Risky Magic: A Trash Witch Novel

by Tori Centanni

  “Some people say so. I like to think of it as magical Macguyvering.”

  “Macguyvering?” Jaden raised his eyebrows.

  A lot of witches didn’t watch television or use computers. Most of them had cell phones because who didn’t these days? And they might use those phones to Google answers to questions or map apps to give them directions, but that was about it. There was this feeling amongst the old guard of witches that technology somehow debased their magic. It was total nonsense, and that was precisely the kind of attitude I was fighting against.

  “Creative spell casting,” I said by way of explanation.

  “Yes, well, that’s what I need from you. A fresh perspective. You’re not as…let’s say beholden to the council as most witches I know, and I hoped you’d be willing to work around them and look into it.”

  I stared, my pulse racing. This felt like a dream where I was underwater trying to breathe. “You want me to defy the council and try to find Felix?”

  Jaden snapped his fingers. “Precisely.”

  “Have you totally lost your mind?” Defying the council as a witch meant risking jail—and witch jails were even worse than the normal human variety—or death. Even a witch in less than high standing like myself didn’t want to be on the council’s bad side.

  Jaden ran his longer fingers through his silky hair. “Felix might be in danger. Someone needs to look into it. I intend to make a small effort but I cannot be seen doing much, lest I incur the council’s wrath.”

  “But you don’t care if I incur their wrath,” I said, irritated. Leave it to Jaden to only care about himself.

  “They won’t be watching you so closely. And it’s not defying them if they haven’t told you not to. You’d merely be circumventing them.” His lips curved into a sly smirk as he said it. Clearly he was proud of this clever little plan to go around the council’s decision. “Besides, his disappearance brings to mind your mother’s. You asking questions will look like normal curiosity. Me doing so would be openly defiant.”

  I shook my head. “This is ridiculous. I’m a nobody. I sell potions no one even wants because the Witch Council has helped spread rumors that my magic is a hot mess and now you’re asking me to do their job for them.”

  I folded my arms over my chest. Jaden did the same, mirroring my posture. He always looked so tall but standing close to him, he only really had maybe half a foot on me. I could wear heels and narrow the difference.

  “I’m asking you to help Felix and his wife and child,” Jaden said. He glanced away and added, “And to help me.”

  I wanted to refuse. Refusing would be the smart thing to do. Going around the council, if not openly defying them, was dangerous and could get me in huge trouble. I wasn’t on track to join the council any time soon and they may have considered me something of a joke, but that was much better than being seen as a threat or a troublemaker.

  Jaden’s eyes were cool but intense. His expression remained neutral but there was a haunted quality in his eyes. Even though Jaden was an arrogant jerk a lot of the time, he was clearly worried about Felix. I didn’t know Felix well because he was ten years my senior and obviously I wasn’t on the council or often welcome at their soirees, but he’d always been a pleasant guy. He was friendly and polite, while the rest of the council was stuffy and reserved.

  “Okay,” I said, before I could think about it too hard and realize just how stupid it was. Jaden’s face brightened, which made me feel oddly warm and gooey inside. That was something to unpack later. Before he could express his gratitude, I held up a hand. “I’ll ask a few questions. I’ll poke around a little. But the minute things get sticky, I’m out.”

  “Fair enough,” he said and smiled. It was a genuine, soft smile and it transformed his stark features into a warmer, more handsome face. I swallowed, now uneasy for a new reason: I was suddenly finding Jaden Blackmore attractive. Oh dear. “Thank you, Ms. Burke.”

  “Avery,” I said.

  He reached out and shook my hand. His hand was warm and I didn’t want to let go. “Thank you, Avery.”

  I didn’t know if it was his touch or the way he said my name but a light tingle, not unlike magic, traveled down my arm.

  “Oh, and my roommate is probably going to find out, like, right away.” Jaden’s smile dimmed, his eyes narrowing in concern. I shrugged. “It’s inevitable really. She’s going to pester the crap out of me to find out what you wanted. I’ll resist but I can almost guarantee she’s going to win.”

