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Topaz
I take a deep breath, resisting the urge to give myself a sharp pinch.
I need to focus. The shop is always quiet at the tail end of the day, and it is usually the best time for delicate spell work like this one. My fingers tremble as I smooth down the open page of my notebook and re-read the instructions for what feels like the millionth time.
Stir once clockwise, and twice counter-clockwise, then begin the incantation.
Add a dash of knot bay leaf...
The spell is one of my own making, which is partly what worries me. Not that I’m an untalented spell caster. Far from it. I have enough faith in my own abilities to know I won’t inadvertently hurt my customers, but the first step is always the most daunting.
Detective Maewen Jones needs this.
I shake my head, correcting myself. The newly-crowned queen of the Fae Winter Court, half-banshee Maewen, needs this.
I hold up Mae’s ring in the fading afternoon light, turning it this way and that, watching the opal shimmer. The trapped flecks of light glisten, and in the very center, my suppression charm still pulses dimly.
Its power has been fading over the past few weeks. Mae called me, exhaustion clouding her voice even over the phone, and told me the urge to wail and cry over every dead body is returning.
She might now be queen alongside her new husband, King Rhodri, but Maewen is determined to maintain her job as a detective in the human realm for as long as she can. That means suppressing her banshee power, at least during the times she is here in the human world and working for the Supernatural Police.
All right. Time to refocus on the page in front of me.
If I can just tweak the magic a little more, then I might be able to make the charm last longer.
Add a drop of mage blood, and weigh it against one raven’s feather, until the scales balance...
Great. Now I’ve lost my place in the notebook.
I close my eyes and breathe quietly for a few seconds, before beginning again.
The truth is, it doesn’t matter how many times Mae says it’s not on me if anything goes wrong with the spell. If anything happens, I couldn’t live with myself.
The new binding spell I’ve been experimenting with should hold the charm in place; it will at least stop the suppression draining away every few weeks.
If I get it right.
I place the ring on the scales and stand on tiptoe to open my ingredients cabinet. I slide open drawer after drawer and begin to rifle through, in search of my stash of feathers.
I should really get around to labeling all this stuff...
Eventually, I hit upon the correct packet. The feathers are stuffed into the back of the bottom drawer behind several animal skulls. The raven feather is a little bedraggled, but it should still do the job nicely.
Before I can do anything with the feather, my phone rings.
I curse under my breath. Normally I switch my phone to silent while I’m working. I don’t know what’s wrong with me today—I must have forgotten.
I hover my hand over the phone, hoping the caller will give up. The screen lights up, and I glance down at the name on the screen before I can stop myself. It’s my cousin, Amethyst.
Damn. Not someone I can ignore.
The feather flutters onto the table as I pick up the phone instead. “Hey Ammie.”
The other end of the line crackles before my cousin’s voice comes through. “Topaz. How are you?”
Her tone seems pleasant enough, but I know her well and there is definite tension underlying the words.
I shift from one foot to the other and throw a nervous glance at the door. Admittedly, I am unusually jumpy today, but my protection wards are up. For some reason, though, Amethyst’s question sets me on edge.
“I’m fine,” I say shortly. The back of my neck prickles, and I rub at it distractedly. “How’s it going at the resort? Are you all right?”
We both know she wouldn’t be ringing me up out of the blue like this if all is as it should be.
She releases a long, drawn out breath. “I was scrying down by the lake last night and I... I felt something.”
My heart thuds beneath my shirt.
Like me—and most of the women in our family tree, for that matter—Amethyst has the gift. Unlike me, however, with my focus on blood magic and spell casting, and my comfortable little spell shop here in the city, her talents lie in seeing: journeying beyond our realm and peering via dreams into the machinations of other worlds and realities.
When she’s not catering to tourists at her luxury spa resort up in the mountains, that is. Technically, the resort is also mine—I’m a part-owner, as is Amethyst’s sister, Sapphire. But Ammie is the one who lives there, and manages it for us all on a daily basis.
I’m far happier remaining down here in the city. And Sapph... well, she lives away from everyone, off on her own somewhere.
