These Lying Eyes (22 page)

“Well?” Zizi asked.

Hitch cocked his head at Mina, still hovering a few feet from her face. Mina stared at them. Even though she was exhausted, she felt this rush of ridiculous energy from the relief of her siblings being safe and her being free to escape the house and delve into the magical world.

What to do with this free time? Pizza? Books? Just not getting caught up into her Dad’s web was all Mina wanted. She wanted to have a weekend day and then learn more magic that night.

Zizi led the way to their favorite part of Cannon Beach where they grabbed a couple slices of pizza and a dark chocolate cocoa. Mina’s phone vibrated; it was her mom, so she ignored it to cross the street to Bruce’s Candy Kitchen. She grabbed her favorite chewy, cherry Scottie dogs. Hitch’s influence added the macadamia nuts covered by milk chocolate and caramel, blackberry taffy, and a pile of hard candy. Mina added some of the chocolate covered caramel and nuts—treats for Max for not being who her dad insinuated.

They left with their candy and wound their way through Cannon Beach where it was so much more unlikely to run into family. They went into bookstores, played with hats, and finally, walked under the shadow of Haystack Rock, toes frozen by the cold, cold water.

* * *

Mina picked up Max with only enough time to give him the candy and rush him to Penny and Grace’s cottage. They were led to a conservatory with Grace’s flock of mini-dragons and a huge wood table that held two cauldrons, and two chemistry sets, complete with test tubes, glass vials, and great glass bowls.

In moments, each held foamy spicy drinks and had loaded plates set before them.

“You must feed your magic,” Grace said as they ate. “It requires a lot of calories to light things on fire with your mind and infuse the earth with magic.”

While they ate, she lectured, but once the food was put away, it was clear she’d been holding back on them. Mina scribbled notes with aching wrists, not letting the dragon sitting on her shoulder or the one curled against the back of her neck distract her. Their purring hum filled the air. The slightly burned smell from them shooting bursts of flames added to the sense of wonder. Especially as the sisters flooded Mina and Max with information, familiars were real, telepathic communication was a possibility, flying was on the table. All with enough focus and determination.

Grace finally lit a circle of candles. They sat around the circle with a crimson book and a navy book sitting at the center of the pentagram inside the circle. Penny hummed low in her throat. The sprites added their voices, then Max, Grace, and Mina. Three cats joined the circle, and their purring reverberated. Once the flock of teacup dragons added their own rumbling purrs, the sounds crawled up and down Mina’s back, lifting the hair off of the back of her neck.

Suddenly the candles flared higher. Grace laughed, and the sound of it echoed in the room. Minutes passed with the song energizing Mina. The feel of Max’s hand quivering in her own made her realize that they were all feeling it. There was…an energy coming directly from her center feeding into the rumbling of power that flowed between them. Mina closed her eyes and followed the pulsing mass back inside her torso.

There.

There, deep in her chest near where her heart beat, was a flame that transformed into a star then a beam of light.
There
, Mina thought,
is my magic
.

Mina lost control of it when Max jumped next to her. She opened her eyes to see him sitting with his mouth hanging open staring into the candles. His hand was in hers, and his grip tightened on her fingers. They loosened, and she could feel his fingers shake slightly. The candle in front of him quivered, and Mina grinned. She’d seen it. She’d touched her magic, it warmed her. She bet Max had done the same.

Penny glowed in a green light. Grace’s hair swayed to the rhythm of the humming.

“You’re not done yet, Mina.” Penny’s voice echoed as if she were on the other side of a canyon.

But Mina’d found her magic; it had set her on fire.

“You have two Magics,” Poppy reminded Mina from her shoulder. Mina twisted just enough to see Hitch held Poppy between his legs, a small black dragon curled behind them, and they leaned against it. Zizi was on Mina’s other shoulder, she had a dragon on either side of her.

There had been a griffin and a phoenix last night. Each had chosen her. Where would Air be? Mina closed her eyes and sought within herself.

Air… Air… Air.

