Magic and Mayhem: A Collection of 21 Fantasy Novels

by Jasmine Walt

  “Not much. I can conjure energy and do small glamours. I made an anti-nightmare sachet that seemed to really work, too. Oh, and a while ago I think I did a spell to repel ghosts, which also seemed to really work, well, for a while at least.” I left out the part about cheating on a test.

  “That’s pretty impressive, even for an experienced witch.”

  “Is it?”

  “Conjuring energy is powerful stuff.”

  “Oh.” I fell silent and stared into the fire until my vision went blurry. “What’s so special about the dagger?”

  “It’s legendary. It can—as we saw—obliterate demons with a single stab.”

  “Oh,” I said again, though this time so quietly I doubted Ethan heard me. I looked into the fire again.

  “What are you thinking?” Ethan inquired.

  “I’m thinking this is all very serious stuff to be talking about in our underwear. Speaking of, why don’t we have clothes on?”

  Ethan looked at me like that was something I should know. “That water was freezing, Annie.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “I thought you could get hypothermic or something. And you know the best way to fight that is with another person’s body heat. I had to get you out of those wet clothes or you’d really freeze.”

  He made quite the Boy Scout. “Why was the water so cold?”

  “Spirits and demons can pull energy out of the environment.”

  “Like cold spots from ghosts.”

  “Exactly.”

  “You pulled me out of the water?” I asked, looking into his brown eyes.

  “Sort of. Hunter did most of the work.”

  With a sudden surge of emotion, tears pricked the corner of my eyes. Careful to keep the blanket around me, I moved down next to my dog. His tail thumped against the wooden floor, and he licked my face. I buried my face into his fur. “I love you, boy,” I whispered in his ear. I stroked his muzzle and gave him a kiss on the top of his furry head.

  “How do you feel?” Ethan’s voice came from behind me. “Physically, I mean.”

  “My feet are cold, I have to pee, and I’m thirsty. But other than that, I’m peachy.” Ethan came over next to me and extended a hand. I grabbed it, and he pulled me up. After showing me where the bathroom was and getting me a glass of water, Ethan led me up a flight of stairs and down a hall into his room. A navy blue comforter was lazily spread across the bed, and clothes were scattered untidily around the room. A large TV and a Playstation were set up across from the bed, and a laptop sat atop a pile of books. A desk was shoved in a corner, covered in papers. Like the rest of the house, boxes were stacked and no décor had been added. Everything seemed temporary, like they were ready to pack up and move at a moment’s notice.

  From the closet, Ethan tossed me a navy blue and orange Bears hoodie and a pair of black sweatpants. Both were way too big, as were the socks I pulled on. I sunk down on his bed while he put on a pair of jeans, a blue t-shirt, and a dark brown flannel button up over top. He sat next to me. From downstairs, I heard Hunter get up and pad his way up the stairs and into the room. He wagged his tail at us and curled up on a pile of laundry.

  “What’s it like to be a medium?” Ethan’s question caught me off guard.

  “It sucks. I work so hard at being normal, but it’s really, really hard. It’s like there’s a war raging constantly in my head between our world and their world. I have to use so much energy to keep the mental door leading into their world shut. I pick up on spirits’ emotions and they become my own. I remember one time, on a school field trip, we passed this site where a girl got murdered. Of course, no one else knew that, but I was overcome with these powerful emotions of pure sadness. I broke down crying, and everyone thought I was a freak.”

  “It can’t be that bad.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “You have no idea what it’s like to see someone and not know if it’s a real person or a ghost. You don’t know what it’s like to be sitting in a quiet classroom and hear someone call your name and then turn around and ask who said your name and find out no one said it.” I was speaking faster with every word. “Or what it’s like to have that creepy feeling that someone is watching you and have it turn out to be a ghost the whole time, or to have everyone think you are a freak of nature because you accidentally made contact with Jessie Martin’s dead cousin at her thirteenth birthday party. Or what it’s like to be grabbed at, poked, or touched by ghost hands or—”

  Ethan pressed his lips to mine.

