A Witch's Magic

by N. E. Conneely

  I stepped around to be next to the woman. After taking a few breaths and putting some mental space between myself and whatever I was going to feel when I touched the magic, I very gently brushed her shoulder with a probe.

  As with the man, she was in the grips of a very bad dream. This time, I didn’t get the details, but I could tell she was standing in front of an audience, and she wasn’t wearing as much as she would’ve liked. I yanked at the magic, and it fell away.

  The girl shuddered as she woke up from the dream. “Ugh. It was supposed to be a good dream. Wait, where’s Reg? And who are you?”

  I held out my hand. “I’m Michelle Oaks, witch and magical consultant for the local police.”

  She shook my hand but didn’t even come close to smiling. “Nice to meet you. What happened?”

  “Something went wrong with the ice cream. My colleague and I are here to help. If you’ll walk outside, I believe Reg will be there, as will my colleague, who can give you some more information about what will happen from here.” I really hoped that was enough direction, because I didn’t want to talk to all of these people. I had done enough dealing with people for one day. I wanted to finish this job and go home.

  Apparently, she had the same feelings I did. She got out of that chair and power-walked to the door.

  With this table cleared of people, I studied the ice cream. Outwardly, it didn’t look particularly special. It had a very faint blue tint, and a light, somewhat vanilla-inspired smell. To my eyes and nose, there was nothing remarkable about the ice cream.

  While I would have to figure out exactly what had happened to the ice cream at some point, for now, the first priority was getting the innocent people out of here. The girl crying in the corner tugged at my heart, but I knew it would be much easier to have her mother there to help calm her down, so I went over to the woman who was staring fixedly at the ceiling.

  As soon as I touched her with a probe, I knew what had happened. She was convinced she was paralyzed. She couldn’t move at all.

  Well, I knew how to fix this. Yet again, I shredded the spell. She woke up.

  “Oh, that was awful.” She rubbed her face and then looked up to me. “Thank you.”

  “Um, you’re welcome?” She seemed far more coherent than the last two.

  She gave a wry smile. “It’s my nightmare. I’m paralyzed, but I know what’s going on around me. Now, could you help my kids?”

  “Sure.” I moved around the table so I could kneel next to her son. It hardly took a moment to feel his dream. This poor child thought he was falling over and over and over again. I ripped through the dream, and the boy hurled himself into his mother’s arms. She cradled him close, whispering reassuring words to him.

  With those two taken care of, I walked over to the oddly dark corner where the girl was huddled. I didn’t even have to touch her to know she was afraid of the dark. As soon as I ripped the spell away, the shadow shrouding her vanished too. She scrambled back over to her mom as quickly as she could.

  I followed her more slowly and picked up the mom’s purse as I guided the three of them to the door. Jim helpfully held the door open for us and even took the woman’s purse from me. I smiled at him before heading back inside. As the door closed behind me, I heard Rodriguez began his speech all over again.

  Since I was close to them, I went over to the girl who kept saying her teeth were falling out and the guy across from her who was trembling in his seat. It was easy enough to pull both of them out of their nightmares and hand them over to Rodriguez for further information.

  From there, I went over to the last person, the girl wrapped in spiderwebs. At the table close to her, a bowl of ice cream was absolutely empty. The other bowls had been missing a few bites, so I suspected the more of the ice cream a person ingested, the more the nightmare would affect them.

  I had just ripped the magic away from her when I heard a crash and a splat behind me. I whirled around to see a poltergeist zipping through the air. On the floor was a broken bottle of something very magical.

  “You’re spoiling my fun!” he yelled. He hurled another bottle onto the floor. The glass shattered, and more magical liquid joined the puddle.

  Part of the bottle slid across the liquid, coming to rest a short distance from my foot. The label on the glass read Turtle Tracks. I wasn’t entirely sure what magical turtle tracks liquid did, but I was reasonably confident I didn’t want bottles of magical ice cream stuff mixing on the floor.

