Charms & Clouds

by Emilia Spring

  “She cooks?”

  “Nope,” Riley said with a smile. “The woman stole one of Clementine's pastries.”

  I struggled to keep a straight face. “What did you do?”

  “I’m very good at subduing different types of magic.” Riley grinned, then gave a pointed look towards the ground where the dust storm had been.

  “How does your magic work, then?” I was surprised to see we had ended up almost back where I’d started, Ruth a half-block away.

  She glanced around, apparently catching a glimpse of Ruth. She inclined her head towards me, a question there. I nodded, and we started to stroll in that direction. I stayed by her side.

  “I can see things if they’re not otherwise hidden,” Riley said.

  Well wasn’t that cryptic.

  “Sometimes I can see their surroundings, sometimes the location of objects.” She shrugged. “It’s not nearly as easy as it is on TV.”

  “Can you see what happened to Clara?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I'm a present-day scryer,” she said. “Occasionally future. You have to be somebody like Aspen to see the past.”

  I thought that was particularly interesting. I had always assumed that scrying worked the same way – present, future, past.

  “What's that look on your face?” Riley asked, catching my eye.

  “Magic has a lot more restrictions than I thought it would,” I admitted.

  “I can't imagine what it's like to not know you're a witch.” She shook her head. “I've known my whole life.”

  I resisted the urge to ask how old she was. If I had to guess, she was maybe a couple years older than I was. “It's strange.” I wasn’t sure I could put into words how strange it was, having your life turned on its head.

  “Especially now that you’re responsible for teaching somebody magic,” Riley teased. “When you don’t know what you’re doing.”

  I sighed in exasperation, but it was fond. “Someday I will.” I thought of Gianna, though, and looked towards the ground. Was she really going to be hurt if she was stuck with someone like me?

  “She won’t.” Apparently, without realizing it, I had said that last bit out loud. Of freaking course. “Besides, you have Marguerite keeping an eye on both of you.” Riley winked. “That will go a long way.”

  “Is anybody going to get over what happened?” I paused. “Besides my family.”

  “Eventually,” she said. “It's going to take time. It takes a long time to undo that sort of thing.”

  I scowled, not wanting to admit that that was true. I was secretly hoping I could expedite the process and make the community accept Gianna. But I was smarter than that.

  We got closer to Ruth, then she turned and cast a look at my car. “This is what you drive?”

  I bristled. “Ruth is a classic,” I informed her shortly. Then I frowned. “How did you know she was my car if you didn’t know what she looked like?”

  “I didn’t realize she had a name.” Riley tried to keep a straight face and failed. She grinned. “It has your magical signature all over it.”

  “You can see those?” Sam and Avery had mentioned them, like magical DNA. I wondered what mine looked like. What they looked like in general.

  She tilted her head, raised an eyebrow. “Seer, remember?”

  “Do you have anything besides the disc?” It was a risk and I knew it.

  “I can't say more than that.” Riley smiled faintly.

  “Thanks.” I nodded, appreciative of the discretion required in her job.

  She looked at me, surprised. “You're not pushing back on that?”

  I batted my eyes, drawing a groan of exasperation. “I promise to seduce you with my feminine wiles later.” It was toeing a line, I knew. Depending on her reaction, it would change how – or if – we went forward. I tried not to let my nerves show.

  There was another groan, but she was smiling. “Go home,” she told me. “Before you get yourself in more trouble and you can’t use your wiles.”

  “I would absolutely never do that.” I looked offended, then grinned. It was strange how nice it was to calm down here, to start feeling more settled into town. The fact that she hadn’t shot me down, or said no – that was just a bonus.

  “I won’t answer that,” Riley said pointedly She took a few steps back, looking at Ruth pointedly.

  Clearly I was finished questioning for the day. I gave her an overly smart salute, feeling absolutely ridiculous, and then got in Ruth and started the car. I turned my radio on, picking my favorite pop station. It was easy enough to hum along, drumming on my steering wheel.