Mina searched her lungs. She breathed in and out, but nothing seemed different, not like when she’d found Fire. She felt through her veins as Grace had described, and Mina caught a glimmer of something. Grace hummed louder. The tone changed; Mina felt her hair rise from a wind that blew up her spine.

Air was always around her, she breathed it in, but it caressed and fed her like the ocean fed a sea sponge. Mina focused. And a new kind of muscle flexed, it hurt, but she pulled in Air Magic—through her skin. She exercised the new muscle again and again, as if she were flapping wings, and a rush of magic filled them, filled the room, wrapped around their bodies and made the candlelight sway.

“Oh good work. You’ve done it.” Grace’s laugh ended her hum, and the music faded away. “You did it. Can you find it again?”

Mina closed her eyes. Air rushed in, but she couldn’t touch it. She reached for it, and it rushed away.

Fire, maybe? And she imagined her core where the spark lived. It reached towards her and wrapped her in warmth. It loosened the tight muscles, so she basked in the glow. Mina opened her eyes; her head spun, and she grabbed her skull, holding it in place.

Max said, “I can find my magic. It’s almost easy now that I know its there, it’s like I can’t not find it.”

Mina shook her head. “It’s not like that for me. Not at all.”

“It won’t be the same. It never is for any witch.” Penny rose, and Mina and Max followed.

As the afternoon wore on, Grace worked them hard. Each break Mina received was a chance for the librarian to make Max sweat. Back and forth, Grace sat in front of each of them. She hauled, coached, forced their magic out until their lesson ended with Mina pulling fire from a lighter onto her fingers, and Max spinning stones across the table. If Mina’s face matched Max’s, Christmas morning just made a baby with her best birthday ever.

* * *

Grace handed Mina a crimson book and Max a navy one; they were the books from the center of the pentagram.

“When we did the spell to help you pull your magic out at the beginning of the lesson, we also bonded you with your Book of Shadows. A Book of Shadows is a witch’s journal. It’s the log of her magic; an avenue for recording your experiences with your magic, so you can help yourself find what works for you. Not every witch, not every magic is the same. Because of this, it is important to log the ways your magic responds to spells, and the differences you make to those spells, so they work properly for you. As magic is an art, you will practice each spell until you find a variation that works for you consistently.

But your Books of Shadows are more than that. They will take on the flavor of your magic, the flavor of you. Our mother kept all her favorite recipes in the book; she documented her personal life. As you use your Book of Shadows, your bond will deepen. Eventually, it’ll almost be like it has its own mind. They will be a sort of friend to you. I made them for you specifically and then cleansed them to remove any trace of myself from the books. Now, they are yours.”

Mina held her hand over the book. Each corner was edged with a silver protector. The pages looked hand made. There were a dozen ribbons coming from the book, and each was stitched with a symbol in silver thread. Mina hugged the book close.

“I added the Harry Potter books to mine. The Chronicles of Narnia. Alice in Wonderland. Ella Enchanted. The Time Traveler’s Wife. The complete Georgette Heyer collection. I always have them with me. Penny and I added our mother’s Book of Shadows. We added all of our family recipes.” Grace held out her small royal blue book. Its ribbons were silver, and it was maybe three by five inches and an inch thick. Mina recognized it as the book Grace always had with her.

“That’s a small book for even one of the early Harry Potter’s.” Max rubbed his hand across his navy book; already he seemed protective of it.

“It’s magic. We’re witches,” Penny’s laugh was dry, and maybe a little mocking. She set her own Book of Shadows onto the table. It was black, silver edged with an etching of an oak tree on it and the scent of fresh grass coming from it. Everything about it bespoke Penny.

As Mina ran and re-ran her fingers over her book, Grace lectured on the use of a Book of Shadows. Mina’s book had silver accents similar to Penny’s, but her ribbons were a rainbow of blues. Inside the front cover a picture of Mina was burned. It looked like a drawing, but the most lifelike one she’d ever seen. Except her hair wasn’t its usual mess; her lips weren’t cracked, and her eyes seemed wiser than she knew they were.

The journaling process, Grace said, was magic by itself. It would force them to examine what they were doing and help them brainstorm new ways to reach for their magic and use their abilities for a particular spell.

