Every Witch Way but Wicked

by Barbra Annino

  *

  Several hours, three pit stops and a few whinges later, and Seren’s stomach was doing merry flips as they rounded the corner onto Ocean Lane. David had barely braked when she was pushing the car door open and jumping onto the sidewalk, breathing in a lungful of salty sea air, her face turned upwards to the bright blue sky then down to sweep a look over the Winterstorm abode. It was an odd house, added to here and there to become a mishmash of white clapboard punctuated by large windows, a couple of round portholes and a series of stained glass square windows lighting one side in swathes of color. One generation had had the fanciful idea of adding an extension that was topped with a hexagonal room from which rose a turret, a weathervane whirling on top. It was spinning and spinning, even though there was barely a breeze. Despite its unconventional structure, it was an elegant house – slightly odd, bizarrely aristocratic, and utterly Winterstorm.

  Behind her, Seren heard David’s door open and close and then he was beside her, his arm snaking around her waist. She looked up at him and blew a kiss. He was nervous, she could tell, and she didn’t want him to be. Yes, a lot of stories were told about the Winterstorms because they were an old and powerful family, but Seren wanted him to see that they were her parents, first and foremost, and that it wasn’t all spells and magic. Well, not entirely, anyway.

  “Seren!” The voice seemed to come from somewhere inside the house, which amplified it and sent it shooting across the porch towards them. It was almost like the house was welcoming her home, except at that moment the screen door banged open and her mother came barrelling down the steps and sprinted along the path, meeting them at the gate. Her eyes were wild, wilder than normal, and she had the panicked expression of someone who had just done something awful and wasn’t quite sure how to explain it. A moment later Laura Winterstorm had wiped the panic from her face and gave them a brilliant smile instead. “Darling!”

  Seren peered at her suspiciously. “What’s wrong, Mom?”

  “Nothing,” replied Laura breezily, thrusting a hand towards David and shaking his enthusiastically. “You must be David. So pleased to meet you. I’ve heard nice things about you so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re all true.”

  Don’t mention his scar, Mom, thought Seren. The long scar that dissected his handsome face was a sore point with David. Seren could have fixed it back when it was fresh – she had some healing powers – but he steadfastly refused to let her. It was as if he was wearing it like some kind of badge of honor. It was faded now, a pinkish line, but it was still there and finally she’d just accepted that she had to let the matter drop. David would work it out in his own time.

  Pleasantries, such as they were, out of the way, Laura kept a firm grip on the gate, even when Seren very decisively reached forward and gave it a push. “Okay, just tell us. What did you do?” Seren hoped she didn’t sound as weary and as resigned as she felt. So much for a welcome homecoming. So much for hope of that ice-cold mojito that had kept her going for the last hour of their drive.

  “Why would you think I did something?” Laura looked chagrined, and a shade guilty.

  Seren narrowed her eyes. “Let us in, then.” She gave the gate another push but it didn’t budge one bit under Laura’s grip.

  “Well, I…”

  “Spit it out, Mom, we don’t want to stand here all day.”

  Laura took a large breath and exhaled slowly, the brilliant smile—now slightly manic with effort—sliding off her face as she rolled her eyes. Her shoulders slumped and the gate opened, just a crack. “I suppose I should tell you everything.”

  Seren pushed through and reached out for David’s hand, tugging him after her and looked at her mother expectantly.

  “I cast a little spell.” Laura held up her thumb and forefinger, an inch of space between the two, and grimaced. “It backfired and now…oh, you better see for yourselves.”

  Behind Laura, David raised his eyebrows and Seren sighed. Her mother should have known better than to practise spell casting. She wasn’t that sort of magic. The Winsterstorm women were magic through and through. It seemed it ran in their veins, it was in their hearts and souls, it was in everything that they did. Yet Laura had always had a strange fascination with spell casting, possibly because her husband Byron, Seren’s father, was a spell casting warlock of extraordinary power. Unfortunately, Laura had never quite got the hang of spells and what she intended to happen invariably didn’t.

