The Magic Legacy: An Urban Fantasy Action and Adventure series (The Witches of Pressler Street Book 1)

by Martha Carr

  “No, it’s okay.” Laura rolled her shoulders and lifted her wand toward the iron pieces in the hearth. “I’ve been working on a new disassembly charm. For work, right?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “It was pretty effective the first time I used it. I attended this excavation at the…never mind. I can see your brains melting. Anyway, it peeled away all the debris caked on a few artifacts I recovered. You know, like un-fossilizing a fossil.”

  “Oh.” Emily nodded. “Impressive, I guess. You think you can pull everything that isn’t pure out of those pieces?”

  “I have no idea if it’ll work to take something out. I used it to remove unwanted material from outside.” Laura gestured toward the radiating forge with a wave of her hand. “But if it doesn’t work, we can always—” The silver ring on her thumb flashed a brilliant white light that shot from her hand and went straight for the iron pieces. Every bar illuminated with the same white glow, trembled, and levitated an inch or two, then clattered back onto the hearth, and the light disappeared.

  “What was that?” Nickie asked.

  “Well…” Laura scrutinized her ring, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to find an answer.

  “Whoa.” Emily smacked Laura’s arm and pointed.

  A cloud of glowing soot rose from the iron pieces like millions of tiny, swarming flies. These were followed by small, round blobs of shimmering blue and green—just a few from each bar—that rippled like shuddering drops of water as they lifted into the air.

  “Oh.” Emily flicked her wand toward the closest tool shelf, and a tin bucket unburied itself from all their stacked supplies and floated into her hands. She set this on the ground right beside the hearth. “Has to go somewhere, right?”

  Laura stared at the floating particles removing themselves from the wrought iron. When they’d all emerged, the broken bars bore a smooth, dark-silver sheen.

  “Did you do that?” she asked her ring; neither of her sisters commented on her talking to it this time. With a sharp breath, Laura switched her wand into her left hand, then reached out with her right toward the extracted blobs and specks in the air. The ring on her right thumb pulsed with a soft light, and Laura lowered her hand to point at the bucket by her feet. The shimmering, green-blue sphere shuddered, then dove toward the bucket with astounding speed.

  “Watch out.” Laura stepped toward Nickie, and Emily moved in the other direction. The tin bucket pinged with every pellet dropping inside, and the swarm of black specks followed behind. One final particle hit the bucket hard enough to send it rocking on its base for a few seconds before it settled upright.

  Then, all fell still.

  “Okay, did you know that would happen?” Nickie asked, pointing at the bucket.

  Laura stared at her. “Seriously? You think I would’ve kept something like that from you guys?”

  Her sister blinked, then cocked her head. “Yeah.”

  “At least until you figured out exactly what happened, how, and why,” Emily added.

  “Yeah, I do that, don’t I?” Laura glanced at the hearth. “I’m starting to get what Dad meant by the rings making our magic stronger. But this was like—”

  “Casting a spell you didn’t even know.” Nickie leaned to peer into the bucket. “Those look like glass beads to you?”

  Emily copied her, then laughed. “Look at that.”

  “Hey, maybe just leave the bucket alone for a second so we can focus on this part first.” Laura pointed at the shiny silver iron pieces.

  “Okay, you’re right.” Nickie lifted her wand. “Still thinking really big fire?”

  “To work with this stuff? Yeah.”

  “Ambustio.” The second Nickie flicked her wand, the center of the open forge erupted in massive flames. “Jeez.” They all retreated to avoid the intense blast, and when the magical flames settled, they moved closer to see what would happen.

  “I really wanna try my ring out,” Emily said, grinning at her sisters.

  Laura gestured toward the fire. “Go ahead. Maybe it’ll be less weird this time watching someone else do it.”

  “Cool.” Emily cracked her knuckles. Laura winced and Nickie laughed, then Emily extended her hand toward the heating iron and took a breath. “Wait.” She peered at them. “We’re just bending these things into something that looks like a weapon?”

