Witch's Brew - Spellspinners 1 (Spellspinners of Melas County)

by Heidi R. Kling

  Logan nodded. “Good luck charms.”

  “Only much stronger. May I?” Chance leaned forward and picked up the indigo stone, examining it closely. “It’s such a strange shape, but the color is incredible. See these coarse edges? The little scratches? Something is written here.”

  Logan leaned in closer. Sure enough there were little lines like runes.

  “And when she was here last night…”

  “Here, like in your bedroom? You sly dog. And there I was knocking like an a-rod, interrupting.”

  “It wasn’t like that.”

  “Oh, I’m sure. A gorgeous witch you’re totally into and it’s nothing like that.”

  “We…spun a spell together.”

  “This is getting crazier by the second.”

  “I didn’t even tell you the best part. She stole my amulet too. Tricked me just like I tricked her. So we agreed to switch them back, down on the beach, later.”

  “Ahhh, how romantic for the two of you. I gotta tell you, Cheese, I’m not too fond of your loyalties these days.”

  “What should I have done? Turned her over to your roving pack last night? Can you imagine what Jude would’ve done with her? No way.”

  “Tread lightly here. If Jacob would’ve showed up fifteen minutes earlier and knocked on your door? You think he would’ve waited outside patiently while you ‘showered’? No. You’d have spent the night in the dungeon. And your witch girlfriend? I dunno, bro, but it wouldn’t be pretty.”

  Pink Bonfires

  Lily

  Daisy and I were walking toward the beach when we heard a friendly little beep-beep.

  “Who’s that?” she asked.

  I shielded my face from the sun as a beat-up pink VW bus circa 1970 pulled into the gutter behind us. “I think…it’s the Witch’s Brew barista.”

  Sure enough, it was Jonah. “You have a pink car,” I deadpanned into his window.

  “Correction.” He grinned. “The band has a pink BUS. We call it the Pink Twinkie.”

  “The Pink Twinkie! I wholeheartedly approve.”

  “So, you girls need a ride?”

  “We’re okay to walk,” I said.

  “Hey, does this thing have a pop-up sleeper?” Daisy asked, already opening the side door and jumping in. “I love these! Remember we used to have one when we were little? Oh, a kitchen too. And fruit snacks!”

  Jonah shrugged.

  “I guess we’ll accept that ride then.” I hopped into the passenger seat and buckled up.

  “Cool. We are going to the same place.” Dressed in one of those navy blue gas station shirts (with the name Lincoln stitched on the pocket) and black and white checkered pants that he must have stolen from a 1950’s diner waiter, he looked like he’d just popped out of the set of an indie movie.

  “Do you live in here?” I asked, looking around.

  He laughed. “Technically, I live in my parents’ basement, but yeah, sort of.”

  I peeked in the back. Where the second row of seats should be, there was instead a drum set, two electric guitars, a bass and a box of pink and black stickers that read PINK TWINKIE on them. A guitar with a cartoon-pink Twinkie was their emblem. Motto? Trademark? At any rate it was pretty cool.

  “When are you guys playing next?”

  “Next weekend. You should come!”

  “I’d love to,” I said, and I meant it.

  “We aren’t that good though.” He twisted his nose ring around and around. “Be warned.” But Jonah said it with a smile. A guy that could sport pink hair AND drive a pink car around town must be hugely firm in his masculinity. I told him so.

  “What is pink if not a softer shade of red, right?”

  “I guess?”

  “And what does red represent?” he asked, his green eyes locked on mine.

  To me red represents Crimson. The second highest level of Spellspinner magic. But I couldn’t say that.

  “Blood,” I said instead. Which was also true.

  “Exactly.”

  “So pink is watered down blood?”

  “Your heart, a newborn baby, the sunrise…all shades of pink. All shades of brand new life.”

  “What does any of that have to do with a Twinkie?”

  “Ha, exactly. Nothing. The truth is I’m colorblind.”

