“Were the alternates at the stadium the night of the unveiling?” I asked, and Sara nodded.
“I think so,” she said.
“Then all that had to happen was for Jason to either follow Jack to the bar, or for him to hear from somebody else that everybody was going there. I would say he definitely had the motive, and he definitely had the opportunity.”
“And creating an undetectable poison that could kill somebody quickly is definitely something someone from an earth coven would be good at,” Amy said. “They tend to be much better at creating potions than those of us from other types of covens.”
“So Jason is our main suspect now? You don’t think it was Derek anymore?” Ellie asked, looking at me.
I bit my lip. “It’s possible everything Derek told me was a lie, but I don’t think it was. I got the impression he was telling the truth, and I felt like he really wanted me to find out what had happened to Jack. I honestly don’t think he did it, as much as he might have seemed like a good suspect at the time.”
“Right,” Amy said. “Anyway, while you guys look into that later, it’s time for Tina and me to do a magic lesson. After all, she’s still way behind on her magical learning, and that is much more important than solving a murder.”
“I’m coming too,” Sara said. “I need to get better at casting spells so that I can improve my skills in the broom competition.”
Amy nodded. “I think that’s an excellent idea. You would have won last night if you had been able to defend yourself against the spell that Andrea cast.”
“I know,” Sara said, slumping her shoulders slightly. “I really want to be good enough that I can win the whole thing.”
“Then come on, both of you,” Amy said. “We will practice our defensive spells tonight.”
The three of us made our way outside. It was dark out, and kind of chilly, but Amy moved her wand quickly and straightaway the entire front yard lit up, like we were in some sort of cool stadium.
“Alright,” Amy started. “I think this is as good a day as any to get Tina started on defensive spells, and Sara, we will also work to make sure yours do what they are supposed to.”
I nodded, pulling out a pen to go with the notebook that I kept all of the spells I learned written in.
“The thing about defensive spells is that they can be just as potent as offensive ones. If you find yourself in the middle of a situation you don’t want to be in, a defensive spell can get you out of it without making you seem like an aggressor, and it can repel spells cast by others. The most basic defensive spell is one that puts up a shield that blocks any spells cast by other witches or wizards. This is the spell that Sara should have used yesterday to block Andrea’s spell during the broom competition.”
Sara’s eyes were riveted on Amy’s; I knew she regretted not having won yesterday, but this was an all-new side of Sara I hadn’t seen before. Normally Sara was so pessimistic about her magic. She never bothered to believe she could do it properly. So, whenever Amy normally spoke about magic, Sara’s eyes would glaze over, as if she had given up on ever doing it right.
That was a completely different Sara to the one who now looked at Amy like she was a goddess who knew the secret to life.
“Now, Sara, do you know the words to cast a simple shield spell?”
Sara nodded enthusiastically. “I do, yes. Jupiter, protector in the sky, shield me from all spells cast awry.”
Amy nodded, impressed. “See? You know the words. Now, all you need to do is focus when you’re saying them, and really want the shield to be formed. Come on, let’s test it out.”
Amy motioned for Sara and me to separate a little bit, and we moved through the front yard until we were standing about thirty feet apart. Amy nodded and stood in front of Sara, pointing her wand at her friend.
“I’m going to cast a very simple spell that will shoot bubbles from my wand toward you. If your spell fails and they hit you, literally nothing will happen.”
“Is that because it’s the spell you use to entertain children in the summer?” Sara said with a grin, and Amy nodded with a laugh.
“It certainly is. But I don’t want you worrying that I’m going to cast a spell that has a chance of actually hurting you while you try this out for the first time.”
“Fair enough,” Sara said, pulling out her wand and standing at the ready. “Whenever you would like to attack me with the killer soap bubbles, I’m ready.”
Amy pointed her wand at Sara and cast the spell without speaking. Instantly, a stream of bubbles escaped from the end of Amy’s wand and began making their way toward Sara.
My friend furrowed her brow as she focused hard on the spell she was about to cast.
“Jupiter, protector in the sky, shield me from all spells cast awry.”
I watched with bated breath, and to my surprise, a moment later a small circle appeared in the center of Sara’s wand. It grew until it was about a foot in diameter, a transparent blue ring. A couple of the errant bubbles hit the ring, and as soon as they did, they exploded with a huge bang, causing Sara to yelp and me to cover my ears. Sara dropped her wand, and straightaway the transparent blue ring disappeared.
Chapter 20
“What was that?” I asked, looking at Sara’s wand, horrified. “Was that supposed to happen?”
“Definitely not,” Sara said, her face pale. “I’ve seen Amy do the spell at least a thousand times, and that never happens. The bubbles should have just stuck to the ring, with nothing else happening.”
Amy shook her head. “You came close, though. I mean, sure, the fact that your shield was a little bit overly enthusiastic about destroying the threat wasn’t perfect, but your shield did work as a shield. That should be considered a good thing; even just a few weeks ago, if you had tried this spell, something weird probably would’ve happened, like your shield would have been made of fire or something.”
