Oath Of The Witch: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (School of Necessary Magic Raine Campbell Book 4)

by Judith Berens

  She couldn’t help but wonder if she should try to paint her own dreams as a way to improve her magic and fully awaken her powers. Although she didn’t usually remember her dreams and they weren’t as colorful as what he’d told her, it at least seemed like a possibility. A technique that worked for one person was bound to work for at least one other.

  The door to the art room opened, and Hideki strolled in, his hands in his pockets.

  “Hello, Sara.”

  “Hi, Hideki.” She gave him a warm smile. Even if her concern over her magic lingered, the satisfaction of a completed painting outweighed the negative feelings. She pointed to the painting. “What do you think?”

  The boy stepped toward the painting. He tilted his head and startled. His mouth dropped open slightly and he took shallow breaths. “Amazing?”

  Sara’s breath caught. “Amazing?”

  “It’s like you used a spell to go right into my dreams,” Hideki whispered. “Like you captured it better than I even explained it. You are a great artist, Sara.”

  The kitsune blushed until her face was almost as red as her hair. “Thanks, Hideki.”

  “I’ll tell everyone how great this is. If you want. I mean, do you need other clients or patrons or whatever you call them?”

  “Commissions help push me artistically. Working on this has been nice, and I’d love it if you sent more people my way.”

  Hideki picked the painting up, awe still on his face. “This will be a great help with my magic.” He turned to leave. “I’m glad I came to you. It’s the smartest thing I did this year.”

  She sat there, stunned, as the boy left with his painting.

  Sara hummed in the bathroom that evening before bed as she brushed her teeth.

  Christie was already fast asleep. She’d had a long day escorting a group of parents around on a tour, and they’d had ten questions for every two feet they walked.

  Evie sat at her desk and scribbled lists of ingredients for possible desserts for the Spring Formal. The Baking Club would provide much of the food.

  Raine smiled at the kitsune as she emerged from the bathroom and moved to her bed. “You’re in a good mood.”

  “I finished Hideki’s painting.” Sara sat on her bed, her smile wide. “And he loved it.”

  “Of course he did. You’re super-talented.”

  “I feel good about my painting, but it also feels even better to have other people say it’s good. I wasn’t sure with the professors, but a student has less reason to lie. Maybe I should be a painter after I graduate.” She laughed. “As if. What am I even saying?”

  Evie looked up from her busy scribbling. “Why not?”

  “A painter?” Sara gave her an incredulous look. “I can’t be a professional painter.”

  “I’m with Evie,” Raine said, a cheerful smile on her face. “Why not?”

  She scoffed, not entirely sure whether her friends were messing with her. “Because that’s not living up to my…you know, potential. I’m here at the School of Necessary Magic, so doesn’t that mean I have to go on and do some special job? Like my plans to go to law school to help people? Or your plan to join the FBI?”

  Raine shook her head. “I’m joining the FBI because of my family. Yeah, I want to help people, but there’s more than one way to do that.”

  “Raine’s right.” Evie turned and set her hands in her lap. “I have trouble deciding between becoming a potions maker or a healer. They both help people in different ways. I don’t think either one is more important than the other.”

  “But I’d only be an artist,” Sara replied.

  “Only an artist?” Evie shook her head. “There’s no such thing as ‘only an artist.’ Art makes people happy. It makes them feel all sorts of things. Think of what the world would be without art. Would you want to live in a world without it?”

  Sara shuddered. “No, but still…”

  Raine pointed to a landscape painting of the school hanging on the wall. “How did you feel when you finished that painting?”

  “I felt good. It makes me happy to finish paintings.”

  “And how did you feel when Hideki said he loved your painting?”

  “Great,” Sara said, with a huge smile. “It made me feel really happy. Knowing that I made something for him and it was exactly what he wanted. It was very…very…I don’t know. Satisfying?”

  “Then you should really consider it.” Raine nodded toward the painting. “Being an artist might appeal to you a lot, but there’s nothing magical about being a lawyer.”