  I could tell he was kidding. I mean, I think he was. “You are one trippy dude,” I said.

  He laughed. My butt was hot on the black vinyl seat. I curved around and looked for the guitar he was going to loan me.

  I couldn’t wait to play.

  Logan

  He eyed the bonfires from the cliff behind the beach where the kids parked and carried their driftwood, their beers, their marshmallows down to the pits to build fires and hang out. High school kids hung out on the beach a lot on weekend nights. He knew, because whenever he and his brothers had a chance to get out, namely when Jacob was out of town or dead asleep, they’d slip down here and watch. Watch from afar.

  The smell of beer mixed with the jubilant sounds of teenage revelry evoked an odd mix of envy and nostalgia he couldn’t quite put a finger on.

  “Want me to come?” Chance asked.

  “Better if I go alone, I think.”

  “You don’t look convinced.”

  Logan shrugged, and pulled his hood on. The wind was picking up and biting against his cheek. He knew where she was. Even if he couldn’t see her, he was drawn to her energy. She lit up among the shadows of teenage silhouettes like a single shining star in the night sky.

  Instead of approaching her fire, Logan headed alone toward the shore to stand back, survey the situation and watch night-blackened waves crash onto the beach for a while. Then he’d work up the nerve to go and talk to her.

  He wasn’t expecting to hear music. At least not twangy strumming mixed with giggling, as Lily furrowed her brow and tried again.

  “Is this right?” Lily was far away, on the other side of the beach, but Logan could hear her as if she were right by his side. He saw her tilt her cheek toward ol’ Pinky Lee quizzically. Logan recognized him as the barista from the Witch’s Brew, and he did not like the way this guy was looking at Lily. If it was only a lustful human look—the way he saw some dudes on the boardwalk check out her and Orchid—that would be one thing. He could just excuse it for human nature (and then, if Pinky tried something, Logan could just kick his ass and throw him in a dumpster later).

  But this was different. The barista looked at her with warmth in his eyes. Appreciation. Logan could tell he liked all of her. The same way he liked all of her.

  Logan felt his pulse race as the barista leaned over Lily and settled her fingers in the right positions on the guitar (his guitar?). Squatting behind her, Pinky bent over her shoulders—he was all over her.

  Logan took a step forward. The heat flooding through his body was burning the sand under his feet into lava rocks. Seriously? Did a guitar lesson have to be this hands-on? He jumped onto cool sand to calm down.

  He fought the urge to storm the campfire, pick him up and chuck him pink head first into the sea. A cruel smile spread over his face as he imagined that crazy hair soaking wet. A soggy pink Q-tip left to its own devices in the freezing water.

  But he knew that would not be the right move here.

  It would a) piss off Lily, and b) get him in big trouble.

  Still. He would have loved to do it.

  Feeling better after imagining the ocean toss, Logan surveyed the scene.

  A dozen or so kids were standing around, close, shoulders touching shoulders like they were creating a barricade—a wall of friendship—to keep their circle safe from outsiders, or more likely, just trying to stay warm.

  Drinking frothy beer out of red plastic cups and mostly dressed in sweatshirts and blue jeans, they were barefoot, toes wiggling in the sand. Tipsy, but not so drunk that they’d be sick. A few of the boys and one girl were playing guitars. Singing along to hippie-trendy-pop music—songs he, of course, didn’t recognize
because he wasn’t allowed to listen to popular music.

  Baroque? Sure.

  This kind of stuff? Not so much.

  And he felt a wave of envy… of regret…that he had never experienced before. It hit him like an anvil to the chest. Sharp and heavy and demoralizing. As if these warning words were carved into the metal: This is not your world.

  He shook the image away. Shook the feeling away.

  Maybe. Maybe if he just…wandered over and stood outside the group. Maybe he could just hang out there with them for a while and soak it all in.

  Maybe they wouldn’t immediately recognize him as an outsider.

  Maybe he could what? Hit a bongo drum with the dude with the belly-length dreadlocks? Why not?

