The Magician's Mistake (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

before I woke up, I thought, and dropped the spell into the water.
    It fizzed and filled the water with swirling purple bubbles that smelled like lilacs. My favorite. I leaned back and closed my eyes. The magic moved around my aching form, subtle at first as it ran across my body, soothing and gentle. It intensified as it massaged my muscles, finding and pushing into the sorest spots until they released their tension. I let out a moan as it knit together a torn muscle at the small of my back. I took a deeper breath as the warm magic found the cracked bones in my ribs, along my collarbone, and in my big toe. It ran back and forth along the fissures, smoothing out the bones and then pushing them together with small, cracking sounds. I took gulping, gasping breaths as the spell worked its hard magic. A few minutes later my bones were fixed and the spell turned gentle again, holding my body in the water and pulsing healing energy all around me. It managed to be both calming and invigorating at the same time. I took a long draw of whiskey and smiled.
    Kestrel was a fine magician.
    I lay in the water for much longer than was necessary, sipping whiskey and luxuriating in the simple pleasure of being alive and pain-free. When I got out I saw that the bruises had faded to a slight patina across my skin. A shadow to remind me of what had been done to me.
    I slipped on the bathrobe and went into the bedroom. I found a bag full of the clothes I had been wearing at Greenlake. They were laundered, stitched, and ironed. I put them on, and went into the other room.
    Kestrel stirred a cast-iron kettle full of bubbling potion in the brushed-steel and marble kitchen. The air was warm and herbaceous.
    “Feeling better?” he asked, adding a handful of comfrey to the concoction.
    “Much.” I cleared my throat. “Thank you.”
    He nodded without looking up.
    I walked close to him and peered over his shoulder at the potion. It was dark green with a thick and velvety viscosity. The base of the finding spell was coming along well.
    There were many ways to make spells, but if you were a witch, every spell began as a sort of recipe. Just as many sauces started with sauteed onions and garlic, so too a finding spell would always begin with this base. From here, the spell could be taken in different directions. We might make a divining rod to find the witch. We might place a homing on a pigeon that would find her.
    “How about a finding map?” Kestrel said.
    I nodded. That would do.
    I took over stirring while he went to his bags and rummaged through it. He came back with a map of Seattle and unfolded it fully on the counter.
    I closed my eyes and gathered the necessary raw magic to add to the potion. A witch spends her life finding and storing magic for when it is needed. Magic lives everywhere. In the air, in running water, and in all living things. I kept great stores of magic within me, far more than I had once thought possible. I drew sunlight and rain, revenge and resolution, from the deep wells of those specific magics within me. I took the different pieces of magic and braided them together in intricate and precise knots, tying them together in ways that strengthened and aimed them toward our finding spell. In centuries past, it would have taken me deep meditation and hours of focus, but now I only needed a couple of quiet minutes. When it was done, I flicked the magic into the potion.
    It bubbled up in a satisfying way and turned a perfect shade of yellow.
    Give me time to make a spell, and I will take any witch down. Attack me in the park, and I might survive, if I’m lucky enough to have a magician save me. I felt Kestrel come up beside me.
    “Perfect,” he murmured. He snapped his fingers and a bright and blue magic fell from his fingers. “To push through any wards she may have set up.”
    It incorporated nicely with the mixture, not creating any antagonizing fissures.
    “Good,” I said, and kept stirring. “Time to find