A Modern Witch

CHAPTER 18



Nat handed Lauren a smoothie the moment she set foot in the kitchen. It wasn’t coffee, but it would apparently have to do, since there were about fifty people standing between her and anything that resembled a coffee pot.

“Who are all these people?”

Nat shrugged. “Relatives, friends, and pretty much the entire witching population of California, I think.”

“I thought the circle today was only fourteen people. There are enough for four circles in this kitchen.”

Jamie spoke over Lauren’s shoulder. “There are more in the living room. There will be about a hundred people at the circle tonight.”

So much for a quiet ritual in the woods, Lauren thought. “Sounds like we’ll have an awfully big audience.”

“They’re not just here to watch,” Jamie said. “They will participate, in a very real way. They’ll form an outer circle of love, light, and community around the working circle. Nat’s going to help with the opening invocation.”

Non-witches got to play too? Harry Potter had led her seriously astray. “Is there any danger to having so many people there?”

Jamie sighed. “Nell spooked you. She was afraid of that. There are risks to magic, but all these people are here because it can also be wondrous. Tonight is going to be awesome, and we have a lot of witches on hand to help manage any surprises. It will actually be a lot safer than the training circle on Saturday.”

“Now you tell me,” Lauren said dryly.

Jamie laughed. “You’re going to have a front-row seat on a miracle, little sister. Hold on with both hands and soak in the thrill.”

He grabbed two omelet plates out of thin air and handed one to her. “Eat it fast, before someone notices I disappeared them.”

Lauren grinned and dug in. She was feeling a lot happier, so maybe Sophie’s protein idea was worth a try.

Jamie’s plate vanished just as he stuck a fork in the omelet. “Damn, didn’t eat fast enough.” He swiveled his head around, clearly looking for the culprit. A man with inky black curls saluted with his fork.

“Too many teleporters in one room,” Jamie grumbled. “That’s Mike—he’ll be point for earth in the circle tonight. He’s a strong healer, when he’s not swiping my breakfast.”

“He a relative?” Lauren asked around a mouthful of eggs.

“I don’t think so, but I’ve known him forever. He’s a good guy, and very experienced handling a circle trio. We’ve decided for tonight to put a mind witch at each direction, and then two elemental witches. That blend of energy seemed to work very well for you and Aervyn.”

“Will you be part of the circle?”

“Yes, and so will Nell, Sophie, and Jennie. We’re trying to use witches familiar to both of you as much as possible. You met Tabitha, right? She’ll be in the circle, and so will Aervyn’s older brother, Nathan. Come on, I’ll introduce you to some of the crowd in the kitchen. At least a few more of the circle are in here somewhere.”

Lauren blessed her realtor experience as they did a whirlwind tour of witch central. Matching names to new faces was a requirement of the job, and today she’d clearly better get it in high gear.

Taking a quick break to snag some more food, Lauren looked around. One thing was obvious—tonight was going to be big. The odor of excitement beat out even the onions and garlic Nat had heaped on the omelets.

Lauren glanced over at her friend, happily playing short-order cook to a herd of witches. Ginia, radiating an advanced case of hero worship, stood beside Nat, getting a lesson in the fine art of cracking eggs with one hand.

Aervyn and two other small boys were attempting to juggle eggs. Aervyn was currently teleporting all the misses before they hit the ground, but even wonder-boy super-witch couldn’t keep that up forever.

Jamie snatched a couple of eggs in mid-juggle and snuggled in between Ginia and Nat. A brief exchange earned Ginia a high-five and Nat a seriously steamy kiss. They must have agreed to feed the guy.

Nell stuck her fork in Lauren’s second omelet and grabbed a bite.

“Hey,” Lauren said. “I’ve been told I need to keep up my protein intake. Get your own breakfast.”

“I don’t have Jamie’s inside track, and Aervyn’s too busy teleporting raw eggs to send his Mama some cooked ones.”

Lauren relented and shared her plate. If there were any eggs left at the end of the rampage, she was pretty sure she could call in some best-friend chips and score more breakfast.

Nell looked over to the trio at the stove. “They’re both totally stuck on Nat, my girl and that brother of mine.”

And that, thought Lauren, was going to cause some big heartache when Nat left tomorrow and Jamie followed her. It was a big move he was making, and not just in terms of the miles involved.

Lauren saw Jennie on her way over and tried to think only about eggs. Keeping Jamie’s secret with all the mind witches around was going to be no small task.

…

Jennie kicked the last of the small children and stray witches out Jamie’s front door. Lauren and Aervyn had been less than pleased to be ushered out as well, but she needed to pull the rest of the circle together for a chat.