  He walked a few paces in the cold sand before stopping abruptly. It wasn’t fear of his own rejection that stopped him. It was the look of complete acceptance washing over Lily’s face, guised as a golden glow from the flames. Behind the swirls of smoke spinning into the sky, tucked crossed-legged in front of this barista, her ankles molding into the cool sand, Lily looked so happy.

  The false pained look on her face from struggling with the guitar notes was so different from the actual pained expression she made when he saw her struggling with her magic. Or when she was struggling with him. Trying to figure out what was going on, trying to process her feelings and internally debate all this…madness.

  She’d been through so much. The universe was not going easy on her…and Logan certainly wasn’t helping things by taking her amulet, forcing her into a dangerous mission to recover it. Not to mention training to possibly destroy her in the Gleaning.

  He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. Then let his eyes settle back on her again. Her face flushed from the warmth of the fire, maybe from the barista’s attention. A younger girl—a blonde like Lily, only more honey-colored—crawled to her other side and teased her about something. Lily elbowed her playfully. Must be her younger sister.

  When Lily strummed the strings again, this time a familiar tune filled the air. He recognized that song, maybe from the Brew. It was popular, and Lily got it right. First try out the gate. The barista leaned back in the sand, a mixed expression of impressed approval and pride washing over his face.

  Of course he thought it was his majestic teaching abilities that got Lily playing this well, this fast. Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that Lily herself was a force of nature, who could figure out anything on her own.

  When she parted her lips and started singing along with the song…that’s the moment that he was not only frozen in place, but desperate to run away. It felt wrong to interrupt this one purely content moment he was witnessing for his own selfish purposes.

  He wanted to leave her in this happiness for as long as he could.

  Lily

  “I love this. I love playing the guitar. I’m never doing anything else again ever with my life. This is what I was born to do. Yep. This is my destiny.”

  Daisy giggled next to me. Jonah looked goofily proud. I was actually playing an instrument. Like a human. No spell was rolling my fingers onto the correct chords. No magic was finger-picking for me.

  “Is that what I’m doing? Finger-picking?” I asked Jonah, who was kneeling next to me in the sand.

  “You sure are. Man, I’ve never seen anyone catch on this quick, Lil. You’re a natural.”

  “Thanks!” I said cheerfully. I played the first few notes of Daisy’s favorite song again. “I was going to learn this for your birthday.”

  “Aww,” Daisy said, leaning over and kissing my cheek. “Aren’t you just the most bestest sister in the universe?”

  “I try.”

  “You succeed!”

  Grinning, I bent back over the instrument. It was curved and smooth. Felt so nice on my lap. Like the way my old black cat rested on my lap, stretched out and open to me stroking her white belly with my fingertips. That’s how the guitar was opening up to me. It was like it was created for me to play.

  “Ohmygosh a shooting star!” Daisy leapt up and pointed into the milky darkness.

  Jonah jumped up to join her, matching her energy level perfectly. Daisy grinned up at him. She liked him the instant she saw his pink van. And now Daisy was eating up the attention. Jonah could be like the perfect big brother she never had. Quirky instead of edgy, sweet instead of overbearing. And when Daisy liked people, she let them know it.

  She turned to me. “Lil, can we keep him forever and ever and for always?”

  I met Jonah’s eye sheepishly. “Um. I’m sure Jonah has a family of his own who wants him.”

  “Well, you can be our foster brother then, k?”

  He tousled her hair. “There is no other flower-named girl that I’d rather have as a foster sister than you.”

  “My sister has a flower name. Don’t you want her?”

  He blushed. “Well, who wouldn’t?”

  Before I could process the look he was giving me, the energy suddenly shifted. Goosebumps rose on my arms.

  Something. Or someone.

  I stopped playing; absently set the guitar on the sand and edged to the outside of the circle. I hopped up on a tree stump and peered over the dune.

  Sure enough, a hooded silhouette walked alone toward the shore.

