A Witch's Magic

by N. E. Conneely

  “No!” Natalie screamed, reaching out as if it would stop him.

  The broom whooshed through the air, colliding squarely with a wall of dry herbs. I didn’t even have time to swear before the entire floor-to-ceiling display went up in flames. Only a breath later, the fire jumped to the lacquered wood shelving beside them. If it weren’t for the cat involved, I would have voted for evacuating this place and calling it a loss.

  A hair-raising yowl split the air. I winced as a flaming sphere of cat launched itself off the highest shelf and arced overhead. My rain cloud was nowhere to be seen, so the flames must’ve burned through it. As the cat soared across the room, it left a wake of blackened ceiling tiles. It was time to change my tactics.

  “Are you trying to destroy my shop?” Natalie screeched at the wizard.

  I went after the cat, ignoring whatever reply the wizard made. Near the center of the store, a display case toppled over, and I figured the cat couldn’t be far from there. Since water didn’t work and the flames fed on containment spells, it was time to get creative.

  I held my breath as I tiptoed through a dense, orange cloud of some strange mixture of magical supplies. When I was well clear, I sucked in smoke-tainted air and continued searching for the cat. The problem was that most of the ways I could get rid of the flames were likely to hurt Timothy. Ideally, I could figure out what spell had gone wrong and fix it. However, I would have to get the cat to hold still so I could thoroughly investigate the flames, and I didn’t think that was likely to happen.

  Of course, maybe I didn’t actually need to know what spell was causing the flames if I could simply remove the fuel. There were quite a lot of magics that would start flames, contain them, shape them, and intensify them, but most couldn’t sustain the fire for very long. Therefore, suffocating it would work. Usually, I would just make a containment spell, suck all the oxygen out of it, and set that over the flames, but in this case, that would kill Timothy. Somehow, I suspected Natalie wanted her cat alive at the end of this.

  I carefully edged around a growing hole in the ground that had been caused by half a shelf’s worth of bottles tumbling into the spot.

  On second thought, maybe she would be happy if I killed the cat.

  “I’ll drown you if that’s what it takes, you flaming beast.” That steely voice didn’t belong to Natalie or the wizard.

  I took a hard right and found Timothy cowering in a corner with walls of water all around him. The flames were a solid three feet tall, and big plumes of steam were emanating from every side of Timothy’s watery cage. But the angular witch, who’d been so determinedly extinguishing the purified cloth a few minutes ago, looked like she was ready to summon an ocean if that’s what was needed to contain Timothy.

  In a rare turn of luck, the flames had retreated from the cat’s head and neck. I pointed my wand at Timothy, not bothering with runes because it would be too awkward to frame the spell. Instead, I visualized a gap that air couldn’t cross, limiting the air that could feed the flames. The empty space went from the cat’s neck to the flames twisting at the end of his tail, under his feet and up until it completely separated the highest flames from the rest of the room. That wasn’t a containment spell as much as magical separation of air, which made it impossible for oxygen to move through the space and to the flames.

  I held my breath as the spell solidified and waited to see if the flames would react. For a long count of five, they did nothing. That was enough for me. I activated a spell to suck the oxygen out.

  As the first bit of air went hurling out of the squashed oval of space around Timothy, the flames roared up, encouraged by the artificial breeze. Then, they slowed down, and the top of the fire settled to just under two feet. I poured more energy into the spell that was pulling the air away from the fire, willing this to work.

  I could feel the air moving out again. The flames had shrunk and were slowly fading in color. I put more magic into the spell as the flames got smaller and smaller. Finally, as I was panting with the effort to keep the air moving, the flames flickered out completely. I quickly ended the spell, making the space around the cat a completely airtight environment so the flames couldn’t reignite.

  Timothy collapsed onto the floor, eyes wide, panting even more than me. I wasn’t sure if he even saw the walls of water anymore. Poor little guy.

