Gotcha / Magic Camp #6
Careful to make sure that no one was watching her, Angie took the path toward the greenhouse and, the moment she could, initiated an obfuscation working.
She slipped inside the plastic-walled building and pulled a rickety chair into the center aisle, near the black marble sculpture of the bunny, that had Carm’s and Jessa’s magic all over it.
Its ears were much longer than the first time she saw it.
The earth magic girls had been practicing successfully with stone magic.
That was bad, but probably good to know.
Amidst the greenery, Angie sat on the chair, which wobbled on one short leg.
Her position was difficult to see, but not impossible.
It was too warm, the large fan in the back not keeping up with the midafternoon sun, and she was sweating, her clothes damp.
She could have activated the greenhouse’s cooling working, but that would be too obvious that someone was hiding out.
Angie closed her eyes and concentrated on her intent to do harm, remembering Blythe’s anguish and her shame at getting caught.
Her magic rose up inside her, a prism of colors she could see with her mind, brighter motes of light dancing in the energy like holiday sparklers.
The filament of intent writhed at the bottom, a darker thread, and if the color yellow could have a shadow, it would look like this, a venomous snake.
Angie breathed out. In. With her mind, she took a grip on the energy and blew on it, willing it to soften, to dissolve from dark magic into something else.
Something lighter. Slowly, too slowly, it transformed, relaxed, and a pale light filtered up, bleeding into the rainbow of her regular magic.
The yellowed shadow of darkness vanished.
Angie prepared to turn her puke green hair back into her strawberry blonde curls, twisting the transformed curse into her own, now serene, magic. She reached with her mind for the puke-green-hair curse.
“Well, well, well. That was a pretty bit of magic.”
Angie didn’t flinch. Didn’t stop breathing. Eyes still closed, she said, “Good afternoon, Dr. Jenkins,” and dropped the working that been intended to help her hide.
The woman was standing directly in front of her. Angie stared at Dr. Jenkins’ feet, long, narrow, and buckled into shoes her mom called Mary Jane’s. Uncomfortable-looking, shiny patent leather. “What was that working?” Dr. Jenkins demanded.
Her eyes still on the administrator’s feet, Angie said, “An obfuscation working.”
“Don’t mock me, you little twit. The other thing you were doing.”
“It’s called meditation. I’m told it helps quiet the mind—”
The slap slammed her back against the chair.
It rocked and creaked and tilted to the side.
Tears filling her eyes, her cheek stinging, Angie righted herself against the greenhouse table, steadying the rock bunny with both hands as she found her feet.
Her magic looped around the bunny’s ears.
She blinked hard and two tears fell as she tried to focus on the administrator.
Her cheek was on fire and she touched it to make sure she hadn’t been burned. “Why did you slap me?”
“Carmelina. Jessamine. Make certain no one comes in.”
Angie glanced at the door. The girls’ hair was growing back, a short stubble, but clearly visible. They smirked at her, hate in their eyes, and left her alone with Dr. Jenkins.
The woman touched a carved stone chicken on the necklace she wore. A privacy working opened over them in a six-foot diameter dome.
When she spoke again her voice was dull, muffled like a soundproofed studio. “Don’t play games with me, child. You were working raw magic.”
“I was medit—”
Jenkins slapped her again. Angie barely blocked the worst of the strike. She fell over the bunny and wrapped her magic around the marble sculpture.
“Tell me,” the administrator demanded.
Adjusting her weight as Koun had taught her, Angie stared at Dr. Jenkins through her tears. The woman wasn’t angry. She was cold and determined. That was the worst kind of opponent.
Angie had no attack magic, and no weapons except the floppy-eared stone bunny .
. . and a prickly stone-shaping working wrapped around it, the power that had been creating the extra-long droopy ears.
The energies were Carm’s and Jessa’s residual magics, each touched with the thread she had attached to their bunks.
The marking magic had weakened since she had changed her heart from the intent to curse to peace.
Her own power was clean and bright, as if she had braided sunlight, air, and water, creating lightning and rainbows and fierce summer storms.
A third slap slammed into her ear and spun Angie to the floor.
She twisted as she fell, holding onto the magic in the bunny.
She landed hard on the concrete. The bunny landed beside her. Cracked and broke.
Ear ringing, head drumming, Angie lashed out with a thread of her magic and spun it around Dr. Jenkins’ legs.
Part-net, part-lasso. She yanked it tight and rolled beneath the table.
She threw the magic lasso around the table legs.
Blinded by tears, she whipped in her magic—rainbows and summer storms—drawing it inside.
Prickly, biting, stone ear magic came with it. No time to fix it.
Fall, she thought.
Dr. Jenkins landed on the floor, her face two feet from Angie’s. The woman pulled back her fist.
