A Dangerous Witch (Witch Central Series: Book 3) (5 page)

She was full-on grinning at him now.  “Aervyn took all the duct tape for a secret project.”

He leaned in and snagged a handful of Doritos.  “I know where Uncle Devin keeps his secret stash.”

Mia giggled.  “So does Aervyn.”

Sad, but probably true.  He wiggled his fingers.  “I can probably come up with a good never-ending rope spell.”  In his dreams, but she might go for it.

Giggles vanished.  And one niece sat staring at her own fingers.  Wondering.  Fearing.  And on the edges—hoping.

Damn.  “Sucks, huh?”

She looked up, confused.  “What does?”

“Thinking stuff’s about to happen, but not knowing what it is, or when it’s going to get here.  Or whether you’re going to like it.”

Diffident shrug.  “Aervyn does cool things with his fire magic.”

Wonderboy did things with his fire magic that no witch for five hundred years past or future would ever match.  “Yeah, he does.  Kenna too.”  Maybe it was time to gentle some expectations some.  “Most witches just get a little magic.”

Her nod was automatic.  “Like Moira or Uncle Matt.”

Two witches who did more with a little than anyone on the planet.  “Exactly like them.”

“I’d like to be able to make fireworks.” Her eyes brightened.  “Fancy red ones.”

That was a fairly simple spell.  One worth aiming for.  He rolled his eyes and collapsed back on the bean bag pillows, gagging.  “I suppose you want them all glittery and pretty, too.”

She snorted and crunched a couple of Doritos.  “Duh.”

More mock histrionics.  “They’ll be the most embarrassed fireworks in the history of Witch Central.”

He got an actual giggle this time.  “No way.  Gramma Retha says there aren’t any dumb things left for our generation to do.  You guys did them all.”

Gramma Retha knew how to issue a proper dare.  One he and his brothers might have to tackle soon.  And clearly she’d been sticking close to Mia lately.  Both good things.

His niece was looking at her hands again.  “Will you help me try to light a candle?”

The very first spell every fire witch learned.  And he knew she wasn’t ready.

He also knew that wasn’t the answer she needed to hear.  Leaning in, he stole a sip of her root beer.  “I’ll be hanging out in The Dungeon in the morning.  Bring a candle down and we’ll see what happens.”  Sometimes failure mattered—and sometimes trainees surprised you.

He could feel the hope more strongly now.  And the uncertainty.  Mia Walker, bright and shiny force of nature, was as tentative as he’d ever felt her.

He pulled her in for a hug.  And said nothing.  With this trainee, words weren’t going to be the way forward.

Action was.  Even if it wasn’t always a raging success.

-o0o-

Nell slid into bed next to her husband, glad as always for his warm presence. 

Daniel closed his laptop and set it on the side table.  “Sierra settled in with the girls?”

“Yup.  It’s close quarters in there.”  Not that the girls minded.  Some of the water and fire witches taking emergence duty would sleep on the bed they’d set up on the second-floor landing.  But Sierra had piled into the triplets’ room with her sleeping bag, a smile, and the world’s biggest bowl of caramel popcorn.

Daniel grinned.  “Hopefully they’re not all wet and soggy in the morning.”

If Mia flamed in the night, any fire witch on duty would step in and manage her power flows.  Water witches like Sierra would just douse the situation.  Which always worked, and never left the newbie fire witches very happy.  Or any siblings within range.

However, Sierra was willing, extremely powerful, and had the Energizer-bunny status of youth.  She’d volunteered for three overnight shifts a week, just like she’d done with Kenna.  “She’s saving us all a lot of sleepless nights.”

Amused chuckles from the guy sliding down into his pillow.  “She does it for the taste of girlhood she never had.  And for the breakfasts.”

He probably had a point.  Sierra was a barely passable cook—and they generally sent her home with dinner leftovers too.  “You making pancakes tomorrow?”

“Yup.”  He got sleepy faster than any of their kids.  “Nat dropped off sausages from the farmers’ market.  Remind me to cook them.”

If people dropped off any more food, they were going to need a third refrigerator.  Nell snuggled down into her own pillow, envious of her husband’s lazy eyes.  Her mama brain was still firing on way too many cylinders.

