going to do the same basic scan I first did with Lauren.”
“And when exactly did that little invasion of privacy happen?” Lauren asked.
“Give him a break, Lauren,” Nat said. “If he’d asked you first, would you have let him scan you?”
It was extremely rare for Nat to take that tone with her. “No.”
Nat fixed Lauren with a very serious look. “If this is part of who you are, love, it’s better to know. It’s a gift, and we have a responsibility to reach for our gifts and nurture them. If Jamie can help you do that, cut him some slack. I don’t want you randomly passing out on the floor on me. You need to know what’s inside you.”
Which was the fancy Natalia Smythe way of telling her to grow up and cooperate, thought Lauren.
Jamie looked very impressed. “You’re going to make a great mom some day.”
Nat blushed. “Sorry—I don’t make speeches very often.”
“That just makes them more impressive when you do,” Lauren said.
Nat looked at Jamie. “So, do I need to take my own advice? I don’t think so. I’m not a witch, am I.”
“No. You have a flexible and clear mind. You’d handle power well, but you’re not a witch.”
“How can you be sure that quickly?” Lauren asked. “Don’t you have to do all those tests you ran on me?”
Jamie shook his head. “No. I can probe for the presence or absence of power very quickly. When you access power sources, even unintentionally or in untrained ways, it leaves an imprint, a kind of echo. It’s unmistakable, and Nat doesn’t have it.”
“That’s just some weird karma. She’d make a way better witch than I would.”
Jamie grinned. “She’ll make an excellent training assistant. She has a steady mind and emotions, and those will work very well.”
Lauren rolled her eyes. “You’re just hoping she’ll keep me in line.”
“That too. However, it’s been a long enough day already. Get some rest, and we’ll start again tomorrow.” Jamie looked at Nat. “Can you come back then?”
She nodded. “I’ll walk out with you.”
…
Nat paused outside the front entrance to Lauren’s building. “My yoga studio is only a couple of blocks away. We need to talk. Do you want to grab some coffee on the way?”
Jamie looked down at her. Uh, oh. Time for tricky conversation, part two. After that little speech she’d given Lauren, it was very clear Nat was no pushover. He wondered how she’d cope with visions of the future.
“Some of the tea you have at the studio will be fine.”
Nat gave him a long look. “All right. And then you can tell me whatever else it is you saw about my life.”
“Didn’t miss that one, huh? I’ll fill you in, but let’s get out of this crazy cold first.” They walked in silence down the street. Jamie blew O’s with his breath and wondered just how much to tell her.
The quiet continued while she let him in the studio and headed off to make tea. He wandered into her main studio space and looked around. It felt like her.
Nat walked in a few minutes later with two cups of tea and sat down in front of him.
She’s so amazingly calm, thought Jamie. “You know, Lauren’s really lucky. Not all friends would have handled today nearly as smoothly as you did. She’s just beginning to understand that her mind powers aren’t ordinary.”
“You mean that she’s a witch.”
“Yeah. You could have made it a lot harder for her today, a lot more uncomfortable. Friends who can accept you, even when the rules change like that, are gold. It seems like both of you know that.”
Nat smiled. “We met the first day of college. We were assigned to the same dorm room, and I think it took us about five minutes to bond for life. When we graduated, I wanted to open a yoga studio. My family was totally opposed. It doesn’t fit their image of what a Smythe daughter should do with her time.”
“Really?” There had been nothing of Nat’s family in his precog visions. Maybe that wasn’t coincidence. “What do they think you should be doing?”
“It’s a long story. Anyhow, I got a small inheritance when I turned twenty-one, two months after we graduated. I signed a lease on this space and hired a contractor to do the renovations. Apparently, my father tried to block the necessary permits.
“He probably would have succeeded, but Lauren got wind of it through a friend at her new office. She threatened him with some seriously