  “What happened at Jessie Martin’s party?” He kept his face close, like he was studying me. I fidgeted my hands in my lap.

  “Someone thought it would be fun to have a séance. We all got in the circle, and Jessie said we should summon her cousin, Jason, who recently died in a fire. Well, I got a vision, I guess you would call it, of him sitting in his bedroom. I described everything in perfect detail, from the color of his eyes to the design of the wallpaper. I even saw his girlfriend, and she was holding onto her necklace. It had two rings on it. Turns out, after he died, she wore his class rings on a chain around her neck. I knew what kind of music he liked and could tell you his hobbies. Needless to say, Jessie never invited me to another party again.”

  “You got all that from a vision?”

  “Yes and no. I don’t just see pictures, it’s like I download a file or something. I see an image and at the same time know a lot—and sometimes random— information.”

  “But that party was years ago.” Ethan obviously didn’t understand why I still wasn’t over it.

  “It’s not just that. Things like that happen to me all the time. I’m forced to lie, to fake a smile. I feel so alone, so isolated. I hate being afraid all the time. Until right now, I never told anyone. Harrison would rather not believe than admit to the possibility of something existing that is as complicated as spirits are, and Laney gets scared so easily that I can’t talk to her about it. My parents already think I’m crazy; I can’t bring it up again. So I have to deal alone, like a loser, a social reject.”

  “You’re not a loser, and I really don’t think you are a social reject.”

  “Thanks.” I gave him a half smile.

  “You’re funny, caring, and different. You’re beautiful, and you have an amazing body. If anyone rejects you socially, then they have a serious problem.”

  Blood rushed into my cheeks. I wasn’t used to that kind of blunt complimenting. I looked out the window. “What about you? How do you know about all this?”

  Ethan shifted so he was facing me. “I belong to a very old group, The Order of the Mystic Realm. Very simply put, we are demon hunters.” He stopped, trying to read my expression, but I kept my face neutral. He spoke slowly, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to say. I didn’t think he’d ever explained this before.

  “My great-great grandfather on my dad’s side was the first hunter in our family. I guess it runs in families in a way, since not too many people would willingly choose this. I’ve heard the story many times: his wife and children were slain and their corpses stolen on All Hallows Eve, many years ago. My great-grandfather swore he saw a Chichevache take off with them. Of course, no one believed him. He became obsessed with finding the truth. In his search, he stumbled across the Order. He joined, remarried to a young girl whose parents were also Order members, and had my dad’s mom—my grandma—and, well, you can figure out the rest.”

  I had no idea what a Chich-whatever was. I’d ask later. “So do you have special powers?” I asked.

  Ethan laughed. “No. Most of us are regular people, unlike you.” He said it in a way that it was a compliment. I closed my eyes. This was a lot to take in. I was getting used to the fact that magic existed. Now demons had been tossed into the mix. He put his arms around me and lay down, pulling me with him. “You know, I’ve never told anyone this before.”

  “Feels good, doesn’t it?” I knew it did because it felt so good to be able to talk to someone honestly about my own dark past for once.
“Why do I feel so weak?”

  “You’re not used to using that kind of power. It drained your energy. And from what I saw, that demon was trying to get into your head. He couldn’t though, and it must be from your resistance. I have to tell you, Annie, it takes a powerful witch to block out that kind of dark magic.”

  I wanted Ethan to explain the concept of demons and dark magic, but I was too tired. I lazily wiggled closer to him and closed my eyes.

  Ethan’s strong arms were wrapped around me when I woke. The fading twilight in the window told me it had to be around six o’clock. Oh crap. I’ve been MIA for hours, and my cell is in my car at the barn. I explained that to Ethan, and we left to go get it.

  “You’re taking this all really well,” he said with an undertone of. He looked away from the road long enough to meet my eyes.

  “I am?”

  “Yeah. Usually when people find out that demons not only exist but want to kill them…well, they tend to panic.”