A warm hand slid onto her shoulder.  “Shut it down.  Mia’s got lots of people watching over her, and you’ll be doing plenty of shifts once this power of hers makes up its mind what it’s going to be.”

Truth.  For now, the water witches could handle the situation, but it would be their core cadre of strong fire witches taking duty if Mia’s magic was anything more than candle flames.  And in this family, that was fairly likely.  “You should have married an earth witch.  Way less disruptive to your sleep.”

Daniel snorted, and then leaned over and kissed her.  “If I’d wanted boring, I’d have married the cute girl with ponytails and ruffled dresses in third grade.”  He swung his legs out of bed.  “You want brownies or ice cream?”

He knew her way too well.  “Both.”  She sighed. 

Daniel sat back down on the bed, eyes serious.  “Worried about Shay too, huh?”

He never missed much.  “Yeah.  We’ll have four witchlings now.  And one girl who plays the flute.”  Brilliantly.  But still.  Four with magic, and one on the outside.  One who had said absolutely nothing before bed—just cuddled quietly for nearly an hour.

He shrugged and settled back against the headboard, pulling her against his chest.  “Maybe she’ll end up with magic too.  Or maybe she’ll stay Auntie Nat’s sidekick and stand strong and proud in what she has.”

It occurred to Nell, way too late, that she was nestling up to a non-witch.  Even in the Walker family, Shay wasn’t alone.  “Nat’s not the only one who knows how to stand tall in the midst of magic.”  She mindsent apology with the words.  It was so damn easy to forget.  Daniel was just… Daniel.

“This is the strongest witching family on earth,” said her husband quietly.  “And not for one day, ever, have I been made to feel less because no magic flows in my veins.”

A big knot in Nell’s ribs loosened. 

“We do what we’ve always done.”  Daniel’s hands moved on her hair.  Soothing.  Connecting.  “We’ll let each of our girls be who they are.  And if one’s got music in her soul and one’s got healing and another’s got sparks and flames, then that’s who they are.”  He smiled into the top of her head.  “Jamie and Dev and Matt are as unalike as any three guys I know.”

And even with international borders between them, their unity was unstoppable.  Nell breathed out.  “Maybe I’m just being silly.”  There were enough things to worry about without imagining trouble where none grew.

“Never.”  Daniel stroked her hair one more time and then chuckled.  “Wait, let me amend that statement.”

She contemplated beaning him with a pillow and decided it was too much effort.  She was getting decidedly sleepy.  “Silly is an art form in this family.”

“Yeah.”  His hands were slowing.  A man of many talents—and inducing sleep had always been one of his best.  “And so are infallible mom instincts.  If this bothers you, we’ll watch for it.  Make sure our girls stay tight.”

What touched one of them touched all of them.  Nell felt her mind starting to drift. 

And let go.  There were enough others watching.  The warrior could sleep.

Chapter 4

Oh, good grief.  Nell sat down at Command Central, her customized workstation, and glared at the flashing lights on her troubleshooting menu.  It was 5 a.m.  Everyone was supposed to still be sleeping.  Either Jamie was testing functions again, or all hell was breaking loose in Realm, their online gaming world.

It wouldn’t be the first time their gamers had played all night.

She pinged her brother first.  And grinned when his gaming face popped up in the corner of her screen, wide-eyed and covered in soot.  “Chasing dragons again?”  For a grown man, he had an oversized addiction to swinging swords at fire-breathing creatures. 

While wearing gypsy skirts.  Esmerelda, his favorite avatar, was one of the finest warriors in all the land—but she did it in flamboyant, silk-adorned style.

“Not really.”  He stuck his sword into the ground at his feet and used the end of a silk sash to polish it up.  “Just giving the new coding a little workout.”

Workouts were good—blending online coding with real magic made their error messages a little more exciting than most.  “What are you making now?”  They shared the running of Realm and the visioning for its future, but Jamie generally led the teams that built the new features.

“Smarter dragons.”  The silk was cleaning up its owner’s face now.  “Ones that fight smarter and do more damage to game points than they do to castle walls.”

