“Okay… not quite what I was expecting, but it’ll do.” Calli put her hands on her hips. She still had his red and black plaid flannel shirt on, and he decided the sight of the little hedge witch in his clothes was the hottest thing ever…well, aside from her having no clothes on at all.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he lied smoothly.
Calli frowned. “Hmm… it’s just your magical signature… It seems to change sometimes. I’m trying to figure out why. I mean your signature is the same, but I can’t explain how it adjusts itself.”
“Adjusts itself?” he echoed.
“Yeah…” She cleared her throat. “Let’s get to those lessons I promised.”
“Okay. Where do we start?” Malcolm walked toward her, closing the distance between them.
“How about something simple? Start with the basics?” She picked a red maple leaf off the ground and laid it flat in her palm. “Do you know any levitation spells?”
“Not really. I mean, I did one in my sleep, but that doesn’t exactly count.”
“I’m going to weave a simple spell. Watch me. Then try on your own.”
Calli stood very still as her magic came forth. She seemed to be surrounded by the faintest glow of light. The light trickled away from her as tendrils reached out above her head and resembled the thin, delicate strands of a spiderweb. He watched the weaving closely, noting the pattern and the spell move down to wrap itself around the leaf, lifting into the air above Calli’s upturned palm. Then she slowly lowered it back down to her palm.
“Nothing fancy, just a basic extension of yourself. Now you try.” She focused on the leaf rather than him, which took some of the pressure off. He tried to feel the path to his magic and, for a few frightening seconds, he thought he would step off into the darkness and lose his way. But then he followed a glowing path that began to emerge in his mind.
It reminded him of the path in Calli’s backyard garden. A golden road. Soon he felt the magic surge into him. His hands twitched with power.
“Focus on the leaf,” Calli said gently.
Rather than let his magic explode from his hands, he did as she suggested and focused. He failed. Every time he got close, the spell seemed to fall apart.
“What am I doing wrong?” he asked, trying to hide his frustration.
Calli frowned slightly. “Maybe you’re trying to do it like me. How would your dad do it?”
Malcolm thought back to his childhood, to the times he’d seen his father cast all sorts of spells. His weaving of spells had been a little different than Calli’s, the shape, the patterns. Maybe that was it? He concentrated, focusing on what he’d seen Calli do and blending it with what he remembered his father would do.
The spell began to form, just as it had for Calli, like nearly invisible threads of spider silk. It took more concentration than he expected to keep his magic under control. It was as though once he’d opened the path properly to it and started weaving in a way that felt more comfortable…his magic wanted to shoot out of him in wild, uncontrolled surges.
He moved the strings, forming a levitation pattern, then lowered it down to the leaf in her hand. The leaf rose up into the air, hovering at eye level. He could even sense the grip the magic had on it, and made the leaf spin and twirl in the air. A lighthearted giddiness overtook him, and he laughed in boyish delight.
“I did it!” And then the leaf shot straight into the sky as his magic slipped his control.
“Well shit…” he muttered.
Calli tilted her head back to watch the dark spec of the leash vanishing into the sky. “I bet it will reach the moon.” She giggled.
“Great. My father would love that.”
Calli’s hand closed around his. “Hey… you did it, Malcolm. That’s what matters. You got your magic to do something you wanted. And then… after you got it excited, is when it slipped. We can learn to help you control it once you learn to do what you want first.”
“Right.” Malcolm agreed with a sigh.
“Now, how about something more difficult?”
“Such as?” he asked.
She grinned mischievously. “Try to lift me.”
“You? You’ve got to be kidding, I could send you to the moon.”
