A Reckless Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,22
I remember my first few days here in Witch Central. It’s a lot to take in.”
Sierra took a bite of the cheesy-pasta goodness on her plate and nearly groaned in delight. Who needed rich movie stars?
Aervyn giggled. “Caro’s not a movie star, but she’s a really good cook.”
Sierra had no idea who Caro was. “Are there lots of witches who live here?” Momma had made it sound like a whole city, but she was beginning to think Momma might have exaggerated a little.
“Uh, huh. Well, not all in this house.” He giggled, eyeing her pasta. “They wouldn’t all fit.”
She held out a forkful, knowing exactly how magic could make your belly gnaw.
Lauren snorted. “He had three platefuls while we were in the kitchen.” She sobered and spoke more quietly. “There’s always enough food for a witch in this house. If you want more, just ask.”
Sierra blushed—and then realized she hadn’t been talking out loud. “You’re a mind witch?”
“Yup.” Aervyn nodded, eyeing her noodles again. “She’s a new one, though. Caro says she’s still freshly hatched.” He grinned at Lauren. “Maybe you’ll grow up to be a rooster one day.”
“Roosters are boys, silly.” She tweaked his nose, laughing. “Maybe you can go ask Caro for another plate of noodles, since you’re obviously growing.”
Sierra tried not to stare as he ported himself off the bed to the floor and raced out the door. “How does he do that?”
Lauren laughed again. “I have no idea. But you get used to it. Mostly. He ported into my kitchen the other day and scared the living daylights out of me.”
As pasta warmed her tummy, Sierra’s curiosity was coming online. “So you’re really a new witch?”
“I am.” Lauren smiled. “You know the spell they used to find you? I was the first witch they ever fetched, about nine months ago. The only problem was, I didn’t know I was a witch.”
Sierra blinked. “How could you not know?”
Lauren leaned back against the wall. “It’s a long story…” One she was clearly prepared to tell.
Sierra ate and listened to the tale of a grown woman who had no idea she had power. And thought that maybe life in Witch Central was pretty interesting after all. Even without the movie stars.
Chapter 6
Jamie pulled into the parking lot at Ocean’s Reach and turned to his team. “Remember, guys—we want to see what Sierra can do, but we don’t want to make her nervous. We’re just going to try some test weather spells for encoding into the WitchNet library.”
Devin met his eye, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to—skepticism was written all over his face.
Aervyn was more easily convinced. “How come we came here? Are we trying to make really big spells for Elorie?”
Jamie grinned. Elorie was finding it a challenge to convince certain witchlings that she wanted mostly small, everyday spells for WitchNet. “We’ll start with some little ones, but maybe we’ll try a couple of bigger ones, too.”
His nephew’s eyes gleamed. “Can we make a storm? Pretty please? Govin says I’m almost safe enough now to make him happy.”
“That’s good to hear, hot stuff.” Devin rolled his eyes at Jamie and spoke in an undertone. “I bet a four-year-old weather witch is the answer to all Govin’s dreams.”
“Not exactly.” Govin—for good reason—found it extremely hard to balance Aervyn’s natural exuberance and need to play with the very real possibility that if he sneezed mid-spell, a tsunami could hit a beach in India. Weather patterns were seriously tricky, and any witch who could affect them kept Govin up at night.
Especially four-year-olds, even ones with superlative training.
Govin waved as he pulled into the parking lot, Sierra sitting in the seat beside him. Nell had hoped the drive up might give them time to get to know each other a little. Judging from the body language, that hadn’t happened yet.
Jamie hoped his sister knew what she was doing, matching up a thirty-something math geek with an eighteen-year-old kid who liked to play Hot Potato. Govin was an awesome guy, but teenage girls were way outside his normal world.
Aervyn headed across the parking lot and grabbed Sierra’s hand, dragging her in the direction of the path to the valley where they typically worked.
Jamie smiled at Govin in welcome as the rest of the crew followed. “TJ stayed home?”
Govin reached into his pocket and pulled out a gizmo. “Yup, but he sent a monitoring device so we can record the energy readings.”
TJ funded their partnership’s more magical work by doing some fancy weather