  He sighed. “Fine. But it goes no further than you and Ms. Lopez. And if you feel you cannot trust her, I highly recommend doing your best to deceive her for as long as possible. I know she has strong ambitions where the council is concerned.”

  He wasn’t wrong. Valerie wanted to be on the council so badly she might explode if they ever offered her the chance. But I did trust her, mostly. I didn’t think she’d turn me in for looking into a missing person, but he was right that I should be cautious. She was desperate to score points with them.

  “I will.”

  He nodded. He cleared his throat and his expression returned to the blank, hardened one he normally wore before he turned and marched out of the alley and back through the market.

  I had to lean against the wall for a minute to let my heart rate return to normal and try to come to terms with what I’d just agreed to.

  Chapter 4

  “What’d you do?” Valerie asked when I returned to our table. She wasn’t looking at me. She was watching Jaden retreat through the dwindling crowd.

  “Nothing,” I said. I lifted Seth. He yawned. For a small cat, he was surprisingly heavy. He let me hold him long enough to sit down and get him settled in my lap.

  “Seriously, I can take it,” Valerie said, her back ramrod straight. “Am I in trouble too?”

  I whipped my head around in surprise. “You, in trouble? I’m pretty sure that’s against all laws of the known universe.”

  Valerie was not amused. “Just tell me, okay? You don’t need to draw this out.”

  I couldn’t begin to imagine what Valerie thought she’d done that would get her in trouble with the council. She was practically a council sycophant. Her only goal in life was to impress them and eventually be elevated to a position on the council herself. “Val, you’re not in trouble. Neither am I. He just wanted to chat.”

  “Chat? A council member just stopped by our booth for a chat?” Her voice rose an octave on the last word and a guy at the booth next to us, a faerie we sometimes bought fae plants from, peered around his cloth tent to see what was up. I smiled to show it was nothing of interest.

  “Yes,” I said, not backing down from the lie.

  She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. I picked up my phone and fiddled with it, though the lack of service made it functionally useless. She continued giving me dirty looks but, not wanting to draw any more attention from those around us, she stewed in silence. I knew that would change when we got home.

  True to form, the moment the door of our shared house clicked shut, Valerie was on me. She grabbed my cooler and began unloading the contents into the garage fridge. “So, what is it? Did you do something stupid? Did you sell a bum potion to someone important?”

  I rolled my eyes behind her back. “My potions work, like, ninety percent of the time. Which is pretty standard for most magic, by the way.”

  She shot me a look and grabbed her own cooler, dragging it to the open fridge. She didn’t have much product left to unload. “Then what? And don’t you dare say Jaden Blackmore, of the High Council Blackmores, just stopped by for a friendly midnight chat with you!”

  Rage burst into flames inside me but I quashed them down. She wasn’t wrong, after all. I may have found Jaden somewhat appealing tonight—for the first time ever—but there was no way the feeling was mutual. He thought of me like the other council members did: a nobody at best, gum on their shoes at worst.

  “He had a minor request.”

  “A request?
” She spun around so fast I was amazed she didn’t fall or drop the bottle of sleeping potion she was holding. “What kind of request?”

  “It’s stupid. A tiny favor. An errand. That’s it. No big deal.” I held my breath, hoping she’d let it drop at that. Let me be the council’s errand witch. That job was no doubt beneath Valerie the Great.

  But instead of letting it go, a strange light danced in her eyes. She closed the fridge and stood up slowly. She put her hands on my shoulders. And then she squealed.

  It was the sound teenage girls made in movies or on television when asked out by the hottest guy in class. It was not a sound I’d ever heard nor expected to hear coming from Valerie “I am too proper to eat soup without an actual soup spoon” Lopez.

  “This is fantastic!” She squealed. “What’s the favor? I’ll help.”

  I stared at her like she’d completely lost her head. “It’s really stupid and boring. You don’t want to waste your time.”

  “Oh no, no way,” she said. “You are not taking all of the credit for this…whatever it is.”