  The girl was sitting on the ground crying. I tugged her to her feet and started marching her towards the door, trying to avoid stepping in any of the liquid. With my other hand, I summoned my wand.

  The poltergeist threw a third bottle. “Take some Winter Wonderland, you witch!”

  “You got that right.” I pointed my wand at him.

  The poltergeist went still, the chipper expression fading from his translucent features. “Why you gotta spoil my fun?”

  I kept pushing the girl towards the door. “What was the first bottle you threw?”

  He grinned wickedly. “Why, that’s the bottle of Sweet Dreams the lad thought he was adding to the ice cream mix last night. I switched them while he wasn’t looking. I also changed the amount he should add. He put in four times the amount that should’ve gone in that much ice cream. Can you believe that? How careless!”

  I shoved the girl towards the door. Thankfully, she kept stumbling in that direction. The door opened long enough for her to get yanked out and for Rodriguez to step in.

  “Set the remaining bottles down, and we can talk about this nicely.” That was going to be my one and only offer.

  For moment, he seemed to be considering it, then he grinned. “Nah.” He hurled the last bottle at me. “Enjoy some Strawberry Fields!”

  I dodged to the side. The bottle shattered right behind where I’d been standing. I had had enough of this poltergeist. I focused on him and the air around him. “Fehu!”

  He, and six inches of air in every direction, turned to solid ice. The block containing the poltergeist hung there for a fraction of a second and then started to fall. But I’d been expecting that. “Nazid.” This slowed the block’s fall until it was moving no faster than a feather drifting down. It finally touched down on the counter with a light thump.

  I ended the levitation spell and turned to Rodriguez. “Did you get that?”

  He frowned. “I heard the confession. I’ll make a note in the report that the boy wasn’t at fault, and I’ll have the poltergeist transported to magical lockup.”

  I felt magic stir behind me.

  “Uh, Michelle, which bottles did he say he threw?”

  “The unexpired bottle of Sweet Dreams Jim thought he was adding to the ice cream, Turtle Tracks, Winter Wonderland, and Strawberry Fields.” I pivoted, and my mouth dropped open.

  Four giant chocolate turtles stretched their necks out to peer around the ice cream shop. Behind them, five snowmen who didn’t look particularly kind spread out. A swirl of air condensed into a cloud that I suspected was a “Sweet Dream,” though who knew what it would be now that it had combined with the other magical additives. Not to be left out, Strawberry Fields contributed about twenty basketball-sized strawberries.

  Rodriguez was next to me with his wand out. “What do we do?”

  “This is a first for me.” I tightened my grip on my wand. “I haven’t had such good luck with containment spells against magical mishaps lately. I’m willing to entertain options.”

  Before he could answer, the cloud that I could only assume was Sweet Dreams zoomed across the room, colliding with both of us.

  I wasn’t in The Creamery anymore. I was little, maybe seven or eight, and I was running down the stairs, chanting “It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!” over and over again.

  My dad was at the bottom of the stairs. He caught me as I jumped. He held me up high, and I laughed. Then he cuddled me close before setting me on my feet and following me the rest of
the way to the Christmas tree. Mom was already there, lifting the stockings off the hooks over the fireplace.

  But this wasn’t real. My dad had never been around for Christmas when I was little. This was a dream, a bittersweet dream.

  “It’s not real.” I was a little girl, whispering while looking at my parents.

  “It’s not real.” A bit more force behind the words this time. The image of Christmas with my family wavered. “It’s not real!”

  I was back in the ice cream shop, standing next to Rodriguez, with a small army of turtles, snowmen, and strawberries headed in my direction. I might not be able to capture all of them or know how spells reacted to them, but there was one thing I could do that was sure to get rid of all of these creatures in one go.

  I shook Rodriguez.

  He came back to himself with a shiver. “Thanks.”

  “You can thank me later. Shield as hard as you can.”

