The Doctor Witch (The Ward Witches)

by Lauren McMinn

  “Skylar? Timothy?”

  “I think it’ll work,” Timothy said, and Skylar nodded. The other four, including an older man named Josiah, walked out, patting Skylar and Timothy on the shoulders.

  “Good. I’ll leave you two to it. Best of luck.”

  “So Skylar, I’ll go first. I’m a fire witch. My mother was a witch, and my father was not, but they resonated with each other and loved each other very much. They were both pleased when I shared my father’s fire magic. After I finished high school, I got a degree in criminology. That landed me the position as second to Justin in Coven Security.”

  “Do you like it?”

  “I do. A lot. But when Justin asked me if I wanted to take my first student, I figured I had to at least try. That’s why I’m here.”

  “Are you excited about having a student?”

  “I’m not sure yet.” He grinned.

  “At least you’re honest.”

  “What is your experience with magic, Skylar?”

  “Very limited, unfortunately. My father was a witch, and after he died, my mother showed that she really hated witchcraft. She forbade me from ever practicing my magic. As a child who both wanted to please her mother and to stay out of serious trouble, I obeyed. It was hard, knowing that there was this power in me that wanted to get out. But then I learned some meditation skills to keep it all suppressed until I couldn’t use it even if I wanted to.”

  “Then our first priority is to fix that barrier. I understand that Justin did some meditation with you yesterday to work on loosening it.”

  “Yes.”

  “If you’ll let me, I want to try something that would probably do it faster, but it’s more invasive, and quite possibly painful. Basically, since we’re both fire witches, and we’ve got the student-teacher bond starting to form, I want to burn away the wall around your core. See yesterday, Justin had you quietly coaxing it away. It’ll take a long time to do it that way, and as I understand it, we only have a little less than six months. In that time, we need to learn control and some skills. I’ll leave it up to you which method you want to do.”

  “Let’s light it up. I want to know what I can do, and I’d rather have it now, even if it’s painful to get to, than waiting a long time to shed its protective wall.”

  “I knew I liked you,” he laughed. “Sit on the floor here and begin your meditation.”

  She crossed her legs on the floor and the room fell away. She felt rather than heard Timothy’s voice telling her to breathe in and out. Then his finger of magic went questing back into her chest to find that core while he pressed his hand to her chest to guide it.

  Breathe in, breathe out.

  There was more exploratory poking around until they both had an idea of what kind of preventative measure she had built through her meditations. Then the fingers of magic became a kind of hand that gripped her core and burned as it squeezed. As if it were a wall of bricks, her barrier exploded in shards all over her chest, and she felt it go.

  Screaming, she fainted.

  When she woke up, Timothy was reading a book.

  “Welcome back, Skylar.”

  She was woozy, and had a hard time sitting up, so Timothy helped her.

  “What happened?”

  “A huge success.”

  “Then why does it hurt so badly?”

  “We destroyed that barrier in an explosive manner. Your body wasn’t quite ready for it, and no one’s would have been, which sent you to the ground.”

  “How long have I been out?”

  “About three hours, which, plus the time in the spell adds up to it being four in the afternoon now. Impressive, by the way, you stood up to quite a bit of magical trauma, if you will.”

  “I feel...” she looked around the room, noticing that something was off. “What happened to the room?”

  “Your magic was so suppressed that it was affecting how you saw the world. Ideally, you’ll see the world better.”

  “I feel more alive, certainly, which is weird.”

  “Again, you’ve been crippling yourself. Now you’re not. It’ll be a great rush of feelings, so open yourself to them.”

  “Wow, that’s crazy. It feels so good.”

  “Excellent. Now, for a while, we’ll work on erecting a temporary shield so you don’t do any harm with this new-found power. We’ll have to do a little today, just in case.”

  “Alright.”

  Breathe deeply, in and out. Now envision a layer of silk that you’re going to drape over your core, exactly where that wall was.” She tried, but it kept falling away. “Keep working on it.”