  “A real weapon would be smarter,” Nickie said. “You know. Just in case. I don’t want to have to wield anything against a human, but if there’s some kind of physical component to pulling the Gorafrex out, it would suck not to have a sharp enough sword or whatever.”

  “Oh, you want a sword?”

  “Or a dagger. Like I said. Whatever.”

  Emily cleared her throat. “I can do that. I can do whatever.” She took another deep breath and reached out toward the flames. Nothing happened. “Huh.” Stepping back with one foot, she tried again and put more momentum behind it. “Maybe takes a little more practice, right?”

  “Not really.” Laura frowned at the copper ring on Emily’s finger. “I didn’t practice at all.”

  “Yeah. I know. You’re the oldest and the smartest. Just…lemme try again.” Emily closed her eyes, took another deep breath, then opened her eyes wide and flung her hand out with as much force as she’d cast the destruction spell on their backyard fence.

  “Um… maybe it just hasn’t warmed up yet,” Nickie offered.

  “Okay, do you wanna give it a shot?”

  “Sure.” Nickie cleared her throat, pressed her palms together in front of her chest, and took a deep breath. Her eyes slowly closed to help focus on centering herself.

  Laura folded her arms and glanced at Emily, who just shrugged.

  After a few more breaths, Nickie unfolded her arms and lifted her palms toward the flames.

  “That looks like you’re trying to conjure fire again,” Emily said. “Or like you’re about to sacrifice something.”

  Laura shushed her.

  Nickie kept her eyes shut and wiggled her fingers. Then she opened one eye, saw that she’d done nothing, and resorted to using her wand instead. “This is nuts. We already know how to use our wands.”

  “Nickie, wait—”

  “Et telum.” A green flash of light shot from Nickie’s wand, and the fire retaliated by sending the spell flying back at her. She leapt aside before the green spell whizzed past her and struck an old expanding file organizer filled with papers none of them had looked at in years. The organizer toppled onto the floor, and instead of paper, a few dozen blow darts spilled out of the dividers and rolled across the floor.

  The sisters stared at the blow darts made of paper, the fire still roaring behind them.

  “You were thinking you’d just turn the iron into any kind of weapon?” Laura turned around and gave her sister a sympathetic frown.

  Nickie rubbed her arm and then crossed both arms over her chest. “Yeah, I suppose I got a little frustrated.”

  “Did the fire deflect your spell?” Emily asked. “Or was that the iron?”

  “I don’t know how to answer that.”

  “Well, we’re obviously doing something wrong.” Nickie stuck her wand back in her pocket and pursed her lips. “Maybe you just have the only ring that wants to cooperate.”

  Laura frowned. “That can’t be it.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” Emily added. “I mean, if you can’t turn some iron pieces into weapons for us, we’re gonna have to find somebody else who can. Pretty fast too, if that Gorafrex’s still walking around wearing a human.”

  With a little pop of her lips, Laura nodded. “Okay. If I can do it, I just wanna say it’s not because I’m trying to show off.”

  Nickie let out an airy chuckle. “Yeah, we know.”

  Laura turned toward the roaring fire and raised her hand. “If this is how the rings work,” she muttered, “I guess I just…” She imagined one of the rods molding itself into a sharp blade. Her silver ring pulsed, and three iron pieces shoved t
hemselves together with a clang. After a grating screech and a loud pop, a blisteringly hot shard of metal leapt from the hearth and clattered to the floor at her feet.

  “Holy crap!” Nickie laughed in surprise.

  “You just popped out a pure-iron dagger!” Emily added.

  Laura stared at the cooling weapon on the stone floor. “Hello.” She grinned at her sisters, then at the weapon. “Let’s see how many more of these we can conjure up, shall we?”

  20

  The Gorafrex prowled the streets of Austin, feeling neither the heat of the afternoon nor the discomfort of its host’s body, now slick with sweat. The human was a gangly thing and moved with a lanky gait even as the Gorafrex pressed it forward from within.

  So long. So long to wait for this?

