The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga by Taliesin Govannon (important books to read .txt) 📕

“I see the energy of the paths the ski-balls have taken.” I said, my voice still full of wonder.

                “See if you can feel them.”

                I reached out, and I could feel a resistance where the thickest lines were.

                “I can feel it!”

                “Good.  Now look for the energy line that leads to the ten thousand point goal."

                I did a quick visual search and found it.  It wasn’t as thick as the lines that led to forty, one hundred, or two hundred point goals, but it was far thicker than the thousands of misfires that made a crazy spider-web of energy.

                I didn’t need to be told what to do.  I rolled the ball along the energy line like I was rolling it up a hill, and it sailed effortlessly into the ten thousand point goal.

                “That was… easy.” I said, my eyes wide.  The grin didn’t leave my face the entire time.

                “Now let’s work on getting you there faster.”

                                                                                                *                *                *

                “Giant spiders.”

                Jack took a hit from the joint and shook his head.  He handed it to me, and I followed suit.

                “Giant fucking spiders.  Jesus Christ on crack, what will the Lords of ‘screw you’ come up with next?”  Jack grinned in spite of himself.  “Though, you guys took care of shit really fast.  I saw the whole thing on the monitors.  It was impressive.”

                I glanced to the wall opposite Jack's main desk, where the main screen was now surrounded by multiple smaller monitors.  Each displayed the view of a different security camera, the night vision mode they were in making everyone look an eerie green.

                “Yeah, well, they would have made short work of me if the others wouldn’t have been there.”  I hit the joint myself, trying to undo the knot in my stomach that reappeared whenever I thought of the last creature charging at me.  “I really need to learn some offensive magic.  Pushing and pulling only works so long.”

                “Did you ever think of pulling one side of an attacker and pushing the other side?" he asked.  "You could, like, literally rip them in half."

                Damn, why didn’t I think of that?!? I exclaimed inwardly.  Outwardly, though, I just raised my eyebrows… the herb was doing its work.  “I never thought of that.  Maybe I should train with you sometime.”

                “I’m an idea guy, not a teacher.” he replied, waving the thought away.  “You could probably ask Evelyn to train you in sword work, though.  She’s pretty good with one, if today’s battle is any indication.”

                “Raina and her made a good team.”  I handed him the now-dead joint, and he re-lit it.

                “Yeah.  Two incredibly hot women completely out of reach for a penis-bearer like myself.” he sighed.

                “So, you’re ready to get back on the horse, dating-wise?”  I hadn’t heard Jack talk about his lack of a significant other since his encounter with a party hook-up turned into a battle with a were-roach earlier in the year.

                “Let’s just say that all of the internet porn in the world can’t always chase away loneliness.”  He hit the joint again.  “Especially with two happy couples around all of the time.”

                I was confused.  “Two?” I asked.  “I mean, there’s me and Vincent, sure.  But Trevor and Evelyn are siblings, and Vincent and Angelique haven’t been romantic in a century or more...”  I trailed off as I saw his face.  He was covering his eyes with his hand.

                “Damn, I really am a stoned idiot.” he said, and looked up at me.  “I’m not supposed to say anything.”

                Say anything about what?  “Dude, I’m sure you realize that there’s no way of backing out of this now, right?”

                He sighed and sat back in his seat.  “Raina has been seeing Rini for a while now.”

                “The Fae magick chick?” I asked, incredulous.  “How long?”

                “Since we went to their realm the first time.”

                “Seriously?”

                “I guess so.  They've been keeping everything on the down-low."

                “How did you find out?”

                “They’ve been using the basement to come and go from the Fae realm.  They tried to do it when I wasn’t here, but they miscalculated and I saw them one time.”

                I was gobsmacked.  Everything made sense, however.  She’s getting so good, so fast, at magick, I  thought, she must be going to the Fae realm to do some serious practicing, in addition to the cuddle-bunny stuff.  With the fact the time doesn’t really exist there, she could have been spending weeks, or even months, there without the rest of us even noticing.

                I have no idea why she had to keep it a secret, but she’s going to have some explaining to do when I see her!

                I looked at Jack and suddenly noticed that he was glued to the monitors.  Glancing over, I saw a white shape flicker across one of the screens.

                “What’s that?” I asked.

                “I was wondering the same thing.” he replied.  “Whatever it is has crossed four monitors.”

                “Which ones?”

                “Two, four, six, and eight.”

                “Put number ten on the main screen.”

                He typed furiously, and the feed from monitor ten popped on the giant screen.  The back patio sat empty, not even a breeze blowing.

                “One of them should be by this camera any second now.” he said, staring.

                “What makes you think that there’s more than one?”

                “These cameras aren't numbered sequentially.  To skip between even-numbered screens would require some acrobatics not seen since I tried to explain why there were rolling papers in my science book in eighth grade."

                We watched for another minute before a faint white shape appeared at the top of the screen.  As it grew closer, I could make out a human shape on the grainy video.

                “Hit the lights.” I said calmly.

                Jack hit a few more buttons and the back patio was flooded with light.  The camera switched from night vision to regular, the green replaced with living color.  Walking