  Then it clicked, and she wrapped it like a ball within her chest.

  “Perfect. Now drop it and put it back again.”

  He had her do it five times to make sure she was capable of taking it back down. Then, with both of them spent, they wandered back upstairs. All that work meant it was six, and she had taken an extra hour of magic school.

  “Are you alright to drive?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Do you have something easy to cook back at the Ward Manor?”

  “No, I do most of my cooking from scratch. I don’t think I’m up to that.”

  “Sit in here, and I’ll be right back.”

  In a few minutes, Timothy was back with three frozen pizzas. “Seb won’t miss these. Now Skylar, I want you to eat an entire pizza by yourself. We did some serious magical heavy lifting today, and that saps your strength. To replenish it, you need the calories.”

  “Got it, boss.”

  “Tim.”

  “Got it, Tim.”

  She left and headed straight back to Ward Manor. Once there, she called Dave and apologized for not coming to the hospital that afternoon to relieve him. He laughed and said they’d work something out when he got home.

  Only thirty minutes later, Tim and Leo came back to find her pulling the second pizza out of the oven, with the first cooling.

  “What’s this?”

  “I hope you don’t mind, but it’s frozen pizza. I’m pretty tired, and Tim gave me these for tonight.”

  “I don’t mean the pizza. I love pizza. What I mean is that I can feel your magic, even through your shield,” Leo said.

  “We did it. Or rather, Tim did it.”

  “Justin said it would take at least a month to get you to this point. What did you two do?”

  “It was like he shattered it with a fist of fire.”

  “Good God, no wonder you’re tired. That kind of magic requires a lot of power, both from the witch doing it and the witch receiving it.”

  “I think there was a compliment in there,” Dave commented over the pizza he was quickly tucking into.

  Ignoring both of them for a moment, Skylar slid the last pizza into the oven.

  “How does it feel?” Leo probed.

  “I feel alive like I never have before. It’s incredible. Even when it’s shielded, I can feel it, and it’s just exhilarating.”

  “Excellent.” Dave was on his second slice.

  Skylar grabbed a slice, not to be outdone by him. It was tasty, and just what she needed. Tim had been right about that.

  There was only half a pizza left with Dymphna got home an hour later. She dove into it with a grunt.

  “Hard day, sister mine?”

  Another grunt. Once all the pizza was gone, she looked somewhat better.

  “Hey Skylar, looks like you found your magic.”

  “You betcha. It’s great.”

  “I’m happy for you. Dave, can I have last watch please?”

  “I’ll take second,” Skylar offered.

  “OK, I’ll take first. You sure you can do it, Skylar?”

  “Yeah. I may be tired, but I’m going to pull my weight around here.”

  Dymphna muttered something about going to bed early and went upstairs. The other three laughed over a movie and a few bowls of popcorn. Feeling content, Skylar went upstairs to sleep before her shift.

>   All too early, Dave was knocking on her door to start her time. “He’s having nightmares again.”

  “Yikes.”

  Indeed he was, sprawled out on the bed with his covers all tangled up around him. Pushing the thoughts her conversation with Justin had put into her head aside, she resumed Pride and Prejudice. She even took another hour before going to get Dymphna so that the other woman could have a little more sleep.

  The next morning, she reported for duty at the Coven House again.

  “I see Tim had a different method of releasing your magic,” Justin greeted her.

  “Hello to you too.”

  “I’m happy for you.”

  “Thanks. It feels great.”

  “Tim’s down in the practice room. Remember how to get there?”

  “I think so. But I’ll get there.”

  “Good.” He kissed her cheek. “And have a good time.”

  “Without you? I hardly think so.”

  She found it with only one wrong turn. Tim was sitting in the exact center of the room, meditating. Not wanting to disturb him, Skylar sat down facing him.

  “Join me in my meditation,” he commanded without opening his eyes. When she did, he asked her to shed the shield off her magic.

