Life's a Witch

by Val St. Crowe

  I sighed. Okay, so far so good. Now, I only had to hold the spell for another five minutes or so and we should have everything. I took a deep breath and concentrated.

  *

  Estelle

  Estelle threw herself to the ground next to Willoughby.

  He gasped for breath, looking at her. Sweat had broken out on his forehead. His face was red. “What the hell do you think you were doing?”

  “My magic history project?”

  He snorted. “Some project. I felt the magic you called surge. I could tell it was out of control.”

  “I’m sorry.” She put her hand against his cheek. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded, putting his hand over her hand.

  She let out a tiny whimpering noise.

  He shut his eyes.

  They were quiet.

  She wanted to keep touching him. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted him to take her back to his apartment, where no one would know where they were, and make love to her again. She kept dreaming of what it had been like to have her naked skin against his, his arms around her. The way he’d looked at her with such unabashed adoration made her heart hurt.

  But she pulled her hand back instead.

  He opened his eyes, looking almost hurt. He wasn’t breathing so hard anymore.

  “Thank you,” she said softly. “That thing, it almost had me. I thought it was going to get you—”

  “Yeah, it was touch and go there for a minute,” he said. “That was strong, whatever it was. You shouldn’t be messing with—”

  “I thought I could control it,” she said. “It was only insect sacrifice.” She couldn’t imagine the sort of power you would get from killing an entire dragon. She shuddered. Dark magic, indeed. Maybe it was time for a different magic history project. This was intriguing and all, but she didn’t like messing with it. It frightened her.

  “Sacrifice?” He sat up straight. “You were doing sacrifice magic?”

  She hung her head.

  “Estelle, you need to be careful.” His voice had gone low and urgent and tender. It was the same way he’d spoken when he’d been inside her. The sound of it undid her.

  She let out a noise, something like a sob.

  “Promise me you’ll never do something like that again,” he said. “If I hadn’t been here—”

  “I know,” she murmured.

  “I couldn’t stand that,” he said. “I don’t even want to imagine a world without you in it.”

  She gazed at him, his words making her heart feel wrung out to dry. She wanted so badly to touch him again. She even lifted her hand, reached out—

  But he shook his head. “No, we can’t. I have no idea what’s keeping your brother from going to Norwood, but if I ever got close to you again, he would, I know it, and I need to be here.”

  She let her hand drop. “I know.”

  “And besides, it’s not right,” he said. “I know that I’ve not treated you well, and you deserve better than—”

  “You just saved me,” she said softly. “At great risk to yourself.”

  He shook his head. “Doesn’t make up for everything else. I’m sorry, Estelle. I should never have allowed this to go so far.”

  She looked away. “Maybe… if we just waited. Until after this semester. You won’t be my professor anymore. I know we’d still have to sneak around Norwood, but—”

  “No,” he said. “We can’t. We need to put this out of our heads.” He sucked in a sharp breath. “You should probably go now. It’s not good for us to be here alone together. I’ll clean up.” He gestured to the cauldrons, books, and to what remained of her sacrifice spell.

  She would have fought him, but the truth was, she wanted him so badly in that moment that she didn’t have the energy to protest and to also keep herself from touching him. So, she did as he said.

  She left.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Luckily, everything went fine with the energy spell after that. I was able to sustain it long enough to get what we needed, and then I said the counter spell to stop it. The energy gushed out as liquid for a few moments more and then stopped. We tied off the fairy bag, and we were good to go.

  Because it was precarious to have that much energy around, Logan and I teleported back to the school. We expected Willoughby to be waiting for us, because we’d set this up ahead of time, but he was nowhere to be found. We checked his office as well as the classroom where we kept the mop-things.

  Logan got out his phone to call him, but then Willoughby showed up. He was coming from one of the lab classrooms down the hallway, and he looked a mess. Something had happened to his shirt. It looked as though it had been burned.

  “What happened to you?” I said.

  “Accident in the lab,” was all he’d say.

  Man, I didn’t like how secretive this guy was. Unfortunately, his sister seemed to have denied my friend request, so I couldn’t get her to give me any information on Willoughby. I’d have to find another way.

  We applied the energy to the plants, pouring it into their basin just as though it were water.

  Almost immediately, we noticed improvement, but Willoughby said that we’d need to wait at least overnight to make sure it had worked.

  So, Logan and I left. We got in another argument about where I should sleep. I brought up to him that we needed to solve this problem with the scribbly things, and in a better way than just locking them out of campus, like we’d done with that spell using Reid. I said that I’d be in real danger once I was human, and we were getting closer to being able to do that spell with Willoughby, so we needed to move fast.

  Logan said he’d talk to Willoughby, get him to give him some more information. He said that if it really was some kind of renegade group of the scribbly things, there had to be a way to track them down. Once we did that, we could hearthstone every last one of them.

  But the next day, when we went back to check on the mop-things, Logan hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Willoughby, who apparently hadn’t come home to his apartment until pretty late that night. Logan had stayed up waiting for him, which wasn’t a big deal for Logan. He didn’t sleep. He turned to stone. And he didn’t have to do that. But he liked to have the restfulness every once and awhile.