  Another sleeping Peabrain whistled down the sidewalk. “Ben! Hey, man, how you doin’?” A much shorter human stepped right in front of the Gorafrex with an idiotic grin. “Whoa, man. Are you feelin’ okay? You don’t look so good—”

  The Gorafrex reached out with a long, wiry hand and forced that tiny, powerful second brain at the top of its hosts spine into full awakening. A series of blood-red orbs shot from the host’s hand and pummeled this human ‘friend’ in the chest, driving him backward against a brick building.

  “Ben…” the friend croaked. “What the hell—”

  “Where are the witches?” the Gorafrex snarled.

  “What?”

  “The witches. The wizards.” The Gorafrex forced its host’s blood bubbles to drive the friend harder against the wall, pinning him there. “What section of this despicable vessel do they occupy?”

  “Dude, I think…” The friend struggled against the magic but could not fight back. “I think maybe you’ve been out in the heat too long. You’re startin’ to freak me out.”

  “And you’re useless.” The Gorafrex clenched its host’s fist, and the blood bubbles released the friend from against the wall, only to shoot straight up and pummel the unsuspecting human in the chin.

  The friend might as well have been hit with the full force of a champion heavyweight’s devastating uppercut. His head jerked back and cracked against the brick wall, then he dropped to the sidewalk and lay still.

  “If you’re not going to use your magic,” the Gorafrex hissed, “you belong on the ground.” Then it took off again within its host, leaving behind the cloyingly strong smell of lavender.

  Along with every other wizard and witch on this miserable ship. You’ll all fall before me.

  21

  In just under an hour, Laura had forged three daggers, an iron lance, and two round orbs with her silver ring and the massive fire in their basement.

  “What the heck are those supposed to be?” Emily nodded at the last iron sphere the size of a baseball as it rolled to a stop on the stone floor.

  “Your guess is as good as mine.” Laura squatted and reached out to test the orb’s temperature. Every weapon had cooled faster than it should have after launching from the fire. She picked up the second ball of iron and rolled it around in her hand. “Might be useful if any of us played softball, but I have no idea what these are for.”

  “But you made them.” Nickie pointed her wand at the fire. “Restinguo.”

  The flames snuffed out in the hearth with a gasp and a little puff of smoke. Her wand tapped against the stone hearth next. “Mensula.” A loud crack echoed through their magical basement, and the hearth grew by half a foot, squashed itself together, and returned to its original shape as a wooden table. The sisters collected the weapons from the floor, then laid them out on the table.

  “Honestly, I think the ring did most of the work.” Laura rolled the metal lance back and forth across the table; it was longer than the table by at least a foot on either end. “When the heck are we ever gonna need a lance? Unless one of you is planning on charging through Austin on horseback to chase down this thing.”

  Nickie snorted. “I’ll pass this time.” She ran a finger down the handle of one of the daggers, marveling at the smooth iron and its sharp blade. “Something tells me your ring made these for a reason.”

  “You think Gilroy knows what that reason is?” Emily asked, raising her eyebrows.

  “Gilroy knows everything.”

  “That doesn’t help us when he’s the most annoying magical object ever.” Laura shook her head and picked up one of the daggers. “Getting answers from him is like picking out a deep splinter.”

  “Nice visual.” Emily grabbed the tin bucket of carbon and slag and set it on the table with a clang. “Any use for this stuff?”

  “I’ll keep it.” When her sisters both frowned, Laura shrugged. “You never know.” She grabbed one of the iron orbs. “Looks like we have our weapons. Let’s take ‘em upstairs.”

  Emily and Nickie grabbed the other pure-iron weapons and followed their sister out of the basement. Speed huffed along behind them to crawl up the stairs. They had to wait just before the landing in the foyer so the house wouldn’t rearrange itself with their immortal dog trapped on the stairs. The minute all three witches stood in the foyer again, Speed slumped on his belly between them, the house rumbled and groaned, whirring and flipping and lifting around them until it settled into its original form.

  “I don’t know about you guys,” Emily said, stepping into the small dining room beside the kitchen, “but I’m starving. What time is it, anyway?”

  Laura glanced at her watch and grimaced. “Almost two. I’ve only eaten a protein bar today.”

  Emily shot Laura a joking frown. “I made you waffles this morning.”

