Untouchable Witch: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (School of Necessary Magic Raine Campbell Book 7)

by Judith Berens

  Untouchable Witch

  School of Necessary Magic Raine Campbell™ Book 07

  Judith Berens

  Martha Carr

  Michael Anderle

  This book is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2019 Judith Berens, Martha Carr and Michael Anderle

  Cover by Fantasy Book Design

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact support@lmbpn.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, May 2019

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-256-8

  The Oriceran Universe (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright © 2017-19 by Martha Carr and LMBPN Publishing.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Free Books!

  Author Notes - Martha Carr

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Other series in the Oriceran Universe:

  Books by Michael Anderle

  Connect with The Authors

  Untouchable Witch Team

  Thanks to the JIT Readers

  Daniel Weigert

  Misty Roa

  Jeff Eaton

  Nicole Emens

  Diane L. Smith

  Larry Omans

  Micky Cocker

  Peter Manis

  If we’ve missed anyone, please let us know!

  Editor

  The Skyhunter Editing Team

  Dedications

  From Martha

  To everyone who still believes in magic

  and all the possibilities that holds.

  To all the readers who make this

  entire ride so much fun.

  And to my son, Louie and so many wonderful friends who remind me all the time of what

  really matters and how wonderful

  life can be in any given moment.

  From Michael

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  Chapter One

  A slight breeze carried the briny scent of the sea to Raine where she rested her arms on the ferry’s deck railing. The vessel continued its modest churn through the mostly smooth waters of the Gulf of Maine. She smiled when the experience triggered a memory of a summer ferry trip on Lake Michigan from years earlier, long before she ever suspected she would become part of the magical community.

  The present relaxing jaunt from the mainland could have easily been mistaken for a tourist trip, but their real destination was a restricted island filled with magical creatures and plants. While it was an exciting location, their purpose was to help with an academic survey project.

  She surveyed the horizon, looking for any sign of whales or large fish. Her ocean trip had given her many wonderful views of birds, but nothing else.

  The heavily forested island sprawled in the distance, more a dark bump on the horizon than anything with discernible details for the moment. That they were able to see it meant, if Raine had performed the calculations correctly, they were about twenty to thirty minutes away from disembarking and beginning their first summer adventure with the School of Necessary Magic.

  Not only was it the FBI Trouble Squad’s first real excursion together outside the school curriculum, but the island research trip also represented a new effort for the school itself. The group of friends was helping to pioneer something totally new that might become a tradition for decades to come.

  Raine’s heart kicked up as a mixture of concern and excitement bubbled through her. Her summers were usually spent practicing magic and studying FBI material, and the change in her normal plan did raise a few questions. A few weeks prior, she had begun to worry that the trip might delay her entry into the FBI, but Agent Connor had assured her that a couple of months of not obsessing over all things agency-related wouldn’t hurt her. He’d even suggested that they could spin it as a field training exercise given that it wasn’t a normal zoological and botanical survey.

  How many FBI agents could claim they’d spent months on an island filled with unusual magic beings?

  Another gust blew a few strands of her light hair into her eyes. Someday, she’d have to take a long cruise around the world and appreciate all the wonders of Earth at a slow pace, rather than the sprint of the last several years. Learning she held magic had opened the door to so many wonderful experiences, and as much as she loved her school and friends there, she also increasingly understood that there was only so much she could learn from books and lectures. Even the Queen of the Library accepted that it represented only the beginning of wisdom.

  Of course, the school managed to provide more than enough practical experiences, and every new adventure was exciting and stressful at the same time. She’d become so accustomed to being a witch at the School of Necessary Magic and an FBI trainee that the low-key summer project provided an almost startling contrast. They’d helped apprehend a chaos witch and learned about the birth of a unique magical being not all that many weeks prior, and that was merely another semester at the school. She might have gotten into trouble with her friends, but they always found a way out of it.

  The entire FBI Trouble Squad was on the ferry, along with Professors Powell and Hudson. The magicals were the only passengers aboard, with the only other people being the Mainer crew operating out of Portland. Most of the other students and the professors sat inside the enclosed section of the passenger deck. They’d wearied of staring at the ocean after the first twenty minutes of their journey.

