About half an hour later, when dinner was finished and the dishes cleaned thanks to a quick spell cast by Amy, I pulled out a large brass cauldron from underneath the kitchen island and placed it on the counter.
“Alright,” Ellie said, rubbing her hands together. “What are we making tonight?”
“Sara’s mom gave me a recipe for an advanced potion the Healers make,” I said, pulling out one of my notebooks and opening it to the correct page. “It’s a salve that’s supposed to get rid of bruising, inflammation, and muscle strains basically immediately.”
“Oh, I know that one,” Sara said with a knowing nod from where she’d moved to the couch to watch us work. “Thank Jupiter it exists; it makes falling off your broom so much less painful. When I was a kid, Mom used to make it in industrial-sized batches for all the trouble I got into. Once, I flew right into a tree branch and had the worst black eye, but that salve made it disappear immediately. The two teeth I lost were a bit more of an issue to fix, though.”
“Your mom must have loved that,” Ellie said with a laugh.
Sara mimicked her mom’s voice. “They told me having a witch would be easier. Wizards are a handful, but witches are all sweet and nice. Little did they know…”
I laughed. “But hey, that little girl is officially the best broom rider in the entire paranormal world now, so I think a few lost teeth that had to be put back in would have been worth it.”
“That’s right,” Sara grinned. “World champion! And Mom couldn’t be more proud. You know, I was in the Healer’s Lounge the other day at the hospital, and saw that someone had put up a poster of me on the wall. Mom wrote ‘that’s my girl!’ on it, and I almost started crying then and there.”
“That’s really sweet,” I said, flashing Sara a smile as I made my way to the pantry, the most important part of any witch’s kitchen. “Ok, let me get the ingredients for this.”
Apparently pantries in earth covens— where potions were almost a bigger part of life than spells—were significantly larger than even Ellie’s collection here. I couldn’t imagine that there were all that many extra herbs and items that could be used in spellcasting that weren’t in this pantry.
Going from a list of ingredients, I picked out everything I needed for the potion: four dandelion stems, three perfectly round pebbles, two ounces of puddle water, six strawberry leaves, and one ounce of lavender-scented candle wax.
Ellie took the notebook from me and scanned through the instructions.
“So the first thing you need to do is melt the wax,” she said. “Have you ever made a potion with melted wax before?”
I shook my head no.
“Alright, well, it’s quite easy. You don’t want to use magic to melt the wax directly; you want to melt it with the flame under the cauldron. You can use magic to make the flame, though,” she added.
“Ok,” I said, placing the wax into the cauldron. Then I took my wand and looked at the tip. “Jupiter, god of thunder, bring to my wand a small flame asunder.”
The tip of my wand immediately burst into flame, giving me some fire that was about five or six times the size of what I would have gotten from a barbecue lighter. Perfect.
I put a protective sheet of brass underneath the cauldron, to stop the counter from catching fire, then placed the fiery wand on top of it, under the cauldron. Peering at the wax, I watched as it slowly melted, and when the last solid chunk disappeared I took my hand off the wand, breaking the spell.
“Perfect,” Ellie said with an approving nod. “Now go ahead and do the rest.”
I looked at the instructions once more and added the rest of the ingredients to the wax mixture in order. When I was done, the mixture looked a little bit like what a three-year-old throwing random ingredients into a box might have done. Still, I knew I had to cast the incantation to turn it into a real potion.
I pulled out my wand and placed the tip of it on the edge of the cauldron facing due north. Then I read out the words written in the book to cast the spell.
“Jupiter, Jupiter, god of war. Bruises and broken bones you must heal galore.”
The mixture immediately turned into a shimmery blue fluid with the consistency of molasses. I looked over at Ellie, whose brow was furrowed slightly.
“What is it?” I asked, but she shook her head quickly.
“Nothing,” she replied. “I thought maybe you said the incantation wrong, but the potion looks exactly the way it’s supposed to. It must have been me.”
I read over the instructions once more, but I was fairly certain I had set everything right.
“Well, we’ll see in the morning,” I replied. After all, this potion required refrigeration overnight—twelve hours—before it could be used to heal anybody.
“How are you going to test it?” Ellie asked.
“I was thinking I might try it on the small bruise on my arm,” I said. “I walked into the corner of the wall the other day and it’s been sore ever since. Then, if that works, I was thinking I might try and convince Mr. Meowgi to do some martial arts exercise, and then see if it helps his sore muscles.”
“Good plan,” Sara said from the couch. “I like how you always test your potions on yourself first before your familiar.”
“Of course,” I replied seriously. “I don’t know what I would do with myself if my studies led to any harm happening to Mr. Meowgi. And I don’t trust my abilities as a witch enough to do anything on him directly just yet. I’d sacrifice myself before I did anything that might hurt him.”
“Good,” Ellie said with a nod. “I think that’s more important than anything else for someone studying like you. If you get too confident or cocky then that’s what leads to mistakes in the healing profession.”
“Mom would agree with you there,” Sara said. “Now, put that cauldron in the fridge so we can go to bed.”
