A Reckless Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,41

pretty sure we’ll be claiming payment shortly.”

Truth. Nell looked over at Lauren. “How’s Sierra? My boy broke her heart out on that island.” And every mind witch present had felt the echoes.

Lauren shrugged. “Hard to tell, honestly. Even with the sleep spell, she’s pretty agitated. She feels responsible, and she’s got the image of that bird in Aervyn’s hands imprinted on every brain cell.”

Jamie sighed. “And that’s not actually the worst thing that happened out there.”

“I don’t think she understands that at all.” Lauren flopped on the couch, and then looked up in surprise as Devin wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in.

He grinned. “I’m cold. Humor me. We water witches like a couch full of warm bodies.”

Nell blinked. Devin had always been friendly, but there was a blanket right beside him.

She got distracted by Jamie’s worried tone. “How are we going to handle things tomorrow? We have two pretty distraught witches in the same house right now.”

Yup. And when her little boy was hurting, he had some formidable weapons to make everyone else miserable too, even if it was largely accidental. However, she was sitting in a room full of exhausted witches. Nell took a deep breath, ready to issue mama marching orders. “Everybody go home, get some sleep. I’ll page you in the morning when I need you.”

Jamie nodded and stood, helping his wife out of the couch. “That nap’s starting to sound like a really good idea.”

Lauren’s quiet chuckle had them all turning. “Apparently someone else thought so, too.”

Devin was snuggled into Lauren’s shoulder, sound asleep.

Jamie snorted from the doorway. “That dude’s always been able to conk out anywhere.” He grinned at Lauren. “Just push him off. He’ll never notice.”

Nell stared at her awake brother, wondering if she was the only one paying attention. Then she caught Nat’s eye. Nope. And Nat was very rarely wrong.

Chapter 10

Sierra raced through the still-dark streets of Berkeley on Jamie’s borrowed moped, hair streaming in the wind. Dumb helmets anyhow—you couldn’t feel the air on your face that way. Momma never would have made her wear a helmet.

She’d woken under the bed, crying from the nightmare she could never remember and haunted by a dead baby bird and the awful hurt in a little boy’s eyes.

He’d been right. It was her fault.

Her magic wasn’t safe. Even playing with the dolphins wasn’t safe, and she’d been doing that her whole life. How many other baby birds had she killed and not even known it?

And why had Momma let her do it? Why didn’t she know how to do magic properly?

She peeled around a corner, heading straight for the ocean. She needed the water. And then she needed to leave. Anywhere far away from Aervyn and the awful truth in his eyes.

Catching the tang of saltier air, she let out the throttle a little more—and then screamed as everything in front of her went blank.

Strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her in. “Sorry. Shh. Sorry, sweet girl. You’re okay. We’ve got you.”

Nell. Sierra desperately tried to suck air into her lungs, oxygen walled off by the terror layered over the aching hurt. Nell just rubbed her back and held on.

“Sorry about that.” A new set of hands, a new voice. Jamie. “Porting at speed is a bit tricky. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Her brain tried to turn on—and all that came was a flood of anguish.

“Shh now.” Nell’s voice was warm and soft and wrapped her up like Momma’s once had. “You need to rest, sweet girl. I’m going to use a small spell to help you sleep. We’ll figure things out in the morning.”

She hadn’t planned to be there in the morning. God. They wouldn’t even let her run away.

No, we won’t. You’re ours now.

The words reverberated in her head as the fog of the sleep spell hit. You’re ours now.

~ ~ ~

Devin pulled his bike up outside Nell’s house. She’d called for backup—and in the tone of voice that would have had him coming on the dead run no matter where on the planet he was.

With both Aervyn and Sierra under her roof, it wasn’t hard to imagine why she needed help. Although besides making his world-famous pancakes, he didn’t have a clue how he was going to do that.

Walking in the door, he ran into the first problem. Aervyn sat just inside the entrance, hat pulled down over his ears and sad-looking blankie in his hand. Devin was pretty sure the blankie hadn’t been out of