asked, and they both knew it. “Well, that’s something. Another spellcoder would be handy. When does she start?”
Nell handed him a cookie. “She comes in on the train tomorrow. Why don’t you and TJ come over for dinner, and we’ll introduce you.”
Anyone who volunteered to feed TJ was a true friend. “We’ll be there.”
~ ~ ~
Devin shook his head. “Nell’s going to kill you, bro.”
Jamie grinned, watching the flight test in progress down the valley at Ocean’s Reach. “Nope. She gave us her blessing before we left. Aervyn’s been putting way too many holes in her walls with the end of his broomstick. At least out here, there’s not so much to run into.”
“Except for a big-ass rock.”
His brother winced. “He’s pretty good at porting out of the way. And hopefully the bike helmet will keep his head from getting too dented.”
It had taken a fair amount of discussion and an illusion spell to convince their nephew that real witches needed to wear bike helmets when they rode broomsticks. The pointy-hat illusion hadn’t survived high-speed flying, but Aervyn didn’t seem to care anymore.
He was too busy.
Hey, dude—slow down a little, okay? Jamie’s mental voice sounded a bit worried. It’s just like a bike—you have to be able to stop, too.
Aervyn turned and headed straight for them, cape flying. I can stop. Watch!
It was a serious act of uncle courage for Devin to hold still while a broomstick flew at his head at forty miles an hour. And basic survival instinct to get out of the way when his nephew’s brakes lacked a little in the way of precision.
“Oops, sorry.” Aervyn giggled and held his broom out. “You want to try, Uncle Devin?”
Oh, man, did he ever. However, he lacked the right kinds of power. Aervyn was basically flying by slingshotting himself against a complicated mix of air updrafts and gravity pulls. “I don’t think water magic’s much good for flying, superdude.”
That caused a moment of silence, and then the offer of the broom again. “I can fly you, I think. Just don’t lean over too far—that makes it kinda tippy.”
Who could refuse an offer like that? Devin swung his leg over the broom. “Start low and slow, okay?” There was adventurous, and then there was suicidal.
The next few minutes considerably lifted his respect for both big-ass rocks and Aervyn’s magical talent. He leaned over the broom as it winged across the valley toward the ocean, wind whipping his hair and power streams calling to his magic. This was living—small-boy dreams wrapped up in big-boy speed.
He pulled up on the front of the broom. This thing had to be able to do a loop-de-loop. It started out well—and then he felt the broom break.
When shit happened and you only had one kind of magic, you used it. Hard. Even if it was totally sucky for the job at hand. Devin grabbed powerful lines of water magic from deep in the ocean and pulled. The mighty energies of the ocean pulled back, arrowing him the hundred feet forward he needed to hurtle over the edge of the cliff.
He curled into a ball, readying for a hard water landing—and felt his butt thunk onto hard rock instead.
Jamie rubbed his nephew’s head and snickered. “Nice catch, kiddo. I say you should have let him land in the ocean first, though.”
“That would’ve been kind of cold.” Aervyn looked sadly at the two pieces of broom in his hand. “We better get Mama a new one, I think.”
Devin felt about two inches tall. Nothing like breaking a kid’s favorite new toy to make you feel like the world’s lousiest uncle. He pondered for a minute. Water power sucked for fixing things, but there had to be a way…
He took the two pieces of broom and twisted them together until he found a tight fit. “Hey, hot stuff—I have a picture in my head of how to fix this. Can you take a look?”
Aervyn nodded, and Devin felt the incoming click of mindlink. Two clicks—obviously his brother was looking too. Their matching grins suggested the idea was a decent one. Which was good, since Devin had none of the magic required to actually get the job done. The two of them should be able to do it, though.
You’ve been gone too long, Jamie sent. He’ll get it done all on his own.
That rocked Devin. He knew his nephew was very talented—they all did. But this kind of cellular weaving was a spell that would normally require a