After he left, I chased Lady into a hedge, where I found her rolling around on a pile of leaves.
“Boy, you sure do have crappy timing. Come on, girl. Let’s get you inside.”
Lady shot me a guilty look before I scooped her into my arms and hauled her in. As soon as she was settled with a fresh bowl of water and food, I headed back outside and into my truck.
It didn’t take long to reach the same spot that Shane had taken me to. The balls of magic still glowed in the distance.
“I’m going to catch you now,” I murmured.
Shane had told me that a trail led down to the woods below us. I pulled out my phone and fired up the flashlight. The trail was well-worn, making it easy to follow. When I reached the bottom, I paused, watching.
A person stood in shadow, surrounded by orbs of all hues. They drifted about, flashing to different colors. One blinked red, then green, then yellow.
I sucked in a lungful of air as I realized exactly what they were—spells. The witch was resurrecting spells from the ground. There was no telling exactly what spells were being summoned. They could be dangerous, unstable, things that could hurt any and all of us in Peachwood.
The shadowy figure moved among them, taking one and inspecting it before letting it fall to the ground. The witch searched for one in particular, but what?
The shock that ran through my body locked me to the ground. My legs wouldn’t move. They were pinned in place.
How had all these spells gotten here? This wasn’t a magical town. The only other times that I had seen spells roaming freely like this was when I visited a town full of magic.
Why were they here, and why was this witch resurrecting them?
I inhaled a deep breath. Two choices lay before me—I could either run and confront the witch or…walk inand confront the witch. If I ran, whoever stood out there might get scared and start fighting me. Better to walk.
With fists clenched, I stalked forward. The last time I confronted a wizard, I barely escaped with my life. I could feel it now, his magic wrapped around me, trying to drain all the power from me.
My skin crawled at the thought. I stopped, my breath coming in staggered clumps. I could not let this undo me. After all, Clementine Cooke was a survivor, not a scaredy-cat.
Magic surged at my fingertips, reminding me that my power waited to be used. It would not abandon me like a boyfriend scared of commitment.
Ha. Where did that thought even come from? Didn’t matter. Time to focus on the witch and what she wanted.
I stood behind her, maybe twenty feet away. She hadn’t heard me because of her search. She plucked orbs from the air, studied them and then, deciding they weren’t what she wanted, let them fall away.
I cleared my throat to get her attention. She kept right on with her business. Great. Now I had to speak.
“Excuse me.”
The witch did not turn around; instead she spoke. “What do you want? Can’t you see I’m busy?”
The witch was not a witch at all. A wizard stood before me. His voice was low and gruff, with a hint of velvet lacing it. The velvet part got to me; it made me shiver. Strange that a voice could do that. A knot twisted up in my chest. Why did the voice have that effect on me? Maybe it wasn’t the voice at all, but the manner in which he had spoken—dismissive, as if what I wanted held no importance.
Forget that. This wizard was in the wrong territory.
“I can see that you’re busy, but whatever it is you’re looking for, you’re not going to discover it here. This isn’t a magical town.”
“Oh really?” he replied, amused. “And what do you call all these spells? Simple balls of light?”
How irritating! Why couldn’t he turn, face me and have a real conversation? Why was he being so difficult?
I studied his outline and wondered why I had ever thought this was a witch. Straight, strong shoulders were lit by the moonlight and halo of the orbs. Well-defined thighs flexed, and dark hair brushed his collar. But that was the extent of the discernable details. Shadows hid his face from view.
In answer to his sarcastic question, I said, “Of course they’re not simple balls of light. But no one in this town works magic. They don’t know about them.”
“Then what are they doing here? Some traveling wizard stopped by and dropped them off?” He plucked one from the air—a golden orb—and studied it. “No, you’re not right either.”
“Listen, you need to leave. One human nearly saw you tonight.”