  Evie bobbed her head in agreement. “She’s right, you know.”

  “But if my magic never fully comes in, I wouldn’t be able to create magical paintings.” Sara sighed. She might not have had a long day like Christie, but she was still tired.

  “You don’t need magic to be a great artist,” Raine pointed out. “There are plenty of great artists throughout Earth history. I’m reasonably sure they weren’t all magicals.”

  “I guess I have a lot to think about.” Sara slipped underneath her covers. “I thought I knew what my future was but now, I’m not so sure. It does kind of make me happy to think about being an artist in the future.”

  “Don’t worry too much.” Evie turned back to her list. She still had a lot of ingredients to figure out. “Not all of us can be as lucky as Raine to know exactly what we plan to do with our lives.”

  Raine couldn’t help the embarrassed smile that came to her face as she looked at her two friends. “Sorry.”

  “Thanks, you two.” Sara yawned and closed her eyes. “And thanks for always being there for me.”

  “You’re welcome,” both girls responded.

  Raine headed to her own bed and thought less about Sara’s career than her possible relationship with Philip. She stopped at the edge of her bed and wondered if she should bring the subject up but decided that to raise something that might be embarrassing right before bed was a bad idea.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Raine pointed to the small blue dress shop. They’d been all over that part of the kemana in search of it. “Is that the one Christie told us about?”

  Sara nodded when she recognized the shop. “Yeah, that’s it.”

  “Christie’s directions were kind of weird.”

  “It happens.”

  “Wait. Did I bring it?” Evie scrabbled in her pocket and pulled out a picture of a flowing white gown with ruffles on a dress form. “Oh, good, I did. Christie said a lot of the seamstresses down here are inundated, but this shop does a good job and they’re still available.”

  “Too bad we can’t go into town.” Raine sighed. “I mean, maybe they wouldn’t be able to do it as quickly, but it’d give us more options. It’s kind of silly to restrict us to the school and the kemana until we’re juniors. It’s not like we grew up in kemanas and never met non-magicals.”

  “One student who uses his magic inappropriately could still cause a big incident.” Evie sighed

  Raine blushed and looked away. Even if Evie wasn’t talking about her actions in Grand Rapids, it was hard not to feel bad. Her friend was right. If she’d seriously hurt one of the bullies, the police or PDA might have arrived on her doorstep despite Agent Connor’s intervention.

  That was all the more reason for her to become the first FBI witch and help magicals and non-magicals understand each other better.

  “Ah ha!” a raspy voice called behind the kids. “An entire group of go-getters. My lucky day, but also your lucky day.”

  The kids spun around. Hap stood behind them in his standard-issue top hat and vest.

  “Greetings and salutations.” The ferret bowed over his top hat. “I’ve waited for Sara to come back, but I see she’s brought a whole group of future friends who are all go-getters. This is perfect.” He straightened. “For the rest of you, I’m Horatius A. Pierce. Hap for short. All my friends call me Hap, and now, you’re all my friends.” He fluffed his vest. “Before that, though, there’s the small m
atter of me helping my old friend Sara get what she needs.”

  Sara looked at the ferret, her arms folded. She wanted to believe him, but he came off so sleazy. “You have what I need?”

  “Yes, young lady. Yes, indeed!” Hap gestured widely with his tiny arms. “I have the perfect thing for your missing magic. Kitsune-specific.”

  She gasped. While she’d been hopeful, she could hardly believe it. “Really?”

  “Indeed, I do.” Hap’s sharp-toothed smile came off as a mix of excited and hungry. “I should perhaps qualify those remarks so as to not raise unfair expectations.” The girls all frowned at him, and he threw up his paws. “Now don’t look at me like that. You young people today. I love you, you’re great, have a lot of potential, but you sometimes forget that not everything comes easy. But with a little good, old-fashioned effort, we can make difficult things happen, especially since an opportunity has arisen—a special opportunity that doesn’t come around that often.”