Grace lifted another bag and pulled out of it stacks for Mina and Max.

“I don’t use text books.” Grace set the books in front of Mina and Max, “My gifts allow us to bypass some of the steps of traditional learning. So, instead I will add directly to your Books of Shadows any potions we might do or spells for you to practice. What I’ll be teaching you is…foundational magic.”

“What are these then?” Max pointed to the stacks of books in front of him and Mina.

“Well I know how Mina reads. And it doesn’t hurt to see what the lives of witches are like. So, you don’t have to do any of this reading. If you want to, however, I gave you a book on the animals in Cascadia, our Haven. There’s a biography of Malachi Smythe. He was an interesting fellow and quite a powerful witch. There is a memoir of Fern Daniels. She was young during the sixties and seventies. Mina always made me think of her.”

Grace ran her fingers over the books. “Just some things, so you can get an idea of how witches generally live.”

“And there is a book on the different kinds of magic,” Penny said dryly. “That’s the one we actually want you to read, since it will color what we teach you as you progress. And I included a book called
Lives of Witches.
It, unlike Grace’s choices, is not full of exciting stories and fun times. It’s a reference book. For those who’ve never been in a Haven or lived among witches before.”

“Are there a lot of people like us?” Mina looked at Max and then back at the others.

“Enough for there to be a book,” Penny said.

“We want you to focus on this first.” Grace placed her hand on their Books of Shadows. She said a foreign word, and a puff of smoke left her mouth. She then flipped open Max’s book. There were several paragraphs and diagrams. The boy in the diagrams looked an awful lot like Max.

He opened Mina’s book, and the girl burned into the pages had a mess of curly hair with full lips. Max grinned; his dimple flashed, and Mina snickered. Magic was just so…magical.

Geez, Mina
, she thought. But her grin widened.

It
was
magical.

Chapter 20

“H
ome?” Mina handed Max a helmet. The sun was setting and shadows were growing across the driveway.

He hesitated and then shrugged. An invitation rushed out of her mouth before she could think. “I’m not going home. I’m gonna go over to Uncle Mike’s Diner. I’m gonna get a giant milkshake, a chili cheese fry, and possibly one of his loaded organic dogs. I’m starving, even if we did just eat and,” Mina felt her face heat, “it’d be fun if you came.”

“Feed your magics, children.” He imitated Penny’s inflection and pitch, and a nervous chuckle popped out of Mina.

She fiddled with her helmet strap; waiting, wanting, needing him to say yes.

Moments later, but it felt like an eternity, Max said, “Yeah, I want to come.”

He grinned at her, and she felt her spine tingle when that flipping dimple appeared. Max spun his helmet strap around his index finger making her heart stutter. As she mounted the scooter, she covered her hair with her helmet. Max wrapped his arms around her waist making her suppress a shudder. She turned, grinning at him before buckling her helmet.

Guilt and a desire for her parents to not hunt her down had Mina pulling out her phone to shoot a quick text that she repeated to Max, “Homework.”

“Always the best of excuses,” Max laughed as he pulled out his own phone.

Mina waited for him to text his parents and then took him down the curving hills of Ocean Haven. With a rev of the engine, she caused Max to press against her back. She fought the surreal cloud that wanted to overwhelm her. A horned bunny darted across the road, and she swerved to miss it feeling Max’s breath catch upon her neck.

Goose bumps swelled along her flesh; Mina couldn’t help but contrast the memory of being lonely to the present of having
Max
breathe on her neck. She savored the weight of his arms around her hips, the soft press of his hand against her belly, and—the solid reality of him. His warmth against her back, his knees pressed against her legs. It was as if his touch made a lie of what had gone before, that the feel of his chin on her shoulder meant that their relationship had never stuttered.

It took only minutes to drive from Grace’s house to the diner. They parked the scooter in the rear, but stopped at the cutesy stationary shop to buy book covers. Neither wanted to explain
Lives of Witches
to gawkers.

Surreality persisted until it encompassed her. It wasn’t the magic. It was him. Smiling at her with his dimple out, opening the door for her, seeming to sniff her hair as she passed. Nothing about this could be happening.