heaved a big breath - and went back to guarding a friend.
It reminded Lauren hard, yet again, of the power that flowed in the hearts of the non-witches of Witch Central.
They, too, knew what it was to be different.
Chapter 17
Nell sat in a quiet corner of Nat and Jamie's living room, nibbling on a cookie. It seemed appropriate that she'd been handed a snickerdoodle. Cinnamon penance.
Happy baby cooing floated over from the small rug where Kenna played with her fire truck, undisturbed by the emotional currents swirling in the room. She'd set off her shower of magical ball fireworks in the back yard, made delighted noises at the sky, and then cuddled into her mama's chest, a contented witchling.
Blithely unaware that her playmate had passed out cold.
Ginia walked in from the hallway, Lauren right behind her. The room quieted instantly.
"She'll be fine." Their ten-year-old healer exuded the confidence of someone whose patients always got better. "Her head will hurt a bit, but she'll feel better after she has a nap."
It wasn't her head Nell was worried about. "Backlash?" Singed channels could take a long time to heal.
"Nope." Ginia seemed very sure. "Lauren was right - it wasn't her magic that overloaded."
Which was still an entirely baffling statement. "We knocked her unconscious - how can that not be channel shock?"
Lauren squeezed Ginia's shoulder. "The magic contributed, but not in the way you think. Her channels were fine - she's a disciplined witch, and she's put in the practice necessary to strengthen them. But she's very sensitive to sensory input. She finds it plenty of work just to handle the sights and sounds and smells of everyday life."
That's why they'd spent an afternoon coloring dragons in a half-lit basement. Nell felt her frustration surge at being told what she already knew - and then she connected the dots. "Magic is just another sensory input."
"Yeah." Lauren eyed her youngest niece, who was busy trying to hide her fire truck under the rug. "And someone builds her butterfly spells with lots of sensory bells and whistles."
They had been some very impressive fireworks. "I should have stepped in."
"I don't think so." Lauren shook her head slowly. "That could have easily hit the whole circle with backlash, especially if Kenna objected."
"Indeed." Moira's Irish lilt inserted itself into the conversation. "And then strapping young lads trying to protect their elders would have had nasty headaches."
Devin just chomped on a cookie and grinned.
She sniffed his direction. "When I'm old enough to need a protector, I'll let you know."
He raised an eyebrow. "And when I'm old enough to worry about a little headache, I'll let you know."
Brown eyes glared at green - and then green eyes twinkled in apology and forgiveness both. "Ah, you've always been the one who inherited my most stubborn genes."
Nell shook her head as Devin rolled his eyes and yet another bit of tension unloaded from the room. No one knew better how to charge a problem head on than those two. And not a soul would ever remind either of them that they didn't share a drop of blood.
In the way of witches, they simply shared a heartstring instead.
Remembering that made them all stronger. Point made.
Unless you had just conked a witch unconscious because the bonds of love and trust and understanding didn't run nearly deep enough. Nell felt her shoulders scrunching. "There has to be something I could have done differently." Well, there were a lot of things, but she still had no idea which of them would have protected Beth.
"Nay, love." Moira's words were quiet, but firm. "This isn't on your head any more than it's on wee Kenna's. We're witches, and sometimes the unexpected happens."
"I know that." Her crankiness had returned full steam. "But when the unexpected means we leave a fragile witch holding more power than she's ever seen before, it seems to me like we should be learning something from our mistakes."
No. This wasn't Witch Central's goof-up any longer. "I should be learning from my mistakes."
"Beth did fine." Jamie frowned. "She did great, actually. And let's not forget the beginning just because the end got a little nuts. The initial circle was a big deal for her - you could feel it."