  With the flames gone, I carefully extended a slender strand of my power and probed Timothy, looking for any spells or residue that could give me a hint as to what caused the fire to begin with. The air around him was empty, but as soon as the tendrils of magic touched his fur, a tingle raced back to me. He was covered in warped bits of a fire charm. It felt like a corrupted version of the standard charm that came on most cauldrons. However, this one had transferred to Timothy and ignited.

  The good news was it was easy enough to strip off. I yanked at the knots of magic that were holding the spell in place, and it collapsed. The residual energy flowed back into the earth. I probed Timothy again, and he was just a cat. A scared cat, but a cat who still had all his fur even after setting half the shop on fire. Since he was free of the charm, I released the magic holding the vacuum around him.

  I glanced at the witch beside me. Sweat was dripping off her temples, but her wand was as steady as ever. “Excuse me, ma’am, but you can let the spell go. The cat is fine now.”

  Her eyes never left Timothy. “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely.”

  She turned just enough for me to see her raise one very skeptical eyebrow.

  “Sowil,” I muttered under my breath and flicked my wand. A light containment spell encapsulated Timothy. The flames didn’t come back. His eyes drooped then closed. He hadn’t even noticed that he was effectively captured. “He’s just a very tired cat now.”

  “If you’re sure...” She eyed the cat.

  “I’m sure.” The walls of water fell limply to the ground. The containment spell kept Timothy dry, and he didn’t even open an eye.

  “Is he alive?” Natalie came up next to me, her voice rough.

  “Yep, but I’d take him to a vet for a better evaluation.”

  As Natalie hurried forward to check on her pet, I surveyed the shop. There were fires everywhere, half the shelving was turned over, and assorted colors of smoke were slowly moving throughout the room. I had serious doubts that much of the inventory could be saved.

  However, Natalie had been good to me back when I was clanless and a lot of witches didn’t want to have anything to do with me. “Dagaz ehaz.” With that, the fires went out. The one nearest to me cooled so quickly that I could put my hand against the wood in a matter of seconds.

  “Thank you,” Natalie said softly. “I couldn’t manage the set of spells you used on Timothy. And I can’t thank you enough for putting out the fires.”

  “Do you want me to stay and help with the rest?” I tried not to cringe at the thought. It was going to take days to adequately clean this place, never mind the actual repairs, before she could reopen.

  Natalie patted my shoulder. “You’ve done enough. I know a clan that specializes in this type of stuff. I’ll call them. You’ll send me a bill?”

  A half-burned shelf in front of us crumpled to the ground, smashing all of its contents. “Or you could figure out an appropriate discount on my future orders, and we’ll call it even.”

  “Deal.” A quick handshake cemented the agreement. “Now get out of here. I have a shop to fix and Timothy to take care of.”

  She didn’t have to ask me twice. I tweaked the spell on the door enough to let me pass, walked out to my car, and collapsed into the driver’s seat.

  Now, I really needed a comforting tea. Maybe if I asked nicely, the barista at Roasted Beans would give me a double pump of mental fortitude in my latte.

  Chapter Ten

  Before I could start my car, the phone rang. I groaned.

  “That better not be another emergency.” Sighing, I dug the phone out of my purse. “Oaks Consulting,
this is Michelle.”

  “It’s Rodriguez. Can you get down to The Creamery? I have a problem that I need your help with.”

  No way. It simply wasn’t possible that I had a third emergency today. “You’re kidding, right? I just finished dealing with an emergency at Witch’s Warehouse.”

  “Not joking at all. I’ve been down here for the past thirty minutes and the magic is past my scope. I’ve called you eight times, and dispatch called twice for magical back up. They said you were busy, and they didn’t have anyone else to send. If I could’ve gotten someone else, I would’ve. I’m sorry.”

  I silently swore. This day. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Thanks, Michelle.” He hung up before I could change my mind.

