A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,91
and crystals and a really crusty old cauldron. He didn’t want to know what nasty science experiments it had brewed. He only knew one witch with a cauldron, and hers was copper-bottomed and kept pristinely clean. Moira would never tolerate a dirty tool.
Lauren snickered beside him and pointed. There was a bubbling red lava-lamp-meets-test-tube thing surrounded by several bottles labeled Love Potion.
He tried to appeal to Lauren’s reason one more time. “We can still walk away.”
She only grinned and tightened her grip on his arm. “It will be fun. Maybe I’ll get me some love potion, too.”
Crap. Why did the girls always fall for that stuff? He pulled on the door and nothing happened. Excellent. Maybe they had the wrong night.
“Are you here for the coven meeting?” The woman who had spoken was about a foot shorter than he was and dressed in a long, blue cloak.
“We are,” Lauren said. “I met a woman yesterday who invited me. I didn’t get her name, but she’s an empath.”
“That would be Liriel. I’m Beth, fire witch and coven leader.” She shrugged a shoulder at Jamie. “Who’s he?”
“A friend of mine.”
“We don’t include non-witches in our rituals. I’m sorry.”
“He’s a witch,” Lauren said.
Beth looked him up and down. “Can you prove that?” she asked. “Normally someone has to vouch for your magic before you can join a meeting. Someone who’s already a member.”
Jamie stomped his cold toes on the ground. Seriously, could no one in this group do a simple power scan? Freaking amateurs. However, he didn’t want to freeze to death. Fire witch, she’d said. He grabbed a quick line of power and produced a small globe in his palm. “Will that do?”
He could feel Beth’s shock. “You can do that without preparation?”
Definitely amateurs. It was a spell any of his fire-talented trainees mastered within a few weeks. “I can. Is it good enough to get us in out of the cold?”
Beth looked confused. “It’s a pretty nice night, but yeah, come on in.”
There were five other people waiting inside, including a woman in black who greeted Lauren. That must be Liriel.
Beth spoke. “Lauren is the empath Liriel told us about. She brought a friend with her. This is Jamie, and he has fire magic. I vouch for him.” That apparently satisfied the group.
Beth quickly introduced the others. As Jamie shook hands, he did a quick scan. If he had to hang out in the same room with amateurs, he at least wanted to know what he was dealing with.
Beth had the strongest elemental powers, fire and a little water. Two others had very minor power, one with water, one with earth. Liriel had only mind magic. The last two had no magic he could detect.
He sent a carefully aimed query at Lauren. Any besides Liriel have mind magic? Lauren shook her head. Terrific. One witch of decent strength but questionable training, three weak witches, and two non-witches. There were so many ways this could end badly.
Beth looked at Jamie. “We were planning to do some circle work tonight. Which elements do you handle? Obviously you do fire, but if there’s a second element you can work with, that would be preferable.”
He deserved a medal of bravery for this. Jamie shrugged. “It looks like you’re missing air, so I can take that. Lauren’s a channeler.”
Five blank faces. Only Beth seemed to at least know what he was talking about. “I’ve heard about some circle work on the coasts that uses a person to channel the circle—is that what you mean?”
Close enough. “Yeah. If you don’t use a channeler, though, maybe put Lauren on monitoring with Liriel.” She should be out of the line of fire there.
Throttle down, girl, he sent to Lauren. You can’t channel if she can’t spellcast. Let’s see what they can do first.
Apparently that jived with Beth’s plans. She led the group into an empty back room, and they formed a circle. Jamie considered pointing out the flaws in their organization, and then just kept his mouth shut.
The woman with water talents stood at the position for earth, along with the man who really did have some earth magic. The two women with no magic stood in the water position.
Jamie did some fast and very quiet spellwork and threw up a trainee circle around the group. With a fire witch in charge of a motley circle, anything could happen.
He watched as the circle ritual began. In Beth’s favor, she wasn’t a frilly witch. They called to the elements and