The Spell Caster

Chapter 5

LAYLA

L ughnasadh, the day of the first harvest festival, dawned clear and bright. In normal times, it would be a day for ritual and celebration. I didn’t know what kind of holiday we would have with everything going on. I hadn’t set an alarm, but I woke up to the sounds of people moving in the house and pulled on a linen summer dress to join them. It was a bit warmer here than back home.

“Hey, you don’t have time for breakfast,” Sativa said, looking me over. A crimson spell caster’s robe clung to her lithe body and flared out around her legs. “But I brought you a fruit bar.” She handed me the bar, wrapped in a cloth napkin.

“Thanks,” I said with a small smile. We didn’t seem that similar, but I liked her. “Are we in a hurry?”

“The Arcaenum is holding a general assembly this morning. We can go to the practice arena afterward. Datura and Oliver don’t believe you about the familiar thing. They want to see.”

“The Arcaenum?”

“It’s our elected council.”

Sativa led me out of the apartment and along the crowded walkways while I ate my fruit bar. Most everyone seemed to be going in the same direction. The fresh mountain air held a hint of a cool breeze.

“So, what’s your story? Do you have a lover or anything?” Sativa asked.

“No, nothing like that,” I said. I paused awkwardly before asking, “Do you?”

“Several,” she preened.

I could see why. She was confident and beautiful. No one had ever shown me much interest in that department—spell casters were discouraged from dating other witches, and I had a reputation for hanging out with the Troubled. With only ten casters in the Circle and a few more still in school, there wasn’t a large selection.

“I could hook you up,” Sativa offered. “I know everyone in the Mountain Circle. Do you have any preferences? We have a few hot casters who are unattached.”

I choked a little. “Thanks. I’m not really… looking right now.” If I could invoke my familiar, I would have cast a spell directly into the ground in hopes that the blast would make a giant hole to swallow me.

But… was I really not looking? I was in a new Circle. One with hot, single spell casters. There was nothing stopping me. In the past, I’d sometimes imagined meeting someone—I’d thought about going on dates and finding a lover. But now my feelings were in knots.

“Let me know if you change your mind,” Sativa said.

“Morning!” Oliver called brightly as he and Datura joined us. They were both dressed in athletic training clothes, but Oliver had styled his short dark hair into loose waves.

We walked into a large amphitheater with seats built into the hill above the stage area. It was already crowded with witches.

“Hey, Screwup,” Datura said with a smirk.

Oliver gasped and smacked her arm. “D, be nice ! She got attacked by like a hundred angels and fled for her life!”

“I heard they’re switching up all the pairings now that Northern Sea got added.” Datura changed the subject. “I saw Calamus Grey with a new guardian already.”

The two continued to gossip while the amphitheater filled. I didn’t see anyone I knew that well, but the crowd looked to be a mix of Northern Sea and Mountain witches. The evacuation must have been well underway.

There were far more Mountain witches. Our circle was—had been—the smallest in the eastern part of America, and the Mountain Circle was one of the larger ones, if not the largest. We were swallowed up by them.

A tall witch in the formal black robes of a councilor strode onto the stage below, and the witches began to settle. The councilor looked to be in his middle years, with neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper hair and beard. His face was lined with seriousness, and he walked with quick purpose, not pausing to greet the other councilors as he passed.

“Good morning,” he said, his voice naturally projecting through the amphitheater. The crowd quieted.

“I’m Cedar Grey, elected councilor of the Mountain Circle Arcaenum and speaker for the assembly today.” He folded his arms gracefully into his robes, moving restlessly as he addressed us. “The feast of Lughnasadh is supposed to be a joyous time to celebrate the first harvest. But this year, we find ourselves in a state of distress.”

Oliver whispered some reaction to Datura and then turned back to listen. Sativa was ignoring the speech, her thumbs flying over her phone. I imagined it look some effort to keep up with multiple lovers.

“Three days ago, the witches of the Northern Sea Circle suffered an unprecedented attack. Our ancient enemy discovered and menaced them in their very home, a Circle standing since the 1800s. The Northern Sea Circle battled bravely, and I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the three guardians who lost their lives defending their spell casters.”