  In this state, she could not only feel her magic rushing through her body in a most delightful way, but his magic, which felt red, despite the fact that her eyes were closed. It was strong, she realized, and marveled.

  Minutes that felt like hours later, he broke the connection.

  “Very good. We’ll start each day with meditation, as it is essential to harnessing your magic. I’m glad to see you’re already familiar with the idea.” She nodded. “Now for the actual magic, since we freed your core.”

  “Why was everyone so surprised at that? Couldn’t Justin have done that the first day?”

  “That kind of magic is well,” he blushed, “A dramatic one. Since I’m your teacher, I could see a glimpse of how powerful you are, and I’m familiar with my own power. If either one of us were not strong enough, it could land us both in the hospital. We likely wouldn’t die, but it wouldn’t be good either.”

  “And you didn’t tell me?”

  “It needed to be done. Besides, like I said, there’s enough power between the two of us that a big magic like that would work.”

  “So,” she let the point go, “you said I was powerful. Stroke my ego for a second. How powerful am I?”

  “Damn it, Skylar, I hate answering that question. Of course usually, it’s the witches who aren’t particularly powerful on their own who ask it. You, and how shall I say this, are very powerful. I couldn’t tell how much until we got that barrier off you because it was blocking almost everything. And I don’t want to stroke you ego and have you get a big head or think you’re ready for anything that you’re not. But in terms of sheer raw power, you’re stronger than I am. And that’s saying something. When you’re trained, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”

  “Thank you.” This time it was her turn to blush.

  “I’m still going to work you hard though, perhaps even harder.”

  “Fair.”

  “First, as every cheesy magic movie says, we’re lighting candles. Watch the candle, then force your will onto it by visualizing it burning. Then we hope it will, in fact, burn.”

  She tried three times with no success. He kept encouraging her and giving little tips. Then, it clicked. She had the idea in her head of photography, where if you expose a negative twice you’ll get a superimposed image. If she could superimpose a burning candle upon this candle, maybe it would light.

  “Ah, shit!” Timothy exclaimed as he beat back the smoke. He contained it with his magic so that they could see what happened. The entire candle was melted, and it had gone up like some kind of bonfire. “Control it, don’t let it control you. You have the raw strength, yes. But you need to focus. Just draw a little power, because it’s a little candle.”

  It took until the end of the week, trying to get just that perfect amount of magic directed on to the candle, for it to actually light reliably.

  By quitting time, she could get it right every time, but she was bone deep tired.

  “What’s on tap for tomorrow, Tim?”

  “Hell, girl, it’s Friday. I believe your arrangement with the Ward brothers specifies nine to five Monday through Friday. We’ve got a major investigation in progress on what happened to Leo and Seb, and I’ve been missing out on much of it during the day. In fact, unless you hear otherwise from me, take Monday off too. I’ve been briefed each evening, but I really need the extra time to do my own work.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t even consider that taking a student would be a burden on you.”

  “I came down here willingly, remember? And it has actually been a rewarding experience. But I need to focus more on the investigation. Give me your cell number in case I need anything. Same goes for you.”

  After exchanging information, Tim hurried off to do his real job. Skylar realized that she didn’t have anything in particular ready for dinner that night, so she went out to the grocery store. It was lucky that Leo and Dymphna had given her plenty of money for a food budget.

  While she mixed her bread crumb topping, Skylar brooded. So she had this supposedly great talent to beat back the forces of evil. Like Spiderman or something. But the gift she wasn’t even sure she wanted came with the curse of not being able to have a relationship except with one specific person. Justin was right that she couldn’t commit. How was she to know that it was because being a witch meant that your life was ruined for all relationships except for with that one person you were supposed to be with.

