A Hidden Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,58

sent. This is a little tricky. Let me patch you in, too.

In moments, Sophie could see the challenge Elorie faced. Three swirling spellshapes—and wow, mind magics looked complicated. How the heck was she going to get all of those to meld together? Real remorse hit. This was supposed to be a joke, not a big ding to the confidence of a new witch.

Have faith, girl. I think she can do this. We were all new, once.

Sophie shoveled her doubts aside as power sparked and spells began to move. Elorie had the spellcode and earth magic aligned with impressive speed, but adding the mind magic looked like one of those impossible puzzle games. Maybe some kinds of magic just weren’t made to fit together.

Suddenly Elorie pushed the simpler spellshapes away and pulled the mind magic shape to the center. Sophie had no idea what was going on, but Lauren’s mind felt highly impressed.

Watch. She’s brilliant.

As Sophie gazed in fascination, Elorie created a mirror shape from Net power, and then overlaid it on Lauren’s spell. The two flared, and then merged, and then flared again as she began manipulating the flow of the merged power streams.

Fascination turned to awe as Elorie formed a final shape with two connection points obviously meant to interlock the other spells. It was creative, precise, and unbelievably beautiful—the magic of an artist.

Hold steady, Lauren cautioned. She’s about to release it. Light danced, and then the bright joy of power unfurled.

Wow. Just. Wow.

Sophie let her dazzled delight loose as she opened her eyes to the friend of her childhood. Her new sister in magic. And then their shared awe dissolved in helpless mirth as Marcus roared.

“Sean James O’Reilly, what foul magic is this?” Marcus sprang from the hammock and pushed the prince furiously away. Sophie held her ribs and tried to laugh quietly. Apparently he didn’t appreciate being awakened by a gentle kiss of love. That figured.

Sean came running over the lawn. “Whoa, Uncle Marcus. Did you do that?” Then he skidded to a halt, hand over his mouth. “Never mind, that was a really dumb question.”

Marcus looked down at the princess gown he was wearing. “Indeed. However, my accusing you was equally dumb. You’d need a circle to pull this off, and clearly you don’t have one.”

“Nope. Wasn’t me.” Sean shook his head with glee and looked around for the culprit.

His eyes got huge as he noticed the three of them sitting on the porch. Uh, oh, Sophie thought. Busted. She avoided looking at her companions in crime and tried to look innocent. That was hard to do when you had a case of the uncontrollable giggles.

“Elorie Shaw,” growled Marcus, “undo this spell right now.”

His niece looked rather pained, in between giggles. “I’m not sure I know how to do that yet.”

Sean snickered. “It often takes more power to undo a spell than to cast it in the first place. Best you be remembering that.” He was an excellent mimic—Sophie could almost hear Aunt Moira talking.

Elorie blushed. “You’re exactly right.” Then she looked at Marcus and fell over laughing again. “But it was so worth it.”

Oh, boy, Sophie thought, watching the glee on Sean’s face. This was going to throw a bit of a wrench into witchling discipline.

~ ~ ~

There were few things better than chocolate in bed, Elorie thought. Well, maybe one thing. She dunked a strawberry in chocolate and fed it to Aaron, then leaned back to enjoy the tangy summer breezes on her skin and the distant sound of ocean waves. Their sleeping porch was one of her favorite places.

He snuggled her in a little closer. “Are we finally done blowing off all that extra steam of yours?”

She blushed. “I think so. Sorry, I’m not usually quite so demanding.” Obviously the rumors about some of the side effects of magic were all too true.

He laughed. “Guy manual, page one. You never, ever have to be sorry for that. Save your apologies for Marcus—I think you’re going to need them.”

“He’ll live. At least we picked on someone our size.” It wasn’t lost on her that her first big act of magic had been one more suited to witchling troublemakers. She didn’t care. It had felt… magnificent.

“I hardly expected you to start torturing small children,” Aaron said dryly. “Although Lizzie would probably think so if you dressed her up as a princess.”

“By rights, I should have done it to Sean, to make up for that pirate stunt he pulled.”

Aaron stroked her hair. “I never did get