A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,82
a teenage boy being held by his father.
“Ginia’s a witch?”
“It appears so.”
Lauren looked around and saw another very groggy purple-haired child nestled in his mama’s lap. “Jennie. I think your grandson might be as well.”
Jennie’s eyes filled with tears as she looked up. Seeing Nell emerge from the crowd, Jennie rose and headed for her grandbaby.
Nell hugged Mia and Shay. “You two okay?”
Mia giggled. “We’re fine, Mama. We felt Ginia’s head pop, so we knew she was gonna be a witch.”
“I hope she can teleport,” Shay said. “That way, we can get even with Aervyn.”
Nell laughed. “Or you three can keep your room clean, at least.”
They’re not the least bit jealous, thought Lauren, and wondered how Nell managed to raise such well-adjusted kids.
Ginia started to stir in Nat’s lap. “Mama, my head hurts.”
Lauren remembered the headache she’d gotten after being blasted by Jamie’s precog, and winced in sympathy.
Sophie appeared out of nowhere. “I can help with that. Sorry, it took a moment to get here—we have four new witchlings this evening, all with sore heads.”
Mike, who had appeared along with Sophie, held out a bag of cookies. “They’re getting the fires going, but for now, have some of these. They’ll help with the energy drain. That was the longest circle I’ve ever done.”
Sophie nodded. “It was an extremely intricate spell, and he went very carefully. He’s been well taught, Nell.”
Lauren was still struggling to understand the long time lapse. “It seems like the two of you have the best idea of what actually happened.”
Sophie laughed. “I think Aervyn has the best idea. We were just along for the ride. But yes, we’ve been chatting with some of the others. It seems like the stronger your earth elemental magic, the more you could follow what Aervyn was doing.”
Nell nodded. “That makes sense. You and Mike would have been two of our strongest.”
“The way we formed the circle today, at least,” Mike said. “You and Jamie are solid with earth elementals as well, but you were tapping into different stuff. A couple of folks in the outer circle picked up some fairly strong spell vibrations as well.”
Lauren shook her head. “All I got was light and a few moments of zinging power.”
“How’s Tabitha?” asked Nell. “Her earth magic is very weak, but she was in trio with the two of you.”
“She didn’t get much more than Lauren did from the spell itself,” Mike said, “but she’s pretty rocked from the channeling. Sounds like the mind witches in the circle picked up at least some of what Lauren was experiencing.”
He looked at Lauren with serious respect. “Way to tame a volcano, girl. That was some very impressive channeling.”
Lauren blushed. “When Jamie panicked, I was scared spitless, but we managed to get things tamped down. After that, it didn’t feel a lot different from the training circle.”
Nell looked stupefied. “Jamie panicked?”
Uh, oh. Lauren belatedly realized that not everyone picked up mind vibes as easily as she did. “Well, when Aervyn sent his power through the air trio, it was pretty wild.”
Nell still looked shocked. “Jamie has trained Aervyn since the day he was born. I don’t even want to know what it would take to panic him.”
Jamie, who had just walked up, answered with his mouth full of hot dog. “Panic is the right word, and I’m man enough to admit it. I don’t think they have a category for the hurricane Aervyn threw at us. Punk witchling. He was a little overexcited.”
“I felt things shake for a minute when air hooked in,” Nell said, “but I had no idea. The rest of us weren’t linked in yet. How did you guys handle it?”
Jamie handed the rest of his hot dog to Ginia and grinned. “Lauren yelled at Aervyn. Worked great.” He winked at Lauren. “You’ll make a great trainer one day.”
“I yelled at him?” Oh, shit, thought Lauren. Really? It had been crazy intense, but she never yelled. Poor Aervyn.
Jamie laughed so hard, he couldn’t stand anymore. “She channels the spell of the century, and she’s worried because she yelled at the spellcaster. He’s fine, Lauren—look.”
Lauren looked where Jamie pointed. The kid who had burped the planet and stopped half of California from falling into the ocean was happily waving a stick with a burning marshmallow.
…
Moira settled her scrying bowl back on the table, tears streaming down her cheeks. Aye, her wee Aervyn and Lauren had done well, indeed. Lauren had answered her destiny tonight, even if she wasn’t yet aware it called