A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,28
a mind witch?”
Go, Nat, thought Lauren. Mind witch, feeble telepath, whatever. If it could make her pass out on the floor, she must have something, but she wasn’t happy about it.
Jamie nodded and watched Nat steadily. “I think so. We were going to do some more testing tonight to make sure, but non-witches don’t overload.”
Nat grinned at Lauren. “You lead an interesting life, girl.”
Lauren could see Jamie’s obvious relief. That was interesting. Or maybe not. Most friendships would probably be a little rocked by ‘hey, your pal’s a witch’. She elbowed Nat. “I think Jamie was worried you might abandon ship.”
Jamie looked shocked. “You heard that?”
He thinks I read his mind. Silly witch. Lauren hugged a pillow. “No funky mind magic required. I bet you suck at poker. It’s not Nat you have to worry about taking a hike on this whole witch thing. It’s me.”
Jamie grimaced. “Yeah, I got that. So, let’s get back to what happened. You were working on deflating your bubble…”
“It felt like it was going better than the previous times. I could feel you there, kind of holding things steady, but that’s all I got from you at first…” Lauren slowed down as she mentally walked through what had happened next.
She glared at Jamie. “Wait a minute. I assumed I’d overloaded myself, lost control of something. But it came from you. This huge wave of stuff came from you. What the hell happened?”
He looked at her steadily. “You’re right. It wasn’t anything you did. I lost control for a moment, and unfortunately, with how tightly we were hooked together, some of it pushed to you. As I said before, that shouldn’t happen, and I’m sorry for it.”
“I thought Nell sent you because you’re good at this.” Lauren was more than a little scared that a half-competent witch had been inside her head. With her permission, no less.
Jamie sighed. “I’m very good. That wasn’t the problem. You remember when I walked you through the different kinds of power? My talents are primarily with elemental energies, but I also have a little bit of most of the others. That’s part of what makes me a good trainer—I can do a little bit of everything. Unfortunately, one of the talents I have is weak and very occasional precog.”
“Precog?”
Nat leaned forward on the couch. “You see the future?”
If one of them had to be a witch, thought Lauren, it should have been Nat. She’d be way better prepared.
Jamie shrugged. “Precog’s not that clear, which makes it a really frustrating talent. You see possible futures, and not necessarily the most probable. I just get small flashes usually, brief glimpses. This was longer and more powerful than usual. It only happens once or twice a year. The timing just really sucked.”
He could see the future? That was entirely creepy. “So I got brain-smacked by a totally random event?”
Jamie sighed. “No, it wasn’t random. Precog events usually have a trigger.”
Lauren waited through a long silence. Jamie looked decidedly uncomfortable. “Ah, you going to fill me in? What was the trigger?”
Nat spoke into the silence. “I think it was me.”
Lauren shook her head. No way Nat was on the hook for this. “That doesn’t make any sense. We didn’t even know you were there. You must have let yourself in.”
“I knew,” Jamie said. “Part of my job is to monitor the perimeter of a training circle to make sure it isn’t disrupted.”
Nat looked horrified. “Did I break the circle? Is that what overloaded Lauren?”
Jamie reached over for Nat’s hand. “Absolutely not. It wasn’t your fault at all. I let you into the circle because Lauren trusts you, and you have a really serene mind presence. We would have included you in the circle for the next training exercise.”
Jamie got up, walked into the kitchen, and came back with two pints of chocolate ice cream. Cripes, thought Lauren. You know it’s bad when the guy tries to soften you up with ice cream first. However, it might work. She was feeling hungry again.
Jamie sat back down on the floor and looked at Nat. “You didn’t do anything to Lauren. It’s what you did to me. You were the trigger for my precog.”
Lauren started to laugh. “Man, you witches are trigger-happy. First I trigger a fetching spell, then Nat sets off your precog.”
She sobered as a crazy thought hit her. “Wait, does that mean Nat is a witch too?”
Jamie gave Nat a closer look and reached for her hand. “That’s a good question. I’m just