Everything seemed ready, and Elorie wondered at the pause. Then she heard Kevin’s calm mental voice. More.
Water’s power stream suddenly quadrupled in size. Then she felt Aervyn’s glee, and the walloping dose of power he let fly toward Kevin. Mother of God!
Breathe. Lauren squeezed her hand. Your twins are handling it just beautifully. Can you sense Kevin’s mind?
She couldn’t sense anything but seething power. And then—the quietest of undertones, the flute in the marching band—she could hear it. The focused joy of an artist at work.
With a fierce competence that astonished her, he grabbed everything Lizzie and Aervyn had thrown at him and piped it to his twin.
Then they all steadied and waited for Sean to do his work.
Now familiar with spellshapes, Elorie had even more reason to be impressed as she watched Sean cast his spell. Working primarily with water and fire, he wove together a beautiful form of dancing light. Then, quickly flicking his fingers, he layered earth and air over top of the main shape. Tonight, it was those elements adding containment and safety.
As the spell readied, every witch present held their breath. The point of release was the most difficult for a spellcaster, and Sean had never handled a shadow of this much power before. Elorie had one last desperate surge of regret for asking this much of him.
Then power flared, and the entire circle glowed in the impossible light of magic unleashed.
As she watched with pride running over, Sean waited for the light to dim, neatly tied off the loose ends of power, and checked in with each member of his circle. Only then did he burst into an impromptu tap-dance.
Elorie laughed. Only a bunch of underage witches would have the energy to dance around like that after a full circle.
She made her way over to Moira. “How are you feeling? It’s been a long time since you’ve done three circles in one day.” And one was often enough to leave Gran exhausted, although no one was willing to admit it.
Moira snorted. “I’m not dead yet, child. It was the easiest day of magic in a long time, with Lizzie carrying most of the weight in my trio. I must say, though—this is the second circle of the day where I’ve no earthly idea what we did. Surely it’s time to let the cat out of the bag now?”
Elorie grinned. This was going to be the best gift ever—and it was finally time for the giving. She pulled out a chair and motioned Gran to sit. “The rest are going to meet up by the surprise, and then Aervyn will give you a little ride.”
A very eager crowd flowed up the hill toward Moira’s yard. Elorie was pretty sure Aervyn provided an assist to several of their more elderly members. He was a more than a little excited. Then he popped back down, stood in front of Moira, and reached for her hands.
“Are you going to teleport me, sweetling?”
He nodded. “Uh, huh. But I’ll be really careful about the flowers, just like Elorie said. She said we better not mess with any more of them, or you’ll be really mad.”
Gran’s face was absolutely priceless. “You messed with my flowers?” That was all Elorie got to see as Aervyn, realizing he’d almost let the secret loose, ported the three of them into Moira’s yard.
It was a picture-perfect landing, right next to the beautiful hot-spring pool that now graced her garden.
No one breathed. They had indeed messed with Gran’s flowers, and Elorie dearly hoped it hadn’t been a mistake.
Ever so slowly, Moira stood, her face absolutely unreadable. Then she removed her cloak and shoes and stepped into the pool, still wearing her summer dress. She spun around slowly in the center, and then sank in up to her chin.
Her face spoke her utter joy.
Elorie, for the first time, knew the true power of magic freely given, and her soul sang with it.
Sean bounced to the side of the pool. “Do you like it, Gran?”
Moira looked to Elorie a long moment, eyes full of astonished love. “How did you know?”
Elorie shrugged, suddenly very uncomfortable with fifty sets of eyes on her. “I remembered the stories.” Gran had always been full of stories of her childhood Irish home and the wonderful, magical spring tucked into the green hills.
“Such a gift, child. Such a gift.” Moira touched the waters reverently. “Magic lives in these waters, and oh, so much love.” She looked