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“I didn’t feel anything on the way in, but when I tried to come back out, it felt like a wall of glass. I couldn’t hear you, and none of you could hear or see me. The kid called it a snowglobe.”
“What kid?” she asked.
“The one those guys just carried out of here kicking and screaming. I’m guessing trainee, probably a prism mage.”
Officer Smith cleared her throat and stared at me. “I didn’t see any kid. Maybe just someone running through the woods, or the missing people? I see you’ve found a dog.”
I stared back for an uncomfortable moment. Officially, Enforcement couldn’t take young recruits, but it was an open secret that they did. And officially, prism mages were rare and kept thoroughly controlled with other criminals. If I actually explained what I saw and extrapolated, I would face scrutiny—which I might not be able to stand up to—and a lot of problems. I sighed and patted Teddy’s head.
“Yeah, I can show you what I found. Can we have other people come so they can pull us out if needed?”
I led a group of black clad people to where I’d seen the fairy ring and the people. Cautiously, one of the women in black nudged the mushroom circle and a cloud of sweet, musty scent erupted. She collapsed on the spot and another guy dragged her away. He knelt and felt for her pulse, nodding grimly.
Officer Smith nodded back and then turned to Lucy and me. “She’s still alive, but I don’t see the people inside the ring breathing.”
I winced. “Me either. How do you get inside safely?”
“No idea. You guys are the Greens here.”
Kind of. If only she knew the truth.
I took Lucy’s hand and lowered our hands to the ground, breathing in and pushing threads of power into the ground. The mushrooms didn’t respond to my prodding, except to radiate malevolence, but that could have been my own projection. The trees sang out their pain from the fire damage. I tried to dampen them and focus on the mushrooms, with no luck.
“Lucy?” I asked. She shook her head. “The trees—“
“The trees have been too close to fire and aren’t happy.” Lucy broke in. I squeezed her hand, satisfied. That was right, and she was supposed to be the expert. “The mushrooms here are wrong. I think they’re magic-twisted.”
Officer Smith sucked air between her teeth. At my side, Teddy sat and leaned into me.
All magic users had different strengths and skills. Some could work at a cellular level, and when they experimented, sometimes things came out wrong. This had that feel to it. We were still kneeling at the edge of the circle when the air changed. Teddy bared his teeth. I turned and saw a tall, lanky man, dressed in black and gray fatigues with a beanie hat pulled over his head and sunglasses on his eyes. Something about him screamed, “I’m in charge! Look at me!” and sure enough, everyone around us turned and looked at him. I looked, too. I couldn’t help it.
The Enforcement officers around us sprang to attention, and he nodded at them. I couldn’t see his eyes from behind the sunglasses, but I could feel them focused on us—on me. Black and gray probably meant he was a prism mage, and that was not good for us. I had to think purely Green thoughts.
His voice was cool and commanding. “Step back, Greens. We will take it from here.”
I nodded and pulled Lucy up, walking right past the man on our way back toward our truck. Officer Smith held out her hand for Teddy’s leash and I passed it to her. I bent down and scratched a somber Teddy’s ears. “Please take good care of him.”
She nodded.
Eyes burned into our backs as Lucy and I clutched each other’s hand and followed the informal trail up the slope. Just when I thought we were clear, a deep male voice rang out, “Green! We’ll take the sample from your backpack, too.”
I froze and Lucy looked at me, mouth slightly agape. I hadn’t forgotten, but I wanted to study what I had. If whatever this was got turned loose on the world, we wouldn’t know how to neutralize it until we studied it. But he had seen the mushroom’s magic from outside my backpack. He was a prism mage. We couldn’t fight that fight and win. Without turning, I put my pack down, opened it, took out the sample jar, and set it on the ground. I zipped my backpack and put it back on as a black-clad arm snaked around me to reach for the jar.
His voice was soft, almost a purr. “Anything else we need to take?”
I started walking again. “That was it,” I said without meeting his eyes.
Once we were out of sight of the fairy circle, I let my posture droop some and blew out a deep breath. We passed a charred area of plants and a tree; Lucy and I headed to them without discussion. We may not be true Greens, but we couldn’t let the plants suffer. I held out my hand again, and she took it, and with her help, I was able to heal what had been burned. One last patch still smoldered. I almost used my fire magic to smother it when I felt eyes on me again. I turned around and saw the newcomer staring at us. I pulled Lucy’s jar of spaghetti water from my backpack and poured the last of it on the burning patch. Steam hissed from the pile of brush, but no more smoke. Then, since he was still watching, I fought through my exhaustion and healed it alone. An Amplifier was nearly unheard of, and if Lucy was caught, her magic would be used mercilessly, whether she wanted that or not.
Then we walked unhurriedly to our truck, despite feeling like we were being hunted by a big lanky predator. We got in and Lucy drove away before I’d even buckled my seatbelt.
In the car, I opened the backpack. “Okay, the spaghetti water came in handy.”
“Charged water,” Lucy corrected.
“Okay, charged water,” I agreed. “Wait. Charged water like Wiccan charging, under the moon?”
“Yes. There is a lot more to magic than just whipping up plants and throwing your strength around.”