  “Oh.” I looked at the passing road, not quite sure how to explain this. “I guess I’ve always known, somehow. I mean, I’ve always felt like I was a part of something…bigger? I don’t know.” I was stumbling over my words. “I’ve always felt like I have this really important role to play, but I never knew what I was supposed to do or even who I was supposed to be.”

  “I think I get what you mean,” Ethan said as we pulled into the barn parking lot. He put the Jeep in park and looked around the parking lot. “Where’s your car?”

  I pointed to a brand new, black Chevy Silverado. Ethan looked a little confused. “Did I miss something?”

  I nodded. “I bought a truck.”

  “Nice. But, why?”

  “To pull my new horse trailer with.” I moved my gaze to a brand new three-horse trailer. “I never told you, but when I inherited the house, I inherited a lot of money, too.”

  Ethan looked at the truck and then back at me. “You really are full of surprises.”

  I smiled at him. “Well, at least you know the biggest one.” I got out of the SUV, Hunter following suit.

  “I think you should stay with me tonight,” Ethan said before I got into my truck. “For safety reasons only, of course.”

  I smiled. “Of course. Safety first.”

  15

  “It’s nice to finally meet the girl responsible for making Ethan so happy,” a petite blonde woman told me with a genuine smile as I walked into Ethan’s house. Hunter ran in ahead, eager to sniff everything. “I’ve been wanting to thank you. He’s been in such a good mood lately.”

  Ethan kicked off his boots and set the heavy bag of books he was carrying down. “Thanks, Jules. You make it sound like I’m usually awful to be around.”

  She made a face and shook her head. “You’re the worst.”

  Ethan rolled his eyes. “You should talk.”

  The blonde woman laughed. “Hi, I’m Julia.” She seemed motherly to Ethan but could only be a few years older.

  “Hi,” I said. “I’m Anora.”

  We followed her into the kitchen. A pot of pasta boiled on the stove. “So,” Julia started, turning down the burner. “I hear you’ve got demonic bounty hunters after you.”

  I wrapped my arms over my torso. “Yeah, looks like it.”

  “Any idea why?” She stirred the pasta and took a dish from the oven. It smelled delicious.

  I shook my head and looked at Ethan. “Not at all.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” she assured me. How was she so calm about this? Maybe dealing with demonic bounty hunters was just another day on the job for her. “You guys can go ahead and sit. Dinner is almost ready, and your dad will be home any minute,” she told Ethan.

  I sat next to Ethan. He put his hand on my thigh, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Only a few minutes later, David, Ethan’s father, arrived at the house. Julia set plates of chicken, pasta, and vegetables on the table. The four of us talked while we ate, going over the details of what had happened to me.

  “The door you’ve been holding closed for so long has finally opened,” David told me. “And it’s shining like a beacon for anything supernatural.”

  I pushed the last piece of pasta onto my fork. “Nice,” I said quietly. “Is there anyway to dim the light?”

  David’s eyes flicked to Julia in an unspoken message before he looked back at me. “Not anything simple.”

  Ethan set his fork down, saying he was going to get the books. I helped Julia clear the table.

  “You couldn’t do magic before your aunt died?” she asked.

  “Well, I never really tried,” I admitted and put a plate in the dishwasher. “But I have always been really lucky. Like, I’ll really want to hear a certain song on the radio, and I’ll randomly choose a station and it will be on. Or I’ll forget to do a homework assignment, and the due date will get pushed back. Oh, and one time I really didn’t want to go to church and somehow, no one’s alarm went off. And other little things like that…I never really thought about it much, but now that I am…there are lots of things that statistically can’t be pure luck.”

  “You did magic without meaning to,” Ethan said as he came back into the kitchen with my bag of books. “You really are powerful, Annie.”

  I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. “Maybe.”

  “Is that the book?” David asked from the table. Ethan sat back down and carefully extracted the Book of Shadows. David leaned forward, curiously staring at the book. He reached out and apprehensively touched it, almost as if he was afraid it would give him a shock when his fingers made contact. “May I?” he asked me.

  “Uh, sure.” I watched David open the large book, eyes open wide.

