A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,17

weird guy who can levitate plates.

Sophie: Well, maybe first contact was a little rough, but this is one of the reasons we started Witches’ Chat. We may not have intended to reach an untrained witch this quickly, but we did.

Moira: Aye, we have a responsibility here. An untrained witch is a dangerous witch.

Sophie: Not that I don’t believe you, Aunt Moira, but what are the possible dangers here?

Jamie: The biggest is what Moira already mentioned. Lauren could be manipulating minds around her without realizing it. Pushing people into homes they don’t really want, manipulating negotiations, that kind of thing.

Sophie: That’s not good.

Moira: Also, like other talents, mind powers can amplify in times of great emotion or stress. There was a woman back when my grandmother was a girl. No one knew she was a mind witch until she went into labor. It was a particularly difficult birth. No one in the room with her was ever right in the head again, including the babe.

Sophie: That’s awful. How tragic.

Jamie: Now I know why you all sent me to surprise her. Thanks a lot, guys.

Nell: Be brave, brother mine. She’s not likely to come up with anything a trainee hasn’t done to you before.

Jamie: That’s not exactly comforting.

Moira: It isn’t meant to be. Untrained witches should always be handled with care. Jamie, you need to speak with her again.

Jamie: I don’t think I’m exactly her favorite person right now. Anyone else want to come to Chicago? Weather’s lovely.

Moira: Perhaps she just needs some time to think. It must have come as a bit of a shock to her.

Jamie: Even if she steadies a bunch, it’s still a pretty sticky situation. I really need to be alone with her to do a decent assessment of her mind power. Other people send out too much mental interference.

Nell: Try a park or something.

Jamie: It’s as cold as the North Pole here.

Nell: Nuts. Well, why don’t you hang with Nash tonight and go visit her in the morning. Maybe a good night’s sleep will change her perspective some.

Jamie: It’s a little weird to show up on her doorstep. She probably already thinks I’m stalking her.

Moira: You haven’t a choice, Jamie. You can hardly test her for mind powers in the middle of a crowded restaurant. Hopefully you’ve established enough trust today that she’ll let you in. If not, we’ll keep trying.

Moira stood up from her computer and went to fetch a cup of tea.

It was a delicate business, an untrained witch. No one wanted to invade Lauren’s privacy, but if she was a mind witch, a stranger in her home was only the first of many intimacies they would request.

And she couldn’t shake the feeling that this particular turn of events had been meant. Fate could be a very tricky thing.

…

It might be a two-pint night, Lauren thought as she considered the mostly empty container of ice cream. Lunch with a witch seemed like it ought to qualify.

She nestled deeper into her beloved couch. She’d worked the entire interior design of her downtown loft around the couch, and it had been worth it. It was her nest—a squishy, earth-toned mass of deep pillows and interesting textures.

Cuddling her feet under the handmade throw that had been Nat’s housewarming gift, Lauren leaned her head back into a pillow and exhaled deeply. When you’d had a really weird day, there was no better place to hide from the world.

If it weren’t for the matter of a couple hundred plates floating in the air, she could just slide Jamie into the ranks of her more offbeat acquaintances. However, the plates were hard to ignore. She supposed that had been his point. If you were trying to convince someone you were really a witch, fancy tricks were probably pretty handy.

And that wasn’t really the crux of the problem. Lauren sighed. If you couldn’t be honest with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, you were in serious trouble.

She liked quirky people. Heck, she kind of collected them. Telekinesis was a little quirkier than most, but if that’s all this was, she’d probably just add Jamie to her collection of interesting friends. See what other cool tricks he could do.

But why in all that was holy did he have to think she was a witch too? That was kind of a deal breaker on the relaxed-but-quirky friendship front.

She sighed again. It was also hard to dismiss. The man floated plates. Maybe witchy powers could sense other witchy powers. Nell’s fetching spell had seemed