Spells and Sorcery

by S. Usher Evans

  Sunday afternoon, I sat in the kitchen, flipping through my primer for the billionth time with a cup of coffee and a frown on my face. Jeanie and Nicole came and went, and neither mentioned the book I was looking at, but Jeanie stopped and asked why I was pouting.

  "Just frustrated," I said, sitting up and tapping my fingers on the coffee mug. "Do we have any magic books?"

  "Not here. Gram has a couple," Jeanie said. "Next time I go up there, I can grab you one."

  "You're going up there?" I asked, sitting up. "Can I go?"

  Something unreadable crossed her face. "Not yet, Lexie. I'm still working on it."

  "Why does Gram hate me?"

  Jeanie sighed loudly. "Gram doesn't hate you."

  "So why aren't I allowed to go up to the compound?"

  "Because that's what she wants right now."

  "And we're magically-bound to that, huh?" I said, picking at my coffee mug.

  "Where on earth did you hear that phrase?" Jeanie asked.

  "Um…" I swallowed and scrambled through my foggy brain to come up with an excuse. "I made it up? I mean, you said that whatever she says goes, and it's bound by the clan."

  "S-sure," Jeanie said, still eyeing me warily. "What kind of book do you want?"

  "Potions."

  Jeanie barked a laugh. "And have you blow up another room in this house? No way. Try again, kid."

  I glared at her. "Jeanie, come on."

  "If you want a potion, talk to Nicole."

  "I already tried that. She said no."

  "Then perhaps it's not such a good idea, hm?" Jeanie said, walking out of the kitchen.

  "Then perhaps it's not such a good idea," I said, mimicking her. A force smacked me upside the head, and I winced.

  "I heard that," Jeanie's voice called.

  By Monday, I was getting desperate. There was one thing I hadn't tried, one which had such a low likelihood of actually working that I hadn't actually considered it a viable option. But desperate times and all that.

  I turned the corner to the senior lockers and kept my head down. As usual, everyone was too interested in their conversations to notice me, so I was able to thread my way through until I saw the object of my quest.

  Approaching slowly, I considered all the things I could use as a bargaining chip. If it were Nicole, I might be able to offer some magic-type favors. But since Marie had just as much ability as I did, that wouldn't work.

  I found my sister surrounded by her friends, a veiled smile on her face. She always looked calculating to me, like she was determining which person was of value to her at any given time. Her smile turned into a glower when she saw me standing at the other end of the hall, and she purposefully ignored me.

  "M-Marie?" I asked quietly. "Can I talk to you?"

  "I'm sorry, do you guys hear that?" Marie said loudly to her friends. "Sounds like the world's most obnoxious wind."

  A twitter of laughter erupted around them, but Marie's friends took the hint and left her alone with me. She wore all the contempt of fifteen years' worth of hatred on her face.

  "What?"

  "I need your help with something."

  She snorted. "Really? Little Miss Perfect needs my help? After what you did to me?"

  "I am really sorry I lost control," I said, making sure to pump the sincerity into my voice. "Really. But I've been practicing a lot lately and I think I need you to heal me."

  Marie studied me for a second and I thought I saw the ghost of concern on her face. "Your magic is really low."

  "You can tell?"

  "Of course I can, idiot. The question is…why?"

  "Why is it so low?" I shrugged. "I've been practicing a lot—"

  "No, why would I help you?"

  I groaned. "Come on, Marie, don't do this. I need your help."

  "Well, maybe you shouldn't do whatever it is you're doing if you can't handle it."

  "Marie, please. You're my big sister, and I need you."

  She laughed, but there was no love in it. "After the stunt you pulled? No way. Figure it out yourself." She slammed her locker shut and glared at me. "And, for the record, you aren't my sister."

  Marie had been throwing that insult in my face for as long as I'd been alive, and except for a few months when I was six, I'd never actually believed it. But what had truly hurt was that Marie had been my last option for healing quicker, and now that I'd used it up, I had nothing left to try but patience. And even though it was severely diminished, that magical hum tingled under my skin, begging to be used.

  Gavon wasn't at the park that night either, which felt appropriate for the disappointing day I was having. I'd gotten accustomed to him showing up whenever I was down or upset, being an ear to talk to.

  My face must've betrayed my mood, because Nicole asked me what was wrong when I walked by her open door.

  I stopped and leaned against the doorframe. "Had a bad day."

  "Wanna talk about it?"

  I shrugged and crossed the room to climb into her bed, like I had when I was younger. Nicole moved her thick chemistry books out of the way and patted her pillow for me to lie down on.

  "What's wrong? Did you fail another test?" she asked.

  I winced. "How'd you find out?"

  "Mills called Jeanie and asked if everything was okay with you," Nicole said with a smile. "Granted, she's used to fielding phone calls about Marie, but this was your first."

  "I retook the test and passed it," I said, sitting up. "I was just having a bad day."

  "You seem to be having a lot of those recently. So what did you want to talk about?"

  How can I heal faster after sparring? Why does Gram hate me? Why didn't you tell me about magic sooner? Why do I get the feeling everyone's keeping secrets from me?