  “Yeah, and you were frustrated the whole time. That wasn’t gonna help me.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Nickie hefted the long iron lance and set it on the dining room table. “This thing’s lighter than it looks. Hey, I could really go for a chalupa right about now.”

  Emily set one of the iron orbs on the table. “You thinkin’ Juan’s?”

  “They’re open for another hour,” Laura added. “Grab some Tex Mex brain food before going on a Gorafrex hunt?”

  “I’m down.”

  “Yep.”

  “Okay. So, I don’t know about the lance and the iron baseballs, but we should take the daggers with us at least, right?” Laura studied hers. “Just in case our Gorafrex is just walking around there.”

  “Shouldn’t we have, like, a sheath for these or something? Scabbard?” Nickie lifted the tip of her dagger and widened her eyes at the blink of light reflecting off the point.

  “Just be super careful, I guess.” Emily shrugged, then headed for the front door. “You guys mentioned food, and now that’s the only thing I can think about. Come on.”

  “Food’s the only thing you think about,” Laura replied, grinning at Nickie, who just shook her head.

  “Cooking and eating are two very different pieces of the same puzzle.” Emily skipped down the first few outside steps toward the street, remembered the dagger in her hand, and took the rest of the stairs more cautiously.

  “Your turn to drive, remember?” Laura waved her sister away from the Taurus and pointed toward Emily’s Civic.

  Emily stared at her own car. “Yeah, okay. Fair’s fair.”

  “Shotgun! Ha!” Nickie hurried toward the passenger-side door and jerked it open.

  “Okay…” Laura laughed and got into the backseat. When Emily slipped behind the wheel and shut the driver-side door, they all paused, each of them staring at their forged daggers.

  “Think maybe we should put these somewhere safe?” Emily asked.

  “Yep.” Nickie punched the button on the glovebox and set her dagger inside. Her sisters passed theirs over, too, and Nickie shut them away.

  “That feels smarter.” Laura sat back and buckled her seatbelt.

  “Witches don’t let witches wield and drive, right?” Emily stuck her keys in the ignition and turned on the engine.

  “Em, that was one of your poorer jokes,” Nickie said.


  Emily just laughed, threw the gear into drive, and took them in a quick, stomach-lurching U-turn on the street.

  “Can you not drive like a maniac?” Laura grunted.

  “A maniac? I’m driving like a girl who wants her fajitas.”

  It was a ten-minute drive from their house to Juan In A Million on East Cesar Chavez Street. After the first two minutes of nothing but hot air hitting them full-blast, Emily grumbled and slammed her fist on the dashboard.

  “What? Why are you hitting your car?” Laura asked.

  “The AC’s been acting up. Sometimes.”

  “You realize you live in the worst place for that to happen, right?” Nickie chuckled and leaned away from her sister as Emily pounded the dash again.

  “Thanks. I know I need to get it fixed. But this usually works.” Emily thumped her car one more time, and the copper ring on her thumb flashed. A spray of icy mist shot out of the vents. “What the—”

  “Whoa!” Nickie cranked down the AC and aimed the freezing air away from her face.

  “That’s new,” Laura said from the back.

  Two different car horns blared behind them, jolting Emily into the realization that she’d slowed way under the speed limit on West 5th Street. She sped up, casting repeated scowls at the vents. “Yeah, new and going a little overboard, if you ask me.” The mist had settled now into a regular temperature for a vehicle’s air conditioning. “I’d sure like to know how these rings work, ‘cause this is not the kind of magic I understand.”

  “I mean, we’ve only had them for, what? Less than twenty-four hours?” Nickie readjusted the vent in front of her until she was at the center of the comfortably cold air.

  “Laura’s ring makes Gorafrex-hunting weapons in a basement bonfire, and I get overactive AC in my car? That sounds fair.”

  “This doesn’t have anything to do with being fair, Em,” Laura said. “This is about our family’s legacy. However these rings work, they’re obviously meant to help us put the Gorafrex back in the Greenbelt prison where it belongs.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Emily glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “How is my car spewing ice chips supposed to help us do that?”