“Right, Aunt Ash. I’ve gotta clear up my tools and get the last of the wood up to the barn,” I said. “Excuse me.”
I backed out of the residence and carefully shut the door, then bolted for the woods. Robbie was right where I left him, but he swiveled his head as I approached his pile of covering pine boughs.
“We gotta hide you, buddy. There’s a medium here and she’s picking up too much already,” I said, more to myself then from any idea that he could understand me. I’d been talking to him all along as I spelled him and operated him, and it had become a habit. He started to sit up but I stopped him with a touch. “Let’s just cover you really well and shield your energy.”
Funny thing was that as soon as I said that, he just sort of faded. Not physically, but energy wise. He just seemed to settle back into the rock pile and the animation went right out of him. I added more brush from the small stuff I had limbed off the logs, building up a mound of tree limbs and sticks that covered his manlike form. He was still just mud and wood, so he blended right in.
Then I grabbed my saw and splitting maul and hustled up the lawn toward the barn. I made it just inside and closed the door when I heard the back door of the restaurant opening and Levi’s deep voice.
Dropping the tools, I rushed past the stacks of wood, all the way to the back where my game course was laid out, a miniature landscape of hills, valleys, and plains. I slowed down only to properly let myself into the circle that both protected it and also contained my dragon. Once inside, I slowly raised the power of the circle as I concentrated on sending power into the particular wards that my aunt calls Don’t See Me. In the rafters above me, Draco rustled around, but I shushed him absently as I focused. He froze in place, his dark colors hiding him in the shadows.
The barn was old, the wooden walls worn and full of gaps and spaces. Outside, I could hear the visitors, my aunt, and Levi all talking as they walked out back toward the big rowan tree.
“Declan,” Darci called in a hushed voice.
“I’m here. Just give me a second,” I said, mentally tying off the strands of power I had fed into the barn’s wards. Then I carefully let myself back out of the circle just as the compact form of my aunt’s girlfriend stepped out of the wood stacks. She stopped at the edge of the circle, knowing not to try and enter it. Darci and Levi knew that we were witches, that we were hiding from dangerous people, knew that my mother had died in Boston, likely at the hands of those people. Both believed in our abilities but neither knew just how extensive they actually were.
“All set,” I said. She didn’t answer, instead looking at the game course. Then her eyes lifted, and she scanned the dark rafters till she spotted Draco’s still form.
“Do all witches have to go through this much work when other psychics show up?”
“You know they don’t,” I said. “Other witches have their circles to help protect them. We have a business to run and no circle.”
“I asked Ashling if she missed her circle and she swore a blue streak. Then she said she didn’t need a circle… She had you.”
Feelings welled up inside me and I was glad the barn was dark and dim. It took me a moment till I could safely speak. “We are kind of our own little circle. It’s just that there are people who would love to find us.”
“I know,” she said with a smile and a nod. Then she frowned. “You know, running a highly successful restaurant is hardly the way to hide… or at least I would have said it wasn’t the way to go. But I notice that no matter how many pictures are taken inside, not a single shot of you or your beautiful aunt ever makes it online or in print?”
“Funny, right?” I asked.
“Hmpff. I’d say it was a scary demonstration of skill and power,” Darci said. “I’ve spoken with reporters and reviewers. They have all these great photos while they’re here but after they leave, the ones of Ash all go to shit.”
“What do you mean, scary?” I asked, not liking the way this conversation was going. I could see the others through a gap in the wall. They were almost to the tree.
“How do you think I mean? Your aunt can find lost people in any weather condition or terrain, you can fix almost anything computer or electronic with just a touch, and then there is that dirtbag that kidnapped you,” she said, flicking out three of her fingers as she counted. Only she did it weird, using the littlest finger first, then the ring finger and finally her middle digit.
“Darci, you aren’t afraid of Aunt Ash, are you?” I asked, horrified.
She studied me with her cop face on, not saying anything, just waiting. But she had already taught me the interrogation game so I just waited her out.
Finally. “Should I be?”
“I don’t know… Should we be afraid of your guns or pepper spray or handcuffs?”
“Not at all the same,” she scoffed.
“Oh really? Cops never go rogue and harm relatives and significant others? Would you want to place a bet? I can run a Google search in no time.”
“That’s just it. That’s an ordinary thing to fear. What you and she can do isn’t ordinary at all. It’s so not-ordinary that people are looking to find you and possibly kill you over it.”
“I don’t think you’re afraid of Ash at all,” I said. “But maybe you’re afraid of me?”
This time she grinned, and it was real. “Nah, not you, scamp. I’m the one that taught you before Soldier Boy
