Hex and the City
Page 29
Congratulations! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes—
I turned to the inside, ready to read the rest of the card, but no words were written. Instead was a drawing of a raven, wings outstretched over the page. The feathers fluttered and shifted. The wings flapped as though the drawing were an animation. I threw the card away from myself, afraid this was a message from the Raven Queen.
I was too late. A raven flew out of the card, the ink outline transforming to real feathers. A bird fluttered above my head, crashed into a wall, and dive-bombed at me.
I screamed and ran.
CHAPTER TWO
Bad Omens
I ran out of the administrative wing, screaming. Pro Ro bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time to see what was wrong.
I pointed to the wing I had vacated, out of breath. “The Raven Court. They’re here. She sent an emissary. She’s going to kill me.”
Pro Ro waved his wand and raised a protective ward. Unlike the usual wards that were invisible to my eyes, this one was made of shimmering yellow.
I hadn’t seen where the raven had gone after it flew at me kamikaze style. I assumed the bird had followed me onto the landing and the stairs. It was nowhere in sight. I prayed it wasn’t loose in the school, bent on terrorizing the students.
Pro Ro created a separate protective ward around himself and left me on the stairs to inspect the staff room. “If I call out, run and get help,” he said.
He didn’t cry out, but he took a long time. I reached out with my awareness, trying to sense if anything was wrong. I didn’t feel the presence of any evil Fae. The only magic I saw were threads of light around Pro Ro as he diligently inspected the mailboxes and empty rooms. Thatch didn’t approve of my remote viewing without him being present after the last mishap, so I kept the astral excursion brief.
When Pro Ro finally returned, he held the card and an origami crane. The paper crane was black like the raven had been, decorated with a pattern of feathers.
His brows lifted so high they almost touched his bright blue turban. “Is this the raven?”
“No. It was a real bird. And that’s a crane, not a raven.” I didn’t even know if there was such a thing as origami ravens.
“There was an enchantment on it. Just a simple glamour to give it the appearance of a real bird and to fly like one. Nothing dangerous.” He held it out to me, but I didn’t want to touch it.
“Can you tell if it was done by the Raven Queen or someone from the Raven Court?”
“Psychometry and seeing the past aren’t my specialties, though I think Vega dabbles in it. You could ask her.” He shoved the card into my hands. “I found this with it.”
The art from the front was gone. The folded cardstock was blank, aside from a red blot of ink.
He waved his hand in front of me, the ward disappearing. “Someone was just playing a trick on you, probably one of the students. Nothing to be alarmed about.”
I doubted that. Someone had known I was getting married to Thatch. Someone who had sent me a warning.
Or a threat.
END OF EXCERPT
CHAPTER TWO
Bad Omens
I ran out of the administrative wing, screaming. Pro Ro bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time to see what was wrong.
I pointed to the wing I had vacated, out of breath. “The Raven Court. They’re here. She sent an emissary. She’s going to kill me.”
Pro Ro waved his wand and raised a protective ward. Unlike the usual wards that were invisible to my eyes, this one was made of shimmering yellow.
I hadn’t seen where the raven had gone after it flew at me kamikaze style. I assumed the bird had followed me onto the landing and the stairs. It was nowhere in sight. I prayed it wasn’t loose in the school, bent on terrorizing the students.
Pro Ro created a separate protective ward around himself and left me on the stairs to inspect the staff room. “If I call out, run and get help,” he said.
He didn’t cry out, but he took a long time. I reached out with my awareness, trying to sense if anything was wrong. I didn’t feel the presence of any evil Fae. The only magic I saw were threads of light around Pro Ro as he diligently inspected the mailboxes and empty rooms. Thatch didn’t approve of my remote viewing without him being present after the last mishap, so I kept the astral excursion brief.
When Pro Ro finally returned, he held the card and an origami crane. The paper crane was black like the raven had been, decorated with a pattern of feathers.
His brows lifted so high they almost touched his bright blue turban. “Is this the raven?”
“No. It was a real bird. And that’s a crane, not a raven.” I didn’t even know if there was such a thing as origami ravens.
“There was an enchantment on it. Just a simple glamour to give it the appearance of a real bird and to fly like one. Nothing dangerous.” He held it out to me, but I didn’t want to touch it.
“Can you tell if it was done by the Raven Queen or someone from the Raven Court?”
“Psychometry and seeing the past aren’t my specialties, though I think Vega dabbles in it. You could ask her.” He shoved the card into my hands. “I found this with it.”
The art from the front was gone. The folded cardstock was blank aside from a red blot of ink.
He waved his hand in front of me, the ward disappearing. “Someone was just playing a trick on you, probably one of the students. Nothing to be alarmed about.”
I doubted that. Someone had known I was getting married to Thatch. Someone who had sent me a warning.
Or a threat.
Go to Sarina Dorie’s website for information about the next book in the series:
https://sarinadorie.com/writing/novels/wombys-school-for-wayward-witches
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CONTEST: Felix Thatch’s Personal Ad
Do you have a brilliant idea for Professor Felix Thatch’s personal ad for what he would write? (Okay, so if you have gotten to at least Book 4, you probably realize Thatch would sooner die than write a personal ad, but if he did, what would it say?)
If you submit a personal ad for Felix Thatch, using the Google form link below, your entry will be entered in the contest and potentially published in the back of the book. As a thank-you for your enthusiasm for the series, and making my readers and me laugh, I will send the first-place winner a prize in the form of a Womby’s mini-notebook.
Enter your submission in this Google Form. Winners TBA.
https://goo.gl/forms/RDTWBLgbwpdm7Ukc2
If you enjoyed this not-so-cozy witch mystery in the Womby’s School for Wayward Witches Series please leave a review at the online retailer where you purchased this collection. You might also enjoy free short stories published by the author on her website: http://sarinadorie.com/writing/short-stories.
Readers can hear updates about current writing projects and news about upcoming novels and free short stories as they become available by signing up for Sarina Dorie’s newsletter at:
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Other novels written by the author can be found at:
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarina Dorie has sold over 150 short stories to markets like Analog, Daily Science Fiction, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card’s IGMS, Cosmos, and Abyss and Apex. Her stories and published novels have won humor and Romance Writer of America awards. She has sold three novels to publishers. Her steampunk romance series, The Memory Thief and her collections, Fairies, Robots and Unicorns—Oh My! and Ghosts, Werewolves and Zombies—Oh My! are available on Amazon, along with a dozen other novels she has written.
A few of her favorite things include: gluten-free brownies (not necessarily glutton-free), Star Trek, steampunk aesthetics, fairies, Severus Snape, Captain Jack Sparrow, and Mr. Darcy.
By day, Sarina is a public-school art teacher, artist, belly-dance performer and instructor, copy editor, fashion designer, event organizer and probably a few other things. By night, she writes. As you might imagine, this leaves little time for sleep.