  In a way it worked out. I needed to get Gianna from school. We had to stop by the pet shop, finally give it a name. I risked a glance in the rearview mirror as I started forward. It was hard to hide a smile when I saw Riley lift a hand in farewell.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I sat on the ground, my legs crossed with my back against the couch, the coffee table in front of me. Gianna was next to me, a box of pizza open and half-eaten in front of us.

  “I can't believe you're eating pizza,” Aunt Mabel grumbled.

  I put another slice on Gianna's plate. “I'm sorry that you're missing out on it?” I tried.

  Aunt Mabel wrinkled her nose, forever prim. “That is not the problem.”

  I grinned. Then I took another lingering bite of the pineapple and pepperoni pizza. The sharp tartness of the pineapple and the spiciness of the pepperoni were a match made in heaven.

  Aunt Mabel huffed, leaning into the couch and nearly disappearing into it.

  I hid my grin by turning to look at Gianna. “How was your day at school?”

  She took another bite of her pizza, chewed it slowly. “It was okay.”

  I couldn’t even think of how many times I had said the same thing to my mother. “Learn anything interesting?”

  She shook her head, then paused. “Not at school.” She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes. “Learning about fish,” she said with a nod to me.

  I took another bite of my pizza to hide my cheeks turning red. “What should we name the pet shop?”

  “The aquarium shop?” Gianna tilted her head to look at me.

  I nodded.

  She finished her pizza slice in a contemplative silence. “Glass Oceans?”

  I blinked at her, then grinned. “That’s perfect.”

  Her cheeks turned faintly pink. She took a drink of her water on the coffee table in front of us. “Of course it is.”

  A knock on the door caught me off guard before I could answer. I scarfed down my last piece of pizza before standing and heading towards the door. Where did Mabel’s wards start? The driveway? The front door?

  “Her.” Mabel sniffed, then floated back into the living room.

  I didn’t give her much thought before the door opened, revealing Marguerite standing there, a little bit damp from the brief rain. I looked up, skeptical, at the clouds. It was the first time it’d even sprinkled since I’d got here.

  Well. The first time I hadn’t caused it.

  “I'm coming in,” Marguerite said, and then she did so.

  I stepped aside, just in time for her to not run over me. Marguerite continued towards the living room. I closed the door, then followed, a bit nonplussed. What was going on?

  “What are you doing here?” Marguerite asked sharply. I opened my mouth to object, and then realized that she wasn't looking at Gianna. She was looking at Mabel.

  Mabel, who drew her ghostly self all the way up to her fullest, 5-foot-tall potential. “I should ask you the same question,” she said primly.

  Marguerite rolled her eyes. “You’re dead,” she told Mabel frankly. “Go away.”

  Mabel sniffed. “And now I remember why you were always my favorite sister.”

  I heard Gianna bite back a giggle, and I hoped she didn’t hear mine when I slapped a hand over my mouth, my shoulders shaking. Marguerite turned and glared at both of us. Mabel, on the other
hand, looked delighted. Oops.

  “I'm here to look after them,” Marguerite said. She arched an eyebrow at Mabel. “Do you have any objections?”

  Mabel stood there for a few seconds, her eyes narrowed. Then she turned and flounced off through the wall. That was apparently the end of that conversation.

  When Marguerite turned to look back at me, I pretended that I’d been looking elsewhere and not paying attention to the conversation.

  “Younger siblings,” she said with a tsk.

  I did have to bite my tongue to keep from saying anything. Not that I really knew, since I had been raised an only child. “Would you like some pizza?” I offered.

  She looked at the coffee table and then wrinkled her nose. “No thank you. I didn’t come here for pizza.”

  “Then why did you come here?” I asked, trying to sound as respectful as I could so she didn’t smite me.

  “I want to teach you how to see magic.” She dropped gracefully to the floor, or at least extremely gracefully for somebody her age. Every time she did something like that it caught me off guard. Was there magic to it? Or did she just keep herself very spry?