  Without hearing an answer, I started building the spell in my mind. I needed an eating spell, one that would consume all the magic in the room. It couldn’t affect anything outside the walls of The Creamery, but all the magic inside was fair game. It would eat until it consumed all the magic, and then it would push the energy into the earth.

  Sucking in a breath, I forced the spell through my wand. A dark hole showed up smack in the center of the puddle that had spawned all of these creatures. I snapped my shields into place, adding layer upon layer to them as quickly as I could.

  A turtle melted into a puddle of chocolate and caramel as it slowly oozed into the hole. A snowman vanished in a flurry of flakes. Three strawberries exploded but didn’t leave anything behind. The berry goop simply vanished, the magic that had been creating them flowing into the vortex.

  For a moment, the spell brushed across my shields, but it couldn’t get through, and it moved on. I felt a focus on Rodriguez, and I thought it left him alone, but I wasn’t sure.

  It sucked down the cloud of dreams. Then, one by one, the rest of the turtles, snowmen, and all of the strawberries followed. In a matter of seconds, there was nothing but the vortex. The edges wobbled, and it collapsed in on itself. I felt the magic gather into a single concentrated point. Then it exploded downwards, thrusting the energy into the earth as it shattered into a million pieces. None of the spells it had consumed remained.

  I looked over Rodriguez. I couldn’t say his color was any better than it had been before, but he didn’t look like he’d been drained of his powers. “Did you make it?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  “You don’t sound so sure.”

  He straightened his shoulders and stood up a little taller. “I’ll be fine. I just want to go home and forget this wretched day happened.”

  I laughed, I cried a little, and I laughed some more. “Me too, Rodriguez. Me too.”

  A couple of minutes later, Mary Bells and a small fleet of ambulances showed up. I helped them load up everyone who’d been in The Creamery. They also took the poltergeist. In a flurry of movement, they swept out as quickly as they’d swept in.

  I stood next to Rodriguez as the cars carried everyone away. “I may be known for my astonishing bad luck, but this day is a record, even for me.”

  “Me too. I think it’s just one of those days.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe the next job will be something simple.”

  “You jinxed us.” I groaned. “Now the next case is going to be really bad.”

  He didn’t have to say anything because his phone rang.

  Yup, it was one of those days.

  Chapter Eleven

  Thank the earth for small blessings. Rodriguez’s phone call hadn’t been another emergency. I eyed the time as I drove back to the lodge. After this day, I needed to clean up, which would make me late for date night. Narzel was having all too much fun with my life.

  If I’d been thinking more clearly this morning, I would’ve canceled dinner, but the day had gotten away from me. Somewhere along the way, the pain of Ethel’s death had dulled, but that could’ve been the fatigue talking. Sorrow aside, I had to admit, Ethel wouldn’t want me to miss anything because of her death. She’d want to charge ahead with my wedding, take the witch community by storm, and do a bit of social reform along the way. That had been our plan, and now it was mine.

  Besides, I’d already missed the dinner Landa served for overnight guests, and after a day like this, I wasn’t going to suffer through my own cooking. As long as I didn’t cry over dinner, it would all work out.

  I cleaned up in record time, and according to my car’s clock, I would only be a few minutes late. For once, luck was favoring me. The drive went smoothly. I parked at the far end of the lot before heading into dinner.

  Italian Flair channeled its name into its style. Strings of lights hung over the outdoor seating, with shrubs sculpted in the shapes of elves, dwarves, nymphs, satyrs, and all sorts of races growing out of Roman pots. I walked between stone columns twice my height as I entered the building.

  The satyr at the host station smiled at me and bowed his head. “Welcome to Italian Flair. How may I assist you?”

  “I have a reservation, Elron Oaks.” After one unfortunate incident with a bed and breakfast not believing he only had one name, he now used my last name to make reservations. I’d have to ask if he intended to take it as his when we married.

  The satyr raised a hand, and a waitress appeared. “Echo will seat you and be your server.”

