Magic and Mayhem: How To Train A Witch (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Baba Yaga Saga Book 1) (4 page)

Hildy’s head bobbed fiercely. “Yes, Jezibaba. Thank you. They’re wonderful. I will take the best of care of them.”

“I know you will. You are welcome, child. Now say goodbye to them and return to your seat.”

Hildy finger waved and said bye. She nearly skipped to her seat when the kittens disappeared. Her smile was radiant. It was the happiest Damien had ever seen her be.

Jezibaba called up a girl named Faith and gave her an older cat with one green eye and one blue. The cat trotted back to the seat with the girl and crawled under the desk to curl into a ball.

Then Jezibaba fisted her hands on her hips. “Carol—get up here. Don’t dawdle. I need to be somewhere else shortly.”

Looking anything but happy to be summoned so sternly, Carol trudged up to stand in front of Jezibaba lifting her chin and glaring back. Damien covered his mouth, this time to hide a grimace at the girl’s show of disrespect. He was amazed when Jezibaba favored the girl with a wicked, beaming smile. To him, it was far more frightening, and Carol seemed to know it, but the kid was holding her own.

“Professor Smoke, please open the window. I need to call Carol’s familiar to her,” Jezibaba ordered.

She turned and smiled down at the girl as she gave a long suffering sigh.

“You like using your power against people. It makes you feel strong and I think you revel too much in that feeling. By the laws of the Goddess, I could lock you away for a hundred years even at your young age, but you’d just grow into a bitter martyr for evil. I can’t allow that to happen to you because you’re far too powerful a witch to not be serving the magical community.”

Jezibaba wrestled her gaze away and walked in a circle around the child, chanting to constrain the girl from reacting when her familiar arrived. There was absolute silence in the room, but she could feel Hildy’s worried gaze on them both. Jezibaba couldn’t afford to comfort the other of her prospects, so she didn’t bother to even glance her way. What was most important was that this mirror of her know she always meant exactly what she said.

“Carol, I’m assigning you a special guardian who will teach you right and wrong. He will judge your abuses, and if he finds you guilty, your familiar will mirror your spell back to you. Empathy is a very effective teaching tool. I can guarantee you will learn your lessons… just like I did under his tutelage. After you have sufficiently progressed in a few years, then you will be free to choose your own familiar. In the meantime, you will use
mine
.”

Carol looked to the window in fear.

Jezibaba leaned down. “What kind of beast do you think my familiar is, child?” she whispered in her most stern voice, raising goosebumps on the girl’s arms. “He is a powerful creature of many forms. Let’s see what he chooses to show you first, shall we?”

Jezibaba stood tall and held out her arms. She put all the power she had into her voice, mostly for dramatic effect in this instance, but she knew her familiar would understand her reasons.

“
Great Emeritus, come to me. As I will, so mote it be
.”

Damien winced as an ear shattering “Caw” filled the room as a giant black raven flew in the window and landed on Jezibaba’s arm.

“I have a new pupil I would like you to consider,” she said to the raven.

Damien saw the raven look down at Carol who stared up at him in great fear. The raven turned to Jezibaba and nodded his head, cawing again.

Then the bird lifted from her arm and transformed into a large black dog with hellhound teeth and red eyes. He landed lightly on the floor and paced around the girl, looking like he was going to eat her. Instead, the creature leaned in and licked the side of Carol’s face with a large tongue.

“Oh, good. Emeritus has agreed to take you on,” Jezibaba declared, clapping her hands once in great pleasure. “Now pet him. Go on. He’s waiting for a sign of your agreement.”

Carol looked at Jezibaba and back to the dog thing. “Do I have to pet him?”

“You were so brave earlier, Carol. Are you now afraid?” Jezibaba challenged.

“No,” Carol protested, looking back at the waiting animal. She reached out a trembling hand and ran it down the dog’s neck, shivering herself when it shivered under her touch. Whimpering, it turned to look at the Jezibaba.

“Yes, I know. I told you she was strong,” Jezibaba said, speaking to the hellhound.