  Raine eyed him suspiciously. One of her recent FBI file reviews involved a con artist. Even though the criminal was human, something about the way Hap talked reminded her of the witness statements about the perpetrator.

  “Young people?” Raine echoed. “How old are you exactly?”

  “Old enough, young lad…my good witch. Old enough. It’s not really the age. It’s the wisdom and the life experience.” The ferret nodded slowly as if the statement was self-evident and entirely refuted her suspicion.

  “But you just sai—”

  “Sara,” Hap interrupted and didn’t bother to even look at Raine. “Are you still interested?”

  “I don’t understand,” the kitsune said and folded her arms. “Do you have something that can help me or not?”

  He sucked in a little breath. “I have a line on one—I talked to a friend of a friend, and he knows a great potions witch out in Albuquerque. The best. She could make a repair potion that’d fix the Grand Canyon. There’s only one small problem.”

  “What?”

  “Expensive with a capital E.” Hap made an odd popping noise that Sara assumed was an attempt to cluck his tongue. “I’m a go-getter, but I’m not a rich ferret. I’d love to take the hit and pass it on to you, but I can’t. I have to eat.”

  She sighed and her shoulders slumped. “I understand.”

  Evie rested her hand on her friend’s back. “Don’t give up. Maybe we can pool our money.”

  Raine frowned and bored into the oversized but still tiny ferret with her best attempt at an FBI agent stare. The animal didn’t seem to notice or be impressed.

  “Pool your money?” Hap’s whiskers twitched. “That’s what I like about you kids. You’ve got good business savvy. Joint investment. It proves that my gut was right. You’re go-getters, but my gut’s always right, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” He tapped his foot and made the popping sound again. “But unless you have like a hundred people to pool money, it wouldn’t work.”

  “A hundred?” Sara squeaked.

  Evie groaned.

  Raine’s hands twitched into fists. She was sure that if Sara wasn’t so desperate, she would have seen right through Hap. Raine needed to protect her friend.

  “So what’s your plan then, Hap?” Raine stared at him in open defiance.

  He only gave her a sharp-toothed grin back. “This is where we can win-win. You see, I’m merely a single ferret in a large kemana.” He gestured around at some of the nearby shops. “Right now, I’m focused on a very potion-centric business model. Direct to customer, but when you’re small in a world of larger beings and you don’t have the kind of magic that, say, a pixie has, it makes things difficult.” The ferret rubbed his paws together. “And this is where the wisdom of youth comes in and makes you even more go-getters.”

  Raine blinked. She began to have trouble keeping up. “But you said that wisdom comes with exp—”

  “Effort, that’s right!” Hap interrupted and his speech speeded up. “So, let me lay this opportunity out for you. I was going to talk to the Red Coat Society about being my first distributors, but you three girls will have the opportunity before them. You’re much better go-getters. And you’re bigger, so you can carry more stuff.” He stopped to take a breath.

  She opened her mouth to say something, but he rushed to speak again before she could.

  “And I will help you help yourselves. You’ll get rich. I’ll get rich. Win-win. Here’s the concept. It’s simple. You invest a small amount of money, and I supply you with pre-made potions of great quality at reasonable prices. You can then sell those potions to trustworthy and deserving friends and family. You’ll make money and be able to sell more potions, and I’ll gain more money and be able to buy more potions to give to you and other distributors. The whole thing becomes a big self-feeding machine, and soon, we’re all rolling in coin. You can even hire other friends to sell potions for you.” Hap took a deep breath after his spiel and pointed at Sara. “I earn enough to buy the potion she needs, and you all earn enough to buy it from me. The overall plan is a brilliant new marketing strategy, cutting edge. Very modern. I call it Direct Potion Sales, or DPS for short. You make money while selling to grateful friends and family. Win-win-win.”

  Sara and Evie blinked as they struggled to process the entire sales pitch.

  Raine scoffed and crossed her arms. “Brilliant new sales pitch?”

