Rise and Divine by Lana Harper

Author:Lana Harper [Harper, Lana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

“Someone built a wall in that chick’s head.”

We sat on my screened-in back porch, watching the light rain that had begun to fall. The festivities wouldn’t be affected; there were so many meteorological spells in place at the family demesnes that it was a wonder the Blackmoores had time to be casting anything else. But over here, in the unprotected area near the north end of the Witch Woods, what looked like a thunderstorm was gathering, gunmetal clouds churning above us. It rarely stormed in Thistle Grove, but when it did, the fall weather brought the appropriate melodrama. The kind of lightning-struck backdrop befitting a cackling crone bent over a bubbling cauldron.

I could already smell the tang of ozone crackling in the air, along with the delicious petrichor that mingled so well with the Witch Woods’ damp mulch. Every once in a while I even caught a draft of the wild garlic that grew in the woods, a pungent, nearly skunky odor that had become an acquired taste.

Before settling in out here, we’d dropped Amrita’s car off at Saanvi’s. But despite her earlier urgency Ivy had been uncharacteristically quiet as she drove us back, still mulling over what she’d felt.

“I’m sorry,” I said now, “did you say a wall?”

“Yes, and not just a wall. A hot one,” Ivy elaborated, making a face. “That shit felt like pressing your hands against a furnace on full blast.” She winced, turning over her unmarked palms to examine them. “It’s not like anything I’ve ever felt before, I’ll tell you that much right now.”

“But Avramov magic is almost always cold. I’ve never known a glamour to feel hot,” I mused, bewildered. “Especially not an oblivion glamour. It doesn’t make sense.”

“No,” Ivy agreed grimly. “That, it does not.”

“And you don’t think it’s something mundanely medical? Some neural condition that might register that way to your, uh, magical scanner?”

“Almost definitely not. Whatever that was, according to my magical scanner, it wasn’t mundane.” She shuddered a little, curling her hands into fists. “It wasn’t anything I’ve ever sensed before, and certainly nothing from the Grimoire. But magic for damn sure.”

“Do you think you’d even know if it were an Avramov working? Some vestigial remnant of last night’s glamour, maybe, like what happened to Delilah?”

“I can’t be sure, obviously. But I do know Delilah’s mind never felt that way, and I’d be able to tell if there were parallels. I used to spend hours with her, trying to balance her out a little. She was a whole mess, but it was nothing like that.”

We heaved sighs in weary unison, then caught each other’s eyes and shared a little smile. Beyond the screen, the rain had begun to fall harder, in a needling sheet that lanced sideways and made the screen tremble with each lash. We were both already wrapped in the fuzzy blankets I kept on my rocking chairs, but I felt a little chill course through me at the next damp waft of breeze that blew over my face.

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