I felt numb as the witches bowed their heads in silence. Three guardians? Guardians fought angels all the time without a scratch.

A cold fear settled in me. Costi had mentioned weapons.

Fate, it could have been us .

I wondered who the guardians were—the councilor didn’t mention their names. I scanned the crowd, trying to pick out Costi. He must have known them. My heart ached for him.

“Despite this tragic loss, fate was on the side of goodness that night. The Northern Sea caught the attack early enough to muster before the angels got to the Circle. They never made it past the line of defense, and the witches of the Circle remained safe, sheltered in their homes. Northern Sea was victorious .”

Councilor Grey nodded once and waited while thunderous applause swept the amphitheater. I breathed through the memory of the shrieking of angels and the feel of magic rushing through me.

“As of yet,” he continued once it was quiet, “it is unclear how the angels were able to discover the location of Northern Sea. We do not know yet whether this tragedy was brought on by a mistake… or a betrayal.”

A murmuring began in the crowd. I frowned at the implication—the same one the spell caster Aura’s guardian had been muttering about in the infirmary. None of our witches would be that careless. And I couldn’t even entertain the thought of a betrayal of that magnitude. Who would do such a thing? There were children in the Circle.

Councilor Grey held up his hand, and the chatter died down. “Know that the Arcaenum is taking this matter very seriously, and we will be leading a full investigation,” he promised. “In the meantime, we are dealing with the influx of over four hundred refugees from the Northern Sea Circle, a large percentage of their number.”

The rest of our witches must have scattered to other Circles, perhaps to extended family or friends.

“At this time, all witches have been evacuated from the settlement, aside from the monitoring teams. Angel scouts have been sighted several times, sweeping the area around the Northern Sea Circle.”

Gasps and worried sounds rose from the crowd.

“We do not,” said Councilor Grey over the din, “have any reason to believe angels tracked any of the escaping witches, or that they have discovered the location of the Mountain Circle. But we urge everyone to stay vigilant. In our lifetimes, we have had a reprieve, but we cannot forget that we are at war .” He punctuated his words, bringing his fist down into his palm.

“As for our new arrivals,” he continued, “spell casters, guardians, and circlewrights have already been vetted and assigned—our top priority has always been and continues to be the protection of this Circle. The rest of you are free to join in whatever endeavors you are called to. We have limited extra housing, so our second priority will be finding more long-term solutions and building new facilities.”

Grey paced in front of the crowd of witches, catching eyes.

“Northern Sea witches may have noticed that we do things a bit differently here. We are a large Circle, and we rely on organization to keep us running smoothly. If you wish to stay on with us, I suggest you adapt.”

I blinked, eyebrows raised. What in fate’s name did that mean?

“The Arcaenum recognizes that the Northern Sea had their own council, but given the circumstances, that council has been dissolved.”

My breath stuck in my throat as the Northern Sea witches erupted in confusion and outrage. “You can’t dissolve our council!” shouted someone behind me. “There was no consensus!”

“You can’t just take control. You’re creating a hierarchy!”

“Order, please!” Grey boomed. “Accusations of Inperium are extremely out of line.”

Mouths snapped closed in stunned silence. A chill went through me. Witches didn’t just throw that word around casually.

“Our elections are held at Imbolc next year,” Grey spoke up into the ringing quiet. “Until then, the currently elected Arcaenum of the Mountain Circle will continue to serve.”

“What of the Northern Sea?” a witch shouted from the front.

Grey narrowed his eyes, focusing on them. “The destroyed Circle is welcome to reform and return to their own land. Any witches who choose to take up residence with the Mountain Circle are expected to become part of this Circle.”

Voices picked up in anger as Grey strode from the stage in a flutter of robes into a knot of witches trying to get his attention. I saw our Northern Sea councilor—make that ex-councilor— Jenny Luna among the throng.

Around me, witches began standing to leave the amphitheater.

“Maybe we should head to Kentucky or the Carolinas,” a Northern Sea witch behind me said to their companion. “I have a couple of cousins in the Saltmarsh Circle.”

A wave of homesickness for a place that didn’t even exist washed over me.

Maybe I could go too—start over somewhere else, away from my mother and the people I grew up with. I wondered how Costi was getting along with the guardians here, if he’d want to come with me.