  Hap nodded. “This is a bri—”

  “It’s multi-level marketing,” Raine interrupted and threw her arms up. She put her hands on her hips and leaned forward to rattle her words off loud and fast so he couldn’t talk over her. “That’s not new, and that’s at least assuming these potions you want us to sell are any good. This sounds like a scam to me. I’ve read about this exact sort of thing. You’ll sell us a bunch of garbage potions that are probably something a witch intended to throw out anyway. You make all the money because you’re on top of the pyramid, and we’re stuck with useless potions we can’t sell.”

  Anger flooded onto Sara and Evie’s faces. They both glared at the ferret.

  “Well, I never!” he responded and shook a furry little fist. “These statements are defamatory, rude, and libelous. I’m agitated, indignant, and angry that you’d dare compare me to such obviously disreputable furless people engaging in one of these scams, as you call them. DPS isn’t a scam. It’s a brilliant new sales strategy, and I only source from the highest-quality potion makers.” His whiskers shook in irritation and he spun around to stomp away. “I guess I was mistaken. You’re not go-getters. It’s a good thing that I haven’t wasted my time trying to source a kitsune magic potion. You obviously need more fur to keep your stupid brains warm because you don’t see a great business opportunity when it’s right in front of you. Stupid kids!”

  The girls stood and stared at the angry little animal until he’d turned a corner.

  Sara took a deep breath. “I should have known he was too good to be true.”

  “Are you sure he is?” Evie looked worried.

  “If he was that good at selling things, why does he lurk in the kemana with a tiny little stall?” Raine pointed to the dress shop. “He doesn’t even have a shop. Plenty of people here aren’t trying to be rich, but you heard him. He says he’s supposedly a good businessman. Businessferret. Anyway, I’m telling you it’s a scam.”

  “Is that what your FBI instincts tell you?” Sara gave her a little grin.

  “Yeah, they do.”

  Sara smiled and her friend’s caring washed away some of the disappointment. “Fine. It sucks, but we still have dress orders to get in.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Raine licked her lips as she opened a book on the library table, Advanced Magical Theory. It was obvious Hap wouldn’t help Sara do anything but give him money. Raine hoped to find something in a book that might help. Her friend did a good job of keeping up a brave face, but her lack of full magic obviously weighed her down.

  “There has to be some sort of solution. I
don’t care what her family says. Jerks.”

  Raine flipped through the book and skimmed the text. Much of the information was above her head and skill level as it discussed everything from high-level ritual linking to magnify magical power to the types of techniques necessary to open a long-range portal. There were entire chapters dedicated to the permanent imbuing of magical items and even how weather could affect complex spells.

  Unfortunately, there was no chapter on how to strengthen existing magic with an enchantment or potion. A brief few paragraphs discussed that magical strength could be improved with increased use, but even then, there were certain natural limits to talent and strength.

  Raine continued to skim through the book and finally found a section heading entitled Unusual Advanced Magical Limitation Scenarios and their Implications.

  Although magic has its limits in terms of potential and magical energy channeled, there remain rare scenarios where even the apparent limits of a given magical being can be surpassed. One of the more well-documented is that of a wish.

  Several species are known to harbor rare individuals with access to wishes. The heavy association of wishes on Earth with djinn, often referred to as genies, is the result of a historical misunderstanding subsequently magnified and passed along by folklore. That said, there is at least one djinn historically who was known to have access to a wish, which might have been the original source of this association.

  Regardless of the nature of the being possessing a wish, they tend to be defined by magical ability that exceeds the user’s normal capabilities. Even in the cases of wishes, subtle limitations can come into effect. As related in folklore, wishes can often backfire, resulting in the wisher suffering an unanticipated downside.

  “A wish, huh?” Raine murmured. She’d heard a rumor that there used to be a student at the school who might have had a wish, but she doubted it. Also, she’d heard rumors that one of the seniors was a dragon in disguise and a new freshmen elf was actually five hundred years old and only pretended to be young. In a magic school, ignoring possibilities might be stupid, but believing everything you heard was equally as stupid.