“We have a booth there.It’s lots of fun.I usually go on Sundays when the crowds have thinned.”
She turned on the overhead lights with a wave of her hand, and the interior of the store illuminated.Shelves lined the walls, filled with books and magical items, with tables and displays arranged to draw patrons into the store.
She stared at Lorene and wiped at the tears under her eyes.Then she told her what she’d come to see the Corners for.
Lorene hummed.“So you don’t have any power at all?”
Mira shook her head.“My mom is a dream walker.My dad sees glimpses of the future.I don’t have anything remotely like any kind of psychic power.I’m just… slow aging and fast healing like a supernatural person, but without a power associated with it.”
“That is a curious thing,” Lorene said.She led Mira deeper into the store, down a hall, and to what appeared to be a conference room with a large round table ringed with chairs, and more bookshelf-lined walls filled with magical things, and a round rug covered the old wood floor near the table.She went to one of the shelves and looked at titles and said, “Now there certainly are people who have supernatural parents and don’t have any inherited powers themselves, like a shifter might have two shifting parents but not be able to shift.But it’s not common.How old are you?”
“Eighteen plus seven.”
“Well, if you were going to have powers, I think they would have shown up by now, frankly.But maybe something is holding you back.”She pulled a book from the shelf and came to the table, flipping the pages until she reached what she was looking for.“This is a revelation spell, which will help me see what, if anything, is holding back your power.It may not work.Magic isn’t foolproof.But it’s worth a shot if you’ve got some time for me to whip the ingredients together and wait for the other three Corners so we can work together.”
“I’m definitely free.”
She’d stay as long as it took.
“Good.Can I get you some tea?”
“Yes, please.”
Lorene nodded and left the room, and Mira sank into one of the leather-padded wooden chairs.She inhaled, picking up the scents of spices and magic, and looked around the room.A crystal ball sat on a shelf next to what looked like an animal skull.There were shelves of bottles filled with powders and liquids, and more books than a library.
Lorene returned with a cup of tea, the saucer holding sugar cubes and a small spoon.She busied herself, humming quietly, as she gathered what she needed for the spell.As the minutes passed, the other three Wiccans joined her—Bitty, Maritza, and Gwen—who greeted Mira warmly and happily joined Lorene to get ready for the spell.
Once they’d compiled what they needed, they asked Mira to sit crossed-legged on the rug as they surrounded her.
“This won’t hurt,” Maritza said with a kind smile.“But you might feel a little strange, maybe tingly as our magic works to reveal what’s going on with your nature.”
“I’m ready for whatever,” Mira said.
Candles had been placed between the four females, and they flared to life, lit with Maritza’s magic.Lorene marked Mira’s wrists and cheeks with a powder made from several herbs she’d ground together with a mortar and pestle.It smelled heavily of thyme and other herbs she didn’t recognize.
The four joined hands, and the candles flickered as their spell began.
The language of Wiccans was haunting and beautiful; the words were not known to Mira, but the tone of their words made her feel hopeful.The air grew heavy and damp like the moment before a summer storm hit, and the scent of thyme grew sharper, mingling with the other herbs in the powder.
Lorene leaned forward, her hand hovering just above Mira’s head.“Revelare,” she said.
A pale shimmer formed in the air, spreading like ripples on a pond.
Heat licked at Mira, not painful but somehow intimate, like sunlight on bare skin.Her heart pounded in her chest as the sensation washed over her.
Then something slammed into place.Not literally, but in her mind, as if she’d walked through a doorway and hit an unseen wall that was made of magic.
Lorene straightened with a gasp.
“That’s…” Bitty said, looking at Lorene.
“A suppression spell,” Lorene said grimly.“It’s old magic.”
Gwen crouched down next to Mira and touched the shimmer that hovered in the air around Mira.“Someone didn’t want Mira’s power accessed, but there’s something else going on.”
“Definitely,” Bitty said.
“What’s going on?”Mira asked.