  My eyes widened. “Why now?”

  “It may come in handy,” Marguerite said cryptically.

  “Okay.” I let her have that. Maybe she liked sounding mysterious.

  “Clear away the food,” Marguerite said, nodding to it. Before I could get up, Gianna had grabbed the plates and was taking them to the kitchen.

  I frowned, wanting to remind her that she wasn't a maid, and that yeah, it was nice for her to clean up after herself. But she didn't have to clean up after me, too.

  “Sit,” Marguerite said, nodding to the space in front of the coffee table. I stood, cringing at the cramps in my leg. It was annoyingly painful to walk around the coffee table and settle down in the middle of the room.

  Gianna, however, sat down effortlessly once she came back from the kitchen. She was looking directly at Marguerite, something strange in her eyes. I wasn't sure what it was – respect? Fear? Either of them were really appropriate with Marguerite. She was sort of insane that way.

  “We’re going to start with meditation,” Marguerite said, crossing her legs and putting her hands on her knees.

  I glanced around the living room. “Is that really wise?” I was fully aware of the lack of guarding spell around us.

  Marguerite arched an eyebrow at me. “If you light this house on fire, Mabel will curse you for eternity.”

  I grumbled under my breath. That wasn't nearly as much incentive as she thought it was.

  “All right then,” I said, projecting false bravado. “Bring it.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Close your eyes,” she instructed. “We’re to link hands and make a circle.”

  I opened an eye to look at Gianna, who looked at me. Then I reached out and took Gianna’s hand to my right, and Marguerite’s hand to my left. I couldn’t think of the last time I had held someone’s hand. Marguerite’s skin was almost papery, and Gianna’s fingers were hesitant.

  “I want you to focus on going deep inside yourself, to the center of your humanity,” Marguerite said. “It should allow you to see the magic core that's inside you.”

  Before I got sidetracked with apple jokes I did what she said, closing my eyes and trying to sink deep in my chest. It felt absolutely ridiculous, because all I really did was just kind of stare at nothing with my eyes closed.

  Then I saw it, the first flicker of light, followed by more and more. Sitting in front of me, in my mind, was a tall, thick column of light. It was like the lightning that had hit me, with yellow sparks jumping around it. At the same time I could feel the pull of it, almost like the tides. It sent goosebumps prickling down my arms.

  “I want you to sink into that core,” Marguerite said, her voice soothing.

  I felt Gianna shift next to me, her hand tightening on mine.

  “Take a deep breath,” Marguerite said again. Her voice was the same she had used during meditation. There, but almost floating on the edge of my mind. Supporting, not invading.

  I had a feeling her reminder was for Gianna's benefit, and not mine. Still, I listened, taking a deep breath and sinking further inside myself. It felt strange, like I was being surrounded by lava, the heat almost incinerating. It was just on the good side of uncomfortable. It almost felt like if water hit me, steam would have hissed off my skin.

  “Can you feel it?” Mabel asked, her voice coming out of nowhere.

  It shook my concentration. I went to open my eyes but stopped. I could practically feel the way Marguerite shooed a hand at Mabel. “Go away.”

  Mabel huffed, irritated, but there was a soft pop as she disappeared. That was new.

  “Open your eyes, Natalie. Hold onto the core of your magic.” Marguerite slowly let go of my hand.

  I took a deep breath, and then opened my eyes. Despite what I’d been hoping for, nothing had changed. My cheeks flushed. Had I done it wrong?

  Then I saw a flicker out of the corner of my eye and turned my head to chase it.

  “Close your eyes,” Marguerite said, apparently catching my movement.

  I grumbled but listened, since she was the one in charge.

  “It will get easier,” Marguerite said. “Some learn how to see everyone's magic, and some don't.” She turned to look at Gianna, and her voice was kinder for Gianna than it was for me. “What do you see?”

