The wizened old man on the other end of the video call only looked mildly surprised to hear from me so soon. “What can I do for you, Iris?”
“I need your advice,” I told him. I’d taken the call to the bathroom for some privacy. I didn’t want Keir worrying and Luanne scowling over my shoulder. I wanted Thomas’s counsel, but I also knew that, ultimately, whatever I decided to do, the decision would be mine to make.
He inclined his head. “I am at your disposal.”
“I have this idea for a spell, and if it works, it will not only save the pixies, but I think it could protect them down the road.”
“What does this spell entail?”
“I want to change the signal.”
“The what?”
“You know, the signal the dust puts out there that attracts all the baddies.”
He steepled his thin fingers. “I see. Sort of like switching channels on a two-way radio. If everyone is on channel nine, they hear the broadcast, but if the broadcast switches to channel one, then the broadcast is no longer heard by everyone still on the old channel.”
“Uhm…okay, sure.” His analogy was spot on, actually.
He smiled. “Sorry, I used to be a police officer when I was a young man. When we wanted privacy, we’d switch channels. Your idea made me think of that.”
“Then we’re on the same page.” I cracked my neck and adjusted the laptop on the counter so that the camera was centered on me.
Thomas’s eyes crinkled with mild amusement. “Are you sitting on the toilet?”
“Yes.” I chuckled. “There’s not a lot of privacy in the house right now.” Even in the bathroom, I knew Keir could hear me with his ultra-sonic pooka ears. Zev could probably as well, and if I knew Lu, she had some techy listening gadget pointed at the bathroom.
“Do you have any powder available?” he asked.
“I have some talc.”
“That’ll work. Get it.”
I retrieved the talcum powder from the medicine cabinet and then sat back down. “Now what?”
“Pour some in your hand.”
“How much?”
“A quarter size amount should do.”
I did as he asked and shook a small pile of the white powder into my left palm. “Done.”
“Excellent.” He smiled. “Picture your bathroom as a soundproof booth in your mind.”
I smiled back, seeing where he was going. “Soundproof. Got it.”
“Say these words, beyond these walls, no sound to hear. Inside these walls, our path is clear. “
“Then what?”
“Then clap your hands together, spreading the talc around the room. It will soundproof your bathroom.”
I smirked. “That could come in handy for other reasons.”
Thomas laughed. “And it has,” he agreed. “It certainly makes living with someone easier.”
Did Thomas live with the archdruid? Keir hadn’t said, but maybe that was part of the reason for Lu’s continued animosity. Had Thomas replaced their grandfather in all aspects? After all, Keir and I had gotten romantic. A soul-bond made intimacy of some kind unavoidable. “Okay.” I repeated the words and clapped the powder around the room. At the end, I added, “Bend to my will,” a phrase Thomas had me use in the first spell I performed with him.
“Finished,” I said as I sat down. I’d barely felt any magic flow during the spell. “But I don’t notice any difference. Did it work?”
The corner of his mouth tugged up, and he tugged on his scraggly beard. “You’ll know in—”
A knock at the door sounded. “Iris? Are you okay?”
Thomas grinned. “It’s working.”
“I’m good,” I said loudly.
The knock came again. “Iris? Everything all right?”
“Well, poop. How am I supposed to answer him?”
“You could slip a note under the door.”
“And what do I write with? This is a bathroom, not an office.”
Thomas covered his mouth and shook his head. “You’re a resourceful young woman. I’m sure you’ll think of something.” I suspected the old man was extremely amused by my predicament.
The knocking became more insistent. I hurriedly dug through my makeup drawer until I found my eyebrow pencil, then I took a few sheets of toilet paper from the roll. I’m good, I scribbled, privacy spell. The pencil tip broke off on the last L, but the words were clear enough to get my message across. I used my nail file to shove the toilet paper under the door. Then I passed a flat barrette under to get his attention when he continued to knock.
“Oh,” I heard him say. He stopped knocking. I went back to my throne. “It’s sorted. How do I dispel the sound barrier when we’re done?”
“It’s temporary. It will last about five minutes, though you can shorten the time by opening the door.” He nodded to me. “Now, tell me your plan.”
I wiped my palms with some facial tissue. “I have a question, first.”
“Go ahead.”
“I barely felt that spell. Even the one we did earlier didn’t take hardly any energy. Were those aero-craft spells or something else?”
“You ask the right questions, Iris. I’m glad we are finally speaking. Those were aero-craft since that is the only element I can harness.”
The grimoire had said I needed to harness the air. Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe it was just commonly used language. “So, if both those spells were me tapping into my air magic, why is it still running wild in me?”
“Yours is a unique situation. I’ve never encountered a multi-elemental witch, so it’s only a guess. From what you told me earlier, I think whenever you cast aero-craft, like the tornado you spun up, you try to use the other elements to control it. Earth to block, fire to smother, instead of utilizing air, the element used to create the magic.”
“Can it be that simple?”
“And that hard,” he agreed. “The damage aero-craft is doing to your body is a culmination of your efforts and failures, not just one incident.”
I didn’t love thinking about myself as a failure. “How do I fix this? How do I stop failing?”
“Failing at times is inevitable.” His eyes were kind and his voice gentle. “Living through failures is how we know when we succeed.”
“I’m going to fail myself right out of existence before that happens.” I clenched my hands, trying to tamp down my frustration. “So why didn’t I fail when I cast the spells you gave me? Is it because they came from you?”
“No,” he said. “It’s because you had faith in me that I wouldn’t give you something that you couldn’t handle. That faith made you less apprehensive, more confident.”
