The Magician's Mistake (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 1) by Katherine Sparrow Read Free Book Online

all of them, all together … .
    As the chanting grew, and more women took it up, strands of magic began to waft upward and drift toward a far corner of the second floor. I saw something up there, a glowing form in the darkness, small and hunched over. She swayed and held out my amulet which grew brighter as the magic flowed into it. I snarled and waded faster through the crowd. I pushed through the last layer of women, and stood suddenly beside the cage.
    Lila and Adam lay on the ground inside the cage, moaning.
    A woman beside me laughed. “Don’t look so serious, sister. They’re actors. Jennifer always stages elaborate scenes at her rituals.”
    Lila’s hair was plastered to her sweating face and her body jerked and twisted, seizing as bright strands of orange and gold magic were pulled out of her forcefully. Melted eyeliner and mascara gave her raccoon eyes, and her Emily the Strange t-shirt was ripped open at the neck. Beside her lay Adam, naked and half-wolf with wrongly-jointed arms and legs, a wolfish beard, and a snout protruding from his face. His eyes were half-open but unseeing as he yipped and pawed the ground around him. A dog having a bad dream. A very bad dream. His life magic, yellow and tawny, drifted up from him as well.
    I had seen more than enough. I opened my purse and grabbed one of my lightning orbs. I readied to throw it upward. Unless Jennifer was a better witch than I suspected, it would distract her while I rose up toward her and unfurled some true wickedness on her.
    Just before the quartz ball left my hand, I spied a glimmer of magic above the room. A pale brown spell covered the room like a bubble and separated us from the second floor. It blended in with the low light and was nearly invisible. I snarled. The witch had come prepared. The barrier was a fairly simple spell, yet it would be effective at bouncing back any spell I threw in its direction. I would have to find a different way to fight this Jennifer. Or get her to come to me.
    Lila moaned as a too-thick strand of magic came off her. The girl was more than she seemed, and had powers and depths she did not yet know about, but still, she was an entirely mortal creature. And Adam? He howled quietly as his bones popped and creaked. The full moon outside must have been rising. His muscles clenched and his jaw ground together as he turned more wolf than man. Dark strands of tangled magic unfurled from him.
    I had to move fast. I glanced at the nearest exit that led to the stairs and the second floor. It would take time to get there, and more time to dispose of the minion guarding it. Time I didn’t have.
    I took a leaping jump and landed on top of the cage. I yelled, “Hear me, witch. I have come as you have requested. Now free my acolyte and face me, if you dare.”
    A wheezing, hissing laugh filled the air. “Morgan le Stupid. How convenient that you are idiotic enough to have come,” spoke an old woman’s voice. “Initially this was my first necessary act to increase my power before I hunted you down. But now I get to kill all the birds with one stone. Lovely.”
    “Words, words, words,” I said and squinted upward, trying to get a better look at her, but the amulet glowed too bright and hid her form behind it. More magic, more life force, from every woman in the room flowed upward and into the amulet. I raised my hand and touched my pinky to my lips, murmuring “Arnofio”. It activated a levitation spell. Slowly I rose into the air. I held my spelled oak branch in both hands over my head. Its protection would shield me and get me through the magical barrier Jennifer had placed across the ceiling, I thought.
    I’d thought wrongly.
    A thousand bees stinging every inch of my skin would have been pleasant compared to the spell pounding and biting into my person. I growled and pushed, trying, trying to get through to the other side of it.
    I fell out of the air and landed hard on top the cage. Most of me whimpered in pain, but a