Damien watched the hellhound turn to look at Jezibaba, transforming once more, this time into a large white owl who jumped onto the edge of his lecturing podium.

Jezibaba bowed her head to the animal and went down to one knee. “Thank you, Great Emeritus. I do realize what I am asking, old friend. If Morgana favors me in my plans, this is the last pupil I will ask you to train.”

Damien swallowed tightly at the sight they made. The Jezibaba never bowed to anyone—she didn’t have to. The owl bobbed his head to her, then lifted into the air, becoming the giant black raven again before he flew back out of the window.

Jezibaba rose to her feet. She looked at Damien’s shocked expression before moving to the girl’s equally shocked one.

“A witch, no matter how powerful, is no match for a creature like Emeritus. He is a guardian of old and you should feel lucky he finds you worthy enough to serve, Child. You have been blessed this day in ways you will not understand until a hundred years from now. I hope you are good to him. Otherwise, Emeritus could bring about your death. He is a stronger believer in balance than I am.”

Carol turned without prompting and returned to her seat. Damien saw her staring straight ahead. Jezibaba showed no remorse for terrifying the girl beyond anything he’d witnessed done to a student.

“Now I must go, but I will return soon. Professor—if you will show the warlocks to my room, they will see to it that my things are brought along. Until tomorrow…”

And just like that, she and Nathaniel were gone from the room. Damien looked around the class at the stunned faces. Their expressions probably mirrored his.

“Okay. Let’s take a break. Pick a flying spell book from the bookshelves and we’ll try it on one of the brooms later.”

As the children scrambled, he walked to the window and closed it, sighing with relief that the school day was almost over, but also that Jezibaba said she was returning. She was the first female in the seventy-five years he’d been without a mate to stir in him an urge to seek a physical connection. Since he couldn’t leave the school, it would be a lot easier to explore that strange urge she prompted if the powerful woman remained nearby.

And he certainly wasn’t sure how he was going to explain to his pure dragon family he was falling for a witch, but he’d figure that one out once he knew if their connection held what their attraction promised.

Jezibaba or not, the witch was the first female he’d wanted in too long of a damn time. The magic of a dragon’s desire for his female was far stronger than any spell a witch could ever weave. He’d been alone far too long. He would not risk turning away such a gift, even if the female had come into his life through the wicked Goddess, Morgana The Red.

Jezibaba stood before her Goddess appointed employers and crossed her arms to keep from zapping all of them. Killing everyone on the existing Council of Witches would be one sure way of making sure the traitor was taken care of. Only the hassle of having to search for new politicians, rule makers, and money keepers kept her from it. She had faith that she would root out the weed eventually. It was the time required to do so that irritated her.

Their elected spokesman, an elderly neo-Druid, stood to address her. “Your time is far too valuable to be their guardian, Great One. What if something more important came up and you couldn’t be reached?”

Jezibaba glared at him. “Nathaniel is blood bound to me. He can call me in an instant. I will always be able to be reached.”

Before coming to see them, she’d covered her red dress with their butt ugly required black robe… and put on the stupid hat that made her look like some Medieval river dunking reject. The least they could do was listen to her full plan before refusing her outright. Not that the Council’s opinions of her decisions were going to stop her. Her instincts were telling her she was right to be concerned.

Besides—it wasn’t like she was planning to stay at Witchery U forever. She would stay just until she and Professor Hottie had figured out who was trying to hurt the chosen ones.

The power of her patron Goddess, Morgana the Red, rose in her as she stared them down.

“Would you just rather I incarcerate the entire Council of Witches for the next fifty years until the children come of age and can protect themselves? It is within my jurisdiction to lock up all of you to protect those girls.”

The entire assembly of Council members went silent and blinked at her. It was a delicious moment. She wrinkled her forehead and tilted her chin up as she pretended deep thought.

“Of course, I wouldn’t turn any Council member into a toad. That would preclude torturing each member until my warlocks and I can determine who the would-be murderer is,” she added.

The murmuring got louder as those around the speaker tugged on his matching butt ugly robe. She struggled not to smirk. He nodded to his cohorts and looked back to her.