“That’s true,” Sara admitted. “Still, I’d rather my spells work properly, rather than always having some sort of surprise attached to them. What am I doing wrong? Why don’t they work normally?”
“In this case, I think the problem is you want it too badly. You want the shield to form, but that’s all. It’s just a simple shield to protect you from the spell. And not a difficult spell. What happened here is that you wanted the shield to form so desperately that it became overly powerful, causing the extra explosion when anything hit it. You need to keep practicing and learn how to keep your emotions in check while you’re casting the spell so that it casts with the perfect amount of power. Give that a thought, and while you’re doing that, I’m going to try the spell again with Tina this time.”
I gulped and got myself ready to cast the spell. I had written it down in my books, and I was fairly certain I had all of the words memorized.
“Ready?” Amy asked, and I nodded. I squared myself up as Amy pointed her wand toward me, and a second later, bubbles began escaping once more and making their way to where I stood.
“Jupiter, protector in the sky, shield me from all spells cast awry,” I said, and as I did so, I imagined as best I could a protective shield like I used to see in human movies coming up and stopping the bubbles from attacking me.
Of course, this meant resisting the urge to run through the bubbles and pop them with my fingers like I used to do when I was a kid.
Straightaway, a transparent blue ring appeared in front of my wand, like it had with Sara’s. The difference was that my ring was a lot bigger, at least four feet in diameter, and almost reaching the ground. As the bubbles got closer to it, I resisted the urge to wince, not wanting to hear the same explosion that had happened when the bubbles hit Sara’s shield.
But no; as soon as the bubbles hit my shield, they simply popped in place, like a normal bubble would.
“Good!” Amy said, nodding happily. “That’s excellent, that’s exactly what we want.”
I looked over at Sara, who normally would have looked fairly dejected at the
fact that I had performed the spell better even though it was a spell that wasn’t from my coven and I had only really learned how magic worked a couple of months earlier. But this time, Sara just looked more determined.
“Can you try again with me?” she asked, and Amy nodded.
“Of course,” she said.
“You can do this, Sara,” I encouraged her. “I know you can.”
Sara looked at me appreciatively, flashed me a smile, and then focused all of her energy on Amy.
“Remember, you don’t want this too badly,” Amy said. “You want to cast a shield, but it’s a simple shield, and a simple spell. You can do this.”
Sara nodded. “I can do this. Simple shield, simple spell.”
A moment later, more bubbles erupted from the tip of Amy’s wand. Sara cast the spell again, and once again the shield appeared in front of her wand. It was a little bit bigger this time, maybe a foot and a half in diameter, and as the bubbles got closer to it, I flinched inwardly. I was definitely not looking forward to another set of explosions, and in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if some Enforcers showed up shortly, having been called and told that someone was blowing things up in our yard.
I was pleasantly surprised, however, when the bubbles hit Sara’s shield and simply popped, exactly as mine had.
“Oh my God, it worked!” Sara cried out. “It did exactly what it was supposed to!”
I laughed with a combination of pride and relief. “It did work! You’re awesome, Sara.”
“Good work,” Amy said with an approving nod. “See? You can do spells correctly, you just need to be more focused about it.”
Sara nodded. “I just can’t believe nothing went wrong this time. What changed?”
“What changed is your own confidence in yourself,” Amy explained. “Up until now, you never believed that your spells would work, and so they didn’t. You always believed that you were a terrible witch who was good at nothing, and so your spells would never work the way they were intended to, and therefore it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because you never believed in yourself, you never succeeded. But now, after last night, managing to come in second in the broom competition and almost winning has finally given you the confidence boost you needed to be able to cast spells properly, as well. Now that you know that you’re not completely useless as a witch, and now that you have proof that you can do things that other witches and wizards can’t, that new confidence is displaying itself in your spellcasting.”
Sara looked like she was going to cry. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I actually cast a spell correctly. I’m going to keep doing this. I’m going to learn how to cast all of the spells, and then no one will be able to stop me when I’m on that broom.”
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. Amy was completely right, of course. Sara’s problem always had been confidence, and it was so incredible to watch her grow as a witch and see her find that confidence at last, for the first time in her life. I was incredibly proud of her.
“Alright, let’s do it again, but this time with a spell that actually does something vaguely threatening,” I suggested.
“Good choice,” Amy said. Sara steeled herself, but she was so excited she was practically jumping on the balls of her feet.
“Now, Sara, I want you to focus on getting the right timing with the right feeling with your spells,” Amy explained. “You’re casting the spell, but when you get overly excited or overly intense about it, the spell does things it shouldn’t, like exploding the bubbles. You need to work on finding that line between not caring enough and caring too much. You absolutely got it right the last time, since you cast the spell perfectly, but as I throw spells that are more aggressive at you, you’re probably going to have to change your attitude slightly.”
Sara nodded. “I understand exactly what you mean. Honestly, the fact that we’re now working on tiny changes like the exact extent of my attitude is such an amazing change compared to what we used to have to work on.”
