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

                “Maybe I should take you to South Africa with me.” I said. “I hear that the mosquitoes down there can be brutal!”

                “Like I want to be your bug zapper.” she teased.

                “You okay holding the fort down while I’m gone?”

                “You mean along with the two ancient vampires, two more top occult mercenaries, and a five thousand year old Japanese conjurer? I think I’ll do fine.”

                We stopped when I ran out of cards. Raina, smiling, walked over and sat next to me, opening a soda.

                “Gaia’s not telling me how we’re getting there.” I said.

                Raina took a drink. “Well, I know that traveling in and out of the Twilight Fae realm is way more complicated than the Wood Fae, so it’s probably not that.”

                “Maybe it’ll be eagles.” I grinned.

                “Beats walking.” she said, shrugging. We sat in silence for a moment before Raina spoke again. “So, I take it things with Angelique have gotten even more complicated.”

                “Is it that obvious?”

                “A lady who loves ladies knows. Besides, you’ve known Angelique for ten thousand years… avoiding her like the plague would raise suspicions in even the most clueless about love.”

                I nodded, but then stopped. “Wait, do you think that Jack knows?”

                “I said clueless about love, not the terminally stoned.” she replied, and we both laughed.

                “I don’t know what I’m going to do about all this.” I continued after the laughter died down. “I just feel… overwhelmed by everything. I just don’t have the brainpower to deal with everything plus a potential love triangle, too.”

                “Well, you don’t have to deal with anything extra right now.” Raina said, patting my knee. “Angelique’s been a vampire for sixteen hundred years. I think ‘patience’ is a quality that she mastered a long time ago.”

                I knew that she was right, but I couldn’t help but feel anxious to leave.

                Who’s the impatient one now?

                                                                                                *                *                *

                Okay, THAT was abrupt!

                We had just been in Jack’s basement domain… Jack, Katsu, Gaia, and myself… getting ready for our journey. Our extremely limited luggage sat in a small pile to the side, and we were dressed for the sub-tropical forest.

                Well, we humans were khaki-ed up. I thought. Gaia wore the same silky, shimmering clothes that she always wore. Katsu, though still in her traditional Japanese robes, had brought more regular clothes for working in… not that she’d probably wear them.

                We had gathered in a circle for what I assumed was a briefing on how we were traveling when suddenly the lights went out and we were plunged into darkness. A few disorienting seconds later, and the rich smells and deep sounds of nature rushed in.

                A few seconds after that, and I started to see the jungle around me. It shimmered with a much stronger glow than the sleeping woods around our home, and I marveled at the incredible amount and variety of life around me.

                Woah. This is cool!

                “It is way too dark!” Jack said, frozen in place.

                “Hold on.” Gaia replied. She moved her hands up and apart, and a bubble of energy flowed from her hands and surrounded our adventuring party. She moved her hands again, and it grew to about thirty square feet.

                The change, to me, was immediate. While the life energy of the plants and trees were unchanged, the amount of animal and insect life was more sparse within the bubble.

                Gaia waved her hands again, and a few fairy lights sprang to life, illuminating our surroundings.

                We were in a clearing in dense woods, a cornucopia of tropical plants and trees surrounding us. Most of the plant species were alien to me, but the energy flowing from them was unmistakable.

                “Is the force field secure?” Jack said warily. “There’s, like, a million bugs and beasts out here that could really fuck you up out here.”

                “The shield is secure.” Gaia assured him. “No poisonous or venomous creatures will bother us in here.”

                “Great!” jack said, rubbing his hands together. “Now we can set up the tents!” He looked around the clearing. “We didn’t bring tents.”

                “If we don’t have to worry about bugs, then the only thing to shelter from is rain.” Gaia said, smiling. “Watch this.”

                She waved her hands yet again, and the trees shook above us. Branch after branch started snapping off and arranging themselves over us, while leaves wove themselves in and out to fill the spaces between the sticks. Soon there was a broad canopy over us, going to the forest floor on three sides.

                “Nice!” Jack said, nodding.

                “It also gives us cover from accidental discovery.” Gaia said. “From above, this looks like the tree canopy.”

                “Just another section of forest.” Katsu said, grinning.

                Gaia made a gesture and sturdy-looking footlockers appeared at the edges of the shelter. “I’ll conjure some hammocks for us to sleep in once we get our stuff stowed.” Gaia said next. “Annabelle, I have a bag packed with forest-appropriate clothes for you with the other stuff.”

                I grabbed my canvas bag and took it over to the footlocker to arrange things. A moment later I heard Jack cry out.

                “Shit, shit, SHIT!” he cursed.

                We all rushed over to him to see what was wrong. He was kneeling by a puddle just outside of the shelter, near to the pile of luggage, looking distraught.

                “Dude, what’s the emergency?” I asked him.

                “My medicine bag was a few feet away from the main stack.” he replied. “It must have fallen right before we transported.” He looked up at me. “All of my weed was in it.”

                I looked at the canvas bag at the bottom of the foot-deep puddle. “Oh! Dude, that sucks.”

                “What am I gonna do?” he said. “Believe me, you guys do NOT want to be around me sober these days!”

                Gaia rolled her eyes. “Jack, where are we?”

                “Just outside