Knowing witches, it wasn’t going to be an entirely smooth one.

Jennie paused a moment, pushed feelings of calm and authority into her outer mind, and entered the living room. She scanned the room, meeting the gaze of each of the eleven sprawled on the furniture and carpets.

“We are a fortunate few,” she said. “Tonight we will be part of one of the most momentous circles of our generation.”

“We’re all aware of Aervyn’s power,” said Edric, the oldest witch in the room, and her great-uncle. “But is it wise to use an untested channeler the first time the boy spellcasts for a full circle?”

Tread carefully, Jennie reminded herself. Edric was a powerful channeler and the most likely choice to partner Aervyn until a couple of days ago.

“She’s very new, I’ll grant you that, but she’s not untested. She held a hurricane of power in a training circle two days ago and did it beautifully.

“And as you know, Edric, we’ve always been concerned about finding a partner for Aervyn. Our strongest channelers are getting on in years, and we don’t want him to have to find a new partner as he grows into the peak of his power. Lauren is young, and I believe more than capable of handling a full circle, but the only way to be sure is to let her try.”

Edric’s harrumph and looks of concern from others in the room meant she needed to go to Plan B.

Watch, Jennie broadcast silently to the room. She pushed out her memory of the training session—the fumbling first attempts, and then the glorious, blinding success of their final effort. She opened her eyes and raised an eyebrow at Edric.

His nod was a silent passing of the baton. “The girl is very creative, and too new to know the insanity of what she handled there.”

Jennie nodded. “Yes to both—and maybe that’s for the best. Edric, we’d like for you to handle point for the circle’s water trio. Nathan and I will work with you.” Aervyn’s older brother had only done one full circle before, and his face shone with the honor.

Edric frowned. “Nathan’s got a nice hand with water elementals, but aren’t you better with air or fire, Jennie?”

“I am, but we want a mind witch in each trio. I’ll talk about that in a moment. None of us have very strong water talents, but I’m the best of the bunch, so you get me.”

Jennie turned. “Sophie, Mike, and Tabitha, you will be the earth trio. Mike, as the strongest with earth elementals, you’ll take point.”

Tabitha looked shocked. “Jennie, my elemental magic is practically non-existent for anything but fire. As far as earth power goes, I can hardly get a flower to bloom.”

“Give me a minute, Tabby, and I’ll explain why we’ve got the mind witches where we have you. Nell, you’ll take point on fire, and Caro will be your resident mind witch.” Caro paused in her knitting and nodded. She never said much, but she was as steady in a circle as they came.

“Govin, you’ll be the third in the fire trio.” The stocky man in the corner tossed a flaming globe in reply.

“Jamie’s leading the air trio, and he’ll be joined by Aurelia and Scott.” The married couple nodded. “You’ll have one of the trickier tasks of the night. In the training circle, as you saw, Aervyn clipped in to the circle and added a power stream.”

“Seems like a foolhardy thing for a spellcaster to do,” Edric said. “You’re not thinking he’ll do it again?”

Jamie spoke up. “I’ve been talking with him, and while it looked like a stunt when he did it, I think it actually helped him ground some of the power leakage from his spell. I still don’t know exactly how he worked it, but his magical instincts are usually pretty solid. I think it strengthens his spellcasting, and I don’t want to mess with that.”

Edric nodded. “I trust you, Jamie boy. It’s not the way I’ve done things, but what doesn’t change gets weaker.”

Phew, thought Jennie. Where Edric went, others followed. The hard part was over.

Mike spoke up from the corner. “In what you showed us, Jennie, Aervyn piped his power directly to Lauren. Are you thinking he’ll connect in through the air trio this time?”

Just one of the reasons she’d put Mike on point. A talented spellcaster in his own right, he was also a highly innovative witch, and very quick to embrace possibilities.

“Exactly right, Mike. The biggest risk to the circle would be an abrupt change in Aervyn’s power levels—that could destabilize the entire circle.

“Jamie’s going to act as a bit of a circuit breaker. He’s the only one of us besides Aervyn with both spellcasting and mind-witch talents, so he’s the one most likely to sense a power fluctuation coming and be able to buffer it. Scott and Aurelia, you’ll want to be ready for surprises, as should everyone.”

Jennie surveyed the room, and then did a quick mind scan. No signs of discontent or fear. Good.

Tabitha leaned forward. “So what’s with all the mind witches, Jennie? You’ve got one in each trio, and we’re clearly not all playing to our strongest elements. What gives?”

“Lauren isn’t an elemental witch,” Jennie said. “We learned a couple of things through trial and error in the training circle. In order for her to manage elemental power flows, it seems to work best if two things happen. First, she will connect to Aervyn, then to the four of you on elemental points.”

