Back to Spell One

by Samantha Silver

  I giggled at the thought of it. “Yeah, that’s true.”

  “Anyway, what are we going to do now?” Sara asked. “After all, Caranthir won’t tell us why Philip was fired.”

  “I suppose we’ll simply have to give up on that line of questioning,” Amy said. “What else can we do?”

  “We could always come back here at night and break in to read the files ourselves,” Sara suggested with a sly grin. The look on Amy’s face could only be described as one of utmost horror.

  “You must be joking!”

  “Absolutely not. We need to know what’s in those files, and there’s no other way to do it.”

  “I agree,” I chimed in. “I mean, as long as we can do it without getting caught.”

  “Of course we can,” Sara said, at the same time as Amy chimed in with, “Of course we can’t.”

  The two girls looked at each other. “It’s totally doable,” Sara said.

  “Right. We’ll get caught, we’ll be arrested, and not only will we find ourselves in jail, our reputations will be ruined,” Amy said.

  “Don’t you want to know who killed Philip, and clear Tina’s name?” Sara said, wiggling her eyebrows.

  Amy sighed. “Don’t try to convince me that the law we’re breaking is worse than what’s being done.”

  “Is it working, though?”

  “Maybe,” Amy scowled. “I can’t believe you. You’re such a terrible influence.”

  Sara grinned. “You need a little bit of excitement in your life, anyway. When was the last time you went out and had some fun?”

  “I don’t consider the commitment of a felony to be a fun way to spend a night,” Amy replied, crossing her arms. “But if it’s what’s necessary to find out who killed Philip, I’m willing to do it, I suppose.”

  “That’s all I wanted to hear,” Sara replied.

  “But for now, we’re heading home. After all, Tina has a new wand, and now she needs to learn how to use it.”

  Chapter 13

  As soon as the three of us got back home, I marveled at the sight of the clothes we had ordered, sitting in the middle of the living room. Evidently, Randy’s magical delivery service had done its job. Amy’s familiar, the creepy owl Kevin – who names their owl Kevin, anyway? – sat on top of the cabinets, looking down on us.

  “I’m going upstairs to have a nap,” Sara announced when we got back. “Who knew that murder investigations could be so exhausting?”

  “What about you?” I asked Amy. “You’ve been up for what, a whole day? Don’t you need to sleep?”

  “I have a special potion that allows me to stay awake and alert when needed, don’t worry about me.”

  “Yeah, you’re definitely a Hermione.” That awake-ness potion definitely sounded close enough to a time-turner for me.

  “Who’s Hermione? A friend of yours from the human world?”

  “You really haven’t heard of Harry Potter at all, have you??”

  “What’s Harry Potter?”

  “It’s a series of books and movies from the human world, about a teenager with magical powers. Don’t tell me you, as a witch, have never heard of it?”

  Amy laughed. “No, we don’t really pay much attention to the popular culture of the human world. We have our own movie industry, based out of Spellywood, a magical town in California. Our movies are much better; they involve magic.”

  “Well, one day I’ll watch a magical movie, and you can watch Harry Potter with me and see just how much of a Hermione you are.”

  “Alright, that works for me. But for now, I want to get through your first magical lesson.”

  “Right,” I said, pulling out the wand I had bought. I had to admit, it felt pretty cool in my hand. I swished it around here and there, pretending I was actually doing magic, like I was five years old again.

  “Ok, hold on a minute,” Amy said, returning a moment later with a blank journal and a pen. “You’re going to want this to write spells in.”

  “So all the magic comes with pre-determined spells?”

  “Exactly. Unfortunately, the spells are very coven-based. A coven whose powers come from Mercury will have different spells to ours, for example. So, since you’re not from our coven, your magic isn’t going to work as well when you use our spells. However, it’s the only option we’ve got right now, at least until we figure out exactly where your coven gains its powers from.”

