Magical Misfire Read Online Free PDF

They’re like people.” I jerked my gaze to Bryn. “They’re like people, right? They know if they’re being kept prisoner?”
    Bryn nodded. “They’re sentient.”
    “See,” I told her. “They may bite like eels but they think like people. You can’t keep anyone who thinks like a person as a pet. It’s not right.”
    “Oh sure, like you’re planning to set them free! I know what you want! You’ll keep them for yourself. Look at the pair of you. As pretty as models. You must have a whole poolful at home. You are not taking mine!” She launched herself forward. I thumped her on the noggin with the butt of the gun and she crumpled to a heap at my feet. My skirt ripped, leaving several inches of calf showing.
    “Oh no!” I clucked. “I promised Johnny I would take care of this dress.”
    “He’ll understand,” Bryn said. “Let’s go.”
    “Yes, dearies, let’s be off,” Sal said, her fingers closing into fists, as if she was catching mosquitoes.

3
    “Sally, where did these merrows come from? Galveston Bay?” I asked.
    “More or less,” she said.
    “Because I hope what you have in mind is for us to return them to their families in the ocean. That’s what we’re going to do,” I said.
    “Exactly the thing. You’re going to restore them to normal size as well if you’ve got the juice to do it. Which you might,” she said, looking us over. “The pair of you aren’t only witch and wizard, that’s certain. Merrows don’t flock to witch magic unless there’s a taste of faery to spice it up.”
    Bryn and I exchanged looks. “Is that what you were? Part witch and part fae?” I asked. We knew that witches couldn’t usually change matter. No shrinking or enlarging people. A witch or wizard might produce an illusion or a distraction, but they couldn’t actually disappear and reappear. Witches and wizards were part of the natural world and governed by most of its laws. Shifting energy, using heat, wind, water, or earth for a variety of purposes, yes, but not to change the essence of matter itself. That still belonged to the fae, who were not of our world, but only resided under it.
    Bryn wasn’t trained in fae magic, and I wasn’t trained in any kind of magic. We’d suspected that was why his restoration spells hadn’t worked on Jenna and Lucy. To shrink them I’d tapped some deep faery magic that I didn’t even know I’d had and certainly couldn’t consciously control.
    “Very good,” Sal said in answer to my question. “Most clever. My father was a water wizard, but me mam, she was one of the folk. Merrows killed my da. They sank his ship by stirring the sea and left us with no man to provide for us. Me mam had to do many unspeakable things to keep us fed, but she was a beauty. She knew how to survive and how to get even with the ones who done us wrong. She was the first I knew to shrink and keep merrows.”
    “These,” I said pointing to the plastic bag of merrows, “didn’t come from England, did they?” Sally certainly had an old-timey accent that wasn’t American.
    “No,” she said. “First we left Ireland for England. Then we left England for here. Too many nosy faeries on the first isle. Too many bloody witches on the second. We came to this new island, Galveston, on a pretty sailing ship and settled in America. My sister married and me mam, too. We moved west, but my husband was as mean as a snake. I did him in and came back here. Always loved the water. And the men who sailed it. Couldn’t stand to be away from either.” She gave us a cheeky smile. “Come on. Let’s be off.”
    I gave Bryn a quick look. He sealed the bag and handed it to me. I put it inside my purse, arranging Lucy and Jenna so they sat on top of it like a watery beanbag. “Whatever you do, don’t open the bag. The occupants have sharp teeth,” I warned Jenna.
    Bryn and I fell in behind Sally, who was as cheerful as a cream puff. She bustled along, a glow of orange edging her skirts. “I