A Hidden Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,36
a soft spot for Ginia, though.”
Nell grinned. “That’s because she’s about to wipe the floor with him in Realm. Have you been watching?”
“Yeah. Those cloaking spells the other day were seriously good. She’s up to something else now, though—she made a new sidekick avatar.”
That got her attention. “She’s partnered up?” You didn’t let a nine-year-old gamer online without keeping very close tabs on who she was playing with. The witch-only levels of Realm were a pretty small community, but still.
Jamie’s grin got bigger. “Yup. And so you know, she told me who it is, but asked me to lock down admin access to the new player’s identity. I’ll tell you if you really want to know, but trust me, it will be a lot funnier if you don’t ask.”
Nell’s curiosity almost got the better of her, but if Jamie had vetted the new player, Ginia was hardly in danger. “Are they any good?”
“Not yet.” Jamie smirked. “But give Ginia time, and they will be.”
Must be one of the other witchlings. She’d have to have one eye online while they were in Nova Scotia.
“In other news,” Jamie said, “we tested an awful lot of people today, and no one else can do any better than you can in activating Net power.”
Nell frowned. The greater San Francisco area had a pretty high density of spellcoding witches, and most of them had probably come running when Jamie put out the call. “How many people stopped by?”
“Enough to go through three giant pots of spaghetti.”
Even by witch standards for food portions, that would have been at least a dozen people. “Did you get the best of the spellcoders? Caro and Govin, or maybe Mike?”
Jamie grinned. “Mike’s visiting Sophie again. The other two both showed up. I thought Caro might get somewhere, being a mind witch, but nothing. Govin got a few sparks, and he’s one of the very few who did.”
Huh. “Maybe we’re doing something wrong.”
“Maybe.” Jamie shrugged. “But your two kiddos and Elorie all light up like Christmas trees. It’s as if people who are good at spellcoding can’t shift gears to use Net power differently, or something. So far, Ginia’s the lone exception.”
“Hmm,” Nell mused. It was second nature to think out loud with Jamie after years of troubleshooting code together. “Ginia’s good, but she hasn’t been spellcoding for very long. Coding, yeah, but adding magic is still pretty new for her.”
He slapped the table. “Bingo. I didn’t think about it that way, but yeah—everyone who stopped by today has been spellcoding for years.” He paused for a minute. “How the heck do we find witches with Net power who haven’t already learned how to spellcode?”
She was on a roll. Two good answers in one night. “We go some place where not every witchling learns to use a computer.”
“Nova Scotia.” Jamie laughed. “Moira has no idea she’s about to be invaded by the minions of technology. Good luck with that.”
Nell winced. They’d gotten Moira as far as using video chat, but her brother was right. Nova Scotia witches were far more traditional in their craft, and Moira was their matriarch.
A new witch power with technology at its very core? Not exactly traditional. It was going to be an interesting trip.
Chapter 9
Elorie stepped off the plane in Halifax and breathed in. She loved the old-fashioned feel of the Halifax airport, where they still unloaded passengers onto the tarmac. The air smelled of the sea in California too, but it wasn’t her sea. She was home.
She looked toward the airport building and spied three faces pressed against the glass. Aaron stood in the shadows just behind them.
Quickly she made her way across the tarmac and inside the doors. Agile Lizzie got to her first, squeezing through a couple of DO NOT ENTER HERE signs. Elorie figured you probably got a pass if you weren’t old enough to read.
“You’re back! You were gone almost forever.”
In that moment, it almost felt true. Elorie crouched to hug her and looked up at Sean and Kevin, drinking in their familiar faces. If they weren’t ten now, she’d have smothered them in kisses just like she was doing with Lizzie.
“Eww!” Sean said. “No baby kisses. That’s gross.”
Kevin frowned. “It’s not nice to read her mind, Sean.”
And just like that, a crack ran through her homecoming. Elorie fought off a wave of sadness as she dug in her bag for Jamie’s gizmo and turned on her own personal force field. She hadn’t greeted her husband yet, and darned if she