A Reckless Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,36

papers around, then wrote down her answer.

Then he hung up and looked at TJ. “New Orleans six years ago. Stayed in Louisiana for a few months, lived inland for a while.” Inland didn’t matter—you needed an ocean to mess with planetary weather patterns. “She’s been on the Oregon Coast for the last two years. Near Florence.”

TJ blinked. “She’s our Oregon anomaly?” He ran a quick search in his file. “Yeah. First reading’s from twenty-three months ago, and a lot higher frequency in the last six.” He looked up. “She’s getting stronger.”

“Yeah.” Most weather-witch talents peaked in adulthood. And Sierra was already a major force to be reckoned with. The good news was, she probably hadn’t been able to wreak worldwide weather havoc for very long. The bad news was so many kinds of bad, it hurt his brain just to think about it.

“It really is a rogue witch. Damn. I was sure we had aliens.” TJ grabbed another monster-sized handful of chips. “She’s gotta get things under control before she messes with something serious.” He frowned back down at his data. “Assuming she hasn’t done that already. How the hell does she pull warm currents all the way from Hawaii?”

Govin shook his head. All he knew at this point was that two bachelor geeks weren’t going to fix the problem by themselves. Time for another meeting. Sierra was the kind of seriously dangerous they needed to deal with right now. Painting parties and making her feel loved could damn well wait.

He reached for his phone to call Nell again. And froze as klaxon bells started ringing on TJ’s desktop. That meant the trouble was high alert—and local.

“We’ve got twenty-foot waves headed at the Channel Islands. From the north. Point of origin is here.” TJ was already pushing maps to their screen bank. “Arrival time, less than an hour. They’ll swamp the beaches.”

Govin grabbed his phone. “I’ll alert the Coast Guard to move the tourists to high ground.” Fortunately, the Channel Islands, just off the southern California coast, had plenty of high ground. The people, they could probably get out of the way. The birds and wildlife—at this time of year, there wouldn’t be too many nests full of babies, but still.

TJ grabbed his arm. “I’ll do the alerts. You go find our witch.”

“You think she’s causing this?” Govin was already headed for the door.

“Dunno.” TJ was hammering on the keys with one hand, his cell phone with the other. “But she sure as hell can help you fix it.”

Govin stopped halfway out the door. Water witches. The beach. He wasn’t thinking straight.

He slammed back in his chair and messaged Jamie, very grateful when his friend’s face popped up on his screen. “What’s up?”

“I need all the water witches you can scramble, on the beach as fast as you can. Do you happen to know where Sierra is?”

Jamie turned white. “Walking on the beach with Nat and Lauren. Are they in trouble?”

Govin turned to TJ for confirmation. “No, but I think they might be connected to big trouble heading elsewhere. Can you port me to wherever they are?”

Jamie nodded. “I’ll suck you through Realm. It’ll be easier, and I can push you out at Lauren’s location—she’s got her phone on. Part of the new WitchNet protocols.” He looked down at his own phone. “Dev’s got Aervyn with him, and superboy will port them both to the beach.” He glanced back up. “We’ve got you a team coming. Get moving.”

“I’ll be on my way in the chopper in case you need to get closer.” TJ grabbed his bag and tablet and ran for the door.

Govin grabbed the Realm transport spell blinking on his screen and activated.

Chapter 9

Sierra froze as power rippled and four witches popped into existence on the beach beside her. Four very serious dudes. Holy cow, what was this, the witch SWAT team?

Jamie grabbed his wife. “Are you okay?”

Govin grabbed Sierra. “What are you doing? What magic?”

Jeepers. “Just a little spell to play with the dolphins.” She pointed out at the water. “They’re swimming along with us, so I’m just saying hello. I used a groundline.”

He shook her shoulders, hard. “Saying hello how?”

Govin. Lauren’s mindvoice drilled into all their heads. You’ll get answers faster if you explain the emergency.

“Sorry.” Govin let go of Sierra’s shoulders. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. But we have twenty-foot waves heading toward the Channel Islands south of here, and your magic might be causing them.”

Waves? “I’m not making any waves. Just swirling a