“I read about it all last night, ever since that computer test said I might have mind powers.”
There was just no keeping secrets from witchlings. “And how do you know that’s what the computer said? Weren’t you in the back yard eating cookies?”
Kevin shrugged. “I dunno. I just knew it.” Then his eyes got big. “Wait, I just knew it. Isn’t that a sign of developing mind powers? Picking up things you’re not supposed to know? I was just reading about that.”
He scrambled into his backpack for a book, but Elorie didn’t need a reference guide. Gran had known the results of the computer scan—and as a non-sensitive, she wouldn’t have the barriers to keep out an emerging mind witch.
Kevin looked up from the page in his book, one of Gran’s old, dusty ones. “It’s true, Elorie!” He squinted his eyes and stared at her. “Think of your favorite color again.”
Elorie focused as hard as she could on red. Strawberries. Fire engines. Blood. Eww. Back to strawberries.
He stared silently for a moment longer and then shrugged. “Your brain still looks blue. Huh—I wonder what I’m doing wrong.”
Probably eating too many blueberries. She closed the book gently before he could dive back in. “Fortunately for you, there’s a real mind witch coming over for tea, and you can ask him all the questions you like.”
Kevin looked crestfallen. “I can’t read the book?”
“Of course you can. You just can’t read it all day long. I’ll bet you fell asleep reading under the covers again last night, too.” She grinned at his look of surprise. It didn’t take a mindreader to know that, given the dark circles under his eyes, but she liked to keep her little secrets.
Elorie refilled his glass of milk. “Now remember, Uncle Marcus is a very skilled witch, but he’s not used to working with children.”
“You mean he doesn’t like us.”
Close enough, but since he was the strongest mind witch in their little corner of the world, he was the right person to test Kevin. He just lacked a fair amount in the bedside manners department.
“He lives alone, Kev. Some witches like to be very solitary, and Uncle Marcus is one of them. Sometimes that makes it hard to know how to be around people. Just use your best witchling manners, and it will be fine.”
And this visit, she wouldn’t be leaving the room. The last time Marcus had tested one of her students, he’d left behind a wake of tears and misery. Powerful witch or not, he had no right to make small boys cry.
Elorie tried to clear any acrimonious thoughts out of her head. When the witch in question could mindread, it was better to be thinking about milk and berries when he arrived. Judging from the voices outside, that event was imminent. She patted Kevin’s hand and went to the door to greet her guests.
“Hi, Gran. Hello, Uncle Marcus, and welcome to my home.”
“Blessed be.” Uncle Marcus scowled and peered past her into the house. “Where is this student you want me to test? You can bring him out—I’ve promised Aunt Moira I won’t eat him for afternoon tea.”
So much for small talk. However, if Gran had given him a stern talking-to as well, maybe they could get through this testing without tears.
Elorie remembered how scary Uncle Marcus had seemed when she was a little girl and he’d threatened to throw her in his cauldron. Since—unlike most witches she knew—he actually had a cauldron, she’d kept her distance for a very long time. In hindsight, that had probably been his intent.
She stepped into the kitchen and gently closed Kevin’s book again. “Uncle Marcus, this is Kevin. He’s my nephew, and a big reader, as you can see.” The two had actually met before, but Uncle Marcus was awful with names and relationships, even though that was a basic life skill in Nova Scotia.
Marcus sat down at the kitchen table and studied Kevin. Elorie put out a plate of treats and several cups of tea, and tried to be invisible. She didn’t want to disrupt the testing, but she had no intention of leaving the kitchen. Since Gran was making herself very comfortable with a cup of tea and a cookie, it looked like Uncle Marcus was just going to have to cope with some observers.
Kevin tended to the quiet side of things, but he wasn’t shy. He met Marcus’s gaze for several moments, and then asked the important question. “So, do I have mind magic?”