Natural Witch

“Yes, Sheriff,” the man said miserably.

Emery lowered his hands to the ground and then swooped them back up to the wall. The spell attached to both before soaking in and disappearing.

I gave him a questioning gaze, earning a grin. “I can’t let you plant all the seeds, now can I? I, too, like to create havoc.” He winked, and we were up again, running across the complex.

Vicious intent pulsed from the records facility, a medium-sized building on the back corner of the compound. We’d skirted by three more fools, strutting around, throwing dust and whispering words. I couldn’t tell if they were security, or if someone had assigned a few flunkies a made-up job to keep them out of sight.

Emery knew his stuff, though. He’d said most of the guild didn’t really get going until about noon or thereafter, their workdays, so to speak, reaching into the night—when the other magical creatures in the Brink were most active. Judging by the overall lack of activity, the place did seem like it was in its off hours, similar to an office facility at night.

Unlike the other buildings, the records building had a protective spell stretching over it like a spider web. It pulsed with power, and the various weaves intermingled expertly. A lot of time and effort had been expended on this spell.

Emery crouched at one end of the wall, staring down at the door, which was covered with both another pulsing spell and a camera. They weren’t just trusting magic with their secrets—they were using technology as well.

A grouping of benches formed a circle a ways in front of the door. Two other buildings helped surround them, making this area a little nook away from the rest of the compound.

“What do you feel?” Emery asked quietly, sparing a glance for a woman in an orange robe meandering through. She stopped near one of the benches and hesitated before sitting and bending to her phone.

“Spikes. Painful. This is an attack spell. A very good one.”

“Very good, yes. The natural helped. The power rivals mine.” He frowned as he looked it over, splaying his hand and waving it in front of the building as if feeling the various textures of the spell.

The woman straightened up and stretched, looking around. She wiggled her shoulders, as though something bothered the upper middle of her back.

“Crap-filled cupcakes…” I put my hand on Emery’s shoulder. “Work fast. We got a us a woman.”

“What does that mean?” he asked, following my gaze.

I slapped his shoulder. “Don’t look! She already feels our presence. She’s in tune with her magically enhanced intuition. Looking will just bring her around faster.”

“She’s only middle tier. She stands no chance.”

“Of fighting us? No. Of blowing our cover? She certainly does. Half a brain and she’ll know someone is crouching here.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Because I have half a brain. Haven’t you ever just felt someone lurking? Someone watching you? Someone keeping close?”

“Yes, but that’s because I’ve lived in the wild. She’s in relative safety here.”

“Women are never in relative safety, you moron. We train to watch out for danger from girlhood. Spoiler alert: the danger is menfolk. Dark streets and parking lots to us are like the wilds for you. Trust me, she knows when hidden eyes are on her. Look at her. She keeps looking around. I bet there are some power-tripping creeps with wandering hands in the Mages’ Guild.”

Emery spared one moment to meet my gaze, his way of gauging my severity, before nodding and turning back to the spell.

The woman in orange bent to her phone before lowering it again and tilting her head. Her shoulders tensed, and she looked back at the records facility pointedly, scanning the front door before looking up at the camera. She scanned the front again, her expression uneasy, before pausing, probably opening herself up to her surroundings.

Emery had been wrong. I wasn’t one in a million. I just knew better than to shrug off the first magic I’d ever learned for recipes and ingredients. I kept my temperamental third eye firmly in the mix, and so did this girl.

Her eyes flicked our way.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry.” I bounced where I crouched. We had a long way to run back to the pickup point.

Chapter Thirty-One

“Help me.” He held out his hand. “And add more power to your cloak and dagger spell.”

I entwined my fingers within his, feeling the sizzle roll up my skin and soak down into my middle. This time, it kept going, blistering through my legs and all the way to my feet. It bled into the ground.

Magic rolled and boiled within our circle as I poured energy into whatever Emery had been doing.

He shot me a wide-eyed, fearful glance. It lasted only a moment before he shifted his attention back to the spell, and I was left wondering what had happened.

I focused on his splayed hand, and for the first time, I saw the small tendrils connecting his palm to the spell coating the building. More, I felt them, each individual little strand like a tiny shock to the skin.

I put my hand up with his, trying not to notice the girl on the bench, who was still looking in our direction with a pronounced frown.

“We’ll need to counteract this, or maybe burn a hole through it.” He moved his palm, covering more ground.

I felt the evil and corruption of the spell sink into my palm. Emery used his other hand to create a weave similar to that of the poisoned protection spell. He was trying to duplicate it so he could work out how to reverse it.

Logic. It didn’t always rush to my aid.

The girl lifted her phone and pointed it in our direction. She was taking a picture.

“Can photos see magic?” I asked.

“A picture will help the eye focus on a spell designed to confuse it. This isn’t that type of spell. It is more advanced than that. That picture won’t help her.”

I closed my eyes again, feeling the pulse from above us. It bore down, pressing. I still had no idea what it was supposed to do. The general idea—to spot intruders—was clear, but the detail was so beyond my experience that I couldn’t go much further.

“What is the problem, Jessica?” A large woman in a purple robe stalked toward the benches. Beside her, a tall, spindly man kept pace, his eyes scanning.

“Let’s get to the front door.” Emery stood and pulled me with him. If not for that, I would’ve spooked in the other direction.

“There isn’t any upkeep planned for the records room, is there?” Jessica asked, her head tilting as she stared at our former position.

“No. Last month, you’re thinking,” the woman said.

“You called us all the way down here for a memory lapse?” The man scoffed.

“I beg forgiveness, sir, but I simply asked—”

“I know what you asked.” The man looked around. “No, there are no scheduled drills, and no, there is nothing scheduled for the records room. It is business as usual. What’s prompted this?”

“Here.” Emery pulled me down beside him. “Hurry.”

Oh sure, now he was a believer.

I turned toward the door, feeling the spell as I heard, “I feel…something…here.” Feet scraped against concrete. The woman was turning. She sensed us, and she was really good at doing so.

“Where, Jessica?” the other woman asked.

“Just…”

Another scoff, from someone who thought Jessica’s intuition was ridiculous, but who clearly knew better than to ignore it. That guy was a turd.

Footsteps sounded, and I had no doubt they were coming in our direction.

“Focus,” Emery whispered, squeezing my hand. “Focus on me, Penny.”

I did, and the feelings from the spell came through more strongly. The prickles on my palm helped me pick out the elements in the weave. He used his eyes. I used my feelers. He seemed to think it was two halves of the same coin. We could sense what the other was doing through the energy flowing between us.

Canvas scraped canvas and something rattled.

Emery shook my hand, bringing me back. The clink of rocks interrupted my thoughts.

The mages were close. They would cast that spell and find us. I knew that as sure as I was sitting there.

We needed a distraction.

I tore my hand out of Emery’s and stood. He’d have to figure out the weave while I covered us. We’d have to come back another time to break through, but at least I could buy him as much time as possible to come up with a solution for when we returned.

The two mages in purple faced us, pushed up close, equipped with rocks, sticks, and basil. Their mouths were moving and magic curled into the air around them like smoke. A weak discovery feeling came to me, and I knew they still had a ways to go. Ish.

I racked my brain and closed my eyes, trying to think of something to do. Throwing a ball of fire might work. If only I knew how to make fire. Lighting them on fire would help. Still needed fire for that, though.

I let magic sizzle through me, wishing them away. Wishing for them to get bored and wander off. Another option would be to create a spell that crawled across the ground and then sprang up ten feet away. That would give us the ability to run.

Magic coursed through me. It turned and spun, pulling out determination from my middle. I shook with it, wanting so badly for them to leave.