  I set my phone down in a cup holder. This was the day of sorrow and never-ending emergencies. My magical reserves were holding up fairly well, but the emotions of the morning had settled over me. Mourning wasn’t a great energy booster.

  There wasn’t even a good excuse, like Friday the thirteenth or a full moon. Nope, it was smack in the middle of the lunar cycle, not new, not full, nothing interesting. For whatever reason, everything was going wrong, and I had to be one of the people to swoop in and fix it.

  Cursing under my breath, I backed out of my parking space and headed over to The Creamery. It was only a few blocks away, and the short drive wasn’t nearly enough time to recover from my morning.

  Before I knew it, I was parked in front of The Creamery, and Officer Rodriguez was standing in the parking lot waiting for me. Just like before, I didn’t take anything but my keys and wand with me.

  I approached him, trying to look chipper and friendly even though I just wanted to go home and hide until the day passed. “You were a bit vague on details over the phone. What’s the problem?”

  Rodriguez scrubbed a hand over his face. His black hair was windblown, and his normally golden complexion was a bit pale. “I wish I knew. It’s my third call today, and I’m not at my best.”

  I patted him on the shoulder. “Mine, too. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m ready for this craziness to wear off.”

  “Agreed.” He looked back at The Creamery, where a boy, late teens or early twenties from the look of him, was standing nervously by the door. “I think we’re going to need more help. The people in there seem to be suffering from some sort of unintended effect of today’s magical ice cream.”

  I groaned. Please, please, don’t let the effects be anything like what they were at Happy Paws. I directed the prayer to the earth, moon, sun, sky, and anyone else who was feeling benevolent and was listening. Finally, I worked around to what I needed to focus on. “Reminds me of Happy Paws. Do you think these two situations could have anything in common?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. We won’t know until we wade into the magic.”

  “Ask for back up, medical support.” From the shadows I could see through the window, there were at least four people in there, and I still didn’t know exactly what kind of magic I was dealing with.

  Rodriguez shook his head. “Why don’t you go over and talk to the employee? I’ll make that request and join you in a few minutes.”

  Looking over at the guy, who kept glancing between us and the customers, I sighed. “Deal.”

  As I headed toward the door of The Creamery, I hoped this was less exciting than the rest of my day had been. Somehow, I didn’t think I was going to get that lucky.

  The lad pushed open the door and hurried out to meet me, letting the door swing shut behind him. His brows were pulled close together, and his words tumbled out so fast they ran into each other. “Are you the witch? The officer said you’d be able to help. I really don’t know what happened. I was the last one here last night, and everything was fine.”

  I held up a hand. “Slow it down.” He took a deep breath, then a second one. “That’s better. Tell me what last night has to do with today, and tell me if you noticed anything odd.”

  He sucked in a third breath. “So, I closed last night, which meant I set the machines to make the ice cream overnight. It’s a slow process, automated, so it’s not a big deal. We get recipes for what the next day’s batch will be. This was one I’ve done before, Sweet Dreams. It’s supposed to let them see the best outcome of happy things they’ve dreamed about, wished for, you get the idea.”

  I nodded and hoped he kept talking at this nice normal pace rather than the spillage I’d gotten a moment ago.

  “Last night, everything was fine. There were no problems with yesterday’s batch. I poured in the milk, sugar, all the ingredients. I checked the expiration dates on everything. The first bottle of Sweet Dreams mix I grabbed was expired, so I put it in the bin for magical disposal and got a bottle that was in date. I followed the directions exactly. I made this last month, and several times last year. It’s never done this before.” He finished by grabbing my arm and tugging me inside the building.

  I stumbled after him, and as soon as I could get my feet under me, I braced myself and carefully removed his hand from my arm.

  “Look at them! There’s something really wrong.” His voice went up.

  “I can see that.” I said it before my mind had fully cataloged what I was seeing. I said it so he would stop trying to convince me that something was wrong and let me figure it out.