  She moved on to whipping her batter and more brooding. So Leo, or Pantaleon, was supposedly destined to be her man. While she couldn’t argue that he was extraordinarily attractive, she was only getting to know him during the nightly movie watching sessions. He didn’t even seem to like her particularly much. Should she have asked Justin if this alignment bullshit could be one sided? Or maybe Leo felt it too and didn’t want it any more than she did.

  She was sick of pondering by the time Dymphna came home.

  “You’re early.”

  “Yeah. I won my case, but at what price? Do you have any alcohol?”

  Skylar made her a cosmopolitan, and Dymphna downed half of it in one swallow.

  “Slow down, girl. Tell me what’s on your mind. Sometimes it’s just better to spill than to keep it bottled up inside. No names of course, but tell me what’s on your mind.”

  “The boss was a lecherous pig for sure, and he shouldn’t have been stealing looks at my client’s cleavage. Then when he smacked her on the ass, she came to me. I was suitably outraged of course and began my case. He didn’t get any time, but a very hefty fine, much of it payable to my client. I took my percentage, and that should have been that. But I’d been building my case and trying to go through mediations for weeks. I know his assets. I also know his lawyer, and how much his lawyer would be charging for defending him. So with all probability, the jerk will have to sell his business or take out another mortgage on his house. My client won and can go home with her dignity intact and money in her pocket. It’s kind of a win for all women, if you want to be all supercilious about it, but the man she was suing now has to go home and tell his wife and two boys that he’s lost. I try to tell myself that maybe the boys will learn from their father’s mistakes, but I’m just trying to assuage my guilt.”

  “Hey now,” Skylar said softly as she kneaded Dymphna’s shoulders. “I know it’s easy to say not to bring your stress from work home with you, but I think that maybe you need some way to vent that stress. Basically, what I’m saying is that I’m always here to listen, and that perhaps you should try working off some of your aggression at that gym over at the Coven House.”

  “Thanks, Skylar. You don’t know what that means to me.”

  “I’ve had Selby to vent to for years, and it worked. I miss him ter
ribly, and it would help me to help you.”

  Dymphna laughed. “What more could I ask for?”

  “How about spicy breaded chicken and a cake to celebrate the end of our vigil on Leo?”

  “You’re like some kind of goddess.” They both laughed.

  “I’ve got to get the cake in the oven, so spill while I work.”

  “I do love being a lawyer, and I try to help people. But sometimes, like today, I wonder if by helping the victim, I’m not only giving him or her more than adequate compensation but crippling the aggressor at the same time.”

  “We’ve never really talked about what you do in specific,” Skylar asked as she returned to massaging the serious kinks out of Dymphna’s shoulders.

  “I’m a lawyer, clearly. Litigation, usually in cases of workplace harassment. I work with two other lawyers, Jackie and Maria. Jackie handles mostly victimized females, including victims of spousal abuse and whatnot. I don’t understand how she does that and maintains her sanity. Maria works on discrimination cases, which is close to her heart since she’s Hispanic. All of us work purely on commission when or if we win the case. But like I said, sometimes I have to question if we’re really helping anyone.”

  “I’m sure you are. If nothing else, you really are setting precedent for other people to speak out. But let’s change the subject.”

  “Please, I could use an excuse to stop my conscience from creeping up on me.”

  “I’ve heard a little from Justin about magic relationships, but I’d like to hear about it from a woman’s perspective if you don’t mind.”

  “I was wondering when you were going to ask.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ll explain in a minute. So let me guess, you haven’t had a particularly good relationship history.”

  “No. Goodness, I even got engaged to a man after knowing him for three months. It was the longest relationship I had ever had, and I really thought I loved him. But then I found him cheating on me. How cliche, right?”

  “And then?” Dymphna prodded as Skylar lapsed into silence.

  “Well, I broke it off, of course. But the part that still stings is what he said to me about our relationship in our last argument. He said that I was cold. I couldn’t, or didn’t, share emotionally. That I was good in bed, but that I still didn’t give any indication of enjoying myself or any spark. That hurt a lot. I suppose it still does.”