Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser Series) by Meghan Ciana Doidge Page A
Authors: Meghan Ciana Doidge
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Rusty’s right wrist anyway.
The magic in the circle bloomed, and the image of the crow resolved into a solid figure. I gasped. The crow turned its head toward me.
“Oh my God,” Rusty said.
The crow opened its beak and cried at me. A full-throated scream of a caw. I flinched and dropped Rusty’s wrist. The image — it had to just be an image, right? — flickered and the crow disappeared.
“Did you see that?” Rusty cried. “It looked so damn real!”
I looked down at the bowl of water before me, shaken but emboldened. I drew my knife.
“Jade,” Rusty said, some cautionary but unspoken warning in his tone.
When I looked up at Sienna, she just nodded for me to continue. I pierced the tip of my left forefinger with my knife. The blade was so sharp it didn’t even hurt. I reached into the circle, feeling the magic moving around my arm, inviting but not aggressive.
I squeezed a drop of my blood into the bowl of water. It barely broke the surface tension, instead shimmering across the liquid in a blurred ripple. I leaned forward in anticipation, expecting — hoping really — that an image would resolve itself out of the drop of diluted blood. It would tell me who I was, somehow negating — or perhaps supporting — the vampire’s claims of my magic and birth.
I waited, forgetting to breathe, as the magic swirled around and around the blood in the water. Then the shimmer brightened into a glow. A small pinpoint of light rose out of the water, hovering about an inch above and then slowly growing until it was the size of a golf ball and hovering at chest height. I peered at the glowing sphere, not knowing if it was made of water, or blood, or magic … I guessed that it must be a combination of all three. It hovered as if patient, pulsing lightly … in time with my heartbeat, I realized with a flicker of fear. This was not what I had expected. A bowl of water was usually used to scry. Not by me, of course — that magic was beyond my ability, but —
“Command it, Jade,” Sienna said, her whisper breaking my focus on the glowing magic ball.
I hesitated, knowing it was important to convey exact intention with my wording.
“It’s in the circle, Jade. We’re warded. Command it,” Sienna repeated.
Something wasn’t quite right with her assessment of the situation, but I was too enamored with the idea of knowing my true self, and I ignored the nagging worry.
“Show me,” I said. “Show me who I am.”
The glow brightened and grew to the size of a tennis ball. It wavered as if observing me. I waited for it to resolve into an image. I waited for the spell to reveal some secret hidden in my blood. The secret the vampire suggested he could discern with a single taste.
Suddenly, the glowing sphere streaked toward me. Fueled by my blood, it slipped through the barrier of the circle without impediment — I’d never known something like this was even possible, but I realized instantly what had happened. I had stood outside the circle, reaching through and offering my blood to the spell.
I shouted as the light hit my chest, though I saw rather than felt this contact. I screamed and instinctively grabbed my necklace, which was still curled on the ground by my right knee. Without thinking much about it, just reacting in fear, I reached my left hand to my chest as if I could actually grab at the magic that sat there, glowing on my sternum and pulsing with my heartbeat. Perhaps it was waiting for further instruction. Perhaps it was attempting to answer my command on a level I didn’t understand.
I grasped the magic and pulled it from my chest. It had grown to the size of a baseball. I didn’t stop to wonder at my sudden ability to hold this kind of power in the palm of my hand — not that I had ever tested such a thing. No, scared out of my mind, I simply flung the magic back away from me … behind me.
I was shaking, but the reveal spell hadn’t hurt or harmed me. My heart was
The magic in the circle bloomed, and the image of the crow resolved into a solid figure. I gasped. The crow turned its head toward me.
“Oh my God,” Rusty said.
The crow opened its beak and cried at me. A full-throated scream of a caw. I flinched and dropped Rusty’s wrist. The image — it had to just be an image, right? — flickered and the crow disappeared.
“Did you see that?” Rusty cried. “It looked so damn real!”
I looked down at the bowl of water before me, shaken but emboldened. I drew my knife.
“Jade,” Rusty said, some cautionary but unspoken warning in his tone.
When I looked up at Sienna, she just nodded for me to continue. I pierced the tip of my left forefinger with my knife. The blade was so sharp it didn’t even hurt. I reached into the circle, feeling the magic moving around my arm, inviting but not aggressive.
I squeezed a drop of my blood into the bowl of water. It barely broke the surface tension, instead shimmering across the liquid in a blurred ripple. I leaned forward in anticipation, expecting — hoping really — that an image would resolve itself out of the drop of diluted blood. It would tell me who I was, somehow negating — or perhaps supporting — the vampire’s claims of my magic and birth.
I waited, forgetting to breathe, as the magic swirled around and around the blood in the water. Then the shimmer brightened into a glow. A small pinpoint of light rose out of the water, hovering about an inch above and then slowly growing until it was the size of a golf ball and hovering at chest height. I peered at the glowing sphere, not knowing if it was made of water, or blood, or magic … I guessed that it must be a combination of all three. It hovered as if patient, pulsing lightly … in time with my heartbeat, I realized with a flicker of fear. This was not what I had expected. A bowl of water was usually used to scry. Not by me, of course — that magic was beyond my ability, but —
“Command it, Jade,” Sienna said, her whisper breaking my focus on the glowing magic ball.
I hesitated, knowing it was important to convey exact intention with my wording.
“It’s in the circle, Jade. We’re warded. Command it,” Sienna repeated.
Something wasn’t quite right with her assessment of the situation, but I was too enamored with the idea of knowing my true self, and I ignored the nagging worry.
“Show me,” I said. “Show me who I am.”
The glow brightened and grew to the size of a tennis ball. It wavered as if observing me. I waited for it to resolve into an image. I waited for the spell to reveal some secret hidden in my blood. The secret the vampire suggested he could discern with a single taste.
Suddenly, the glowing sphere streaked toward me. Fueled by my blood, it slipped through the barrier of the circle without impediment — I’d never known something like this was even possible, but I realized instantly what had happened. I had stood outside the circle, reaching through and offering my blood to the spell.
I shouted as the light hit my chest, though I saw rather than felt this contact. I screamed and instinctively grabbed my necklace, which was still curled on the ground by my right knee. Without thinking much about it, just reacting in fear, I reached my left hand to my chest as if I could actually grab at the magic that sat there, glowing on my sternum and pulsing with my heartbeat. Perhaps it was waiting for further instruction. Perhaps it was attempting to answer my command on a level I didn’t understand.
I grasped the magic and pulled it from my chest. It had grown to the size of a baseball. I didn’t stop to wonder at my sudden ability to hold this kind of power in the palm of my hand — not that I had ever tested such a thing. No, scared out of my mind, I simply flung the magic back away from me … behind me.
I was shaking, but the reveal spell hadn’t hurt or harmed me. My heart was
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