  Laura streamed ahead of them, her long velvet skirt swirling around her feet, leaving Seren and David to hurry in her wake. They went through the hallway, all jutting angles and doors, straight on through the archway that led in to the dining room and beyond that, another doorway that led in to the big old kitchen. Off to one side was the room where Byron mixed potions for his spells. The door was usually kept firmly shut, mostly to keep Laura out. Today it was wide open and a billow of smoke plumed through the doorway then split and snaked away, propelling itself through the house.

  Laura paused on the threshold and pulled a face. “I read the instructions,” she sighed, beckoning them inside. “It should have made a simple charm, but I started saying things I didn’t even recognize, then the smoke started appearing and it…”

  Seren wasn’t sure she wanted to ask, but she did anyway. “It what?”

  “It started talking.”

  “Talking?” David said skeptically, like an echo. “With a voice?”

  “Smoke can’t do telepathy. Doesn’t have a brain, see?” replied Laura, smartly. She stepped inside Byron’s lab and beckoned for them to follow.

  “What on earth made you try to make a charm?” Seren batted away a thick cloud of smoke and peered towards the big worktable. Spread over it was a variety of tubes and bottles, packets of dried herbs and fresh cuttings.

  “Why wouldn’t I? I wanted to do something nice for your visit.” Laura flicked a hand at the pestle and mortar surrounded by debris. “But it didn’t quite work out the way I intended. I wouldn’t have summoned a…monster.”

  Seren turned to David, a quizzical look on her face. What on earth could her mother have gotten into this time? David wasn’t watching Seren though. His eyes had taken on that glazed look he got whenever he was concentrating hard and his lips were moving, though no sound came out. Seren waited while he finished casting his spell then coughed politely and held up the box.

  David frowned and shook his head. “There was a compulsion spell,” he said. “As soon as your mother said the first line of the spell she was under its power. It was designed to make sure that she finished the real charm that was activated. She wouldn’t have been able to do anything else, no matter what happened.”

  “Why would someone do that?” asked Seren.

  David stepped to one side as another cloud of smoke separated and swept through the doorway on its way to who knew where. “More importantly, what spell did she cast?” He stepped forward and scrabbled through the debris on the table, before he pulled up a thick sheet of paper. As he held it up triumphantly, it started to curl in on itself before bursting into flames. David dropped it on the table where it promptly fizzled out, leaving a mess of charred flakes. “Ah,” he said. “This is a problem.”

  “What spell did you cast, Mom?”

  Laura stopped her flitting and stood on the other side of the table, dodging smoke and wringing her hands, her face a puzzle. “I…can’t remember,” she stuttered.

  “Can you remember what you used?” David asked, searching through the untidy heap of instruments and ingredients on the table. “Did you use everything here?”

  Laura was starting to look upset as she looked down at the empty packets and the marble bowl that Byron used for mixing. It was empty but for a few smears. “I really don’t know. I don’t know what I used or what I did. I can’t remember anything.”

  “It’s okay, you were under a spell,” said David, his voice kind. “Along with the compulsion, I suspect there was a forget spell a
nd then a failsafe added to get rid of the instructions and cause confusion. This was done by a witch who has had a lot of experience in spells.”

  “Do you know anyone like that, Mom?” Seren asked, walking around the table and giving her mother a hug.

  “I know all the local witches. I can’t think of anyone who would want to use spells like that on me.” Laura’s voice was tipping upwards towards a shriek and Seren stroked her arm in what she hoped was a reassuring manner.

  David was carefully ordering the debris into neat lines, picking up a packet every so often to sniff the contents.

  “Any clues?” Seren asked, just as a spiral of smoke slunk past her head. She watched it take a right at the doorway and aim for the foyer, before wheeling back, turning into a pretty convincing impression of a lion. It roared and the room shook.