“Felt what?” I ask. Even though I’m alone in the shop, my query comes out hushed. I’m not sure I want to know the answer.
“I can’t be certain. Some kind of... disturbance, in the ether. Unrest. Something shifting, like a shadow. Have you sensed anything like that recently, Tee?”
“No,” I say truthfully. My prickle of unease can hardly be described in such a way. “I’ve been feeling a little on edge today, I have to admit, but... it’s been quiet here for months. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Whatever it was felt... familiar, but in a bad way. I don’t quite know how to explain it.”
A tingle runs down my spine at her words.
He can’t be back, surely?
I rub my fingers between my eyebrows, trying to ease the tension, and glance at the half-finished ritual ingredients still scattered across my workspace. “I’m in the middle of casting at the moment, Ammie. Can I call you later, when—”
“Topaz, please.” The force in her voice scares me. “I just wanted to check that your wards are up, that’s all. Better safe than sorry, right?”
Right.
“They are.” I release a sigh, before wandering over to the doorway and running a hand over the carvings there to make doubly certain. “I can reinforce them, here at the shop and also when I get home, if that will make you feel better?”
“Yes. Do that. Please.”
“All right.” I hadn’t actually expected her to insist, but with the wards in place already, it shouldn’t take me long to add a little extra protection. I use magic to create a tiny cut across the tip of one finger, and then swipe the resultant droplet of blood over the door. I murmur an incantation, and the wards shimmer reassuringly under my palm as an extra layer of enchantment winds its way through the existing pattern cradling all the entry points. “The wards are strong, Ammie, and I’ve just boosted them a little. All is fine here.”
“No sign of tampering?” Amethyst presses. “Scorch marks, or cracks?”
Scorch marks?
“Um... no.” I head over to the desk. “You’re starting to freak me out.”
“Yeah, well, something’s out of kilter. You don’t know the ether like I do.”
True. I change tack, scrambling around for something to reassure her.
“Hey.” I soften my voice, trying for calm. “Last time there was a problem, the Winter Fae took care of it. Whatever it is this time, I’m sure they’ve got it handled.”
“I wish I had your optimism.” Amethyst falls quiet. When she finally speaks, her tone is grim. “Just keep your eyes open, Tee. Promise me.”
“I promise.”
I mean it, too, even though I think she’s overreacting. Something older than magic runs between us, a blood kinship that nothing can break.
“Thank you.” Amethyst’s voice is lighter. It sounds like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. “Take care of yourself, cousin.”
I barely have time to say, and you, before she’s gone. I shake my head and set down the phone, turning my attention back to the binding spell.
The next couple of hours pass in a haze. Every creak of the floorboards, every muffled street conversation that drifts past my shop window, and every distant police siren makes me tense up.
My mind keeps creeping back to a time and place it doesn’t want to revisit in my memories. Last time the ether was ‘out of kilter’, as Ammie calls it, I almost died. Although my cousins know part of the story, they are not privy to everything. They both know the Winter Fae saved my life—and that the act caused some kind of imbalance in the etheric energies.
They don’t know the Fae used old magic to save me.
Old magic, especially when wielded by Fae warriors, is the most powerful of all the magics. Surely, its protection couldn’t have failed now. Could it?
As I begin to pack my tools away, my brass scales tilt sideways, seemingly of their own accord. I reach out and place my finger on the edge of the dish, halting the movement.
That’s weird.
The burnished lamp on the wall behind me flickers, the electrically generated flame almost disappearing before surging back to life within the lamp casing. It could be my imagination, but the colors in its stained-glass exterior seem to glow wildly before fading again.
Okay, now I’m really losing it. I roll my eyes at my ridiculous skittishness, and flick the switch, plunging the shop into early evening darkness and slinging my work bag over my shoulder.
One final glance around the shop tells me that everything is as it should be.
No errant spirits or ghosts.
No trace of energy that shouldn’t be here.
And definitely no demon lurking in a dark corner, ready to jump out and claim my soul.
Just another ordinary day at the office for this spell-casting gemstone blood witch.
At least, that’s the lie I tell myself as I lock up the shop and head for home.