Less work for the admin team, more fun for the players.  Genius.  “How’s it working out?”  Dragons weren’t always amenable to coding adjustments.

Jamie chuckled onscreen.  “Wanna help?”

She had a to-do list longer than the California coastline.  “Can’t.  Life as we know it will end if I don’t get about fifteen things done before any of my troublesome children wake up.”

Her brother grinned.  “One of them is already in the back yard with my wife.”

Nell rolled her eyes.  That must be Shay.  “She’s not the troublesome one.”  Or at least, not usually the kid at the top of the list. 

“So come play with my shiny new dragons.”  A knowing and devilish glint crept into her brother’s eyes.  “I’m testing their reflexes against left-handed players.”

Dammit—that was a low blow.  She loved leftie swordfighting.  And it was a lot easier to troubleshoot stuff like that from in-game.  Nell tapped two fingers to her track pad and felt the odd sucking sensation that was her consciousness being pulled into Realm.

She landed carefully, already reaching for her weapons cache—whatever had covered Jamie in soot might still be lurking behind a tree.

“They’re gone.”  Jamie lolled on the grass now, leaning his head on a comfy rock.  “All four of them.”

Maturity warred with a long history of swinging a sword at her brother’s side.  “You got rid of four dragons?”  In Realm, one dragon was a problem.  Two were a full-blown crisis.  “What, did you throw your admin override at them or something?”

“Nope.”  Her brother grinned and ignored the insult.  “I told them where Warrior Girl’s stash of jewels is.”

Amusement landed, hard.  Warrior Girl, who walked in the real world as an eleven-year-old healer, had a deep affection for things shiny and sparkly.  Her treasure trove was the stuff of Realm legend—and extremely well hidden.  “So in a few minutes, we’re going to have four mad dragons back here, ready to turn you into charcoal for lying?”

Jamie’s eyebrows waggled.  “You assume I lied.”

Whoa.  Nell raised an eyebrow of her own.  “You found it?  Really?”  Ginia would be on the warpath.  As Realm’s newly anointed number-one player, she had a rep to protect.  “You know she’s going to turn all of your weapons into pink slime, right?”

He snorted.  “She can try.”

Ginia had tried.  Very successfully on several occasions.  There wasn’t a player in the top ten who hadn’t been greeted by armies wearing pink bunny slippers at least once.  Nell grinned.  The next couple of weeks were going to be epic.  Time to dust off The Wizard’s robes—she hadn’t been active in Realm’s witch-only levels since the great Ides of March dustup.

She cast a quick glance around, just in case the dragons were returning.  And finally tuned in to the crazy layers of spellwork surrounding them.  Layers with four dragon-sized holes.  “What the heck were you trying to do?”  She parsed the layers as she spoke.  Containment.  Oxygen-voiding.  And about five other things dragon-exit-schmucked enough that they were impossible to recognize.  She frowned at Jamie.  “What is this, a magic cage?”

“The remnants of one.”  Jamie wiped soot off his face and looked at his palm ruefully.  “It needs a little work.”

Clearly someone wasn’t getting enough sleep. 
Only a total idiot would try to cage a dragon.

Yeah.  Wanna help?
 He grinned. 
The dragons will probably be back soon.  I only found a small part of Ginia’s jewel stash.

Nell thought of the crazy-long list of things she had to do and the number of lights and sirens currently blaring on her screen.  And then flashed a lightning grin at her brother and reached for power.  If The Wizard was going to make a run at deposing a certain eleven-year-old upstart, caging four dragons was a heck of a way to announce his return.

Even if she had to partner with a certain gypsy in skirts.

-o0o-

Nat smiled as young hands reached up for the sky in parallel with her own.  Greeting the sun.  Letting the energy of new mornings and sunny days dance into their hearts.

Shay’s face tipped up a little further, her spine arching into a graceful bend that would have made most of Spirit Yoga’s students weep.

Nat flowed into an arch of her own, reveling in the joys of a flexible body and a wide-awake soul.  And then laughed as her niece kept going, floating her hands down to a bridge on the ground.  Hands and feet planted, heart soaring up to the sky.