  David shook his head, watching the apparition dissolve. “It could be anything. I don’t think everything here was used. Part of the confusion element of the spell, perhaps.”

  “Or my dad being really untidy as usual.”

  Seren looked over to her mother for any hints that she remembered anything about what she had done, but Laura just shrugged her shoulders then flopped backwards on to the window seat. Yep, her mother was a lost cause. Still, there was a very important question that none of them had asked yet. “David, do you know what the spell will do?”

  “Ah, yes, I’ve been wondering that too. I’m going to cast a simple discovery spell and see what that tells us.” It was a simple spell, one that David clearly knew off by heart as he recited the words. At the end of the incantation, David waited, a puzzled look growing across his face. Then, with a look of surprise, he shouted, “Duck!”

  Seren didn’t need to be told twice. she’d been caught in the crossfire enough lately that hitting the decks was getting to be second nature. Crouching on the floor, David next to her, she could just see under the table as her mother slithered to the floor. The static plume of smoke was now growing larger, sending the smoke to multiply until it became a wave of smog stretching through the room.

  “What happened?” Seren asked, crouching lower, like she was a kid who had just been taught fire safety. Smoke rises, human lungs needed to stay low. Despite everything that was magical about her, and David, and her mom, they still had very human bodies.

  David grimaced. “Another booby trap. This one was set to amplify the charm if a discovery spell was performed.”

  “So we have no way of knowing what this spell is.”

  “Fraid not.”

  “Fiddlesticks.” Seren could think of a few stronger words she’d have liked to have said. She took a deep breath. “What do we do know?”

  Laura crawled under the table and scooted over to them, watching in horror as the smog started to travel through the house. “Byron is going to be so cross,” she muttered.

  “Where is he, anyway?” Seren asked.

  “He went for a walk on the beach.”

  “Did he take his cell phone? Can we call him and ask if he noticed anything peculiar?” When Laura nodded, Seren dug her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through to her dad’s number and hit ‘call’. The line beeped once then went dead. “Can we try your phone, David?”

  “Sure.” Seren reeled off the number but the same thing happened. A single beep, then dead. Next to them Laura was batting her hand around the top of the table. With a triumphant grin she grabbed the portable house phone and hit the speed dial. This time there wasn’t any tone at all.

  “I don’t think we can dial out,” said Laura.

  “Maybe we should get out.” David crawled over to the door that led to the garden and tugged on the handle. “Stuck,” he said, over his shoulder. “Magically stuck.”

  “Are we trapped?” Laura wailed. “How do we get help?”

  “Even if we did get a message out, anyone who came in would be trapped too,” David muttered darkly. “And I can’t try any spells to do with the charm in case there are other built in traps.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Laura.

  Seren rolled her eyes. “Mom, he means we are completely f-” At the sound of the front door, Seren broke off and twisted her head.

  “Hello!” Byron’s deep voice boomed from the front door. “Is that Seren’s car outside?” Then, after a pause, “What the devil is going on in here?”

  “We can’t let him come in. He’ll be trapped!” Laura moaned as they each sprinted for the front door, only to skid to a halt in the foyer as Byron stepped through and slammed the door shut, making the house shudder and taking the promise of freedom with it. Shrugging his jacket off, he hung it on the coat stand and turned to face them, one hand smoothing his fine white beard. “Ah, my lovely daughter. Welcome home! Has there been a fire?” He batted at the smoke and sniffed it. “It doesn’t smell like fire, it smells like…”

  “Magic,” Seren finished. “We have a little problem.”

  “And we’re stuck,” added Laura. “The magic has cut off the phones and sealed the doors and windows.”

  Byron looked back at the door then to the trio huddled together. “Oh dear.”

  “It wasn’t my fault,” Laura quickly added.

  “Bit of a stretch, Mom.”

  “Technically it wasn’t.” Laura flashed wide eyes while her husband rolled his.

  Byron asked, “Someone want to tell me what’s going on?”

