My grandfather’s mouse was standing on his hind legs. His little nose was wiggling as he sniffed the air. And now that I was thinking about how dirty animals were, George shouldn’t be in here either. In fact, why wasn’t the floor covered in mouse droppings?
Licorice extended her wings, as if she was going to take flight. Oh God. Ravens ate mice, didn’t they?
“Stop!” I shouted.
Three sets of eyes turned my way. I rushed forward and scooped George from the table. The little guy squeaked. His tiny heart pounded against my fingers before I hastily gave him to my grandfather. At least he didn’t shit on me.
“What are you doing?” Elwood asked as George scrambled into his shirt pocket. The mouse only poked his head out enough to glare at me.
I waved between George and Licorice like it was obvious. Elwood’s gaze followed the motion, but his forehead was creased like I wasn’t making any sense.
“We don’t want Licorice to E-A-T George.” I spelled it out. I didn’t want to offend my new familiar, and I suspected she could understand English.
Elwood burst out laughing. George, who now had his whole head out of the pocket again with his little paws curled over the edge, and Licorice both stared at me like they weren’t sure if they should be offended or dismiss me as a stupid human.
Familiars lesson one: they can spell.
“Licorice won’t eat George,” Elwood assured me as he wiped his eyes with his thumb.
“No?” I wanted to ask about the cleanliness situation, too, but after my little misstep, I decided to hold off for now. I didn’t want to risk offending Licorice again so soon.
“No.” Elwood shook his head. His eyes still danced with amusement. “But now that I know you’ve started to bond with your familiar, we should try a little more magic.”
The meet and greet was supposed to start in fifteen minutes. I wasn’t going to make it, was I? But I couldn’t deny I was curious if Licorice’s presence changed anything for me.
“Why don’t you take the growler, and I’ll test the application?” Elwood said. “You seem to be better at detecting the magical interference with the beer than the paper.”
“Okay.” I turned to Licorice. “Do you want to help me? But I’m warning you, I don’t really know what I’m doing.”
She bobbed her head. Then something strange happened. Well, stranger than magic and familiars and hexed beer. Somehow, Iknewshe was eager to try. It didn’t feel like a guess or intuition or anything like that. It felt like she’d told me, without actually telling me.
“Are familiars telepathic?” I asked.
“To some extent,” Elwood agreed. “They can’t speak in sentences, but they can communicate with their witch.”
“Huh.”
“Okay. Let’s finish this up, then we’ll have the full picture.”
Working magic with Licorice at my side wasn’t drastically different. It wasn’t like everything suddenly made sense or thatI could snap my fingers and have all the answers. But the spell work went smoother. The process felt easier.
I didn’t think this kind of magic was ever going to be my forte, but it didn’t feel so foreign now either. Then again, I’d also helped Elwood do this same spell several times already.
In a surprisingly short amount of time, Elwood and I had finished our individual investigations. This time, I hadn’t second-guessed myself when nothing appeared in my testing.
“I didn’t find any evidence of a hex on the growler,” I said when my latest purple cloud dissipated.
“Interesting.” Elwood stroked his beard. “Because the application had definitely been hexed with the same magical signature as the others.”
I glanced at the clock. That last test hadn’t taken nearly as long as the others. I could still make it to the library if I hurried.
“Thank you, Licorice.” I stroked her soft feathered back. Then I turned to my grandfather. “I need to get to the library before everyone leaves. I want to see if any of the other brewers found hex bags around their breweries.”
Elwood nodded. “Good idea.”
I started to tidy up our supplies.
“Don’t worry about this. I’ll cleanse the tools and put everything away.”