“Damn smart,” Edric said. “When you’ve got that kind of power on tap, it’s hard to hold. Can’t believe someone didn’t think to try that sooner. You’ve trained her well.”

Jennie laughed. “She came up with that one all on her own. Second thing is that Lauren uses only mind power to channel, since she has no elemental talent. It seems to help if there is a thread of mind power in the energy we feed to her.”

Comprehension dawned for Tabby. “Ah, so I’m not sharing fire power with the circle, I’m providing mind power. I can do that. Heck, I’m a way stronger mind witch.”

“Right,” Jennie said. “We’ve put you in a trio where you have at least a little of that element’s power, so you can hook in smoothly, but it’s mind power we need you to contribute. Take it easy on your wattage—volume doesn’t seem to matter, and we’re short on monitors for this circle, since all the mind witches we have will be participating.”

Caro nodded in agreement. Jamie sighed in resignation. He was by far and away the weakest of the four mind witches, and he would have to offer up air power as well to properly handle his role as point for the air trio.

Jennie patted his head. “Jamie’s not thrilled to be our fourth mind witch.”

Tabitha laughed. “I think we’d have to go to Louisiana to find someone to replace you, Jamie, so man up.”

Jamie rolled his eyes. “Can I at least get some more food first?”

Taking that as a sign, the circle meeting ended in a mass exodus toward the kitchen.

…

Lauren reached for a third piece of fried chicken and handed a piece to Aervyn as well. If she needed to protein load, so did he.

The witch horde had disappeared, and they were having a ‘small’ family dinner with the Walker family, Sophie, Nat, Jamie, and Jennie.

Aervyn ignored the chicken and stared at Jamie’s head. Lauren tried to follow his gaze. In honor of something—she’d been afraid to ask what—the triplets had decorated crowns for everyone at the table. Their love affair with glitter glue and sparkles was eye-catching, but not enough to distract a four-year-old boy from food.

As Lauren frowned at Jamie, the letters on his headwear shimmered and changed to spell ‘CtWumin’. Lauren giggled and pushed the correct spelling into Aervyn’s head. Jamie’s crown changed to ‘Cat Wunem’. Lauren giggled harder and pushed the spelling at Aervyn again, more slowly this time. Apparently “spelling prodigy” wasn’t on his list of talents.

Ginia was the first to figure out the cause of Lauren’s giggles, and soon a case of contagious snickers worked its way around to everyone except for Jamie.

“What?” Drumstick halfway to his mouth, Jamie finally realized everyone else had stopped eating. Clearly he was an old hat with witch pranks, however. One quick glance around the table and he’d honed in on Aervyn, possibly because the child in question was grinning with unholy glee.

Nell, evidently more than happy to dig her baby in deeper, handed Jamie a mirror from her bag. Jamie’s lips quirked, and he shot a look at Lauren. “He’s only four. What’s your excuse?”

Lauren tried for an innocent look. “I don’t know why you think I had anything to do with it.” Being an only child had not prepared her adequately for this kind of subterfuge.

Jamie smirked. “Aervyn couldn’t spell Cat Woman if his life depended on it.”

The table erupted in giggles again. Lauren looked around quickly, and then pulled her own crown off. “Robin.” Aervyn grabbed her arm and held out his own crown. “What’s it say, what does it say?”

Lauren didn’t even have to look. She sent an image of Batman to Aervyn, and a second idea.

Jennie intervened before they managed to pull off their revenge. “Save it for tonight, you two.”

Lauren looked at Jennie just in time to see ”my favorite aunt” flash on Jennie’s tiara and then disappear. Apparently when you grew up the youngest of seven, you learned how to sneak in the last word. It was a world away from the cozy, but very quiet, dinners she’d shared with her parents growing up.

A world away from someone else’s family dinners, too. Lauren looked down the table at Nat. Her friend was drinking up every moment. With Ginia on one side and Jamie on the other, she was literally bookended with people who loved her.

Lauren knew her life was back in Chicago, but she suddenly wasn’t so sure Nat’s was. A week ago, she’d have said Nat’s studio was her everything. Watching her friend now, surrounded by a family that had adopted her without even trying, Lauren was pretty sure Nat’s everything was rapidly changing shape.

As she tried to imagine life in Chicago without Nat, she remembered Jamie’s precog. He’d been building snowmen with Nat and Aervyn’s lookalike, and that surely wasn’t going to happen in Berkeley.

In any case, it wasn’t hers to figure out. Jamie would get on a plane with them tomorrow, and the steps after that were up to him and Nat.