  David stepped in, shaking Byron’s hand politely as if the smoke monsters were nothing but a mere annoyance in the middle of their first meeting. Byron looked over the younger witch from head to toe and narrowed his eyes slightly, giving a very convincing overprotective father look as David explained, “Laura was casting a spell and it seemed to have triggered a compulsion spell that ensured she cast a charm. We’re not sure what it is, but it seems to be causing this smoke and we can’t leave the house.”

  “Bother,” replied Byron. He set his panama hat on the table and crossed his arms, rocking slightly on his heels. “What do you plan on doing about this, Laura?”

  “Can’t you do something?” Laura turned and faced her husband, ducking a smoke monster that had sprouted teeth. “Break the spell?”

  “Why?”

  “Why? Because we’re stuck in the house and it’s trying to eat us.”

  “I don’t think it will do that. You’re interested in spells—you work it out.” Byron nodded at his daughter. “Good to see you, darling Seren. Let me know when your mother has cleared up her mess.”

  “Aren’t you going to help her, Dad? Us?”

  “Not this time. Your mother has cast enough spells over the last few years that have backfired and she never learns. Perhaps this time she should learn that she shouldn’t meddle.”

  “That’s not fair! Mom was under a compulsion spell.”

  “She still cast the spell, even though she knows what happens when she does.”

  Seren had to admit that her father had her there. The whole family knew what happened when Laura cast a spell, and it was never good. Why her mother couldn’t be content to stick with her own brand of magic was one of life’s mysteries.

  “At least give us an idea how to help Mom. Please.”

  Byron blinked and looked down at his daughter. “All I can suggest is that you don’t tinker with the spell anymore.” With that, he nodded to David, turned on his heel and strode away towards his study, not ducking from the flying goblin the smoke had now kicked out. Actually, now Seren thought about it, her father hadn’t seemed all that perturbed about the backfiring, booby trapped spell or the smoke monster at all. Or that he was as trapped as the rest of them. There was something very wrong about her father not panicking when the rest of them were.

  “If we can’t tinker with the spell…” David was musing, his eyebrows knitting into a frown before he suddenly smiled brightly. “I’ve got it. We won’t try and crack the spell. We’ll just bring the spell caster to us.”

  “A summoning spell?” asked Seren at precisely
the same time her mother cooed, eyes bright, and asked if she could have a go, too.

  “Really, Mom, really?” Seren pleaded. “Don’t you think one enormous mess is enough for one day? Leave it to the master.”

  “Have you ever done this before? Did it work?” asked Laura, slyly sticking her tongue out at her daughter before turning back to David.

  “Yes, not long ago as it happens,” David replied. “You won’t have to do anything and I’m sure it will work.”

  Laura pulled a face but she did follow David meekly to the potion room where the mess had all begun and they watched as he gathered the herbs he needed and sprinkled them in a wide circle over the floor. “Let’s join hands,” he instructed. “I’ll perform the spell and you two can lend some power.”

  Holding hands, linked like a supernatural circuit, David whispered the summoning spell. The smoke seemed to suck into the room like a vacuum and then part, still thick and unwavering. In the centre of the herbs stood an old man looking…caught.

  “Dad?” asked Seren at the same time Laura exclaimed, “Byron!”

  “Ah,” said Byron. Behind him small pops indicated new arrivals until there were six people stood behind him.

  “Alice? Matthew?” Laura was saying in surprise as she identified those whom the spell had summoned. “Aunt Emily? What are you all doing here?”

  “They cast the spell,” said David, shrinking back to stand next to Seren to watch the scene unfold.

  Seren whispered back, “Why would they do that?” but David was cut off from answering her as Laura took charge.

  “You all did this?” said Laura, appalled. “Why?”

  “You won’t stop meddling with spells,” said Aunt Emily, Seren’s great aunt, an ancient looking woman of ninety or so wearing an impeccable wool suit in a shocking pink. “It doesn’t matter how often the spells go wrong, you won’t stop.”