  Sara smiled and walked up beside her. “You can’t get enough, can you? It’s only a stretch of water.”

  “It’s not only a stretch of water. It’s soothing.”

  The kitsune laughed. “Cameron doesn’t agree.”

  “Is he doing okay?” Raine asked and sighed. “I would be inside, but he seemed annoyed when I tried to sit w
ith him.”

  “He hasn’t thrown up.” Sara shrugged. “And of course, Mr. Overprotective doesn’t want his girlfriend to watch him lose to water. We’re all in there keeping an eye on him. Don’t worry about it.”

  “That’s good.” She sighed and returned to staring at the ocean.

  “Have you seen any whales?”

  Raine shook her head. “No, but according to Professor Powell, we probably wouldn’t see them anyway so close to the island because of the unusual magic. They might be repelled by it. I hoped he was wrong, but…” She shrugged.

  “No whales?” The girl’s smile turned into a playful grin. “What about any Kraken?”

  “No. No Kraken, either.” She laughed and pointed to the sky. A small flock of seagulls flapped toward the island. “Not everything’s exotic and magical, I guess, even when you’re talking about an island with heavy magic.”

  “You don’t know that.” Her friend shrugged. “For all you know, those seagulls can speak. Or even better, they sing and have a magical seagull band that performs seagull death metal.”

  “Seagull death metal? What does that sound like?”

  “Lots of screeching. Like, you know, metal.” Sara pointed to the birds. “You’ll have to ask them.”

  “Maybe I will.” Raine gestured toward an open door that accessed the seating area. “I’ll head in. I should at least be with Cameron for the last few minutes. He might want to play all tough, but I don’t want him to think I don’t care.”

  The other girl nodded. “Let’s go.”

  They wandered inside. The room was filled with plastic benches, and a smattering of bolted-down metal tables and chairs occupied the remainder of the passenger area. Narrow stairs descended to a vehicle area, but no cars rode the ferry that day. The other students and professors sat around chatting, their suitcases beside them.

  Evie sat at a table with William and Professor Hudson. She sighed. “I still feel bad for Juniper and Malcolm. I know they both looked forward to this trip as much as we did.”

  Professor Hudson nodded. “It’s unfortunate. Those two seem to have excessive bad luck at times. But I think it’s best not to bring it up with them when they return to school because of the embarrassing nature of their respective incidents.”

  Neither of the professors had specifically detailed what happened to Juniper and Malcolm other than that it was “embarrassing” and related to magic. Raine and her friends had been polite enough not to inquire deeper.

  “I still don’t get one thing,” William said with shrug. “I know it’s not the end of the world that our school’s only brought seven students, but why not simply choose two others? You had more than nine people on your list, right? It’s not like we’re the only students at the school, even if we do…get in trouble a lot.”

  Professor Hudson glanced at Professor Powell, her eyebrow raised in question. He leaned against a wall with his arms folded. He nodded to her with a knowing look.

  “Taking a group of students on a magical research trip requires careful balancing of personalities and other factors, including general academic strengths and weaknesses.” Professor Hudson smiled. “And while this isn’t a trip lasting as long as one of your typical semesters, we were rather cognizant of a number of factors—including the aforementioned personality balance—when we selected the participants. Although there are other students who are compatible with this group, we didn’t feel that including someone who already believed they would be included as a last-minute replacement would be conducive to the start of a good experience. Teacher’s instinct, if you will.”

  William nodded. “That makes sense. I’m not complaining, as long as the Orono guys don’t pull something.”

  Professor Powell laughed and stepped away from the wall. “The Orono Academy for Arcane Studies doesn’t hold any particular animosity toward our school. If you’re worried about Louper rivalries, don’t be.”

  “Just saying.” The half-Ifrit shrugged. “There are jerks, even at our school.”

  “True,” Professor Hudson interjected, “but keep in mind that those students have also been selected for success and personality balance. The Orono professors have no more desire for bickering among students than we do.”