  "Why does Marie hate me?"

  "Currently? You tossed her through the wall."

  I frowned. "That was an accident."

  Nicole chuckled and leaned back on her pillows. "Yeah, but…it wouldn't have happened if you didn't want to on some level."

  "I mean." I picked at her comforter. "The spell was…I mean, it was really easy to do. I felt like I was…" I wasn't sure I wanted to tell Nicole how great attack spells were, in case she told Jeanie and I got in trouble. "I didn't know what would happen. I didn't want to hurt her."

  "I know, Lexie," Nicole said. "And Marie's just…well, she's Marie. She's always been Marie and we just have to love her."

  "Do we though?"

  "Try to understand. Marie's under a lot of pressure right now. She's graduating high school in May. And to be perfectly honest, she's not really doing so hot." Nicole glanced out of her open door. "She hasn't even applied for college. I don't think she has the grades to get in. And her ego's too big to consider community college."

  "So what does that have to do with being awful to me?"

  "Lexie, can't you see she's jealous of you? School's always come easily to you, and it's never been for Marie. And now she's realizing that you can't just float your way through life and expect everything to work out. Magic and good looks can only do so much for you."

  I'd never considered that perfect Marie would ever be jealous of me, but that didn't excuse her crappy behavior. "I think she blames me for what happened to Mom."

  "That's ridiculous," Nicole said with a harshness that surprised me. "You had nothing to do with Mom's death."

  Something tickled in the back of my mind, a memory of a man that disappeared before I could grasp it.

  "I think part of the problem is that Jeanie lets her get away with too much," Nicole said, again, glancing out the door. "The thing about magic is that you have what you're born with, and Jeanie never had much to begin with. Marie's more powerful than she is, and Jeanie knows it. But Jeanie can also take away Marie's magic, which she does all the time."

  "Take away her magic?" I asked.

  "Do you remember your Magic's Eve, when Jeanie stopped all that destruction?" I nodded. "That was a grounding spell. As your guardian
, she can take away your magic to punish you."

  I gulped, thankful that Jeanie hadn't grounded me yet.

  "So when Jeanie does that, Marie gets in that convertible and disappears for a few nights," Nicole said. "And round and round they go. I think Jeanie's secretly counting down the hours until Marie moves out. Marie's never adjusted to living here and as much as I hate it, I think we'll all be happier when we're living in separate spaces."

  "Are you going to move out?" I asked quietly. I didn't like the idea of living alone with Jeanie. Something told me I'd suddenly become responsible for all the meal planning.

  "Not for a while," Nicole said. "Someday, maybe. After you graduate."

  I opened my mouth to respond when my gaze landed on her open closet—or more specifically, the potion book that sat discarded on the floor. And suddenly, an idea took root in the back of my mind. Perhaps I wasn't completely out of options yet.

  "Well, I should probably get started on my homework," I said, pushing myself to stand.

  "Let me know if you need any help with chemistry," Nicole said, pulling her own books back to her. I glanced at the chemistry book, then the potions book on the floor, and then hurried out of the room.

  14

  The next afternoon, I made use of the hours before Nicole and Jeanie returned from school and work. I retrieved the potion book from Nicole's closet and locked myself in my room to read.

  POTIONS FOR POTION-MAKERS

  The Magic of potion-making is one of the oldest known magical specialties in existence.

  The potions in this book should only be used by a practiced potion-maker.

  "Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said, flipping past the preface and through the old pages until I found the section I was looking for.

  HEALING POTIONS

  One of the Potion-maker's most oft-requested concoctions is the Healing Potion. Hundreds of variations exist and each Potion-maker may find their own peculiarities and tastes when making the draught.

  Most Healing Potions contain some variation of calming herbs such as lavender and rosemary or echinacea and peppermint combined with a magical conductive object such as unicorn hair or goblin toenails.

  "Unicorn hair? Goblin—bleh—toenails?"

  A truly gifted Potion-maker will be able to convert the herbs without the use of a conduit. Indeed, the more powerful the Potion-making magic imbued within the draught, the more potent the potion.

  PREPARATION OF THE HERBS

  The most effective healing potions must be kept in a cauldron for up to a fortnight. But in the case of an emergency, additional magical objects may be added to a draught and the potion may be available in as little as two sunrises.

  "A fortnight? Two days?" I grunted to myself. I couldn't wait that long. I flipped through the section until I found something that looked helpful.

  HEALING POTION #35

  Ingredients:

  One Quart of Apple Vinegar;

  One bundle of Lavender, grown on the left corner of a south-facing garden;

  One quarter pound of Echinacea root, harvested on the Third Saturday in October;

  One spider web, found in the seventh Tuesday of an odd year;

  Boil exactly thirteen minutes;

  Then add,

  Seven mushroom caps, added with the caps facing down;

  Set aside for one hour in good sun, stir three times clockwise, then four counter-clockwise.

  Drink in good health.

  "Gross," I said, shaking my head.

  Unfortunately, it was the only spell in the book that had ingredients I could get at the grocery store—minus that spider's web. All the other potions included parts and pieces from animals that I hadn't known existed.