“Confidence is key, huh?” I took a deep breath as anxiety squeezed my chest. “You make it sound easy.”
He laughed again. “Then I’m doing my job wrong. There’s nothing easy about mastering any tru-craft. The fact that you survived two of the elements is a miracle.”
“Why did earth and fire play nice with each other, but air can’t seem to get along with either?”
“Because earth and fire are natural antagonists. Fire burns the earth, and earth can smother fire. However, air stirs up earth and acts as fuel for fire. When those three mix….” He made the gesture for boom with his hands.
A chill ran through me at the implication. “That’s terrifying.”
His expression turned grim. “It is.” He sat back in his chair. “Tell me what you have in mind.”
“I want to take the perimeter part of the pest spell, you know, but instead of bloodstone to keep out bugs, I want to use amethyst for a type of purification. Then use the transformation spell to change the way the pixie dust signal feels, sounds, and such.” I was excited talking about the possibility of crafting. I hadn’t felt this way in two months. “What do you think?”
“You should use lapis lazuli,” he said. “It will amplify a communication spell.”
“So you think it can work?”
“Maybe.” He was leaning forward. His thumb on his jaw and his forefinger on his temple. “There’s the possibility that if you change the dust’s…frequency, so to speak, you might also change the way it does its job. It might prevent the pixies from completing their rites.”
“Damn. No babies.”
He nodded. “No babies.”
I hadn’t thought about the possibility that it might alter the DNA of the pixie dust. If anything happened to their developing pixies because of me, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. “Scrapping that plan.”
“I’m sorry.” His brows hooded his eyes. “I wish I could give you the assurances you want.”
I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a better solution than Luanne’s idea of putting the pixies in a lead box. Not an option because a) it wouldn’t work, and b) suffocation was only marginally better than dying at the hands of a monster. Still, the box scenario sparked an idea. “What about this soundproofing spell? Could I use the transformation spell to make it a magical signal blocker but on a bigger scale?” I remembered the limited duration. “And can I make it last longer than five minutes? I only need a couple of days.”
Thomas twisted the ends of his wild hair as he considered my idea. “What you’re asking, I’m not sure it can be done.”
“Why not?”
“The impenetrable spell’s magic is simply using air magic and dust to erect a barrier. Once the dust settles, the magic dissipates. What you’re asking would take more than just a handful of powder. On top of that, to modify the spell to block a supernatural frequency….” He sighed. “It could prove dangerous for you.” He tugged at his hair some more, and I could almost see the wheels spinning in his head.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“Doing this alone will fail at best. At worst, it will kill you.”
Been there, done that, I thought. I didn’t want to put Keir through it again. Not if I didn’t have to. “Or?”
“Or, you could form a coven.”
“Hah.” I laughed at the ridiculousness of the suggestion. “Where in the world am I going to find a coven in the middle of the Ozark Mountains?”
“All you need is six people plus you for an even seven.” He said it as if it were that easy.
“Sure, I’ll put finding six tru-craft witches in the next hour or so on my list of impossible things to do. Easy peasy.” I shook my head. “I only know two. Me and you.”
Thomas spread his hands. “Your coven doesn’t have to be witches.”
“It doesn’t?”
“Maybe coven was the wrong word. You need a circle. A group of people who you share a bond of love, that you trust enough to share power with and take energy from. They must swear allegiance to you and each other.”
“That sounds like an impossible task.”
His expression softened. “Oh, my dear Iris. I think you underestimate the attachments you form with the people you love. Who love you back. You only need six.”
“I have Keir, Luanne, and Linda,” I told him.
“It’s a start.”
I’d forgotten that part. “How am I supposed to manage more? Activate the PTO phone tree?” I mumbled the last part.
Thomas leaned forward more and turned his ear to the computer. “Excuse me? I didn’t catch that.”
“It was nothing.” I wasn’t going to explain the brilliance of Practical Magic to him. “Except, there isn’t anyone else I can call.” I mean, there were the pixies, but if the circle required me to love the other members and for them to love me back, then Fair Konig and his people were out. I mean, sure, there was some mutual respect, but that’s not the same thing.
“Your son?” Thomas asked.
“I don’t want him involved,” I said. Between satyrs, hobgoblins, and drakes, I didn’t want Michael anywhere near the house. Not until the pixies hatched or came out of their pouches. “Besides, Michael’s non-magical, which means if he’s in, then Linda is out.”
“Ah.” He gave a nod of understanding. “Gnome. She can’t animate in front of humans.”
“Yeah.” Even if I could find three magical people who loved me, would Linda even be around for the circle? She’d allowed the pixies to stay, but she hadn’t actually forgiven them, had she? “I’m not sure I can count on her, though.”
“Six is best, but you could try with five,” he said. “One for each point of the pentagram and representing an element.” He lowered his gaze. “It’s hardly enough for a proper circle, but it might be enough to make the spell work.”
“And if it doesn’t? Will it kill me?”
“Not if you kiss.” When I raised my brows, he added, “Like you said yesterday, keep it simple.”
“Stupid,” I finished with a smile. “Can I call you if I have any questions?”
He inclined his head. “It would be my pleasure to assist you.”
I knew Luanne had a bug up her butt about the old man. Family stuff was complicated. I knew that as well as anyone. Keir trusted him, though, and I was inclined to trust him as well. “Hey, Thomas?”
“Yes, Iris?”
“I’m looking forward to meeting you in person, too.” I shrugged. “If I survive.”
His lips spread in a pleased grin. “Then survive, Iris.”
“Working on it,” I said, then ended the video chat.
Now all I had to do was form a coven, save the pixies, and not die.
No problem. Hah.