  “Ok,” I said, nodding. Basically, I was going to be a terrible witch until we figured out where I belonged. I was a little bit demoralized about this – who didn’t want to turn out to be a super powerful witch who somehow had greater powers than everyone who had done this their whole lives – but I convinced myself that frankly, just using magic at all was pretty cool, and the sort of thing that even twenty-four hours ago I could never have imagined.

  “So, I thought we should start with the simplest of spells: creating light,” Amy said. “While the wand is the conduit through which your magical powers will be displayed, you can always give it help. Focus your energy on the wand as you’re saying the words, and the magic will work better. Watch.”

  Amy flicked off all the lights in the kitchen, and closed the blinds, until we were immersed in almost complete darkness.

  “Jupiter, with all your might, I beseech you to fill this room with light.”

  I gasped as the tip of Amy’s wand was suddenly illuminated with a disk of light so powerful I almost had to cover my eyes. A moment later, the light disappeared. Amy went back to the window and drew the curtain back, but only halfway, leaving the room dark, but not pitch black.

  “That was insane,” I said, and Amy smiled.

  “It’s one of the easiest spells to learn and to get right,” she replied. “Remember, all you need to do is focus on the wand. Do you remember the words?”

  I nodded, swallowing hard. It was all good and fine to be told I was a witch, but standing here with a wand about to actually try a spell was a whole different story.

  “Great. Let’s see it.”

  I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I did my best to really focus on my wand. I tried to think of it as an extension of my body, and to feel my life force moving towards it in my right hand.

  “Jupiter, with all of your might, I beseech you to fill this room with light.”

  I gasped as the tip of my wand emitted the tiniest amount of light. It wasn’t more than I’d have gotten from a lighter, but it was something!

  I had just done magic. This wasn’t some sort of elaborate prank after all. I really, truly was a witch.

  Wow.

  “Good! Now, do it again, but this time, don’t use the word ‘of’,” Amy instructed. “It’s ‘Jupiter, with all your might’, not ‘all of your might’.”

  “Shoot,” I mumbled. “Ok, let me try again.”

  I took a second to re-focus my energy before I tried it again. This time, I focused on saying the words correctly.

  “Jupiter, with all your might, I beseech you to fill this room with light.”

  This time, the light that sprung from my wand could be accurately described as ‘similar to an iPhone flashlight’. That was definitely an improvement!

  “Awesome,” I said, unable to wipe the grin off my face. This was phenomenal. I was doing actual magic. Eleven year old me would be bouncing off the walls with excitement if she had known this was going to be in her future.

  “Good, you’re getting it,” Amy said, nodding. “I want you to write that spell down in this book.”

  “Is it ok if I get a journal from the human world and use that instead?” I asked.

  “Of course,” Amy replied, nodding. “You can get it when we go back to get your things.”

  I grinned. I was totally going to go to the local bookstore and buy myself a Gryffindor journal to write my spells in.

  “Now, I want you to keep working on that one spell.”

  “Really? Can’t you teach me to do something really cool?”

&nb
sp; “Like this?” Amy asked with a grin, flicking her wand towards the kitchen. A second later, the cutlery flew out of the drawer and began dancing on the countertop, sending Kevin screeching away. The poor owl obviously hadn’t seen that coming.

  “Exactly like that,” I laughed. “How did you do that without the words, anyway?”

  “The words are a necessary part of each spell,” Amy said. “However, as your powers improve, you’ll find that it’s not always necessary for you to say them aloud. I can simply think the spell, and my wand can hear the words in my head, so to speak. Someone like Sara, however, still needs the words to make the spell work.”

  “And even that doesn’t always work,” Sara muttered as she came into the kitchen, grabbing a glass from one of the cupboards and filling it up with water.

  “Hey, I’m sure you’re better than you think you are,” I offered up.

  “She is, she simply doesn’t have the confidence to do the spells properly, in part because of the constant pressure from her family to be one of the best witches in town,” Amy replied, shaking her head. “Sara, you have to stop caring what your family thinks of you.”

