Mathilda, SuperWitch (Mathilda's Book of Shadows #1)(6)

Opened my eyes to see BecBec pulling my hair and seeming excited about something (BecBec always seemed excited about something). Most annoyed, could not believe faerie wouldn’t let me sleep.

I told her to go away, turned around and buried my head in the pillow.

Next thing I knew, covers were pulled slightly back and hair was being tugged!

Wasn’t just BecBec but about five other faeries with BecBec! All were babbling in faerie-speak and seeming very excited and pointing to the door.

Thought maybe baddies were coming but decided definitely I should wait to make sure before I thought of the black dragon as I didn’t want a repeat of last time. (Mm.)

Faeries (these were both boy and girl faeries, all with diaphanous wings and pointy ears – and one looked kinda not faerie-esque but more like a cute, bald alien with long fingers with knobs on end) were pointing at my closet and at the door and seemed very anxious.

Thought I’d go with my intuition (witchy thing to do, right?) which was telling me to follow them so I got dressed and put on witch cloak and grabbed my wand (at BecBec’s worried motioning) and followed them out of my rooms, out of the house and onto Poet’s Walk.

Then went round and down the side of hill, through woods, I couldn’t believe my eyes – there were faeries and alien faeries and then other tiny weird creatures all over the place (!) with wings, without wings, hopping along or jumping from tree to tree. All of them gave off little lights, mostly white but some green, orange or yellow (pretty).

We got into town and faeries guided me down a path behind a house where BecBec stopped and pointed impatiently at a window.

I wondered what would happen if anyone saw us but no one was about as was very, very early in the morning.

Light was coming through the window so even though it was late, someone other than me was awake.

I looked through the window into a kitchen. In the room was a woman of about my age, a boy of about six or seven and the sweetest little chocolate lab puppy.

“Cute puppy,” I whispered to BecBec.

She put her finger to her lips and shook her head for me to be quiet.

When I looked back, the woman was shaking the boy so much his head snapped back and forth.

Ack!!!

I was frozen in horror, it all happened quickly as woman pointed at puppy wee on floor, grabbed boy and puppy and practically threw the both of them out the backdoor.

Ackity Ack Ack!

The boy was crying uncontrollably and the puppy was whining. It had to be near freezing, way past midnight and the child was wearing nothing but pajamas – no shoes, no coat, nothing.

What a f**king bitch!

What was she thinking?

“Come on, Cosmo, go pee, go pee, Cosmo,” the boy pleaded through chattering teeth to the dog and started to pick his way through the yard, guiding the confused puppy around on his leash.

I didn’t think about it except that I realized I had no time for opening sacred circles, etcetera I had to work fast so I turned round once, twice, three times (my favorite number, figured it would do) and stopped at what I hoped was North.

Then whispered,

Banish the cold, take fear from the night.

Bring on warmth, give a feel of the light.

Protect the child against chill and shudder,

Keep him warm with no heart aflutter.

In no way will this spell reverse,

Or place on the boy any curse.

Calling on the power of my blessed tree,

As I will, so mote it be!

(Hard to rhyme when flipped out.)

And then I pointed my wand at the child and to my shock out flew pink pixie dust making a beeline to the boy, slamming him straight in the back, it exploded up and over him and the puppy in a shower of fuchsia light.

Then, nothing.

The boy didn’t react at all; it was like he didn’t even see the pixie dust. (Bah!)

But as I watched, he stopped shivering and quieted his tears and the puppy quit whining altogether so I had a feeling that maybe it worked. (Yay!)

I didn’t have a lot of time to feel pleased with myself before the door opened and the bitch started shrieking at him to get inside.

(What? The neighbors can’t hear this? Whatever happened to “it takes a village”?)

He hurried in and I turned again to watch through the window and saw her draw her hand back and…

Ack!

I’d had enough.

I lifted arm, fury surging through me, and I brought my wand down to whack the woman with all I had…

And slam, my wrist ran into something solid that forced my wand straight into the air and my magic shot out of the wand and flew up high over the house like a firework.

“Banish it!”

It was Sebastian behind me, holding my arm and hissing at me in my ear.

“Banish it, now!” he ordered again as the pixie dust started to come down but it wasn’t pink, it was blazing blue. “Mathilda!” he clipped.

I snapped out of it and said quickly,

“Back to my wand, dark magic flee,

As I will, so mote it be!”

All the sparks flew at me with what seemed like great velocity, plunging back into my wand, driving my wrist against Sebastian’s hand as we both (with some difficulty and not a little pain) held my wand straight upwards.

When every flash, twinkle and glimmer was absorbed into my wand, I felt the heat in it burn me and I cried out, opening my fist and letting it go. It fell to the path between Sebastian and I and we jumped apart just as it exploded in a flash of blue and white light.