Banshee Charmer (Files from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency, #1) by Tiffany Allee Page B

spell.”
    I nodded. “Yeah, got it.”
    She frowned. “I know you must miss your partner. But this is a tricky spell in the best of times. And I require payment regardless of outcome.”
    “Just cast the damn spell.”
    The witch nodded and grabbed Amanda’s brush from the floor and set it next to where she knelt. She pulled a city map from a small stack on the shelf and unfolded it, and then set the paper on the floor to her left. She placed the small metal plate in the middle of the circle, on top of the symbol, and dumped a pile of herbs and small pieces of wood onto of the rough surface.
    Natalie whispered a word and lit a wooden match. “Kneel,” she ordered.
    As I knelt across from her, she tossed the match onto the plate.
    The pile of tinder exploded into a small fire, filling the air with the scent of lemons and sage, which combined with the other scents and made the air rushing into my lungs smell almost medicinal. I let out a small cough to clear the taste from my throat, but it didn’t help.
    Natalie closed her eyes and murmured something I couldn’t make out. She pulled a handful of Amanda’s hair from the brush and tossed it onto the fire. A few more strands went onto the map.
    Holding her palms up in front of her, she waved her fingers at me until I gripped her hands in mine.
    “Close your eyes.”
    I closed them and tried to steady my breathing. The overpowering herbs grew stronger, burning their way down my throat and into my lungs.
    “Concentrate. Visualize your partner, what she meant to you, how much you miss her.”
    Amanda’s face filled my mind’s eye, as if summoned by the witch: her sardonic grin and steady personality, her long hair and devotion to her job. Her wide, unblinking eyes. Her tangled hair hanging over the edge of her bed.
    I swallowed around the lump in my throat.
    “Yes,” Natalie said softly. “Now I will guide your intent. Concentrate on him. The killer who took her from you. Feel how much you need to find him.”
    I forced myself to see her, to picture Amanda. And I thought of him, the man who killed her. How badly I wanted to return the favor. I felt it all. The pain and rage and fear. It was as if Natalie had opened a floodgate, and maybe she had, perhaps that was part of the spell. I didn’t know. I concentrated, blinking back tears that came more from emotion than the heavy burning of herbs in the air, and through it all Natalie hummed.
    The hair on my body pricked up, and I felt goose bumps rise to cover my arms. I heard a buzzing sound, and struggled to keep my focus. The space around us vibrated, and I could no longer smell the herbs. Instead, everything reeked of burnt things. The spell hit me with a blast of energy that skittered its way up my arms and into my body. The air pushed from my lungs as if a great weight pressed against me. I couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t care because the energy felt so good . Painful yet powerful, as if before that moment I’d never felt anything real, only shadows of what living was supposed to feel like. I struggled to keep my focus on Amanda, on her killer. Then, as if someone clicked a light switch, the weight was gone. Nothing crawled up my arms begging to be freed, no energy pulsed through me.
    I gasped and blinked stupidly at the witch, my brain fuzzy from the force of her spell. “Jeez,” I managed after a few moments. “Could’ve warned me.”
    But the witch wasn’t paying attention to me; she was frowning at the map. “Just as I thought,” she murmured.
    “What?” She didn’t answer me, so I reached out and grabbed the map and scanned it. The surface was perfect. No marks scarred it. Nothing showed it hadn’t come new off the shelf only minutes before.
    “I take it something was supposed to happen to this?” I stared at the map. Then I tossed it back down and struggled to my feet. “What happened? I thought you were a powerful witch?”
    She shook her head, and then pushed herself up and dusted off her