A Handful of Hexes

by Sarina Dorie

  My translations hadn’t progressed much after the Latin and Spanish section. I still needed assistance with the Gaelic sections and wouldn’t be able to get help with that until I went home to see my fairy godmother.

  I reread the section that had mentioned Odette and Priscilla and the Raven Queen’s promise to donate money to the school if Alouette Loraline solved the Fae Fertility Paradox.

  Thatch had told me no one does any good deed in this realm without a price. Everything was about bargains and who could swindle whom. I couldn’t even thank people out of common courtesy. It was easy to see why my fairy godmother hated this way of life and had renounced it.

  Yet, not everyone here was like that. Thatch had told me not to thank him. He had fixed my mouth after what Vega had done without asking for anything. It had never occurred to me that Thatch did a lot of things without asking for anything in return. In his way, he was like Abigail Lawrence, my fairy godmother, rejecting the rules and being a good person—all while keeping his snarky commentary and scowl intact. He might have wanted everyone to see him as aloof and uncaring, but he did care enough about his bird to guard her secrets, whatever they were.

  My biological mother, on the other hand, I wasn’t so certain about. She had bought into the ways of this world and used them to her advantage. She didn’t care whom she hurt. I was determined not to be like Alouette Loraline. I would be a good person like my fairy godmother had taught me to be.

  I wanted to do something nice for Thatch, a thank-you present since he didn’t want me to say thank you. I knew he liked my mom’s brownies. Thanksgiving was coming up in a week. When I went home for the holiday, we could make some for him.

  On Monday during my lunch break, I went to see Jeb’s secretary to talk to her about arrangements to leave Thursday morning or to find out if I had duties Wednesday night. If I was allowed to leave early, that meant I could spend more time with Mom. I could bake brownies, translate the journal, and not feel rushed. But I didn’t know if I needed someone to chaperone me through the woods to the bus stop in the Morty Realm, or if I was safe from the Raven Court because of the electricity outside Womby’s grounds.

  Mrs. Keahi, the secretary, pursed her already puckered lips as I asked her about the holiday. “This is an international school. We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving at Womby’s.”

  “What?” I asked incredulously. How could I survive without turkey and pumpkin pie?

  “That’s an American holiday,” she said.

  Still, I was determined to go home. I had already written Mom a letter telling her I was coming home.

  My fairy godmother was the best Gaelic resource and the most trustworthy person I knew. She might not help me translate the diary—at least not if she knew what it was. I intended to do my best to hide the source of the information from her. I wouldn’t know if my plan would work if I didn’t try. I put in a request take the time off.

  Later that day I found my request for the two days off had been denied. I returned to the office and discussed the matter with the secretary.

  “You’ve used up your allowance of sick days for the semester already, dearie,” Mrs. Keahi said with a sadistic smile on her face.

  “That was three days, and I was really sick. Don’t we have personal leave or anything like that here?”

  She smirked. “Certainly. You can put in a request for personal days. If it’s approved, you can go.”

  I filled out five forms that took the majority of my lunch break to finish. After school, I stopped by my mailbox and found my request for personal leave had been denied.

  Plan A to go home for Thanksgiving and get Gaelic help had failed. Now it was time for Plan B. The following day on my outing with Josie and Khaba, I called my fairy godmother using Skype in the basement of the only internet café in Lachlan Falls.

  I told her the situation. “Would it be too much of an inconvenience to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday night instead?” In the background, crackling static snarled like a demon tongue. The Skype connection was worse in the Unseen Realm than it was in the Morty Realm. “I’m looking at the tickets and times. I can get to the bus stop in Eugene around five o’clock in the evening.”

  “Sure, honey, I’m just happy to get to see you.”

  “Also, I won’t have time to go shopping for a new cell phone battery while I’m visiting. Would you get one for me before I arrive?”

  Mom was agreeable to both. I purchased the tickets, got Khaba to agree to walk me into the Morty Realm on Saturday morning, and we made plans for him to chaperone me back when I arrived Sunday night.