  Some part of me began to question whether making and drinking this potion was a good idea. But the other, louder part that wanted very much to start sparring every day told the other part to stuff it.

  The next day, I walked to the grocery store with my list of ingredients in hand. The mushrooms and apple cider vinegar were easy enough to find; I decided on the big, beefy portobellos instead of the tiny button mushrooms. But after looking in the hippie foods section, all I came up with for lavender and echinacea were teas.

  "Well, it'll have to do."

  After the long walk home, the next object I needed was a cauldron. I scoured Nicole's closet, finding a lot of shoes and old textbooks, but no big tubs where I could brew a potion. I'd even spent a few minutes up in the attic nosing around, but found nothing except some old boxes of baby clothes. My time was running short, I decided to use one of Jeanie's cheap pots instead, and hoped that whatever I made, some dish soap would clean it out.

  I emptied the bottle of apple cider vinegar and tossed in three bags each of the lavender and echinacea teas. Then, glancing at the potion book again, I tossed in another three echinacea bags, hoping that it would equate to a full pound of root.

  Then the last thing I needed was a spider web.

  I wasn't particularly squeamish, but the idea of hunting around the house for a spider's web was…unappetizing. Luckily, my magic had returned enough that I could stomach a small summoning spell. I hadn't properly practiced in some time, having been too depleted by sparring, and my magic seemed much more willing to do what I said.

  I found a spider web in the corner of the attic, and when I opened my eyes, it floated delicately in front of me. With a nod, my magic dropped it into the simmering pot.

  A puff of gray smoke released from the concoction, and the whole kitchen began to smell of rotten eggs. I gagged and covered my mouth, but I was secretly relieved. I'd thought that I was doing a whole bunch of nothing.

  I glanced at the clock and counted down the time. Then, holding my breath, I dropped in the seven mushrooms, caps up as instructed.

  The mixture, now the texture of thick gravy, bubbled and gurgled then began smoking. I cried out and yanked the pot off the stove, sticking it out the open window and letting it cool down. But when I peered inside, there was a dark silvery mixture, not unlike the one that Nicole had given me to calm me down on my Magic's Eve.

  The kitchen smelled something awful, so I left the pot on the brick windowsill and turned on all the fans and opened all the windows. I even hunted down the air freshener and sprayed it around, which only made the kitchen smell like hot ass and Febreze.

  The hour ticked down and the mixture grew more and more gel-like. When enough time had passed, I dipped a spoon into the mixture and jumped back; it was a lot more liquid than I'd expected. I scooped out a small bit and brought it to my face.

  "This is probably a really, really bad idea," I said, staring at the liquid. But I didn't have time or materials to try again.

  Then, I heard tires roll up the driveway outside. So I shoved the concoction into my mouth.

  It tasted like toenails.

  Trying not to spit it back up, I ran to the fridge and pulled out a cola, cracking it open and sucking it down quickly. The mixture sat horribly in my stomach, but I was more concerned about Jeanie or Nicole finding me with a potion brewed in the kitchen.

  Praying that I had more control over my magic, I made all the contraband, including the pot of goopy mixture, disappear and end up…somewhere else. I wasn't quite sure where I'd put it, but I forgot all about it when Jeanie walked into the kitchen.

  She sniffed. "The hell is going on in here?"

  "Science project," I said, clenching my jaw together to keep the contents of my stomach from coming back up.

  "Uh-huh. Where is it?"

  "My group just left with it," I said, amazed at how quickly the lies were coming to me. In fact, I felt more energetic than I had in days—weeks, almost. My feet could've lifted off and flown me to the sparring beach.

  Jeanie flicked her wrists, and the smell disappeared. "That's better. But hey, I'm glad you're making friends. You're entirely too solitary, Lexie."

  "Mmm-hm." I flashed a grin. "I've actually got to go to the library for a bit."

  "Wan
t a ride?"

  "Nah, I can walk. I've been doing it a lot lately. Might as well keep doing it!" I laughed a little too loudly, and chalked it up to the fact that I was back to full strength.

  "Are you okay?"

  "Never better!"

  Jeanie left me in the kitchen, muttering something about teenagers. Giggling to myself, I closed my eyes and sent my magic to the beach then enjoyed the rush as my body followed.

  I landed with an oomph on the white sand. Looking up, I'd landed exactly where I'd wanted to. My first real transport spell and I was already kicking ass at it.

  "Alexis, what are you doing here?" Gavon stood behind me, a curious look on his face.

  "I transported myself!" I barked.

  "I can see that, You didn't answer my question. Your magic's not yet replenished. You should go back home."

  "Nah, I took a thing. It's fine." My cheeks were starting to hurt from the smile on my face. His eyes narrowed at my excitement—was I that transparent? Or perhaps I shouldn't have said anything. I bounced from one foot to the other. "My sister, she healed me."

  "She did?" He sounded surprised.

  "Yup!" Boy, I couldn't believe how easy it was to lie just then.

  "Alexis, are you all right?"

  "Perfect. Let's go, go, go!" I said with a laugh that was too high-pitched and loud to be mine. Without waiting for him to respond, I formed an attack spell and let it fly.