No attack magic. No weapons. Secrets.
Desperate, Angie tossed the raw, prickly energies at Dr. Jenkins.
The woman froze for what seemed like forever. Her body arched, mouth open, eyes wide. Dr. Jenkins screamed. Long pink things sprouted in her hair, grew from her head. Thick and limp to the floor. Hair sprouted on them. Short and stubby, black and white.
Bunny ears.
The working shot toward the front doors, searching for their creators.
“Oh, oh,” Angie whispered.
Feet appeared around the administrator. She was hauled upright and disappeared from view.
Mud bent and stared at Angie under the table, her eyes wide enough to pop right out of her head. Mama’s face appeared beside Mud’s. Angie burst into tears and threw herself at her mother.
◆◆◆
“Blythe is gonna be okay?” Angie asked. “Not in trouble?”
Mama said, “Blythe and all the girls in Cabin A are in a great deal of trouble, with the camp’s board of directors, with PsyLED, and with their families and covens.
But since they are cooperating with law enforcement and the Dark Queen’s people, they won’t suffer as severe a punishment as Carmelina and Jessamine and the board members who were—” Mama stopped and closed her mouth into a thin line.
Angie knew she had just missed out on learning something important about the secret magical working the three rogue board members had been creating.
Meagan Cassowary, Rachel Ravencroft, and Ermaline Cornwall had vanished, taking personal belongings, their money, and passports.
All Angie knew so far was that a coven called the Rus Clan had been trying to create a new working that had everyone worried.
Some of the girls were whispering that the secret working was about summoning and controlling demons, but demons weren’t beings who could be controlled, so that was just silly gossip. Angie hoped.
She peeked at Mud, whose entire head was covered with a gorgeous crop of leaves.
“Am I in trouble?” Angie asked. “Are we in trouble?”
Mama rubbed her forehead as if she had a headache.
“No, Angie Baby, you and Mud are the heroes of the hour, except to the rabbit eared girls, the remaining members of the board of directors, and Dr. Jenkins.” Mama didn’t sound real happy about them being heroes.
“You have, however, given me white hair a few decades too soon.”
Angie didn’t see any white hair, but whatever.
Mama said, “And we have to figure out how to turn the bunny ears back to human.”
Angie shrugged as innocently as she knew how and said, “It wasn’t my working. I just accidently caught a little bit when I was trying to put up a hedge to protect myself and the bunny fell and broke.”
Mama rolled her eyes. Like a full eyeroll. But she didn’t argue with Angie’s lie. “Say goodbye to Mud. Her sister is here and your daddy and I are taking you home.”
◆◆◆
Mud and Angie walked through the garden, and sat to the side of their new patch.
They hadn’t had time to actually plant anything and Mud looked sad at the sight of the bare ground.
She ran her open hand across it, the way some people stroked cats.
With her other hand, she spread tiny black seeds, and then gently brushed soil over them.
She put both open hands on the ground and, weirdly, tiny leaves began to push up between her fingers.
Mud smiled softly and pulled a zippy from her pocket.
Inside was a paper towel and a bit of water, and Mud transplanted the sprouts into the bag.
“My sister loves basils, so I made a basil variety all her own. It’s called Nellie’s Bounty and we sell ’em online.
They’re really good with ’maters and also with garlic and pine nuts.
If you plant these you’ll have basil all summer, and if you let some go to seed, they’ll come back every year. Just don’t plant them near mints.”
Angie blinked hard and said, “Okay. Thank you.” She took the baggie in one hand and with the other pulled a rock from her own pocket.
“This is a blood hedge. It’s the strongest personal protection my family can make, and we make the best. If you’re in danger, you can cut yourself and put the stone in the blood, then squeeze it.
” She demonstrated the process with an air knife and a nonexistent wound.
“It’ll keep you safe for an hour. If you ever have to use it, send it back to me and I’ll recharge it and return it. ”
Mud studied at the stone, which was an unpolished black rock with white layers.
“Nobody would ever guess it was a magic thingamajig. Smart.” She didn’t look up and frowned at the stone.
“I don’t have friends. Not magic friends.
I got a huge family and more true-sibs and half-sibs than I can count.
But you’re my first true friend who ain’t family. ”
“You’re my first friend too,” Angie said. “We’ll get our phones back for real when we leave and can talk anytime. You know. If you want to.”
“I do. Thanks for letting me help plan the revenge. And I gotta say, them ears was a masterful touch. Dr. Jenkins’s ears reached her elbows before your mama got them to stop growing.”
Angie laughed. “Yeah. That part was pretty amazing. You coming back next year?”
“If you are.”
Angie held out a dirty hand, little finger up. Best friends? Forever? Pinkie swear?”
Mud hooked her pinkie around Angie’s and said, “Deal.”
THE END