almost audible. “I think she should try it connected to the computer.”
Dead silence, as everyone contemplated what was suddenly a blindingly obvious idea. Ginia got up and went to get her laptop and mouse.
Elorie sighed. She was beginning to intensely dislike computer mice. Taking it in her hand, she braced for more failed efforts. “Now what?”
Lauren looked shocked, but very pleased. “Your mind just went totally quiet.”
Ginia grinned. “Awesome!”
Elorie dropped the