“Let’s try to get out of here quickly. Use your elbows,” Sativa said, demonstrating. “We need some practice space, and if we don’t grab ours first, it’s going to be chaos.”

“’Scuse us! Important coven business,” Oliver called out as we pushed past witches, using the seats as stairs to avoid the slow lines.

Humiliated, I followed with my face down, hoping no one I knew would see me.

I didn’t want to do this right now. I was exhausted and worried, and I just wanted to go somewhere quiet and try to make sense of all this. I needed to talk to Costi.

It turned out my coven’s assertive exit technique did win us a space in the rapidly filling practice arena.

The arena seemed to be one of the largest buildings in the Circle. It had the look of a warehouse. The high ceiling was lined with rows of electric lights currently turned off while natural sunlight poured in from skylights. Stark yellow lines were painted onto the floor, designating practice spaces.

The open space was a far cry from the private practice areas back home, a riot of noise and movement as casters and their familiars blasted off spells into targets along the walls while guardians tussled in the center area. The sulfuric, burned-firework smell of spell casting mixed nauseatingly with sweat and breath.

Our coven’s space was designed for spell casters—a long rectangle facing a reinforced wall with a target. We could cast small spells to practice our aim and control here. There was most likely an open space outside where casters could burn off larger spells safely.

“All right, whip them out,” Sativa said with a cheeky grin, closing her eyes briefly as she summoned her familiar. Her demon companion appeared beside her with a rush of flame. Like all familiars, it was about the height and build of a human child and starkly pale, with large black eyes that lacked an iris. Wispy white-blond hair clung to its head around its sharply pointed ears. Its small bud-shaped mouth was closed around a jaw full of pointed teeth.

The familiars wore no clothing, but they had no sex to conceal and didn’t seem to get cold or hot. They didn’t speak, but it was a mistake to think they weren’t intelligent and cunning. If they were displeased, their spell caster would know it.

Datura and Oliver followed suit, bringing out their familiars and leaving me standing awkwardly alone.

“This is Inky,” Sativa said, patting hers on the head with a fond smirk.

I glanced at the little demon in alarm. They famously hated to be condescended to.

“I’m a natural summoner,” Sativa continued. “Inky came to me when I was fourteen.”

“Wow.” That was surprising. I’d never met a natural summoner before; there weren’t any in Northern Sea. Maybe it explained why Inky was so tolerant.

Most spell casters got their familiars by working a summoning circle when they graduated, but occasionally, an initiate would summon one early, without a circle. The reason and mechanism for this was completely unknown, but the leading theory was that demons were attracted to witches who could pull a lot of magic.

It didn’t happen to every powerful witch, though, my case in point. I squelched a spark of envy for Sativa—she really was blessed in every area. This was hardly the screwup coven, as Datura had suggested.

“Our familiars don’t have names, because we’re normal .” Oliver gestured between himself and Datura, who rolled her eyes. “We got them the normal way. A very normal summoning circle.”

Sativa stuck her tongue out at him.

Datura shrugged. “We can still burn the fate out of things.”

The conversation stalled. I rubbed my shoe along the sealed floor of the arena. “Are your guardians joining us? I should probably meet them.”

The three covenmates glanced between themselves in a silent conversation.

Oliver chewed his lip, hedging. “We haven’t exactly chosen them yet.”

My eyebrows rose. None of them? They would have graduated at the same time I did, months ago, but they hadn’t formed teams yet?

“Well,” said Sativa, cutting me off before I could ask about it. “Give it a shot, newbie.”

I sighed. “Don’t expect too much. I’ve already tried a hundred times.”

Closing my eyes against the stuffy, noisy room, I ran through the mental sequence to invoke my familiar. It was an ancient rite, different from casting spells or working circles. I felt the source of the magic inside me surge as I called forth my bonded familiar—but when I opened my eyes, I was still alone.

I swallowed around a tight throat, forcing my chin up. I wouldn’t cry in front of these witches.

Oliver and Datura were frowning, Sativa was pensive, looking around me as if maybe the familiar was hiding in my hair.

“Did you do it?” Sativa asked.

“Did you do it right ?” Datura added.

“Do it again,” said Oliver.

I tried again, and again, while they watched.