  “You better start rubbing my back if you want me to make this wish come true,” Khaba said, taking his hot-pink shirt off to reveal his rock-hard muscles in the privacy of his office.

  “This isn’t even a wish,” I said, trying not to ogle his bodybuilder physique. “It’s more of a favor.” Just like everyone else in this world, Khaba didn’t do anything for free.

  He wagged a finger at me in admonishment. “Honey, are you saying you don’t want to go home to visit your mother?”

  “This doesn’t use magic, so why are you making me rub your lamp?” As I rubbed his shoulders, the blue outline of a lamp tattoo migrated lower down his back.

  Khaba pointed to the spot on his back where the lamp now rested. “Keep rubbing. You need to ramp up my magic in case we run into the Raven Court. And if we do run into any Fae, you’re going to have to do a whole lot more rubbing to replenish my stores of magic afterward. Hopefully, my lamp doesn’t migrate to any place more … risqué.”

  I tried not to dwell on that thought. Massaging a genie while being aroused might result in unexpected magic from a touch affinity like mine—regardless of his sexual preference.

  “Are you sure you don’t want Josie to rub your lamp?” I teased, trying to come up with a solution that might please us both. “I know she’d be more than happy to do this.”

  “No.” He laughed and shook his head. “Aren’t you cute?”

  The four days until the weekend stretched by with uncharacteristic slowness.

  At last, on Saturday, Khaba walked me to the bus stop in the Morty Realm at five in the morning. It took six hours to take a bus, a ferry, and another bus around the Olympic National Park, and another six hours from Seattle using the Bolt Bus.

  I was exhausted by the time I reached Eugene, Oregon. If only I could ride a broom or teleport myself with magic like all the cool witches. I seriously needed to learn practical magic.

  Mom had been kind enough to stop at the store ahead of time and pick up a new cell phone battery. I placed it in my phone before we even got home from the bus station.

  Mom’s home resembled a picturesque cottage out of a summer issue of Better Homes and Gardens, bright and warm even in the gloom of winter, with a hundred lush plants growing heartily along windowsills and tables. Her house reminded me of how normal my life had once been without magic. Everything was cheery and comfortingly banal. I didn’t have to worry about the Raven Queen or who might be lurking in the shadows here.

  Mom and I enjoyed a lovely dinner with turkey, stuffing, vegetables, and pie. I hated to ruin the cozy embrace of normalcy. I waited until after dessert to take out the notes I’d transcribed, hoping the lined notebook paper made it look more academic and less like Tom Riddle’s diary, holding something evil.

  “Could you help me translate these pages from an old book I found?” I tried to keep my face neutral, not to look nervous.

  Mom curled the end of her long red braid around her finger as she scanned the page. “There’s a young woman in this writing named Priscilla.” She paused and went on. “She was assisting the narrator in bringing people to the school using a secret underground passage that could be accessed from outside. Is this one of your students?”

  “She might have been someone’s student once,” I mumbled.

  “There’s something about a Pit of Lost Souls—No, a Pit of
the Damned?—where they disposed of the bodies and trapped souls from failed … experiments.”

  Alouette Loraline had used the hands to assist with her crimes? No wonder they had such a bad rap. I wondered how many people had died. My mother must have accumulated enemies like a hoarder accumulated trash.

  My fairy godmother read my handwritten notes, but she remained silent. After another moment, she threw the notebook on the table as though it had bitten her. “Clarissa, what is this excerpt from?”

  “I don’t know. I found it on a table at school. Part of it was written in Gaelic. I wanted to see what it said.” I gave a hopeful smile. “What does the rest of it say?”

  Mom crossed her arms, not buying the innocent act. “This has something to do with Loraline, doesn’t it?”

  I shrugged.

  “Good girls like you don’t need to get involved in wicked things like what she was involved with.”

  I gave up the façade. “I wanted to know who my mother was. That’s all.” I reached for the notebook.