  Gianna didn't even have to open her eyes to answer. “You're covered in dust,” Her hands were on her knees. Someone had painted her fingernails bright pink. “Both of you are. It's multicolored. Not like a rainbow, but like a storm cloud. Blues, greys, yellow.”

  “How very poetic,” Marguerite said.

  This time I did open my eyes, to stare at Gianna. I saw another flash in the corner of my eyes and kept my head still, not letting myself chase it. It could have just been the reflection, or it could have been something else. I took a deep breath. Then I closed my eyes again, steadying my breathing.

  “You're a natural,” Marguerite told Gianna. “You may open your eyes.”

  I grumbled. Of course she was a natural.

  “What did you see?” Marguerite asked. I could tell she wasn’t talking to me, so I opened my eyes and looked at Gianna. “You looked inside and saw something. What was it?”

  Gianna looked like a deer in the headlights. It was a look I had seen on a lot of foster kids. It was a fear of giving the wrong answer, the worry that if she gave the wrong answer, everything she had gained would disappear.

  “I'm not asking again, young lady.” But there was a kindness to Marguerite’s voice. It was firm, unmovable, but not terrifying.

  Gianna ducked her head. “It was a skull,” she said, her voice a mumble. “With grey eyes.”

  I blinked. What was she talking about? Did the magic core have a shape, a color? Was that what Marguerite was talking about?

  Apparently, because Marguerite was nodding, her eyes strangely warm and understanding. “Good.”

  I opened my mouth, and then closed it, not sure what I wanted to say.

  Marguerite turned to look at me, eyes shrewd. “I think yours is a column of light?”

  I blinked again, uneasiness sitting in my stomach. I nodded.

  “That's to be expected,” Marguerite said dismissively. “You haven't had time to use your magic, so it hasn't had time to take a shape.”

  “A shape?” For all that I was worried, I was also curious.

  “Sometimes the shape can give an indication as to your type of magic,” Marguerite said. “Other times, it's pure whimsy.” She looked at Gianna, careful. “In your case, I believe it's neither.”

  I opened my mouth, wanted to protest. Gianna’s magic was through spirits, so the skull would've made some sense.

  Marguerite was shaking her head before I could protest. “She’s seen so much death since she was little,” Marguerite said instead, regret clear in her voice. “It comes from that.”


  Gianna paled, not looking at either of us. Then she scrambled to her feet and ran for her bedroom.

  Immediately I stood and started to head after her.

  “Stop.” Marguerite's words stopped me in my place.

  “What?” I asked, half turning to face her.

  “The girl is hurting.” Marguerite narrowed her eyes.

  “I know.” I looked at her, confused. That was obvious.

  Marguerite studied me for a while longer, then looked thoughtful. “I'm not sure you do.”

  I clenched my jaw, not sure what to say.

  “I want you to practice that before our next lesson,” Marguerite said. “I want you to be able to see your magic – and mine – by the time we meet again.”

  Oh, of course. Just give me a super difficult task and pretend it's absolutely nothing. “Okay,” I said, because there really wasn't anything else to say.

  Marguerite looked satisfied. She stood, taking the few steps to the coffee table. Then she plucked up a slice of pizza, took a bite of it, and went out the front door, the pizza still held in her hand. She slammed the door behind her, even though she didn't touch it.

  “Well wasn't that weird,” I muttered to nobody.

  “She's always been a brat,” Mabel muttered, appearing right next to me.

  I jumped, to the point that if I hadn't been sitting on the floor already, I probably would've fallen over.

  “Do you have any other siblings?” I was curious.

  Great Aunt Mabel shrugged. “Not really.”

  Like I was learning about a lot of things in Pine Lake, the large majority of questions were rarely answered yes or no. And not just because it was more complicated than that. “Any living ones?” I asked cautiously.

  Aunt Mabel smiled.

  “All right,” I said, standing. “I need to go check on Gianna.”

  Mabel looked at me, and bit back a giggle. “Good luck.”

  Mad, I decided. The whole family was mad. I headed for Gianna's room, but hesitated for a second before I knocked the door.