“This is so messed-up,” said Sativa.

Datura shrugged. “I told you she was a screwup like us.”

“D, seriously. Try pulling some magic in when you do it,” Oliver suggested. “Maybe you need extra oomph?”

I pulled in a little, not wanting to make myself sick since I had no way of pushing it back out. Except for whatever happened during the attack, and I wasn’t about to pull in that much magic—I would seriously hurt myself.

The pressure of the magic hurt my head as I tried and failed a fourth time. Tears of frustration pricked my eyes.

“Layla.” Costi rolled in like a storm in full uniform, a tall spell caster trailing behind him. He took in my face and then snapped his narrowed eyes to my companions as if they had done something to me.

“I’m fine,” I murmured automatically, squinting against the skylights that were now irritatingly bright, creating a halo around everything. I had pulled more magic than I realized. A little had always been tricky for me.

“Hey, Calamus,” Sativa said to the spell caster. “Is this your new guardian?”

My already queasy stomach lurched. I met Costi’s gaze. It shouldn’t be shocking—we needed functional teams, now more than ever.

But I was supposed to be his spell caster.

“Hello, Sativa. Hello, Mountain Thunder,” my replacement, Calamus, said with a polite smile, turning a curious eye on me. He looked to be around my age and classically handsome, with an athletic build and bright blue eyes. His glossy black hair was neatly trimmed around his ears. He was wearing formal crimson spell caster robes, finely tailored and immaculate. My mother would love him.

“This is Constantine Blackthorn,” Calamus introduced Costi to the coven, who suddenly seemed to be on their best behavior as they greeted him.

“I can see why Blackthorn wanted to come over so urgently,” he continued with a smile directed at me. “You’re Layla, right?”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said without thought. My head began to throb.

“I’ve been hoping I’d run into you. You’re the talk of the Circle,” Calamus said as he took my hand in his and shook it. “The spell caster who defeated a whole squadron of angels.”

“That was you?” Oliver hopped back and forth. “The super spell? But how—”

Ignoring my covenmate, Costi cut a dark look at Calamus as I extracted my hand and murmured an incoherent thanks for the compliment. “Why is she all pale?” he snapped at Sativa. Her familiar—Inky—hissed at him, showing its rows of sharp teeth.

“I didn’t do anything to her,” Sativa protested, widening her eyes and then looking to Inky in alarm.

“That’s interesting,” Calamus said, frowning at Inky. “I’ve never seen a familiar do that before.”

“Really? They always do that,” I said. “I’m fine. I just pulled in too much magic.”

I had been talking to Costi, but Calamus answered. “You’re having backlash? Why don’t you invoke your familiar and cast something?”

“I’m having an issue with that. I can’t seem to invoke,” I explained, feeling irritated.

“Of course. You must have burned out your magic after that giant spell.”

“No, I… I’ve never been able to invoke.”

Calamus’s brows lifted. “Not at all? How were you able to cast? I’ve never heard of that happening.”

I shrugged, uncomfortable. “Something’s wrong. I… haven’t been able to figure it out yet.”

“I’ll look into it for you,” he said. “I have connections with the Arcaenum and the library. I’ll find someone who can help.”

“Really? You don’t have to go to any trouble—”

“It’s no trouble, Layla.” Calamus smiled warmly.

“Grey,” Costi barked, causing me to jump. “We should get back to it.”

“Of course,” Calamus said, his expression frozen into politeness. He clasped his hands together.

I caught Costi’s icy gray glare with a questioning gaze. He exhaled and ran a hand over the back of his neck. “You okay?”

My lips parted. I wasn’t okay. I wanted him to walk me back to my apartment and hug me again like he did at the hotel. “I’ll… go rest soon.”

He nodded once, his mouth set tightly. He made no move to leave.

Calamus hesitated. “It was really a pleasure to meet you, Layla. I’ll get in touch soon. I’d like to ask you more about the trouble you’re having. Maybe we—”

He cut off as Costi’s eyes snapped to him. My breath caught at the dark, angry look. Fate, Costi did not like this spell caster.

“I suppose we’ll leave you to it,” Calamus said with a strained smile.

With a final glance at me, Costi turned to follow him through the training arena.