  Sara sighed. “Easy for you to say, you’re the smartest witch of our generation. You know Amy got invited to attend Spellford, one of the most exclusive witch colleges in the world?”

  “Wow,” I said, impressed. “That’s pretty cool. Why didn’t you go?”

  “I, um, thought that I could do better work here, and the academy here is excellent as well,” Amy said.

  “She’s afraid to travel,” Sara mouthed at me from behind Amy, so she couldn’t see. I nodded. So Amy was afraid of blood, and of traveling. And that was only what I’d discovered in the first twenty-four hours.

  “Anyway, that spell is your first assignment. Keep practicing it, and you’ll start to get the hang of how to really channel your energy into the wand. The better you are at it, the brighter your light will be. And remember, it’s never going to end up being that powerful; not until we find your coven, at least.”

  “Ok,” I nodded. “That sounds good.”

  “Ellie should be back from work any minute. When she gets back she’ll teach you how to do potions, and everything that goes with that – learning herbs, that sort of thing. And Sara, did you source out a new broom for Tina?”

  Sara burst into a grin as she nodded. “I certainly did! It’s one of the best beginner brooms out there. It was actually the one I learned on. I went and grabbed it from my mom’s house just now.”

  “Good,” Amy nodded. Evidently, she was taking being in charge of my magical education seriously. “I need to go to work. Will you text me about tonight?”

  “Of course,” Sara nodded. “I’ll take Tina back to the human world to get her things.”

  Obviously satisfied that everything was going according to plan, Amy got up and began to head out, with Kevin flying after her.

  “Have you and Ellie got familiars, too?” I asked, and Sara nodded.

  “We do, yes. Mine is a cat named Cupcake who likes to hide away from the world. You probably won’t see her for a few days; it takes her a while to get used to new people being in the house. Ellie has a little Pomeranian, Chestnut, but we all call him Nuts because he’s a bit crazy. She sends him to familiar daycare while she’s at work, since otherwise he just has too much energy to stay cooped up at home all day, so you’ll meet him when she gets back.”

  “How do you get a familiar? I mean, will I get one?”

  Sara nodded. “Of course. In fact, as soon as you entered the paranormal world for the first time, your familiar should have been alerted. He or she will be making their way here, and they’re going to try to find you.”

  “How will I know it’s mine?”

  “You will be able to hear your familiar’s thoughts, and they can hear yours.”

  “Oh, so as soon as I find a talking owl, I know that’s my familiar?”

  “Definitely. Though familiars can take the form of any animal. You won’t know until you find them. Now, how about a glass of wine while we wait for Ellie before we go and get your things?”

  A glass of wine right now sounded amazing.

  Chapter 14

  About ten minutes later the front door opened, quickly followed by the pitter-patter of little feet running as fast as they could along the hardwood floors, before a giant, blurry ball of dark brown sped past us and back towards the front door.

  “There, now you’ve met Chestnut,” Sara laughed. About fifteen seconds later the dog came running back into the kitchen, his little tongue hanging out of his mouth as he panted from the effort of the zoomies around the house. Two black eyes and a black nose poked out from the Pomeranian’s furry little body, and as I reached down to pat him he ran over to me, eager for some human loving.

  “Hey, guys,” Ellie said as she entered the kitchen a moment later. “Has Amy gone to work already?”

  “Yeah, it’s totally a coincidence that she had to work before we went to the human world to get Tina’s things.”

  “Right,” Ellie laughed.

  “So Amy’s afraid of traveling?” I asked.

  “And everything else under the sun. Spiders, snakes, heights, portals, blood, you name it. If it’s a phobia, Amy has it.”

  “She didn’t go to Spellford because she was afraid of the portal to get there?” I asked, amazed. “Does that mean she’s never left Western Woods?”

  “Exactly,” Ellie nodded. “It’s a shame. Spellford would be a wonderful experience for her; I’ve only heard good things about it. And they’ve actually left the invitation for her open. She could choose at any time to go there after all. But, she won’t go through the portals.”

