The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga Taliesin Govannon (best free ereader .txt) 📖

my sister Katsu to learn your electronic surveillance, so that she may aid me in watching over this domain.” Hatsu said.  “And I would like to speak with your Fae allies to discuss the magickal methods.”

                “Raina, can you contact the Fae?” Vincent asked.  Raina nodded.  “Very well.  Come with me to await word while Jack gives Katsu the tour of the basement.

                “This way.” Jack said softly.  Katsu smiled and followed.

                Was that a blush I saw on his face? I thought as they walked away.

Chapter Six

                From the Diaries of Angelique Dupre

                10/16/1588

                Roanoke Colony

                Sarah has been having a most difficult time connecting to the earth.  One would think that someone living in conditions such as these would have an intimate connection to the land, but this girl followed her Bible classes too literally.  To her, it’s just dirt.

                I’m afraid that this one seems to break the streak of the chosen ones being of uncommon beauty and intelligence.  She’s a plain girl, without the inner beauty shining through that I have seen so often in her kind.

                She is also dim, beyond what is expected of women in this age.  I fear that she never would have attracted a mate, so the option of taking a human lover has been mercifully taken away by fate.  I will fulfill her needs if she asks, but I am not having the problems that I’ve had in the past.

                                                                                                *                *                *

                “Feel the heat of your body...”

                I kept my eyes closed and tried to do as Raina said.  I knew I could do it with no problem, but my attention was being pulled in every direction: the air calling to my breath, the earth calling to my bones, the works.  I tamped everything down with great effort and focused on my body heat exclusively.

                I was soon rewarded with a flash of intense heat.  My heightened senses made everything blazingly intense, and a smile crept across my face.

                I had convinced my vampire mentors that it was time to learn some offensive magick, so they had set Raina to the task of teaching me.  While our magickal systems were quite different, Raina understood as much about a Sorceress’s kind of magick as has ever been written down.

                “Good, good." Raina circled me as she spoke, and soon her voice seemed to be coming from all around me.  "Now reach, with your perception, downward.  Remember that the earth is but a crust, a skin on an endless ocean of magma.  Reach through that skin to the boiling lava beneath us."

                I did as she said.  I felt the seemingly infinite lake of fire that all life floated on, and felt it’s energy join with mine.

                “Now open your eyes.”

                I opened my eyes and saw that Raina stood off to my side.  Directly in front of me was the target we had erected before we started, a straw man with a hockey mask clumsily strapped on its head.

                “Ah, Jason… “ I said with a grin, “I see we meet again.”

                “Now zap him!” Raina cried.

                I drew energy from the center of the earth and sent it at the target.  The straw man erupted into flames, the hockey mask a melted mess on the ground.

                A wide grin graced Raina's face.  "Kickass."

                “I seem to be improving.” I said.  “Last time, it only smoked.”

                “I love how you can cast such energy without talking.” Raina replied.  “I still have to at least whisper the names of power.”

                I gestured to another target.  “Show me how you’d do that move.”

                “Seriously?”

                “Seriously.”

                She took a deep breath and readied her stance.  I could see her muscles relaxing in ripples across her skin, and the air grew still.  After a moment, her hands flew forward.

                “Soilsiú!”

                I jumped back a bit as lightning jumped from her outstretched fingers and arched over to the straw-stuffed target.  With a blinding flash, it vaporized on contact.

                I looked at my friend with wide eyes.  “That was bright.”

                “Bright as fuck.” she beamed.

                We couldn’t help it.  We both broke out into belly-shaking gusts of laughter.

                                                                                                *                *                *

                “So where did you learn how to do that?”  I exhaled as Raina took her turn with the bong.

                “Rini.” she said, careful not to let too much smoke out.

                We sat together on the biggest, comfy-est sofa in the meditation room, coming down from the energy high that we were often left with after working a lot of magick.  I had to stop using meditation to mellow out, however.  I used the same techniques to connect to the power, and so that had become my instinctual response to meditation since.

                Hence the bong.

                “So how’s that going?” I asked her.  I had decided against ‘confronting’ her about why she had kept her relationship with the Fae woman a secret.  She had to have her own reasons why, and it wasn’t my place to question them.  If she lied to me again, however…

                She exhaled an impressive cloud of smoke and grinned, shaking her head.  “It’s not, right now.”

                I winced.  “Ohh, sorry.”

                “Don't worry about it." she replied, waving my embarrassment away.  "We've already had a few bumps along the way, so this isn't anything new."

                “It’s only been a few months,” I said, eyebrows raised, “how many bumps could you have had?”

                “Well...” She smiled again, closing her eyes.

                My curiosity awakened, I leaned forward.  “Well what?”

                “You know that thing about how time doesn’t really exist in the Fae realm?  And how you can exit it at any point you want to?”

                “Yeah, I remember.” How could I forget? I thought.

                “Well, I’ve been… kinda… abusing the shit out of that.” She shook her head, still grinning.

                Then it dawned on me.  How often do you go to their realm?”

                “A lot.”

                “How long have you been staying?”

                “Long