  “This way.” Echo led me through the restaurant. Even without the warm brown undertones in her skin, the spring of purple Hyacinthia tucked in the tidy bun would’ve marked her as a nymph.

  Unlike many restaurants that had solidly bought into the dark mood lighting, in Italian Flair pendant lights illuminated every table, and soft overhead lights gave the rest of the space a welcoming glow. More than crisp white linen or the live orchids on every table, I appreciated being able to see my food and dinner companion.

  Echo halted next to a table for two in the back that was surprisingly unoccupied.

  While I checked my phone, Echo filled our water glasses. As soon as she walked away, I called Elron. As rude as it was to make a phone call in a nice restaurant, Elron was never late.

  His phone rang until it clicked over to voice mail. Odd.

  I hung up without leaving a message. Today had made me jumpy and suspicious, that’s all. Elron was fine and would be here soon.

  He wouldn’t be in a car accident.

  That was just today’s horrible events toying with my mind.

  A sharp clank of silverware on china cut through the conversation. I kept looking at my phone, trying to will Elron to show up or communicate.

  Cutlery clacked against china again, followed by a gasp.

  I poked at my phone morosely. Was it so much to ask to actually have dinner with my fiancé tonight? Then to go home and cry about, well, all of it? Because tomorrow I had to be strong again. I had to be the witch with permanent solutions to magical problems, the next premier, ready to be in the spotlight.

  Cutlery scraped across a plate with a hair-raising screech.

  Irritated by the constant annoyances, I swung around. Everyone was staring at a circular table in the center of the room seating six. With a shriek that would’ve done an opera star proud, a man scrambled away, knocking his chair over in the process. The rest of the table didn’t waste any time in following his example.

  At first, I assumed they’d found a bug in their food, but as I was turning away, a glint of light caught my eye. A spoon hopped onto an empty bread plate with a clack. A second spoon followed, and with a scrape of metal across ceramic, started to dance.

  Around the table, the rest of the cutlery came to life. The forks gathered together and started what I could only describe as a line dance. Two knives started to fight one another, sending sparks into the air.

  I had to close my mouth. Dancing and fighting flatware that seemed to be doing all of this on its own was a new one. It o
nly took a moment’s thought to extend a tendril of magic. Sure enough, they were spelled.

  Wand in hand, I pushed away from the table to head over. The spell shifted under my probe. The dancing forks paused, as did the rest of the flatware.

  Across the room, Elron lifted his hand in greeting.

  The forks leapt off the table, closely followed by the knives. The spoons shot up, shattering the light over the table. The same man shrieked and seemingly broke through the shock holding everyone in place. People darted in every direction as the flatware on adjoining tables joined in the fun.

  A spoon launched itself at me. I batted it away with my wand. “One nice evening. Was that too damned much to ask?”

  Another light shattered. A stuffed shell splatted on a woman’s face. I tracked the flight path back to an intrepid group of spoons who were using a salt shaker as a fulcrum.

  Apparently, an uneventful evening was not in my future. Narzel blast it all.

  The front door swung open, and Echo bellowed, “Everyone out!” The words reverberated throughout the room.

  It was a great plan, it really was, but all I could envision was the flatware loose on the streets, puncturing tires, setting up traps for the unaware driver on the road, and finding their way across the entire city. If I managed nothing else, I had to keep the flatware in this building. Easier said than done, especially without using more magic than I had to spare given how the day had gone.

  A shield spell across the door would do, though I couldn’t think of the runic name for flatware fast enough, so that part had to be done with visualization and willpower. I channeled the rest of the spell through my wand and runes, amplifying the power I put into it. “Sowil esaz a perzae ansu.” Hopefully that would work.

  A group of three people dashed for the door and I held my breath, hoping the shield would work properly. They went through without so much as a hitch in their step. Success enough for me.

  Something warm and vaguely slimy thumped into my cheek before sliding down to land with a plop. Ravioli. Of course the flatware would hurl it at me. I was the only one holding still.