A Reckless Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,35

dolphins—do you see them?”

Nat laughed as a graceful arc broke the horizon. “Did you call them?”

“Nuh, uh.” Sierra shook her head. “You did. They love babies who are just about to be born.”

Lauren grinned, hearing the teasing edge to Sierra’s mental voice. She made a face at her best friend. “Maybe it’s just because you look like a beach ball.”

She danced a few steps backward as Nat threatened to dump cold water down the back of her jacket. It was probably an idle threat. For now.

~ ~ ~

Govin tapped his keyboard aimlessly and sighed. He was getting nowhere on the new WitchNet weather spell organizing. Partly because the spells were a total hodge-podge, and partly because his brain was still out at Ocean’s Reach.

Sierra was an amazing witch—and she scared him silly. He had no idea what to do about it.

TJ wheeled back from his desk. “Wanna talk about it?” He grabbed a bag of chips in anticipation. TJ never talked without food present, preferably the kind that came out of crinkly bags. It was the kind of annoying habit only tolerable in an old friend.

Govin headed to the fridge for some grapes and cheese. Occasionally TJ could be convinced to expand his snack to more than one food group. “It’s probably no big deal.”

His buddy snorted. “You’ve been stewing since you got back from lessons yesterday morning. What’s up? The girl not any good?”

Crap. TJ had been listening. Usually he managed to ignore stuff muttered in the general direction of the office wall. “Our new intern? She’s very talented. Best weather witch I’ve seen in a very long time.”

TJ sat up straighter, then turned back to his desk. “Strong enough to affect the planetaries?”

“Yeah.” Govin grabbed a chip. “And no, we didn’t play quite that big yesterday. You won’t see any alerts.” But they’d come close. Very, very close, and Sierra had clearly not been using anywhere close to peak power. The list of witches strong enough to mess with planetary weather was very short. It was killing him to think the list had been short a name. How had they missed her?

“She got decent control?”

“Yeah. Very decent. She can make a storm funnel sit and wag its tail.”

TJ blinked. “And this is bad, because…? We could use more help around here.”

“She’s dangerous, Teej.” And explaining why to a non-witch would be a challenge. “Her mother trained her, and she skipped over most of the stuff we do to keep big spells safe. The girl’s been playing with huge power, the kind with no room for error. She’s lucky she’s still alive.”

TJ’s chip-loaded hand paused in mid-air. “Probably some other people aren’t so lucky.”

Govin felt his nameless unease morph into dread. That was it, exactly. Trust TJ to nail the problem in one. Sierra was still alive. But when weather witches messed with big magic, it was far too easy for someone else to die. “Exactly. And she probably hasn’t always had this kind of control.”

He could see TJ’s massive brain cranking. “Do you know where she lived?”

When you had to ask the awful questions, it was really good to have a friend walking beside you. “Traveled all over with her mom until six years ago. I don’t know all of where, but I know she was in Fiji summer of ’02, Indonesia the following March, and New Orleans when her mother vanished.” That much he’d picked up from her casual conversation with Aervyn.

TJ turned back to his computer. “Lemme look at our anomalies file.” That was where they tracked unexplained weather disturbances, which were unfortunately legion. “Yeah. I got stuff in Fiji, and stuff off the south coast of Indonesia in spring ’03.” He looked up. “The Fiji one is where we had to make it rain for three weeks straight to dampen the tsunami reverbs.” You had to send weather energy somewhere—and rain was better than killing waves.

Govin shoved his fingers through his hair. He was too well-trained a mathematician to jump to easy conclusions. “Think it was her?”

TJ shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe her and her mom working together? As anomalies go, they were pretty small. I could try to cross-ref, but I’m guessing the kid probably doesn’t remember what kind of magic tricks she was doing eight or ten years ago.”

A decade ago, no. Govin stared at the anomalies file. Oh, shit. He grabbed his cell. “Hey, Nell. Do you know where Sierra’s lived for the last six years?” He waited a minute while Nell shuffled some