  I immediately wondered if he’d been with Estelle and resolved that I’d talk to her about it later. Maybe—if we couldn’t get Estelle to stop sleeping with this guy—we could get her to ask him questions during pillow talk.

  But first we needed to check the mop-things.

  It was good news. Three of them had recovered entirely and doubled in size overnight. They looked incredibly healthy and strong. The fourth one was still withered up, though. We’d apparently gotten to it too late. It was dead.

  We needed three for the spell, so we had exactly what we needed. Now, we had to hope that nothing went wrong. Otherwise, we’d have to start over again.

  Willoughby told us we were ready to perform the spell.

  “No more steps?” I said.

  “None,” he said. “You’ve done everything. We can perform the spell anytime you like.”

  “You said this was going to be dangerous,” I said. “Honestly, it hasn’t really been that bad.’

  “Well, the dangerous part is coming,” said Willoughby. “This involves sacrifice magic. It’s not something to be trifled with. Ask Estelle.”

  “Wait,” I said. “Were you with Estelle last night?”

  Willoughby glared at me. “No, I’ve kept my distance as best I could. I did see her last night, but nothing happened. Not that this is any of your business.”

  Ooh, must have struck a nerve.

  “Look,” said Logan, “before we do this spell, we were thinking that it might be a good idea to try to get to the bottom of whatever’s going on with you and the scribbly things. If we can identify the ones who are after you, we could kill them. We have the hearthstone. It’s a weapon that works against them. Let us help you.”

 
“I wish I could,” said Willoughby. “But I can’t be sure who they are or why they want me dead exactly.”

  “I thought it was because you killed one of them in self-defense,” I said.

  “Well, they’ve never come out and told me why they were angry,” said Willoughby. “It could have been that, or it could have been something else. I have no way of knowing. Nor would I have any idea how to find the ones who are after me.”

  “It’s only that after Petra is human, it’s even more dangerous for her,” said Logan. “She’s already chained to campus because we don’t know if they’ll come after her. So if we could end this before we did the spell—”

  “I don’t know if that will be possible,” said Willoughby. “We have a short window in which to use the essence you extracted from Petra’s past partner. Not to mention, it’s best to use these specimens while they’re hardy.” He gestured to the mop-things. “If we don’t act within in the next few days, we won’t be able to do the spell at all.”

  Damn it. I made a face.

  Logan sighed. “Well, I guess we have to go forward with the spell, then.”

  “I’ll still be strong after I’m human,” I said to Logan. “I’ll have all my primal magic, and you know that I can take care of myself.”

  He nodded. “I do.”

  “We’ll have more time to investigate the stuff with the scribble things, once we’re not concentrating on this spell.”

  “Oh, undoubtedly,” said Willoughby.

  I glanced at him. I didn’t like his tone.

  “Listen,” Willoughby continued, “the spell can’t be performed here on campus, due to some of the wards that are set on the building. We’ll have to do it elsewhere, and we’ll be vulnerable to the scribble things out there. You may want some backup. All the other primals, if you can manage it. We can’t say if the scribble things won’t show up to try to stop you from doing this. They don’t seem to like that you’re trying it.”

  “True,” I said. I knew Reid and Estelle would back us up. But Tatum? I wasn’t sure about that. Not at all.

  *

  “What?” Tatum opened the door to her bedroom a crack.

  I tried a smile.

  She didn’t smile back.

  “I’m, um, here to ask a favor,” I said.

  She raised her eyebrows. “You kidding me? That’s incredibly ballsy of you.”

  I licked my lips. “Hey, Tatum, I really am sorry about giving you dragon blood. I did it because I didn’t want to lose you, but it seems like I’ve lost you anyway. I am glad that you’re still alive—”

  “I’m alive because something is dead,” she said. “That dragon you fed me had to die.”

  “Well, that’s true of everything, isn’t it? All life eats life. Even if it’s only plant life.”

  She threw me a withering glance. “You don’t understand at all.”

  I spread my hands. “You’re right. I don’t. I don’t get it. That’s why I made the choice I did. But I do know that whatever it was I did, it was devastating to you. And I feel terrible for my part in that. I wish there was some way you could forgive me. I miss you.”

  “That your favor? Forgiveness?”

  I winced. “No, uh, it’s more than that, I guess. I mean, it’s separate. You don’t have to forgive me to the do the favor.”

  “Well, maybe that’s good, because I don’t think I can forgive you,” she said. “You forced something on me that I find abhorrent. Can you imagine if someone had forced you to drink the blood of a baby?”

  I recoiled.

  “Exactly,” she said.

  “It’s not the same,” I said. “A rogue dragon is not a baby.”

  “It was once,” she said. “It’s some dragon’s child. It was cherished and loved.”

  “I don’t think those rogue things do love,” I said. “They’re mostly just burn and destroy.”

  She shook her head. “Never mind. Forget it.” She started to shut the door.