Chapter 3
The four of us all retired to our rooms soon afterward. Amy had taken a sleeping potion to ensure she would get the full eight hours of sleep she needed before her exam began, but Ellie and Sara were so tired neither one of them thought magical enhancements were necessary. I figured it would just be a normal night, but as soon as my head hit the pillow I had fallen into a deep sleep. I was so tired I almost forgot to set my alarm in the morning so that I could be up in time to open with Sara and Ellie at The Witching Flour.
When I was woken up in the morning by the music coming from my phone, however, Mr. Meowgi groaned at me from his position under the sheets.
“Can you turn that darned thing off?” he muttered. “It’s interrupting my beauty sleep.”
“Sorry,” I replied, stifling a yawn. I could have definitely used another six hours or so of sleep, but it just wasn’t to be. At least a large number of the baked goods at The Witching Flour were enhanced with energy-boosting potions.
I trudged down to the kitchen to get a glass of water, realizing I was the first one up as all the lights in the house were still out. I stepped into the kitchen, reaching over to flick the switch, and frowned as I looked down.
It felt like I had just stepped in something sticky. That was strange.
I turned on the light and my eyes widened as I looked down in horror. The entire kitchen had seemingly been taken over by some sort of strange blue slug. My heart sank as I realized where I had seen that shade of blue.
It was exactly the same blue as the potion I had made the night before. And sure enough, the fridge door was open, the cauldron I had used tipped over on its side and empty.
How on earth had my potion turned into a giant slug?
The whole kitchen was covered in blue slime. Most of the stuff on the counter was now missing, I assumed eaten by the strange being in front of me.
“Ellie?” I called out cautiously, hoping my friend would be up soon and able to help me find a solution to this mess, and the blue blob turned toward me. It didn’t have any eyes, or anything remotely resembling eyes, but the slug had a mouth, and it began moving in m
y direction, opening and closing that mouth as though trying to figure out where I was so it could eat me.
Nope. Nope, I had definitely not come this far in life to die being eaten by a giant slug created by my own potion. Absolutely not.
I fumbled around for my wand but realized at the last second that I had left it in my room. Great. My only advantage was that the slug seemed to be pretty slow-moving. I rushed over to the dining table as I called out for my friends once more. “Ellie! Sara! Amy! Guys, someone bring a wand,” I yelled as loudly as I could as I grabbed a chair from the dining set, rushed over to the giant slug, and knocked it over the head with all the strength I could muster.
The chair splintered into a dozen pieces, but it was like it had absolutely no effect on the slug. The thing crawled toward me once more, and I moved backward, doing my best to avoid it.
I wondered if I should head back upstairs. Maybe it would be incapable of following me up the steps. The only problem was in order to get back to the steps I would have to get past the slug in the first place. Great.
I started leading it as far into the living room as I could. As it passed by the discarded pieces of chair, the slug reached down, picked up the wood, and absorbed it through its mouth into its body.
I shivered, doing my best to ignore the thought that I might be the next thing absorbed.
As I drew it deeper into the living room, I eventually took my shot and darted to the left, around the slug, who reached toward me and just managed to get one of my fingers in its mouth. It was cold and slimy, and I yanked my hand away as hard as I could and rushed back toward the stairs, where I just about collided with Ellie, her wand up and ready.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her hair a frizzy mess.
“There’s a giant slug made of potion trying to eat me,” I replied, hoping Ellie wasn’t going to think I was in the middle of the craziest sleepwalking episode ever. “It’s in the living room.”
To her credit, Ellie just nodded and made her way over there, wand at the ready. A moment later I heard her cast a burning spell, while I rushed to my room to get my wand. By the time I came back, Amy was also up, the potion slug was gone, and half the living room was on fire.
I pointed my wand at the flames and muttered a quick spell, a torrent of water jetting from my wand and immediately extinguishing the fire, the flames disappearing with a hiss of steam.
I looked awkwardly over at my friends as Sara made her way into the room as well.
“What’s going on?” she asked, covering her mouth with her hand as a huge yawn escaped it.
Ellie grinned. “Not much. Tina just tried to kill all of us with that potion she made last night.”
I groaned. “It was an accident. What happened, anyway?”
“You must have said the incantation wrong,” Amy said. “If Ellie was watching you put the ingredients into the potion, then that was the most likely mistake. Either that, or your wand wasn’t pointing due north when you cast the spell.”
“Ellie thought that I had said the incantation wrong,” I said thoughtfully. “I was sure I said it right, though.”
“I’m pretty sure you said ‘you must’ heal galore,” Ellie said. “The line is ‘you’re to’ heal galore.” Honestly though, when the potion came out and was the right color, I thought maybe it was my ears that were the problem. I didn’t think the potion would start trying to take over the house in the middle of the night.”
“You must be right,” I said dejectedly. “After all, Mr. Slug over there is a pretty good indicator that I did say something wrong. How did you know that fire was going to destroy him?”
“Fire destroys most things,” Ellie said. “I figured it was a good shot.”
I looked around at the blackened wall. “No kidding,” I said. “I hope our insurance policy is up to date.”
“What, for this?” Amy asked. She waved her wand and all of a sudden the wall was just like new. A second wave and the water on the floor had disappeared, as had the burn marks on the hardwood. I grinned.