  She snatched it up first. She tore three pages from the spiral and crumpled them up.

  “No!” I said, starting toward her. “What are you—”

  She stuffed the paper down the garbage disposal and turned it on.

  It was fine, I told myself. It was just a copy. I had the real book at school.

  Mom plastered a cheery smile across her face. “Now, shall we find a more wholesome way to spend the remainder of the evening?”

  Getting Gaelic help was a bust. I had failed in one task. At least I had brownies to look forward to.

  Mom didn’t mind allowing me to use her kitchen for the purposes of good—not evil. The dirty chai brownies I made were so delicious, the coffee and spicy tea an interesting combination. I would have sold my soul for something like this on an average day at Womby’s after eating our tasteless cafeteria food. I was certain I could even buy Vega’s friendship and loyalty with these.

  I suspected Thatch was going to like them too.

  The next morning, I woke up early to start the journey all over again. It was nice seeing my mom, but I regretted arriving one day and leaving the next.

  There were delays in the buses on the way back. I texted Josie to tell Khaba I would be late, but I didn’t know if she got it. The only time she had reception in her phone was when she was in Lachlan Falls at Happy Hal’s Tavern and Internet Café.

  What if Khaba thought I’d been snatched by the Raven Queen and left our appointed meeting place to look for me somewhere else? Without a magical chaperone in the forest where there were no electronics to protect me, I might be snatched by Fae.

  On the ferry, I noticed a shadowy figure watching me from a distance. Birds circled overhead like vultures. I shivered as I thought what the Raven Court would do if they caught me. It would be like Julian Thistledown all over again.

  I ducked behind a large family, trying to hide. Maybe it was just my imagination, and I was being paranoid. Because I had already been running late to catch the ferry, I missed my connection and had to wait for a later bus. My backpack zipper jammed, and I couldn’t get out any of the turkey or pie I’d packed, so my dinner consisted of a granola bar from a vending machine.

  The sky grew darker with the gloom of Washington’s early dusk as I waited at the bus station. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a tall woman in all black. When I turned to look, no one was there. Someone was watching me. Someone with magic.

  I was twice as tired as the day before, and my rolling backpack felt as though it weighed a hundred pounds as I dragged it after me on the short walk to the bus station. I continually glanced around, on edge and impatient as I waited for another late bus.

  When the bus finally came, I relaxed a little. I texted Josie again to tell her when I thought I would arrive and then put the phone away, wanting to reserve my new battery for emergencies. If the battery ran out, I couldn’t discreetly use magic in the Morty Realm to power it. The Fae were already observing me, waiting for me to slip up and break their laws. Using magic was all the excuse they needed to snatch me. I wasn’t going to do anything that would jeopardize my safety.

  By the time I got off the bus, it was eleven at night. It only took a few seconds for the icy downpour to soak through my coat and hat. I ducked below the cover of the trees, dragging my rolling backpack under the boughs, trying to get my bearings.

  The bus rumbled away down the road, taking with it the feeling of comfort and safety.

  I couldn’t see the path toward the school and didn’t know which direction to head. The dark made the shadows ominous and confusing. I wrestled the bag over the uneven terrain to find a drier spot. My shoulder ached from the weight of the bag. With each step it grew heavier.

  All I needed to do was find the path. I had my cell phone with me. I could use it as a weapon against Fae if they tried to attack me. I wouldn’t use magic, and I would be all right.

  I shivered, scanning the trees on the opposite side of the road for the path. I thought back to where I had walked out of the forest to catch the bus originally.

  A branch snapped, echoing loudly. I whirled, uncertain of where the sound had come from. Feathers rustled. The black silhouette of a bird glided over my head. My heart convulsed in my chest. Maybe it was just an owl. A croaking call came from the bird.

  Maybe it was Thatch’s pet raven.