  All seven of the people in the shop seemed to be at the mercy of their supposedly sweet dream. I was pretty sure the girl wrapped up in a spider web didn’t think it was that sweet of a dream. In all likelihood, neither did the couple who were staring into their bowls of ice cream and shaking. I could just barely hear the woman whispering, “My teeth, not my teeth.”

  Another young couple seemed to be having some sort of negative reaction as well. The guy was breathing in great gulping gasps, and the girl had her hands crossed over her chest. The floor looked wet under the man who was gasping for air. At the table in the far corner sat a young boy and a woman, presumably his mother. The woman sat absolutely still, her eyes fixed vacantly on some faraway point. Her son shivered violently, then screamed, only to repeat the process.

  I moved around to get a better look at the group. Make that eight people. In a corner that was oddly dark for this time of day and the lights in the shop, there was a little girl, knees clutched to her chest, eyes wide. “No, not the dark,” she whimpered.

  “What do you think?” Rodriguez asked softly from behind me.

  “I think we need to help the guy who seems to be choking before he hurts himself, and then we need to figure out what caused this.” The Creamery employee started talking again, but I spoke over him. “Do we have backup coming?”

  The boy shut up, looking rather offended. I didn’t much care. I had a job to do.

  Rodriguez suppressed a smile. “They said it would be a little bit. They’re still cleaning up a different problem.” He turned to the boy. “Jim, wait outside. Do not leave the area, but don’t come back in unless we ask for you.”

  Jim opened his mouth like he was going to protest, then seemed to think better of it, snapped his mouth shut, and walked outside.

  When the door swung closed behind him, Rodriguez turned to me. “Where did you say you wanted to start?”

  “With the guy who’s choking.”

  Without any further conversation, I worked my way over to him. When I was standing next to him, I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. I didn’t drop my shields, but through them I tried to simply feel the energy.

  Around me, there were weak pulses of magic, and some stronger ones, but there wasn’t a particular origin for them that I could determine. Obviously, the ice cream had magical components, and that was part of it, but I didn’t know if that was the only thing at work here.

  I cracked open my shields and extended a tendril of magic. Rather than start with the guy, I first focused on the ice cream, letting the probe hang above the bowl. While I could feel some sort of magic, I couldn’t figure out what it was.

 
; I lowered the probe until it touched the ice cream. There was a mix of all the things I expected to find in ice cream, like milk, sugar, and flavoring. However, I could also feel a mass of spells. They were stronger than I’d thought they would be, strong enough not just to make people see something, but to believe it was happening to them.

  Pulling back the tendril of magic, I gently touched it to the man’s shoulder.

  For a moment, I was swept away in the sensation. There was water all around me. I couldn’t get to the surface. I was running out of air. I had to breathe. I opened my mouth, and water came rushing in. Now I was choking, drowning, and there was no way I was going to survive.

  Except I was standing in an ice cream shop. That thought was enough to break the connection, and instead of feeling what he was feeling, I was back to seeing and feeling the magic. The spells in the ice cream had sunk into him, making him believe one of his deepest darkest fears. And, with the strength of the spells, he wasn’t only seeing the dream but experiencing it. Somehow, I didn’t think this experience was going to help him get over his fear of drowning.

  With the way the spells were tangled and warped from their original intentions, I was wary of trying to simply unmake them. Not only would it take a long time, but there was a chance I could get sucked into his nightmare. Instead, I extended my magic so it could latch into different parts of the spell and yanked it apart. The spell dissolved. The remaining energy floated down to the floor of the shop, and from there into the ground below.

  The man came back to himself with a gasp. “Where am I? What happened?” He looked at the ice cream, then across the table at his date. He groaned. “She’s never going to go out with me again.”

  Rodriguez clapped him on the shoulder. “You never know. I got great relationships on terrible first impressions.” The guy nodded. “Now, if you could come with me, I’ll explain some of what’s been going on and give you some tips on how to turn this into a second date.” Rodriguez led the man away from the table.