Prelude to a Witch, Amanda Lee [ebook reader web txt] 📗

“Stop being a pain,” Chief Terry barked.

“I can’t control my urge to regurgitate around these two idiots.” She jerked her thumb at Landon and me. “They’re disgusting and I hate them.”

“Well, maybe we can add that to our list of fun activities for the evening,” Landon whispered. “How long do you think it will take to push Aunt Tillie over the edge?”

“Not long.”

“Something to look forward to.”

“Yeah.” I tried to force myself out of my funk. Landon was right. I wasn’t responsible for what happened to the girls. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something very big was happening to them ... and I was at least partially to blame.

HOLLOW CREEK WAS QUIET. Unfortunately, it was not still.

“Look at this.” I was dumbfounded as I stepped to the bank and surveyed the magical fragments flying around. Not only were there more than before, they were also bigger.

“This is bad,” Aunt Tillie intoned, glancing around. “This is really, really bad.”

“What do you see?” Hannah asked, her forehead creased in frustration as she tried to follow our gazes. “There’s nothing out here.”

“Oh, there’s something.” My stomach rolled as I looked to Landon. “This place is getting out of control again. There’s magic everywhere. We’re going to have another situation just like before if we don’t get this under control.”

“Any suggestions?” Landon couldn’t see the magical shards flying about, but he trusted me enough to know they were there.

“I ... don’t know.” I reached out to one of the magical shards. It flew away from me, as if coasting on a warm breeze, and collided with another shard. Several splinters flew off and began growing their own shards.

“This place will turn into a magical bomb if we don’t do something about it,” Aunt Tillie insisted. “It’s feeding off the energy of anybody who comes here.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” Hannah admitted.

“This place is a mess,” Aunt Tillie replied.

Hannah’s gaze was beseeching when it landed on me. I searched for the proper way to make her understand.

“Um ... it’s hard to explain. In a nutshell, we’ve used our magic in this spot multiple times. It hasn’t always been good magic. On more than one occasion, we’ve had to take an enemy down here.”

Hannah’s expression didn’t change. “That doesn’t explain what you’re looking at now.”

“The remnants of magic we’ve used here have been building,” I said. “They’re ... hanging in the air. You can’t see them because you’re not magical. Several weeks ago, the girls came out here and found the shards. They managed to use them to give themselves magical abilities. That’s how all of this started.”

“Okay.” Hannah flicked her eyes to Landon, but he was completely focused on me. “If I can’t see the shards because I’m not magical, why could the girls see them? Are they’re magical?”

I held out my hands. “Maybe. If they are, the lines that run through their families are weak.”

“What’s the option if they’re not magical?”

“Their age,” Aunt Tillie replied. “Children are more open to believing. There’s a reason I was more than happy to run around with Bay, Clove and Thistle when they were younger. They believed anything I told them. That made them more powerful, even as children.

“I knew my little girls were magical,” she continued. “These other girls might not have been magical, but their age and the town they grew up in allowed them to believe enough that they could see the shards ... and decide to use them.”

“You have to understand,” I said. “The magic the four girls were using didn’t belong to them. They were burning through it fast. They didn’t realize the ramifications and what that might do to their bodies. They only cared that they were suddenly magical.”

Hannah seemed lost in thought. “So what do we do?”

“I’m not entirely certain. It’s dangerous for kids to be out here, but this is a party spot.” I looked to Aunt Tillie. “Can you ward it like you do your pot field?”

Aunt Tillie’s eyes went wide and she made a series of slashes across her throat. “Utshay ouryay outhmay,” she hissed.

Hannah’s face lit with amusement. “I haven’t heard pig Latin since I was a kid.”

Landon interjected. “Hannah doesn’t care about your pot field. She’s a profiler.”

“I love pot,” Hannah said. “I don’t remember seeing a pot field anywhere on the property, though.”

“That’s because she has it warded,” I explained. “Any law enforcement type who wants to find it will get a severe case of diarrhea instead. Plus, it’s invisible.”

“Wow.” Hannah’s eyes went wide. “That is ... diabolical.”

Aunt Tillie gave a satisfied grin. “Thank you.”

“We need something similar for this place,” I insisted. “We have to keep the kids out of here until we can figure out what to do with these shards. The circus people tried to help us but obviously it didn’t work.”

“Obviously,” Aunt Tillie agreed. “We need bigger witches.”

“Bigger witches than us?” I was confused.

“Or witches who are already working together and know how to combine their magic. I heard about a group in Hawthorne Hollow. I’ve heard whispers about them several times over the years. They’re making magical waves these days because they have a new member.”

“The witches ride motorcycles,” I said.

Aunt Tillie nodded. “I’m thinking maybe they can help with this. I’ll reach out when we have this behind us.”

“Can you ward it until then?”

“I can, but I would really like to know what’s been going on down here.” She planted her hands on her hips. “It was nowhere near this busy with shedded magic when we took down those girls the first time. I would really like to know how this happened.”

I could think of only one way to do that. “You start the wards,” I suggested. “Don’t make them specific for teenagers. We need to close off this space from everybody but ourselves until we can fix this.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Aunt Tillie rolled her eyes. “This isn’t my first ward.”

“What are you going to