  Understanding dawned and my gut twisted. Valerie thought she could get into the council’s good graces by doing whatever it was I’d been asked to do. Worse, she thought I was trying to take all the glory for myself. She literally could not be more wrong. “It’s not anything that’s going to impress the council. It’s a really dumb personal favor for Jaden.”

  I left the garage and went into the kitchen. Seth was on the counter, where he was not supposed to be, and he immediately jumped down when I came in, walking pointedly to his empty food dish. I picked it up and pulled a fresh one from the cabinet.

  “I don’t care if it’s picking up his dry cleaning,” Valerie said behind me, following me inside. “Whatever it is, I’m going to help and I’m going to show him and the council that I’m willing to do anything it takes to be a good, helpful witch.”

  I sighed. I popped open Seth’s can of food and then, once he was eating, told Valerie to take a seat. “This isn’t a favor for the council. It’s kind of sort of actually something the council doesn’t want done.”

  Valerie blinked. And then she emitted another sound, this one lower and more dangerous than the squeal. “Okay. Explain. Right now. Because the Jaden Blackmore I know would not defy the council in any way, so you must have misunderstood.”

  She had no idea what she was talking about. Also, she didn’t exactly know Jaden any better than I did, but that was so not the point. Her laser eyes burned into my back as I fed my cat.

  “Tell me right now, Avery, or I’ll call Jaden and ask.”

  I sighed. Well, I couldn’t say I hadn’t warned Jaden this would happen. Anyhow, she was unlikely to defy him even if she was willing to throw me under the bus. I gave her a brief rundown about Felix’s disappearance and Jaden’s request that I help him look into it. I also explained the council’s position on the matter.

  “If the council says he’s left on his own, that’s what happened,” she said, with finality that suggested that was that. Matter settled, end of story.

  “It doesn’t make sense, Val,” I said.

  “Of course it does. A new baby means new stress at home. The wife is probably lying about things being peachy keen. They’ve probably been fighting and he got sick of it and left.” She slapped the table with both hands, a judge banging her gavel. “I’m sure the council knows what they’re talking about. They know Felix better than we do.”

  She stood and opened the fridge, pulling out stuff to make sandwiches, which we often ate after working the market all night.

  “Jaden’s on the council and he doesn’t agree.”

  Valerie dug cheese out of the deli drawer. “So? One person out of nine is nothing. He’s just mistaken, that’s all. Probably doesn’t want to believe his friend would leave.”

  “Out of eight,” I corrected. Valerie turned, wedge of cheddar in her hand, and frowned at me. “If Felix is gone, that means there are only eight people currently on the council.”

  “Oh my goddess,” she said, eyes going wide. “Do you know what that means?”

  “I just did math better than you?” I offered, but that dangerous light in her eyes was back.

  “It means there’s an open spot on the council!” She practically bounced. “This is fantastic.”

  “A person is missing,” I said.

  “Yeah, I know,” she said, and to her credit, she did dial down her excitement a few notches. “But they think he drove off on his own. He’s probably living it up on a beach somewhere taking a break and he’ll be back in a few weeks. By then, they will have replaced him on the council.”

  “Well, I’m going to help Jaden find Felix.” I stood. How exactly I was going to do that, I didn’t yet know.

  “Avery, you can’t.” She closed the mayo jar and put it back in the fridge, closing it slightly harder than was necessary. “If the council has decided the matter is settled…”

  “They didn’t tell me not to look into it,” I pointed out, though I shared her fears. That would hardly matter if they dragged me in front of the council to answer for my actions and if that happened, I really didn’t think Jaden was going to come to my aid. He’d probably deny asking me for help and throw me to the wolves.

  “Avery. You can’t afford to cross them.” She met my eyes. Her brown eyes were as intense as Jaden’s and her expression was pleading. “We can’t afford that.”

  “It doesn’t affect you,” I said.

  Valerie rolled her eyes. “Of course it does. I live with you. They’ll never believe I’m not tangled up in whatever trouble you get into.”

