“Mia, I didn’t mean to push. I got carried away.” Blake stood. “Please don’t take offense.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Mia walked to the door. “Now, unless you have some work issue to talk about, I need to get back to my office. So much to do. Thanks for the coffee, though.”
Blake just waved as she left. Thank the Goddess Mia hadn’t drunk any of the coffee. It probably didn’t have a potion in it, but with the compel spell she felt coming from Blake, she was glad she didn’t take the chance. Her boss was testing her, and Mia didn’t like it.
The bad part was that right now, she needed the money.
Unless the allowance for level five was more than she expected. But if she counted on that money, she’d still be under someone else’s thumb.
Mia went back to her office. Christina looked up from the book she’d been reading. “You feel like you’regoing to set something on fire. I take it the meeting didn’t go well.”
“She tried to compel me to answer a question.” Mia sat behind her desk and checked her calendar. “Look, I’m upset, so let’s just go back to the house. Nothing pressing is on my plate right now, which is weird, but I’m not looking this gift horse in the mouth. Maybe I won’t feel like blowing up Blake tomorrow morning.”
“We could do a yoga practice,” Christina said as she gathered her things. “Yoga always calms me down. Especially after I chat with my mom for a few minutes.”
“Sure, let’s do some yoga.” Mia set her email to Out of Office with a note to text her cell in an emergency, then she shut down her computer. She would try again tomorrow. Besides, she would soon have a pile of copies of memos to go through from Cleo.
As they walked out of the Lodge, a light snow was falling around them. On impulse, Mia turned to Christina. “Hey, do you want to go to coven headquarters with me? Two people going through those memos should be faster, and that way no one can filter our findings. I don’t think Cleo has sent them to the house yet.”
“Can I go?” Christina leaned her head up and let the snowflakes hit her face. “I love Magic Springs, even in winter.”
“I think the name explains it all.” Mia thought about Christina’s question as she walked over to her friend’s Land Rover. “I guess we’ll see if your magical heritage is enough to get you a day pass. Otherwise, you can drop me off and then come back when I call you.”
“Sounds groovy either way. I’m curious to see what headquarters look like. It’s not every day you find a place where magic is regulated.” Christina turned on the SUV, then pushed buttons. “Heated seats, heated steering wheel. We might need a place where we can sit and go through what we find, if anything. If I can’t get in, I’ll wait for you in the car. I’ve got some work and a book.”
When they arrived at coven headquarters, Cleo was standing outside and waved them both inside. “If it isn’t our latest level five. I don’t think we’ve had a kitchen witch test out so fast for centuries. Gloria might have been our last one. She was a level seven the last time they tested her. She might be higher now. Christina Adams, welcome. Are you here to do some genealogy?”
“Actually, if you haven’t copied those memos, we’d love to look at them here. At least until the roads get bad.” Mia held out her hand for a snowflake to land.
“Oh, this is just a gift from the Goddess. The roads will be fine tonight.” Cleo held the door open for them. “I haven’t bundled the memos yet. I’ve been distracted with this gift.”
Mia headed inside and heard Christina’s audible gasp. “It’s beautiful, right? Cleo decorated it,” Mia said. The room looked like it had been lifted from a high-end hotel lobby in Greece, not from any current building. She half expected centurions and satyrs to walk through the room as they talked, if not bunnies or deer.
“I swear I was in this building a few years ago and it looked like the DMV. Of course that was what I waslooking for. A woman sent me two buildings down.” Christina spun around, taking in all the angles. “This is breathtaking.”
“I’m glad you like it. When humans enter, they have a different experience than anyone with witch heritage. You must be special to be able to see this now, before your first test. How long have you known about your history?” Cleo headed over to the counter and grabbed a set of keys. “Follow me, I’ll get you set up in a request room. Christina, please let Mia lead you here. Making the right request makes all the difference.”
“I’m learning that there are a lot of things I need to understand.” Christina smiled at Cleo. “I’ve known about my family history for a while, but I never realized that I could have any talent. My mother—my adopted mother, I should say—thought magic wasn’t real. She thought it was a fun party trick, but not something serious to study, like art or music.”
Mia laughed. “I don’t think Roxanne thought my gift was fun or a party trick at all. She would have died of embarrassment if any of her friends had found out her son had married someone who ‘believed’ themselves to be a witch. Off to the mental hospital for that daughter-in-law.”
“Witches have been persecuted for their beliefs for years. Only in recent history could someone call themselves Wiccan without being seen as crazy or worse, a devil worshipper. Our Goddess is definitely not evil.” Cleo shook her head. “I’m wasting your time. You have other tasks ahead of you today. Come, let me get you settled.”
After Cleo had left them in a request room, Christina sat at the table. Like the last time Mia came for information, the room was empty except for the table and, now, two chairs along with two pens and notebooks. “I don’t understand. Does someone else come and get your request?”
Mia smiled and shook her head. “Keep your hands inside the car, kids. The ride is about to begin.”
Christina watched as Mia picked up a pen and, after a minute, wrote down these words:All correspondence between anyone in the Magic Springs coven and the National Office regarding Mia Malone and her testing, including complaints about her level.
She showed the paper to Christina, then pushed it toward the front of the table. It disappeared, and almost immediately paper started floating down to the table. Christina caught one that hit her on the head.
“So, you tell it what you want and the information appears?” Christina glanced at the memo. “Someone doesn’t like you much.”
Mia scanned a few more memos. “I think a lot of people didn’t like my testing. Weird. I would have been happy for someone who tested higher, but these people seem to think in a scarcity mode. If I test higher, they think they don’t get what they want, but nothing could be further from the truth. A rising tide raises all boats, not just mine.” Mia started stacking the negative emails. There were a lot of complaints, including one that surprised her. Thomas Majors had sent a memo complaining that Mia’s level made it harder for people who were raised in the magic community. “Seriously? I wonder if Abigail knows about this.”
“If she doesn’t, she needs to. Thomas can have his own opinion, but he needs to be honest to your face if he feels like you’re taking jobs away from his son.” Christina bit her lip. “Except Levi isn’t looking for a job with the Magic Springs coven. When this was written, we were in Portland and he was looking for a job with a fire station. Mia, I’m not sure this is real.”
CHAPTER19