  “Your great aunt dies, leaves you a house, lots of money, and a ton of magical supplies…and then you get your powers,” Ethan started. “She has to be the cause of this, somehow.”

  I nodded. “I think so, too. She’s involved…but I don’t know how, since she’s dead.”

  “The dead are often the most involved,” Ethan mused. I sat back down next to him and picked up the magical herb book. “You’ve been through these books?” he asked me.

  I nodded. “I’ve flipped through them all. I haven’t gotten around to reading every page yet. I have to take breaks when I read stuff from the Book of Shadows. Some of the tiny cursive is hard on my eyes. That, and some of it is worded weird.”

  “It’s Old English,” David said without looking up.

  “Really?” I asked. “Are spells usually written that way?”

  “Not anymore. This book is older than you think. Books like this have preservation spells cast on them.”

  How old was this book? David closed the book and slid it in front of me. I put my hand on its surface, feeling an odd affection to the old book. So many of my relatives had this in their possession.

  The floor creaked behind us. I whirled around, still on edge. A girl who looked about my age walked through the kitchen. Her eyes met mine then flitted to Ethan’s. She smiled broadly at him and flipped her blonde hair behind her shoulder.

  “It’s about time you decided to be social,” Ethan said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Oh, shut up. I was tired.” She stopped behind Ethan’s chair and put a hand on his shoulder. “Who is this?” She looked at me.

  “Hi, I’m Anora.” I smiled politely.

  “The distraction?” she asked Julia. They had to be sisters; they looked alike. Julia gave her a disapproving look but nodded slightly.

  “Sit,” David instructed. The girl let her hand slide across Ethan’s back and sat on the other side of him.

  “I’m Sam,” she said with a smile. “Uh, why is there a dog in the living room?”

  “That’s Hunter. Anora’s dog,” Ethan explained. Sam still looked perplexed. “He killed a Pricolici.”

  She leaned back with wide eyes. “Really?”

  “Yeah. He went right for the jugular. He had the thing ripped to shreds in minutes.”

  “Neat,” she sai
d, suddenly unimpressed. “Anyway, what are you guys doing?”

  “You would know if you hadn’t gone and hid in your room,” David said, a bit of fatherly annoyance in his voice.

  “I was tired. I just woke up,” Sam said one more time. She didn’t look like someone who had taken a nap. Her hair was tidy and in place, and her makeup looked freshly applied. It made me feel a little self-conscious since my hair was in a messy French braid and I hadn’t put any makeup on.

  Silence fell over the table after we filled Sam in on everything. “What do I do now?” I asked quietly. Ethan slipped his fingers through mine.

  “We’ll figure it out,” he promised and squeezed my hand.

  David leaned forward. “Do you know anyone who seems suspicious, anyone that has recently tried to get close to you?”

  “No. Not that I can think of, except Ethan. Why?”

  “Someone, or something, knows who you are.”

  “And who am I, exactly?” I said each word slowly. David leaned forward even more, narrowing his eyes as he looked into mine.

  “As far as we know, you, Anora, are the only remaining kin of the Coven.”

  I felt like someone socked me in the stomach. “What?”

  “The Order has always looked for Coven witches, and we’ve never found them.”

  “What happened to them?” I asked, my heart in my throat.

  “I’d guess demons,” Ethan said softly.

  David’s eyes met Julia’s again. She shook her head and cast her eyes down. What weren’t they telling me?

  “The purpose of your coven, I believe, is to kill demons,” Ethan went on.

  “So of course, demons would kill anyone in the Coven,” I finished. He nodded. “Oh,” was all I could say. Needing a distraction, I flipped through the Book again. “But there are other witches, right?”

  “Of course,” David said. “But they are hard to find. Natural witches like you are getting rarer and rarer. You tend to attract a high level of danger.”

  “Oh, joy,” I said sarcastically. “What do you mean by natural witch?”

  “Some witches get their power from their environment: the elements, the energy contained in nature or animals. More powerful ones get their power from spirits, and above that, from Angels or Demons. But you… you are your own power source.”