Witch's Brew - Spellspinners 1 (Spellspinners of Melas County) Read Online Free PDF Page A

stopped and slowly pointed his nose into the air.
    “Do you smell flowers ?”
    Logan’s stomach lurched. “No.”
    Father sniffed the air again. “It smells like the wedding hall of an over-eager bride.”
    Logan sniffed the air too, playing along. “Now that you mention it, there were some wildflowers in the grove today. Maybe they rubbed off on my clothes.”
    Fiercely, Jacob shook his head, as if the very thought of flowers pained him to the core. “Take a hot shower and scrub that stench off you immediately!” Burying his nose in his sleeve, he slipped into his bedroom, leaving Logan alone in the hallway.
    Logan winced as the door slammed. But he was finally able to breathe.
     
    Lily
    If I don’t see you first.
    The warlock’s voice—his eyes—in my head. This was the seventh time in as many days that I’d woken up to Logan. But a different—darker—version of him than I’d seen in real life. This nightmare version of him had wicked red eyes, and sharp teeth. He was the warlock of my fears, not the practically human boy I’d met on the hill, who’d walked me off the mountain to protect me.
    Splashing water on my face, I tried to clear my mind of his image. I hadn’t told a soul about meeting him. And the weight of the secret was crushing. The only thing that made me forget, temporarily, was training.
    I pulled on a pair of black yoga pants and tucked a messy knot of hair into the hood of my black sweatshirt. Barely glancing at my reflection in the mirror, I headed downstairs, grabbed a protein shake and the daily elixir boost out of the fridge and slipped out the door.
    First came the run up Seagull Beach. I bent over, stretched, and touched my purple painted toes. Lifting my arms to the sky, I raised my chest. Inhaled.
    Then I took off.
    Slowly at first, and then faster and faster, I didn’t have to look back to know sprays of sand flew into the air as fast as my bare feet pounded the ground. I ran faster than a human girl ever could. Faster than any witch could. Faster than I ever had before.
    And I was hardly winded.
    Maybe that whiff of euca leaves up near Black Mountain was all I needed to get my mojo back?
    Whatever it was, this was why we ran at 5 a.m. when no one except the seagulls could witness our magic.
    Five miles zipped by in minutes.
    When I saw the cliffs looming in the distance, I slowed down. Impressive red rock cliffs enclosed the circle with its half-moon shape, keeping guard over the coven. Half-Moon Cove. A place where the magnetic air tingled—a suspected Vortex among New Agey humans, known for its gravitational anomalies, like plants growing the wrong way, and strange tides. Like the ring of Solstice Stones on the warlock property, the Spellspinners of Melas County understood Half-Moon Cove as a magical Vortex—a portal or gateway—to other dimensions.
    From the other side of the cliffs, I heard quiet lilting female voices. Breathing in sweet scents of honeysuckle, orchid, violet, I waited until the tide washed out before leaping from sea stone to sea stone and sprinting into the circle. I made it around the bend as frothy waves crashed down behind me.
    Maybe I was better.
    With a burst of confidence, I fell into my assigned place in the circle. As Leader, I stood opposite my Mistress, while the other girls filled the spaces between us. I didn’t have to glance at a watch to know I was right on time.
    When Camellia nodded in my direction, I took note of her indigo eyes, the thick dark ringlets piled on top of her head like a twisted crown. Camellia was Mistress of the Light, and didn’t need to remind anyone she was our queen.
    “Good morning, Daughters of Light,” Camellia said, glancing at each of us.
    “Good morning, Mistress,” we said in unison.
    The sun, just starting to peek up over the ocean, turned the sky a vibrant mix of cotton candy and citrus. I hoped today would be a sparring day. There was nothing I liked more than a tangle with a sassy witch. Well,