“We were seeing if I had any latent water magic.” Mom, coming through with a majestic lie. I never knew she had it in her.
Malkin strolled forward, hands in her pockets. “Oh? Have you shown any signs?”
My mother smiled charmingly. “Just fire so far. But I was hoping maybe it might show up if I tried.”
Malkin shrugged off her suit jacket and held it out to me, not even pausing to see if I’d take it.
I took it.
She began rolling up her sleeves. “Why don’t we do a few tests?”
“Oh!” Mom said, trying to look pleased while also looking at me and Poppy for help. “That would be wonderful!”
“Excellent,” Malkin said, rubbing her hands together. “Let’s start with something easy.” She held one hand palm-out toward the fountain on the far wall. “See if you can catch one of those drops coming out of the fountain.”
“I’ll try,” Mom said, slowly raising her hand to the same position.
Malkin’s elemental water magic flashed like tiny silver meteors in a night sky, freezing one droplet after another.
Mom pulled her hand back and pushed it forward, as if mashing a button mounted on an invisible wall. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. Mom’s talent seemed to lie in burning things up. She lowered her arms and shrugged. “I guess it just isn’t me.”
Malkin released the suspended droplets and they fell into the pool.
Perhaps she would lose interest and go away.
“Let’s try water that’s stationary,” she said.
I squeezed my eyes shut, briefly, and tried to take a silent, calming breath.
She held her hand palm-down over the pool and made a scooping motion. A cup’s worth of water lifted out of the pool as if in an invisible scoop, and hovered about a foot above the pool’s surface.
Then Malkin frowned.
Don’t frown, I thought.Don’t notice anything unusual.
“You said you didn’t have any water magic?” she said.
Mom shook her head.
The ball of water continued to hover. Malkin looked at Poppy. “And you don’t have any water magic.” Her gaze shifted to me. “Have you borrowed any water magic lately?”
“Me?” Truth and lies fought a lightning battle. Which one would stop her from asking more questions? Which would be easier to defend? “No,” I said.
“Funny,” Malkin said, tilting her hand and making the water roll over like one of Jester’s rubber balls. “There’s a magic signature in the water I’ve never seen before. And I know all the water witches in the LWW.” She released the water and let it fall.
The sudden splash made Poppy jump.
“Azure will want to know about this,” Malkin said.
“Will she?” Poppy asked. “Surely it’s nothing worth bothering her with.”
Malkin snorted. “If there was an unknown witch’s signature in your house, would it bother you?”
There was no way out but the truth. I was never going to get invited to a tea party again. “You have a ghost,” I blurted.
Plink. Plink. Plink.
Damn those water droplets. They were starting to get to me.
