I wrinkled my nose. I didn’t like knowing the pet names of married people.
She repeated the words before lowering the walkie-talkie. “He’s working on a dinosaur distraction spell, trying to get it into a casing that will hold it. If I don’t use the type of spell he’s working on, he doesn’t hear my voice at all. Trust me, it took me years before I figured that out.”
“What do you need?” came Dizzy’s voice, annoyed.
“Reagan has come for a visit. She’s working tonight. Over.”
“Oh! I’ll be right in. I have another sword for her to try.”
“That’s why I was calling,” Callie muttered to herself. She squeezed the talk button. “She won’t be here long. Over.”
Silence.
Her brow lowered. “Are you coming now? Over.”
More silence.
Callie scowled and set the walkie-talkie on the counter. “No matter how many times I tell him, he doesn’t use the proper speech. Half the time he’s finished the conversation and I’m waiting on the other end, like a fool, wondering why it’s taking him so long to answer.”
“What’s the proper speech?” I asked as she moved to the fridge.
“Over. Out. Sometimes he takes a long pause, I think he’s done, go to answer, and we end up pushing the button at the same time.” She popped the top off a beer with a little too much force. “It’s a small problem, yes, but it’s annoying as all hell.”
“Got it.” I took the beer. “Thanks.”
She poured herself a coffee.
“Coffee? Really?” I asked. “My mother must not have rubbed off on you.”
Callie took the whiskey out of the cupboard. I laughed. “Ah.”
“She wasn’t the one who rubbed off on me.” Callie poured a generous helping into her coffee. “It was the other way around. My parents were from Ireland. Why do you think she used Gaelic in her incantations?”
A door opened somewhere in the house, followed by a heavy tread.
“But you use Latin,” I said.
“For the household stuff, yes. It’s like buying a Mercedes. You’re showing your prestige and status more than getting something worth the price. Gaelic is reserved for my personal collection.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No. You wouldn’t. It’s not logical.” She took a sip as Dizzy stomped into the kitchen, leaving a trail of mud and flower petals in his wake. Callie’s lips thinned and she leaned more heavily against the counter. She didn’t say a word.
A moment later, I saw that she didn’t have to.
“I’ll clean it up later, Callie, this is important.” Dizzy put a sword down on the island and peered at me. “Any feedback about the one you have?”
“No. It’s perfect.”
He nodded and pointed. “Try this one. Callie tweaked a few things, and I honed it down.”
“Do you guys always work on everything together?” I asked, holding my hand above the blade. A sort of song and spice filtered through me as the warming hum vibrated through my hand. “That’s nice.”
“Good. Yes, good.” Dizzy went to the cabinet at the side of the kitchen. “We’ll alter the one you currently use, since that’s the sword Callie’s friend foretold of. This will be a good backup.”
“That whack job is not my friend.” Callie shook her head at her husband before turning back to me. “We work on all the more powerful and important items together. I am the big-picture worker, and he is the finesse. Separately we are both powerful, adept mages. Together we are the best in the state. It’s very rare for two mages to come together in perfect harmony. Usually the balance of power is not quite right. When we got together, society said men should hold all the power in our everyday lives. Men tried to apply that to magic, and women either let them or fought them. Either way, it disrupted the balance. When a magical pair bends their relationship to fit the will of their so-called peers, they tarnish what is pure. They upset the natural flow of energy. Only if they fully trust each other, and themselves, can they benefit from a boost in power. That’s why dual mages, the yin and yang of magic, are very rare.”
“You keep saying women and men. What about same sex?” I asked, knowing I should be getting down to business, but I couldn’t help myself. No one had described dual mages like this to me before.
“That’s a reflection on the period as well. A long time ago, there were many same-sex partnerships. From what I’ve read, some were sexual partners, but most were female besties or men with a bromance. Witches have held that standard through time, working together to boost their power. But when the Mages’ Guild formed, things started to change for us. The shift was slow, and incredibly damaging. Now dual mages are mostly heterosexual married people. I’m sure I don’t have to impress upon you how hard that is. Keeping a marriage together is hard enough, but not strangling your partner when he repeatedly ruins your flowerbeds and tracks mud all through the kitchen…”
“Look at what I’m doing. I’m fixing it!” Dizzy said as he set upon the clumps of mud with a broom and dustpan.
Callie took another sip of her Irish coffee.
“Right. So he has the shed, and you have your ridiculous sweats,” I said.
“I told her,” Dizzy said, grinning as he worked.
Callie glowered. “It’s ridiculous to tell me I can or can’t wear something because of my age. I will not yield to a twenty-year-old trying to bully me!”
“No one, not a teen, a twenty-something, an old lady, or an old man, for that matter, should wear pink velvet sweats with ‘Juicy’ written on the ass. There is no age where that looks good.”
Callie turned around and pointed at her butt. “You stand corrected.”
Dizzy looked her way, rolled his eyes dramatically, and bent down to the next pile of dirt. I couldn’t help giggling like an idiot, especially since Dizzy hadn’t taken off his filthy shoes.
“So, what do you need?” Callie said, leaning on the counter and sipping her drink.
The atmosphere in the kitchen changed from light and fun to somber and pressurized in an instant. I took a slug of my beer and gently set it down on the granite.