A Reckless Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,39

She hadn’t caught a fraction of it while they were landing.

Holy God. She’d done full circles with Aervyn spellcasting that hadn’t left anyone nearly this exhausted. Even wonderboy’s mind felt oddly faint. She stepped to Sophie’s shoulder as Nell scooped up her son. “How can I help?”

Sophie, leaning over Devin, shrugged a shoulder toward Jamie. “Mindlink with him and find out what happened. I can do the first round of channel clearing without that, but it will help make sure we catch everything.” She glanced over at Nell. “Aervyn’s okay—he looks worse, but his channel shock is minor compared to the others. He just needs milk and cookies.”

“They protected him.” Nell cast one last concerned look at the others and then walked a little away, carrying a disturbingly limp boy in her arms.

“Cookies will fix him.” Ginia, just arrived, touched Lauren’s arm. “Honest.”

Lauren shook her head. Only witches prescribed cookies for healing. Then again, Nell’s Nutella cookies weren’t your average baked good. She took Jamie’s hand and reached out with a gentle mindlink. His exhaustion nearly swamped her.

Cookie. Begging.

Ginia leaned over with a cookie and some sort of nasty green concoction. “Energy drink first, then you can have a cookie.”

Jamie scowled. That’s no energy drink. That’s one of Moira’s brews.

She shook her head, giggling. “Nope. It’s one of mine.”

He sipped suspiciously and made a face. Tastes worse.

Ginia’s glare was worthy of a much older healer. Jamie manned up and tipped back his glass. Totally revolting, niece of mine. Make sure Dev and Govin get a glass too.

She turned away, woman-to-be on a mission, as he crunched into his first cookie.

Lauren didn’t know if it was the teasing or the green goo, but the seeping exhausting in his mind was waning. “Can you tell me what happened? Sophie needs to know. I’ve never seen you or Aervyn hit this hard.”

Jamie glanced over to where Sophie still bent over Devin, who held Sierra in his lap, just now starting to stir. “The two of them got hit the worst. Tell her it’s not just overexertion—it’s probably some backlash, too. Sierra sucked the energy out of the waves back through the five of us.”

Lauren frowned. His voice was fairly nonchalant, but his mind was anything but. “It was risky.”

He nodded, eyes very serious. “Yeah. She took the brunt of it into herself. Govin and I managed to shield Aervyn a bit, but…” He sighed. “And Dev took more than he should have, trying to spare her. He’s going to have a hell of a headache, even with Sophie’s talents.”

Lauren could feel his anger swirling under the surface, but she wasn’t sure of the target. “Is it her you’re mad at?”

He blinked. “No. She’s just a kid. She did the best she could, and it was big magic—I don’t know anyone who could have done more. Not sure we should have done it, but…” We used a dangerous witch. Stopped a disaster, but still.

He winced as Aervyn’s giggles drifted over the sand, and Lauren finally understood the last piece. He’s fine, Jamie.

His eyes were bleak. Yeah. But it’s the closest he’s ever come to not being fine. We didn’t do enough to protect him today. He looked over at Sierra. Her either.

Devin crawled over and snagged the half-cookie in Jamie’s hands. “Is my brother trying to take all the blame for this?”

“Pretty much.” Fascinating, Lauren thought. His tone was teasing, but his mind was pure steel. Jamie’s skulk of self-recrimination was about to walk into a brick wall.

“You took care of Aervyn, bro.” Devin’s face was more serious now. “Just like you promised Nell you would the day he was born. Kid’s in better shape than anyone else.”

“I left you hanging.”

“Yeah.” Devin’s eyes drilled into his brother. “And if you ever have that choice again, you do exactly the same thing, or I’ll be the first witch lining up to give you hell.”

Their exchange was hammering two things into Lauren’s mind. One, Devin loved Aervyn with the same fierceness Jamie did. And two—whatever Sierra had done out there, it had scared the crap out of both Sullivan brothers.

Neither of them scared easily. Hell, as far as she’d ever seen, neither of them scared at all.

Then Aervyn’s anguished cry pelted all their minds, and she knew what true fear really felt like. Every witch on the beach raced to his location—and found him tucked in a small, wet crevice, holding a very still baby bird in the palm of his hand.

“I’m sorry, sweetie.” Nell, face