  Another raven returned the call of the first. The flutter of wings came from the left and then the right. Shadows shifted in the trees. Calls came from all around me. I was surrounded by the Raven Court.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The Way to a Witchkin’s Heart

  I held my cell phone in front of myself like a shield.

  “I’m not a lost soul,” I said. “You can’t collect me. I haven’t broken any rules.”

  A twig snapped behind me. I whirled.

  “Not yet,” a woman’s raspy voice said. “But you will if you want to protect yourself.”

  “We’re in the Morty Realm. You can’t use magic either.” Though that hadn’t stopped them before.

  Shadows slithered between the trees, teasing my eyes. I pressed the button on my phone to light up the screen. “I have a cell phone, and I know how to use it.”

  “Aren’t you precious? Do you think that paltry thing will stop us?”

  No, I didn’t think it would, but my Red affinity might. I tried to think of sexy thoughts, but my heart hammered in my chest wildly. The cold torrents of wind and rain distracted me from delving into my powers.

  The voice circled around me, but I couldn’t see anyone shift across the road to my other side. “You needn’t fear us. Our queen simply wants us to relay a message. She wonders if her … gift pleased you.”

  “Gift?”

  “Your mother’s diary.”

  “What?” That was from her? I thought the book had been from Derrick.

  “Has it piqued your curiosity? You could do great things with the knowledge your mother possessed. You could serve the Raven Queen. She would become your benefactor, your teacher even. Our mistress will fulfill your greatest wishes.” The words floated on a melody like a lullaby, making me sleepy and complacent. I knew I couldn’t allow her to persuade me. The last time they’d used their magic on me, Josie had punched me in the arm, and I’d snapped right out of it.

  I jammed my heel into my rolling bag until pain blossomed in my foot. Their hold over me was broken.

  The wind blustered harder, but this time it wasn’t cold. Warmth suffused the air, the fragrance of spring flowers and Cheetos mingling together. Wings fluttered in the air around me and a chorus of raven calls filled the trees.

  The air tasted like butterscotch and oil paint, like Derrick’s magic. Tears filled my eyes. Was it all a ruse brought on by the Raven Court to trick me? Or was it really him?

  Footsteps crunched over twigs on the other side of the road. A shadowy figure glided out of the forest. I held my
breath, part of me praying it was Derrick. The other part prayed it wasn’t, because if it was, that meant he was working for the Raven Queen. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than that.

  The figure held up a wand, shedding light as bright as sunshine. Simultaneous relief and disappointment flooded through me as I took in the tall lean figure. His presence expelled the gloom of doubt and fear.

  “You don’t know how to get back to school, do you?” Thatch asked.

  The crinkle between his brow hinted at worry. For me. Never had his solemn expression looked more beautiful. He was like Colin Firth standing in the pond at Pemberley. For a moment I thought I was in love—or at least in lust.

  Aside from the soft patter of rain on trees, it was eerily silent. The birds had left. Rain showered down around him, but it didn’t touch him. He must have had a rain shield charm like Vega.

  I smiled and waved. “I’m so glad to see you!”

  He snorted. “I’ll bet you are.”

  “Did you see them? The Raven Court? Did you banish them?” I wrestled the backpack out of the foliage and dragged it across the road toward him.

  The disdain on his face flickered to horror and then melted away just as quickly as it had come. His eyes examined the silhouettes of the spidery trees. “I did not see them. In any case, we’re now alone.”

  I was so relieved I would have hugged him if he hadn’t stepped back.

  Thatch pointed a stern finger at me in warning. “You are not allowed to do that again.”

  Rain pelted me as I crossed the open road. “What? Ride a bus that has delays? How was I supposed to know? I don’t have prophetic powers to see the future like some people.” I stumbled into a puddle in the ditch on the other side, but I managed to save the bag from falling in and heaved it over to the other side.

  “Perhaps you should develop your skills in precognition. Or perhaps simply something called common sense.” He waved a dismissive hand at the bus stop. “Morty public transportation isn’t known for its timeliness.”