A Different Witch (A Modern Witch Series: book 5)
“ “Hi, Uncle Jamie. Did you leave any pancakes for me?”Apparently the better army recruits put duty before food. This whole foot-soldier thing was more work than it looked. “Has your dad ever run out before?”His niece giggled and collected her backpack. “Nope.” She grinned at Beth. “Don’t let Uncle Jamie touch your flowers. Gramma Retha says all the Sullivan kids were born with black thumbs.”His father would agree—his children had tormented his gardens pretty much from the moment they wer...e born. Devin had mastered rolling over for the express purpose of eating some yellow petunias, and it had gone downhill from there.“I’ll take good care of them.” Beth touched the petals lightly. “Thank you—they’re Liri’s favorite color.”That sounded ominous. “You headed home again?” Jamie was pretty sure his attempt at casual had totally failed, especially when his departing niece graced him with her best preteen eye roll.“At some point.” Beth looked up, eyes welcoming and strangely peaceful. “I miss her.”Choices. “I was away from home once.” The simple words caught in his chest. “Whenever you need a transport spell, just let me know.”“Thank you.” She picked up a watering can and sprinkled the flowers. “I’ve never been very good with growing things, but there are wonderful gardens here, and Ginia says these should grow in Chicago, even in winter, if we give them a little extra light. Liri will love them, and so will Mellie—she’s our earth witch.”She was talking. And she was collecting things—small treasures for the people she loved. He had a wife who did that.Maybe he could offer something for her stash. “If you want, ask Aervyn to show you how to heat a fire globe a little. That would help things grow nicely.”Her eyes widened. “That works?” “Yup.” Their father had often snagged him or Nell to help baby his tomato starts in the early spring. He grinned. “Just don’t touch the flowers with magic still in your fingers.” It had taken a lot of crispy tomato plants before he’d remembered that lesson.His dad had the patience of a choir full of saints and angels.“Yeah.” Beth winced, eyeing the purple flowers nervously. “I wilted Liri’s orchids once.”That kind of stuff could be very hard on relationships. And maybe he could offer up another small gift for Beth to tuck in her treasure chest. “If you want a visitor someday, Ginia loves to travel. I bet she’d be happy to help with the orchids.”“Oh!” He could practically see the sunrise dawning in her mind. And was totally clueless as to why. “If we can get you here, we can get people to Chicago. No problem.”She cuddled her arms to her chest and simply glowed.He’d somehow given her something huge—that much was obvious. And even if he had no idea what it was, accidental joy was still a gorgeous thing. He grinned back at the entirely happy witch in front of him. And did what foot soldiers do. “Want to come have some breakfast?”Bringing joy home would make the major general very happy. And he was always up for more breakfast.-o0o-Nell snuck out the back door, bagel in one hand, strawberry smoothie in the other. Time for a morning snack and some noodling in her hammock hideaway.Distracted by the gears cranking in her own head, she didn’t notice the hammock’s existing occupant until she nearly sat on him.“There’s room for two.” Daniel caught her neatly and shifted, managing to deposit them both more or less safely within the canvas confines.Nell handed him her smoothie and wiggled until her perch felt a little less precarious. “Hiding, are you?”“No.” A smile crinkled his face in the patterns she loved. “Waiting for you.”“What are you, psychic?” She took back the smoothie, wondering what the tell had been. It never took much.“You come here to think.” He slid her fingers into his, swiping half her bagel in the process. “And ever since you got back from hanging out with Lauren this morning, you’ve been one big ball of think needing to happen.”For Daniel, everything in life made more sense in ball form. “I went to visit Jacob, the autistic boy she’s been working with.”“Ah.”Her husband had thus far been very silent on the subject of one Beth Landler. “I haven’t done very well with Beth so far. I was hoping that learning a bit more about what it’s like to live with an autistic brain might help.”“Hmm. Interesting.” Daniel munched on her bagel for a minute. “Did it?”“Yeah.” And it was still rocking her mama heart. “Lauren piped me into Jacob’s head for a bit.”Sympathy spiked in her husband’s eyes. “What was that like?”She took a deep breath. The whirling, chaotic jungle of the small boy’s brain would haunt her for a very long time. “It’s kind of like trying to code while watching gaming live on five different screens.”“We do that all the time.”“Not when it really matters.” She’d get her pants beat trying to seriously game that way. “His mom walked in while he was playing with his blocks. And there was all this stuff flying in his head—colors, sounds I couldn’t even hear, gravity tugging on each of his fingers, the seams in his socks. I don’t know how he even noticed her.”“But he did.”He had. This time. “Lauren says sometimes he doesn’t.”“Ooph.” Daniel’s fingers clutched hers reflexively. “That must be awful.”“His mom loves him so much.” She’d felt it—huge, deep oceans’ worth. “And some days, even that isn’t enough to get through.”Her husband laid his head back, pain tracking in his eyes. “Tab and Lauren do really important work.”They did. And she was pretty sure a perhaps-not-very-useful fire witch was going to be visiting the Center again soon, even if all she could do to help was clean up blocks. “Sometimes, I look at Aervyn and think we have the hardest job in the world.” She looked at her husband, tears threatening to spill over. “We don’t.”Daniel didn’t speak. He just tugged her into his lap.Exactly like Jacob’s mama had done. “I don’t know how he opens his eyes in the morning.” And yet he did. And he was learning. Talking. Playing sweet, giggly games with people he clearly loved.Her husband’s voice rumbled beside her ear. “He sounds brave.”Yes. The distinction between fragile and different was blindingly clear to her now. “To him, it’s normal.”“Mmm. A little bit like a small boy who likes fire trucks and teleporting and mostly ignores his hearing aids.”Yes. And no. Nell tried to follow the thread that had been tangling her up for hours. “Kind of, but Aervyn’s different. It’s sort of like game points. Most people have a certain amount. With hard work, you can get more, but they’re still limited.”Daniel chuckled. “Some of us aren’t fond of limitations.”How well she knew—but very few people had her husband’s gaming skills. “If you use too many of your game points on your wardrobe or fancy buildings, you don’t have enough left for weapons.” Or nasty surprises left by elderly librarians.“Sure. But most players only make dumb mistakes like that once. Not enough weapons, you die.”“What if the rules aren’t the same for everyone?”MoreLess
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