Amy smiled. “Good, I’m glad you can recognize the huge step forward you have made today. This is absolutely not a nothing moment, and you should be very proud of yourself and everything you have accomplished to get here. Now, get back into it, because I’m about to throw some cold water at you.”
Sara laughed. “Bring it on, witch!”
I watched with interest as Amy pointed her wand at Sara once more. This time, instead of a flow of small bubbles, a steady stream of water burst forth from Amy’s wand. It was a much more powerful flow of water than I had expected; I thought it would have been similar to running a garden hose in the summer. But instead, it was like Amy had opened a fire hose toward Sara. The water was more powerful than what Andrea had shot at Sara the other day.
My hands flew to my eyes, sort of not wanting to watch as the water headed toward Sara. I knew that even just a couple of days ago, Sara probably would have panicked and dropped her wand, or simply cast a random spell that would have done something insane, and goodness only knew what would have happened.
Amy, however, had been right. Sara’s confidence level had grown, and instead of panicking and throwing out any which spell, Sara steeled herself and quickly muttered the words to the shield spell. She wasn’t quite quick enough, and a little bit of the water hit her, but for the most part, the translucent circle that appeared blocked the water from hitting her, and the smile on Sara’s face when she realized she had actually succeeded was something to behold.
“I’m the greatest witch known to paranormal kind!” Sara announced. Amy had halted the flow of water from her wand and Sara grinned as she ran around to the front yard in celebration. I laughed as I watched, extremely happy for her.
“While I wouldn’t necessarily go that far, you’re definitely ready to defend yourself against spells cast against you the next time you’re in that broom competition,” Amy said. “I intentionally shot a stronger stream of water than I had indicated, just to see how you would react to something a little bit unexpected. I couldn’t have been more proud of your reaction.”
“You did get me a little bit,” Sara laughed, grabbing at her damp hair. “But my spell did get there eventually. I guess I just need to practice saying them a little bit more quickly.”
“Good,” Amy said. “Now you know what to work on until our next lesson. Next time, I will teach the both of you a few offensive spells so that you can use them against your opponents when you’re in the stadium.”
“And I can use them against murderers,” I said, earning myself a very motherly look from Amy.
“You absolutely should not be taking on murderers by yourself,” Amy said. “You haven’t been in the magical world for nearly long enough, and I would have thought that last time, or the time before that, or even the time before that would have shown you why that’s a bad idea.”
“Fair enough,” I admitted, feeling a little bit chastised. After all, I had gotten into a decent amount of trouble by confronting murderers, and Amy had swooped in to save the day—and my life—on more than one occasion.
“Now it’s your turn,” Amy told me. “Ready?”
I nodded and turned toward her, getting myself ready. A second later, the stream of water made its way toward me as well, and I quickly muttered the spell in question and held out my wand.
To my immense pleasure, the spell worked just in time, and not a single drop of water fell on me as a huge shield opened up. This time, instead of being straight and flat, it turned into a little bit of a dome, covering not only my front but also the top of my head and moving behind me.
“Good, very good,” Amy nodded. “I’m extremely surprised that you managed to turn your shield into a dome so quickly. Normally it takes witches and wizards quite a bit of practice to get that far, and those are the people from this coven, for whom that spell is natural.”
“It figures that Tina would automatically still be better at all of this than me,” Sara grinned, and I turned toward her.
“Hey, don’t say that,” I said. “Seriously, I’m so impressed with how you managed to cast spells today.”
“Don’t worry,” Sara said. “I’m not actually angry or anything like that. I think it’s pretty cool that you can come into the magical world after not having lived here at all and be so good at magic.”
“Thanks,” I said, a small blush creeping up my face.
“It certainly is something,” Amy muttered, almost to herself. “I wonder why that is.”
After a little bit more practice, the three of us decided to call it a night, and we made it back into the house with Sara ready to go over and show Ellie just how good she had gotten at performing spells. It had definitely been a good night.
Chapter 21
When I made my way downstairs the next morning, I found Kyran at the kitchen table, eating a cinnamon bun Ellie had left out along with a note that she was working all day but would be back later.
I let out a small yelp as soon as I saw him, my hands immediately going to my hair. I certainly wasn’t one of those girly girls who spent hours every day doing their makeup or that sort of thing, although I certainly did envy their ability to automatically know what colors of makeup looked good on them. But I still had some standards, and I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that I had even brushed my hair before leaving my room that morning. After all, I had definitely not expected my boyfriend to be sitting at the kitchen table.
“Hey, your hair looks fine, don’t worry.”
“Can you stop doing that? It’s weird and I’m not used to it.”
“Sorry,” Kyran grinned. “It’s not really the sort of thing you can turn on and off.”
“What are you doing here, anyway? Don’t tell me you broke in.”
“Hey, I try and stop crimes, not commit them. Besides, I figured if I did that your roommates might like me even less than they do now.”
Five Charm Fire Page 11