  Philip flashed a smile at Sara. “I don’t care if we only have seven people. I’m excited. Even the name sounds so cool. The Magical Multitudes Project. I wanted my summer to be dedicated to some kind of service project, and this is a helpful one that also lets me have a cool adventure. Nice. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

  “I’m glad you’re enthusiastic, Philip,” Professor Powell said, “but it is important to realize that this survey project won’t always involve flashy and impressive animals. Not everything magical or from Oriceran is a dragon or unicorn. You might be annoyed after cataloging the tenth species of magical weed, and most of the animals on the island will be normal non-magical Earth animals. We don’t have to catalog them as part of our project, but you’ll see far more of them than the opposite.”

  The young wizard looked a little disappointed at the possibility, but Evie’s breath caught at the mention of the weeds.

  Adrien sat at a table on his own and looked out a window. “It never hurts to spend time in the wilderness, regardless of one’s reasons. It’s also good to break up one’s routine. It helps when returning to training to identify ruts in your regimen, which can then be adjusted for maximum training efficiency.”

  Philip laughed. “Dude, not everything’s about training.”

  The elf gave him a brief glance. “No, but it doesn’t hurt to apply it to training if you can. All I’m trying to say is that I plan to enjoy my time here.”

  “I can’t argue with that.”

  Raine felt bad for the elf. Everyone else on the trip conveniently had their significant other with them, but Christie hadn’t been selected. Adrien hadn’t complained about it at all, but it had to hurt him, at least a little. Even though the trip was mostly work and not a couple of months of unaccompanied beach fun, most of them were about to spend more summer time together than they normally did.

  Evie rubbed her hands together. “I’m excited to see what kind of magical herbs might grow on the island. I know I probably won’t be able to take any of them for potions, but it’s still interesting. It’ll help me practice my identification skills.”

  Professor Hudson gave her a sly smile. “I’m sure we can work something out where you can take a few small samples.”

  Her eyes widened. “Really?”

  The professor nodded. “As part of the project, we’re not to significantly alter the island other than what’s been done to set up the cabins and facilities at the camp. But I’m sure a few samples here and there won’t be a problem—at least for the plants—provided they are known herbs. Unfortunately, the government restrictions mean they don’t want any full plants or animals taken from the island until the survey is complete.”

  Raine frowned. “But birds fly back and forth. I saw some a minute ago.” She gestured toward the roof.

  Evie looked from her friend to the professor.

  “It’s less a quarantine than an effort to verify what actually lives on the island, but the plan is one they at least pay lip service to.” Professor Hudson shrugged. “Don’t worry too much. Think of it as camping with a little extra work. Don’t pack any eggs, animals, or full plants, and you’ll be fine.”

  Raine nodded and crossed toward a bench where Cameron lay. The boy was on his back, his face pale and his hand to his head. With a slightly darker shade of green, he might be able to blend in with a batch of cucumbers.

  “How are you doing?” she asked.

  “Still seasick,” the shifter moaned. “I don’t get it. I know I’m a shifter and I shouldn’t be the one to say much, but we’re going to a magical island to help catalog magical animals—and we’ve come from a magic school—so why couldn’t we have used magic to get there? Or couldn’t they have set up a Starbucks cart to make it re
ally easy?”

  Professor Powell maintained an easy smile and stepped away from the wall. “There’s enough magical interference to not only affect electronics but also certain types of magic. Although basic spells work well enough, trying to open portals to New Firefly Island is a difficult proposition at best. There are other spells that can be helpful for transportation, but one concept we can reinforce during this trip is that there’s a time and place for magic. Even on Oriceran, they don’t use magic for everything. A brief ferry ride should be something every student of the School of Necessary Magic should be able to handle.”

  Cameron groaned and rolled to his side. “This isn’t like having magic to tie my shoelaces or anything. I simply don’t want to be sick.”

  “Fair enough.” The professor nodded and retrieved his wand from his jacket. “I can do something to help with the seasickness.”

  “Please.”

  He spoke an incantation and followed with a few quick flicks of his wand. The tip glowed a dull blue. He placed it against Cameron’s forehead, and the light disappeared.

  The boy took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He sat up and blinked but already looked more comfortable. “That helped. Thanks. I’ll never join the Navy, though.”