it. She’s playing.” She reached out a hand to Nell. “Lots of space on my belly, if you want to feel.”
She squiggled over and laid her hand on Nat’s belly, just beginning to round. Fire was Nell’s strongest magic, a talent shared with her niece-to-be. She closed her eyes and let the power of Ocean’s Reach sweep through her.
She could see several power streams—Jamie’s close by, and Aervyn and Ginia playing farther off. And just under Jamie’s hand danced a little ball of fire. Nell reached for what little mind power she had and shared with Nat. She was pretty sure Jamie was going to find his daughter’s invitation irresistible.
Ever so gently, Jamie reached a tendril of power toward the dancing fire and wove around the edges. Nell could feel the love he sent, and the peace. The ball of fire nudged against Jamie’s gentle web and then nestled in, dimming to a quiet glow. Totally content baby.
Nell felt the tears spill down her cheeks. She was pretty sure she wasn’t crying alone.
~ ~ ~
Marcus sat down in front of his laptop and rubbed his hands together. Alone. Finally.
He might not be the best spellcoder in Realm, or the strongest Net witch, but he had age, experience, and sheer cantankerousness on his side. It was very obvious that Warrior Girl’s world domination was only a matter of days away unless someone stopped her.
That someone was going to be him. He had an audacious plan, one that no one would ever expect.
He was going to make friends.
He’d been up half the night stockpiling a very nice cache of spells. Worthy alliance-building gifts. Or bribes. Whatever it took.
He planned to start small and stay under the radar. In Realm, that meant heading to the beginner levels. None of the top-tier witches bothered with the newbies—not enough of a challenge.
However, in a middle-of-the-night moment of clarity, he’d realized that the newest Realm arrivals had something he needed. Net power. Lots and lots of Net power. Earning your way to the higher Realm levels meant showing increasing proficiency with spellcoding—only the most rudimentary spells were permitted by the admin controls on the lower levels.
Most of the newest Realm players couldn’t spellcode their way out of a paper bag yet, so they were still locked into the first level. And most of them were green enough not to realize what they could do with their Net power.
They needed a leader. An old, experienced, cantankerous leader.
Marcus grinned and sent out a level-wide invitation. He was about to turn the balance of power in Realm on its head.
~ ~ ~
Sophie tried not to laugh as Mike fell over for the third time in as many minutes. Post-run yoga was her way of getting even for his idea of a “gentle” run. Gracefully she reached behind her body, grasped her left foot with both hands, and arched it up behind her head.
Mike ogled her from the floor. “How much longer will you be able to keep doing stuff like that?”
“Nat says as long as I feel like it—my body will tell me when to stop.” She grinned. “I just need to make sure that if I start falling over, I don’t land on my belly.”
“It might mess with your sense of balance when the baby gets bigger.” Mike looked pleased at the thought.
Sophie laughed. Maybe he wanted company in falling over. “Nat says it helps with balance poses, actually. A bigger center of gravity. Jamie says she still does handstands—it totally freaks him out.”
He reached for her hand and tugged her over on top of him, with an assist at the end for a very soft landing. “No freaking me out, okay? I watched a labor video last night, and I’m going to be scarred for life.”
He was watching labor videos? That was so very sweet, but probably very misleading. “You know that witch births don’t look very much like a typical hospital birth, right?” Some of those YouTube birth videos would scare anyone.
He grimaced. “This was a witch birth—mine, in fact. My mom emailed me the video.”
“Really?” She lifted her head off his shoulder. “I so want to watch that. Or maybe I don’t—why was it scary?”
“Scary’s not the right word, exactly.” He stroked her back. She wasn’t sure which one of them he was trying to comfort. “My mom was amazing. They didn’t have a full circle there, just my two aunts, but it was… let’s just say I’ve never truly appreciated my mom enough.”