“I always forget you can do that, and just how impressive it is.”
“It must be so difficult living in the human world and not being able to clean things like this with a wave of the wand,” Amy said.
“I mean, it is, but also in the human world I’ve never had a giant blue slug try to eat me. So maybe it’s a little bit of a trade-off.”
“Well, there’s nothing quite like fending off a mysterious potion-turned-giant-slug to wake you up in the morning,” Sara said. “I’m going to have a quick shower, then why don’t we head off to The Witching Flour?”
I made my way to the kitchen, casting cleaning spells to get rid of the blue slime blobs that were all over the place, making a mental note of everything that had disappeared and that I would have to replace. I then cast a quick spell to fix up my hair, ran upstairs, got dressed, and got ready to go with Ellie and Sara.
“What happened down there?” Mr. Meowgi asked sleepily. “It sounded like someone set the house on fire. Some of us are trying to get some rest, here.”
“Sorry,” I replied, hiding a smile. “Just a little accident with a potion. But don’t worry, we’re all heading off now, so you can sleep the rest of the day away in peace.”
“Good,” my familiar replied. “Don’t do anything exciting without me. I have skills, you know.”
“I know,” I replied. “Don’t worry. I’m just going to work. Nothing exciting is going to happen.” At least, I hoped not. I was all for a nice, peaceful, routine day.
“Good luck, Amy,” I said to my friend before we left, giving her a quick hug. “I know you’re nervous, and I know nothing that I say is going to fix that, but you’re the smartest witch I know and I know you’re absolutely going to crush this test.”
“Thanks, Tina,” she replied. “I hope you’re right.” Amy’s eyes had that shimmer of excitement that I only saw in her when she got to use her knowledge, so I was fairly certain she was going to be ok.
The three of us walked out and began making our way toward the shop downtown. As soon as we got in, Ellie went straight to the back to work on some baking, while Sara and I loaded up the baked goods Ellie had made the night before and put them on platters to display in the store.
Lucy, the witch who shared the other half of the store with Ellie, selling her magically enhanced pins, arrived a couple of minutes before seven, and right as the clock struck the hour I opened the front doors to find two customers already waiting to get their morning coffee and pastries.
“Hi there, welcome,” I said with a smile as I recognized the two vampires. They were regulars; they came in after their shift working security at the golf course every night and always got a couple of cinnamon buns before heading off.
“Thank you,” one of them told me. “It’s nice now, with the days getting shorter. Soon it’ll still be dark by the time we get to come in and get the cinnamon buns.”
“That’s right,” I said with a nod as I made my way behind the counter to help them. It was funny to think that while the rest of the paranormal world lamented winter’s arrival and the shorter days, vampires actually looked forward to it since it meant their nights were longer. “Two cinnamon buns and two lattes?”
“You know it,” one of them replied, passing over a couple of bills which I quickly turned into change while Sara got started on making the coffees.
We had been open for less than a minute and already we were well into a rhythm. It was going to be a big day, I could feel it. I just didn’t know how big.
Chapter 4
For the next four hours, the three of us worked nonstop without a break. I didn’t even have time to think about Amy’s exam and wonder how it went for her. Hopefully she would pop in afterward and let us know, but I also knew that night she would want to go over every single question and second-guess herself until she convinced herself that she failed completely. That was the routine, and the spiral of self-doubt only ended when Amy eventu
ally got the results of her tests back and discovered that rather than failing she had scored better than everyone else.
Around one in the afternoon we finally got a little bit of a break. It was good timing; the first of the four fairies Ellie and I were supposed to interview were scheduled to come in at one thirty. I leaned against the counter and ate a quick muffin while Sara bussed the tables and took the dirty dishes to the back room.
“I can’t believe the two of you managed by yourselves yesterday if it was this busy,” I said, shaking my head incredulously when Sara came back out. “I feel like the three of us are only just barely handling it now.”
“I know, right?” Sara asked. “Yesterday was crazy. But soon we’re going to have help. Maybe we can even convince Ellie to get a part-time barista, as well.”
“That would be good,” I replied. Just then, a small fairy with straight black hair and an oval face came fluttering in with her pink wings.
“Hi there,” she said to us confidently, holding out a hand. “I have an interview scheduled with Ellie.”
“I’m Tina,” I replied, shaking her hand. Her grip was firm, but not overly tight.
“Tora,” the fairy replied.
“Ellie’s just in the back right now, come with me, I’ll take you to her,” I said, and Tora fluttered after me. “Come and get me if things get too busy,” I called out to Sara as I pushed open the door to the kitchen at the back.
Ellie was wrist deep in some sort of dough that I assumed was eventually going to become cinnamon buns. She smiled as soon as she saw Tora.
“Hi, I’m Ellie,” she said. “I’d shake your hand, but I’m afraid I’m a little bit messy right now.”
“No worries at all,” Tora said, holding out her hand anyway. Ellie shook it, the fairy’s hand coming out with a dusting of flour. “If I’m going to be working in a bakery, I’d better not let a little bit of a mess here and there stop me.”
Behind the Eight Spell Page 2