  “Wait.”

  She paused. “What?”

  “The favor.”

  She laughed bitterly. “Right. Because it’s always about you.”

  I wanted to defend myself against that accusation, but I decided it wasn’t worth it. Instead, I took a deep breath. “I’m ready to do the spell that will restore my human side, but we need to do it off campus, and I’ve been attacked by scribbly things off campus. For some reason, there’s some faction of them that don’t want me to do the spell.”

  “Oh, really?” said Tatum. “Why not?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “Maybe you should figure that out before you do the spell.”

  “There’s no time. I have to do the spell in a certain window,” I said.

  “And you want it so bad. So that you and Logan can live happily ever after.” She shook her head at me. “What makes you think what you have with Logan is going to last?”

  I chewed on my lip. “I don’t know. Just a feeling I have, I guess. He’s it. He’s the one.”

  “I used to think that about Reid.”

  “Maybe he is,” I said. “Maybe if you could forgive him—”

  “Never,” she said softly.

  “He’s messed up over losing you.”

  She let out another bitter laugh. “Oh, I bet he’s slept with every girl on campus. I’m sure he went back to being the dog that he is.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t think he’s been with anyone.”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “Look, Tatum, will you be there while I do the spell to help fight? That’s the favor I want. I need everyone to be there to fight the scribble things. You’re a primal. I need you.”

  She shrugged. “Why not? Getting a little stir-crazy in here, anyway. I could stand a little action.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “It’s not for you.” She shut the door in my face.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  We set up for the spell in Reid’s and Estelle’s living room. It seemed like the best place to do it off campus, since it was the most spacious and we were all comfortable there.

  Well, everyone was comfortable except for Estelle and Willoughby, anyway. I had asked Estelle about seeing Willoughby, and she’d confirmed that she’d seen him, but that nothing intimate had happened between them. He had saved her from a spell gone awry, she said. I supposed that was the burn marks on his clothes. I guessed I believed her. It could be that they’d simply gotten their story straight.

  I decided that, since we didn’t have time anyway, I’d ask her later to be my spy and try to dig up dirt about him. Although, if she wasn’t actually sleeping with him, I didn’t want her to start, just for information. That wasn’t worth it to me. She had been through too much to ask her for something like that.

  Lots of times, setting up for big spells required chalk outlines on the floor, candles, and strange bottles of magical liquid.

  But this time, there was really none of that.

  Willoughby said he needed a raised surface, and a card table was adequate. He set out the three healthy mop-things, a silver blade, another shallow basin, and the orb that contained my essence on the card table.

  Besides the stuff for the spell, we’d come prepared for an attack. We had the hearthstone primed with blood and ready, and everyone had conjured blades to cut the scribbly things to ribbons.

  That was about all the setting up that we needed to do.

  Then, we just waited, putzing around and making small talk. I think everyone was a little nervous. No one was sure what we were waiting for.

  Eventually, Tatum, who hadn’t been making small talk but had been sullenly staring out the window, said, “Are we going to get this show on the road or what?”

  We all looked at Willoughby.

  He shrugged. “Are you ready?”

  I hesitated. But yes, I was ready. I wanted this badly. I nodded. “Okay.”

  He motioned for me to come closer.
/>   I did.

  We stood behind the card table. My heart started to beat in my chest.

  Willoughby spoke to me, his voice low and serious. “This kind of magic isn’t necessarily built on words, but on deep-held intention. It releases a great deal of power, and then the power must be wrestled to the will of the people doing the spell. When we do this, I will need you to add your will to mine. Together, our strength will work the power together. Understand?”

  I nodded. But I wasn’t sure that I did.

  “Single-mindedness,” he said. “You can’t waver from what we are doing.”

  “All right,” I whispered. I felt even more nervous. I was starting to break out into a cold sweat behind my knees and at the back of my neck. I hoped I could do this. What if we had gone to all this trouble, and then I screwed it up at the end? My throat was dry. “Just so I understand, if we don’t keep control of this thing, what happens?”

  “It could drain the life from everyone in the room and run rampant on the population, killing everything it comes across and becoming stronger and more difficult to control with every moment.”

  “It?”

  “The sacrifice magic. It can take on a… shape,” he said. “It is life, and it’s hungry.”

  I swallowed hard. I’d asked my friends to be here with me, to fight a threat, but I didn’t realize I would be putting them in so much danger. I felt a bit ashamed and frightened.

  “All right,” said Willoughby. “Are you ready?”

  I shot a terrified look at Logan.

  He smiled at me. “If you don’t want to do this, Petra—”

  “I want to,” I breathed. I turned to Tatum, Reid, and Estelle. “But if any of you want to go—”

  “Just get on with it,” said Tatum, looking annoyed.

  “We’re fine,” said Reid.

  “Yeah, we’re here for you,” said Estelle.

  “Thank you.” I looked into each of their eyes. I was so grateful for friends like them. They were my second family, the people who I relied on. We had been through so much together, and I was glad of their presence. I turned back to Willoughby. “All right. I’m ready.”