Page 8 of The Hocus Pocus Handbook

“I’m sure you’ve gathered that they rounded you up to use you against Thea.”

“I did suspect that,” he admits.

“But do you know what they’re planning for her?” There’s a limit to how much I should stick my neck out, even for Thea.

She’s…good. In the way that few are among our kind. I witnessed her joy at setting the pookas free. And it’s not the first such valiant stunt she’s performed. No, she’s infamous in the Winter Court for toeing right up to the line, weighing her worth against how much she can annoy Liskaal with her small rebellions. My cousin uses her as he uses everyone, and I don’t wish to see her bright light dimmed.

“Not the particulars as such.”

“I can only advise you to encourage her to cooperate. There will be dire consequences otherwise.” That’s all I can say with so many prisoners listening to my words.

“Will they ask something of her that she cannot bear?”

How am I supposed to answer that? I lift a shoulder. “If you want her safe, ensure she understands that this choice isn’t a choice at all.”

I turn then, leaving Mudge to consider what he’ll do to keep his daughter from harm. I hurry through the dim corridor, not breathing deeply until I touch the control stone to the crystal and appear on the other side behind Mel, who slurps up the last of his meal.

“Finished?”

“Yes.”

I depart without another word and retrace my route. On emerging from the recessed staircase, I hear footsteps, a larger group making their way toward the prison annex. Just in time, I slip around the corner of the building, hiding out of sheer instinct. I narrowly avoid encountering Thea and her guards. For as long as I have known of her—and she’s grown up dashing in and out of the Winter Court—I have never seen Thea thus. The sight of her leaves me reeling, and I stumble against the cool stone, damp moss cool against my fingertips.

In such finery, others might find her beautiful. To me, she is the essence of sorrow.

They have polished and plaited the wildness out of her. Her face has become haunting, heartbreaking because she is pale and glittering, la belle dame sans merci from that old human verse. The handmaidens have plastered over her vitality, confining her, enforcing her smallness in a gown that makes her resemble everyone else in the Winter Court. Until this moment, I didn’t realize how much I cherished her fierceness. Now that it’s gone, I feel the lack in a bone-deep ache, searing loss married to a weeping wound.

She passes so very close to me that I smell the sweetness of crushed flower petals and the woody herbs that must have been in her bath; I breathe the honey in the cream they massaged into her skin. If I reached out from my hidden vantage, I could graze the sleek fabric of her dress.

The wan light of a distant lamp finds her face; Thea is not smiling. Living at court will destroy her, one way or another. The spiderlings have shown me glimpses of documents and of secret meetings. I have a grim feeling down in my bones.

Now she’s gone, marching down into darkness.

Erdene flashes a cunning look in my direction, as if she knows I’m lurking in the shadows. But then, I am always lurking in the shadows.

I wonder if Thea knows how long I’ve taken joy in her tiny rebellions.

I wonder if she knows how long I’ve loved her.

5

A Spell for Luck and Light

Sometimes we turn our magic to blessings for others, those we hold most dear. There will likely come a time when you wish to shield someone and keep them safe. To attract all manner of bright and beautiful things. In truth, I cast this spell for Rain and Fen when their daughter was born. Soon after, they discovered your true nature, and then you came to me, precious gem. Goodness cast in a wide net comes back to us sevenfold, you see.

I’ll write out the working I use to send fortune and fair winds to those I adore. Strongest cast at the height of light.

You’ll need:

A piece of sharp green jade

One white beeswax candle

A large bay leaf

A golden censer

Take up the jade like a pen, the leaf like paper, and etch your wish for protection or luck or blessings, whatever wonderful boon you wish to bestow on your loved one. Craft it carefully and be specific. Leave no room for misunderstandings. Once I wrote that someone I cared for should never stop laughing. You can imagine how that was twisted, most unpleasant indeed. Even with the best of intentions, there will always be a spark of mischief in our magic, a yearning toward trickster trades and leading folks astray.