  “I’m not getting into trouble. I’m just going to do a little digging.” Seth jumped up onto the counter and sniffed at Valerie’s hunk of cheese. She shooed him off and he came running to me to complain. I scooped him up. “Hopefully you’re right and Felix just ran off for a little solo vacation from his life, but Jaden doesn’t think so. And I got the impression he’s not the only council member who’s dubious. Felix could be in danger or worse, and his family deserves to know either way.”

  I carried my cat into my room and set him on the bed. It was now almost seven o’clock in the morning and I needed to sleep before I did anything else.

  Chapter 5

  I awoke that afternoon to find a manila envelope wedged under my bedroom door. It had my name on the front in permanent marker, written in big, bold letters. Below, in smaller print, was the warning “For recipient only.”

  It was a common warning on mail but when a witch wrote it, you could be sure the envelope was spelled so that only the intended recipient could get it open. Sure enough, when I cut through the paper with my letter opener, there was a soft pop! of a spell defusing. If Valerie had opened it instead of shoving it under my door like I assumed she had, it would have exploded like a bomb and taken off her hand.

  Inside was a single page of notebook paper. It was from Jaden, whose giant “J” in his signature took up half the page, and I tried to ignore the warm feeling that came over me. What was wrong with me? The guy recruited me for his own purposes and suddenly I was seeing hearts. I absolutely refused to have a crush on a council member, even Jaden. Especially Jaden.

  The letter was brief, just a note that he realized he’d failed to provide me with details, like, say, Felix’s address, which was listed below. I probably could have found it online but at least now I didn’t have to bother. Felix lived in Interbay, a residential area between Queen Anne and Ballard, where once upon a time housing was fairly cheap. That wasn’t the case anywhere in Seattle’s city limits anymore.

  It was also, mercifully, fairly easy to get to by bike and bus. I dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt. Outside, clouds loomed promising rain, so I pulled on a gray sweater and then put on my red leather jacket. I patted Seth on the head. He yawned and then curled up into a tighter ball and fell back asleep on the edge of my bed. Purse in hand, I slipped out the door before Valerie could realize I was leaving a
nd attempt to talk me out of it or ask about the envelope’s contents.

  I unlocked my electric blue bicycle from where it was tethered to the porch railing, next to Valerie’s black bike.

  I stopped at the grocery store and bought a pie. I didn’t know what kind of food was appropriate to bring someone whose husband was missing, but pie seemed to be a pretty safe all-occasion dessert: delicious but without the celebratory implications of a cake.

  Felix’s house was up the steep hill from the bus stop so I walked my bike up, the pie in the basket behind the seat. The house was green with yellow trim. The porch was made of the same dark wood as the front door. Planters lined the porch’s railing and colorful spring flowers bloomed out of them.

  A minivan was parked in the narrow driveway, in front of the one car garage. Another car, a silver BMW, was parked in front of the house. I hadn’t asked what kind of car Felix drove but I suspected the BMW wasn’t his. As I headed up the porch steps, the front door burst open. A man in a black Witch Council robe came through the screen door, letting it bang closed behind him. His graying brown hair was cropped short and he wore shiny leather shoes. He was Stephen Claremont, a man who’d been on the council for as long as I’d been alive.

  He looked angry and his expression didn’t change when he saw me.

  “Hello,” I said, for lack of anything better.

  He glared. “What are you doing here, Avery?”

  My pulse raced. I swallowed, keeping a pleasant smile on my face. “I heard about Felix. I was just coming to see if Samantha needed any help.” I held up the pie as if it could help explain my presence.

  “I see,” he said. He looked like he wanted to say more but the screen door opened and Samantha appeared. She must have heard me.

  “Avery Burke! Long time, no see,” she said.

  Witches had occasional coven meetings, once or twice a year, where I saw all of these people, made small talk, and tried to ignore the whispers and muttered insults hurled in my direction by the haughtier witches. So Samantha and I had met, though I hadn’t seen her since before she had the baby.