Mature Magic 06-What Treachery Is This? by Sam Cheever

Author:Sam Cheever [Cheever, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Electric Prose Publications
Published: 2023-08-15T05:00:00+00:00

I surveyed the vast changes to my back lawn, wondering what the grass would look like after the shifters went home. There were currently close to a hundred of them, many of whom Luke and Ferral seemed to know. When I recognized that connection, I’d sent the two of them into the crowd of Beul’s army to learn what they could learn. I’d figured out in my years working in an office environment, and then later at senior care homes, that it was a mistake to assume those at the top of a given hierarchy always had the most information. Often, their subordinates knew things they didn’t share for many reasons. In this case, a little bit of extra knowledge could mean the difference between succeeding and failing at our task.

Gren had flown to the seer’s compound again to make sure there weren’t any updates to the information the goblin had given us.

Two pentagrams were being carved in the grass within the watching circle of my people and the shifters. One pentagram was made the traditional way, and one inverted. When I learned they’d decided on an inverted pentagram, I’d had a brief breakdown. I’d been told that inverting a pentagram had evil connotations. Unfortunately, for our purposes, it made a certain twisted sense.

The correlation magic would be created and sent into the ether from the pentagram. That was where the two little dogs and Bathilda would be. When the connection was reversed, hopefully pulling the crone back with it, she’d be deposited into the inverted pentagram.

It was a risk. Perhaps a deadly one. But it was a risk I was told we needed to take.

“Are you sure about this, Agnes?” my father asked.

I sighed, the question having become his version of “are we there yet”. “As I said the first ten times you asked, no. I’m not sure. Nothing about this is certain. But we have to do something. And this is what the best minds I know have come up with. So, we’re going with it.”

I returned my attention to the creation of the pentagram nearest me. Bev and Trish were carving the symbol into the grass, and Mavis was directing them to ensure it was correctly done.

I watched Mavis closely, noting the weariness in her movements and the circles under her gray eyes. She was exhausted, and I was going to make her lie down for a while as soon as the symbols were ready.

As if she felt my gaze on her, she looked up and lifted her brows. “Where’s Wanda?” she asked.

I glanced around. The teen had been there moments earlier, petting wraith over by the graveyard. “She was just here. She must have gone inside. Do you need her help?”

Mavis nodded. “We will soon. She found a historical record where dueling pentagrams were used and we need her to look these over to make sure they’re right.”

I nodded. “I’ll go get her.”

The dogs barked and scampered in the graveyard, Wraith looking down on them with feline disgust as they tried to get her to play.

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