  Without a second thought I yelled over my shoulder, “Be right back!”

  Lily

  “Hey,” I put my hand on his shoulder and he turned around, an unfamiliar expression masking his features.

  “Hey.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Nothing.”

  He looked so…dejected. So different from when I saw him last and we planned to meet again.

  “So…did you have a good rest of your evening?”

  That got a small smile. “You mean after scaring away two evil ninjas who tried to kill my dog? Um. Not really...” He looked down at the sand. “I got myself into some trouble at home.”

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t…”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “Something like that. ”

  He pushed his hood off and ran his fingers through his hair. I moved closer to him. Not so close that I could touch him, but close enough that I could see him. Even in the dark.

  “Are you okay?” I asked softly.

  “You shouldn’t worry about me.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m not…because I don’t matter.”

  “Logan.” I heard my voice form his name. It was full of everything I felt for him. It was so clear, so obvious. I said his name like I played that song. Like I knew all the notes instinctively. Like I knew his melody by heart.

  He looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time. “I’m not good for you. I’m not good for anybody.”

  I cupped his face in my hands. “I don’t believe that. And neither do you. After all that’s happened between us, you know this is real.”

  He looked at my face. Then he looked out at the sea. “You should because it’s true. I hurt people, Lily.”

  “You’ve helped me.”

  He kept watching the waves crash on the dark beach. So I kept talking. “I think you might be something huge, Logan, something important. A key to helping a lot more people than just me.”

  He glanced back at the fire. “I saw you back there. You looked so happy with that barista guy. I haven’t known you that long, but I’ve never seen you that happy.”

  I shook my head. “We were having fun, that’s all,” I said. That was true. “Sure, I have human friends, and they include me, and I love hanging out and joking around and being part of things. But the truth is my real life is something they don’t know about.”

  “The fact that you’re a witch.”

  I nodded. “Yes. Like my mother. Like my Mistress. It’s all I’ve ever known and all I’ve ever wanted. And now that we’re in danger of losing it all…”

  “Losing it all?”

/>   “Logan, there’s a curse. We’re cursed. Our magic is failing us.”

  “Wait, slow down. Who is cursed?”

  “The Spellspinners. The lot of us.”

  “How do you know about this?”

  “I found a book in this, well, secret library. Then when I showed it to my mom, it turned out that she and the elders had been keeping it a secret from us younger witches for years. Have you heard of the term Roghnaithe?”

  Logan shook his head.

  “Well, it means broken magic man. He’s like, the Chosen One. And we have a reason, well, many reasons, to believe it might be you.”

  “Broken magic man? That sounds like a fairytale. I’m not broken.”

  I touched his arm. “No, no…it’s a code, it means you may possess both light and dark magic.”

  He frowned, but I could tell he wanted me to go on.

  “I know it sounds pretty wild, but the Seven Sisters prophesized when they split the witches and the warlocks a hundred years ago, that a boy would come along, someone raised as a warlock, who had the light powers of the witch.”

  “But I don’t have any light powers.”

  “What about in the café? You healed my hand.”

  “That was nothing.”

  “And I saw you levitate.”

  “Reverse levitate, and again, you were with me.”

  “The only thing I haven’t seen you do…” I glanced out at the ocean, the dark, milky waves.

  “Breathe?”

  “So you can? Breathe in the water?”

  “Maybe.”

  He shifted toward me, moved closer. He held onto both of my elbows and leaned his face in close, locked his eyes on mine. So blue I almost lost my balance. He kept me still. He kept me with him.

  “Lily, I need to talk to you about something. I was going to leave. Leave you alone forever—when I saw you up there. How happy you were. But...” The sincerity left his voice, the passion left his eyes. He practically growled, “Oh great, we have company.”

  Jonah’s back was to the bonfire. An orange halo of firelight circled him as he walked toward us.

  Logan

  Resting a hand on the small of her back the lame barista asked, “Everything okay?”