  “Wow,” I said, shaking my head. For someone like Amy, who was totally a Hermione, I could only imagine what kind of fear she must have had to refuse acceptance to the magical world’s most prestigious learning institution.

  “So, let’s get going. I haven’t been to the human world in years,” Ellie said, clapping her hands excitedly. “We totally need to get those things – what are they called – tacos.”

  “Do you not have tacos here?” I asked in horror. That was definitely a strike against the paranormal world.

  Sara shook her head sadly. “No. Though there are paranormal worlds a bit further south that do them, sadly, no one here does them.”

  Well, at least the human world was only a portal away if I ever really needed a fix. “Alright. Well, we’ll stop by my apartment, I have to buy a journal, and then we’ll get tacos and come back here.”

  Ten minutes later, after Ellie changed out of her work clothes, the three of us headed out to get my things from my apartment.

  “Are we going to go through the forest and see Drake?” I asked.

  Ellie nodded. “Yes, that’s the easiest portal to use to get to your apartment.”

  “It’s the middle of the day though, won’t there be people noticing if three people all of a sudden appear out from inside a tree?”

  “The tree is enchanted; basically, anyone who notices us appearing from it immediately has their memory altered, so they think that we were there the whole time.”

  “Kind of like platform 9 ¾,” I muttered to myself.

  “Like what?” Sara asked.

  “Nothing,” I replied, making a mental note to grab a copy of all of the Harry Potter books while we were at the bookshop. After all, my constant references were totally lost on my magical friends right now.

  Walking through the forest during the day was far less creepy than it had been the night before. The walk also felt as though it was far faster, and pretty soon we reached the clearing, with Drake guarding the portal.

  “Good afternoon to the newest member of the coven,” Drake said as the three of us approached. “And how are you witches doing on this fine afternoon?”

  “Great, thanks. We are taking Tina back to the human world to get her things; we should be back in a couple of hours.”

 
; “Sounds good, I’ll be here.”

  Oddly enough, once I actually knew what the portal did, I was a little bit apprehensive about stepping back into it. I could suddenly understand a little bit where Amy was coming from. On the other hand, I had gone through the portal before, and nothing had happened.

  Luckily for me, I didn’t even have to go first. Sara confidently strode straight up to the tree and walked right into the trunk, disappearing immediately.

  “After you,” Ellie said, motioning towards Eddie the tree.

  I took a deep breath, and tried not to look nervous as I walked straight towards Eddie, every instinct in my body telling me to stop before I walked right into the tree. At the last second I closed my eyes instinctively, and when I opened them two steps later, my nose not hurting from impact, I was back in downtown Seattle. Sara was standing just a couple of feet away, grinning like a crazy person as she looked around.

  “I haven’t been here in so long; I forgot how quaint the human world looks.”

  I laughed as Ellie popped out of the tree next to me. “I can’t believe this place is actually weird to you guys.”

  “Absolutely. Why spend any time in the human world when the magical world has so much more to offer?”

  “Why didn’t you tell us the guy guarding that portal was so hot?” Ellie interrupted.

  “Drake? The dragon shifter?”

  “Yeah, he’s amazing,” Ellie swooned. “I’m going to have to find a reason to come here more often.”

  Our first stop was my apartment, where I hurriedly packed a few things in a duffel bag, trying to push back the thoughts of how sad my life was that I could easily fit everything I needed into a seven gallon bag. After all, this wasn’t my life anymore. My life was now in Western Woods.

  The Barnes & Noble at Pacific Place wasn’t too far from my apartment, and that was where the three of us made our way next. I bought not only Harry Potter, but a decent handful of old favorites and new books to read as well. After all, I wasn’t sure when I was next going to come to Seattle, and I didn’t know what the book situation was like in Western Woods, but seeing as no one had gotten any of my references yet, I had a sneaking suspicion that these were the last human books I’d be able to read for a while.