“What about Calli? Can’t you stay with her?” Jasper suggested. “You’re supposed to be learning magic from her, right?”
“She’s going to try and teach. Whether I can learn is a whole other question.”
They walked down the sidewalk toward the center of town.
“Besides, I destroyed her garden and set fire to her rug. I doubt she’d trust me to stay more than one night.” Though he certainly wanted to. That kiss they’d shared last night was etched into his memory. He could still taste her lips, feel them against his own. Had she hexed him into being unable to stop thinking about her or that kiss?
They passed by the candy shop as a group of children flung the door open and rushed out onto the street with lollipops the size of their heads. Malcolm looked at the store name and laughed.
“Witch Better Have My Candy?” It featured a logo of a pretty smiling woman holding up a cauldron full of sweets spilling over the side.
“I know, right?” Jasper clapped a hand on Malcolm’s shoulder. “Everything here is full of magic, even the names of the shops.”
Malcolm normally would have cringed away from something like that, but there was something truly endearing about this place, and for once in his life he didn’t want to run away. Maybe it was some deeply rooted nostalgia from his childhood, before the magic started going wrong. Something about this town made him feel that way again.
A young boy broke away from a group of kids who had left the candy shop and started to cross the street toward the local library, waving to his friends so hard you’d think his arm would fly off.
Malcolm remembered being that young. The world didn’t exist beyond your field of view, yet it was full of infinite possibilities. Adults often said kids that age felt invincible, but that wasn’t exactly true. They were oblivious. The very idea of harm outside of scraped knees didn’t compute, and someone had to keep reminding them to look both ways before…
A truck carrying a massive load of hay bales turned the corner, but the kid hadn’t crossed at the crosswalk. He’d cut across the street early, passing a large parked car that hid him from the truck’s view until it was too late.
Malcolm blinked and suddenly the world slowed down. He was running. Running fast. Faster than he ever had in his life. Neither the kid nor the truck seemed to be moving.
He snatched the boy in his arms, and just as they cleared the truck, he blinked again. The truck sped past, honking its horn and hitting the brakes too late, but Malcolm’s momentum hadn’t changed. They were about to slam into the side of the library building, and he had only a split second to shield the boy with his body.
Boom!
His back collided with the stone wall, knocking the wind out of him. Malcolm’s vision swam as pain shot through him. His arms shook as he held onto the boy who’d gone limp.
A scream tore through the air. People began to swarm around him, asking if they were okay, making his ears ring. A woman came forward, gently removing the little boy from his arms to check on him. He was in a state of shock and couldn’t seem to process what was happening around him.
Malcolm’s legs threatened to give out beneath him. Jasper pushed through the crowd and grabbed his arm to steady him. A tiny girl child clung to his leg with one arm while holding her massive lollipop with the other. Where had she come from? He shook his head, still in a daze.
“What happened?” he asked Jasper.
Sage Sinclair, the woman who’d checked on the boy, stepped forward.
“You saved Tam. Did you use a time spell?” She stared at him in wonder. “I’ve never seen one before, but I could see what you did. You halted time.”
“I… what?” Malcolm stared at her.
“Wait. You didn’t do it on purpose?” She stared at his forehead, and he guessed she was reading his aura again.
“No, I have no idea what I did,” he admitted.
Sage turned to Jasper who shrugged, being as clueless about the matter as Malcolm. “You seriously don’t know? Time spells are incredibly hard. Most people spend years trying to learn it, and even then can only cast it under highly controlled conditions. But you just did it in the blink of an eye.”
Malcolm’s stomach churned. The crowd of onlookers was still surrounding him, and the little toddler was still wrapped around his leg and smiling up at him with big brown eyes, her face framed by golden curls.
“You’re amazing!” she said.
Sage gently tugged at the little girl. “Honey, let go of him.”
“But he saved Tam!” the child exclaimed.
“Yes, he did. But he needs some space now, okay?” Sage finally extricated the child from his shin. Malcolm smiled at the girl, but the exhaustion hit him again, harder than before. He felt almost hungover. Had that spell taken a lot of his energy? It made sense if that time freezing spell was as powerful as Sage said it was.
“Your coffee is on the house while you’re in town,” Sage said to him.