“We concede your plan is better,” Head Councilman admitted.

Her arms uncrossed and fell to her sides. Her pleased smile swept the crowd.

“Good. Now that’s settled, you can all start thinking about how best to determine who among you is trying to kill my successors. You might want to warn him or her that I’m very, very unhappy with this disruption of the hard-won peace I’ve given more than three hundred years of my life to making happen. When I find the betrayer, he or she will die. If the dragons don’t kill him or her first.”

“
Dragons? What dragons?
” the Head Councilman demanded.

“The headmaster of Witchery U has dragon guardians hiding among the faculty and staff. Dragons live for thousands of years. They don’t want the status quo among magicals to change. My complaint is that their help is a bit heavy handed. They’ve already ashed an attempted assassin without bothering to find out who in Morgana’s name sent him. Why else would I want to get involved? The dragons can fend off assailants all day long. I want to find the source and get rid of the problem.”

There was another round of worried grumbling. The Head Councilman held up his hand to silence it.

“Knowing dragons are involved, your plan to oversee the children’s training makes a lot more sense. You are the most well-suited witch for such as task.”

Jezibaba nodded. “Yes. I’m the only witch living who’s immune to dragon fire. The chosen ones could get accidently cooked if they get in the middle of a bunch of warrior dragons trying to kill a single vampire assassin in bat form. Protectors have been appointed, but those connections have not yet been tested.”

“Fine. Dragons being involved elevates this matter to one requiring your intervention. Go with our blessing then, Oh Great One,” the Head Councilman said.

She nearly sighed when she saw the entire table of heads finally nodding. They lifted their hands and she felt magical approval directed her way. However, she knew a traitor was still among those staring at her.

More than ready to take her leave, Jezibaba raised her hands to bestow her blessing.

“May the Goddess continue

her watch over thee.

As I will this day,

so mote it be.”

“
So mote it be
,” they all echoed in reply.

Turning Jezibaba saw Nathaniel’s gaze remained on the table of thirteen Council members. He watched a few more seconds, then turned to follow her out of the room. Wards within the room prevented taking their immediate leave. They would have to do so from outside the building.

As they exited, she made a mental note to ask Nathaniel later what he had seen in their energy that had caused such a strange look on his face.

***

Jezibaba looked around the room and sighed. She had closets bigger than this in all her houses. Being a smart, long-lived witch, she had wisely invested in real estate over the years. But you’d never know it, looking at the twin bed and the lonely wooden chair sitting by it. For Goddess sake, there wasn’t even a tattered rug on the floor. Her warlocks lived liked monks and had some pretty wacky ideas about austerity making them more powerful. She should have known better than to put her living arrangements in their hands.

Stepping to the doorway, she gauged the room size, which couldn’t be changed, and envisioned the best arrangement she could come up with for the tiny space. Sighing, she pulled her portable wand from its special compartment in her bra and extended it to full size. Bestowing the familiars had been taxing on her magic and now she needed to rest her hands. That was happening more and more lately.

Holding her decorating ideas in her mind, she waved the wand over the room and refused to feel bad for needing props.

“
Inhabitus ebay maximus
,” she invoked.

Amidst the resulting gold glitter shower raining from the ceiling, upgraded furniture and a much larger bed replaced what she’d had before. She waited for the glitter mist to dissipate, then walked back into the room. It was more crowded, but at least her long legs wouldn’t hang off the queen sized bed when she slept.

“Wow. Can you repeat that spell on my room?” Damien asked, watching her smooth the rich purple covers.

Jezibaba turned slowly to the doorway, which was difficult because her pulse drummed in excitement just hearing his voice.

“There is always an exchange for using this kind of power. Over time, I’ve learned how to direct it to my existing belongings. The bed came from my summer house in Cape Cod. The chair came from a condo I own in California. The meager furnishings have simply swapped places with the ones you see.”

She tilted her head as she studied the envy on his face.

“Tell me professor—do you have the wealth to support making this kind of change to your living space? If you don’t, people you love could die to leave you enough money and possessions to make a spell like the one I did come true.”