Page 57 of A Spot of Tea and Sorcery: Vol. 6

“Oh, do let him by, Rory,” Auntie Arabella said, her voice even sweeter by comparison to her sister’s. “He’s our Luna’syoung man,you know. The one from the, um, the . . .”

Nigel looked in time to see Arabella winking broadly. What that was all about, he scarcely dared guess, but it seemed to have a mollifying effect on her sister. Aurora’s nostrils quivered one last time, but her expression became slightly less militant. “Well,” she said, taking Nigel in again, her gaze lingering on the open front of his shirt. Gods, he really needed to button up. “I suppose you want to know what’s come over our girl.”

He did. He really did. He also wanted to cross that teeny, tiny, cracker-box of a chamber and gather Luna in his arms, press her to his breast, know that she was safe and close, know that he could protect her from all harm. Though, of that last, he wasn’t entirely certain. He’d survived the severmist once again, but it had sapped his strength, and he didn’t know how long it would be before he could safely work another spell. In the meanwhile, he’d have to hope the anti-sorcerer wards set up around this place would work. They hadn’t been strong enough to keephimout, after all. But that might have had more to do with Luna than with any particular power on his part. The wards would have been expressly designed to letherin.

Nigel tore his gaze reluctantly from Luna’s face, trying to focus on stern little Aurora. “What is that spell?” he asked roughly. “The one hovering around her. Do you know?”

“I do,” Aurora answered primly.

“Go on!” Arabella urged with a flap of her hand. “Tell him!”

Aurora heaved a sigh and muttered a brief prayer for fortitude before turning to Nigel again. “It is a spell of awakening.”

Nigel frowned. “But they placed a sleeping spell on her to—”

“Not that kind of awakening, dear,” Auntie Arabella said softly.

Aurora shook her solemn head. “The Brotherhood are seeking to awaken her magic. Specifically, her sorcery. The sorcery which we spent many years suppressing, along with all the rest of the magic in her soul.” She gave Nigel a significant look. “It was my mother, Amelia, who came up with the spell, brewing it into every cup of tea the girl ever drank. By the time she left us, the suppressions were so strong, one almost couldn’t believe she had both Green Magic and Dark in her bloodline.”

“But it’s been a few years now since she took her brew, little sweetness,” Arabella added. Moving to the bedside, she stroked sweaty strands of hair back from Luna’s forehead. “Her sorcerous perceptions must have been coming back already. And now, with this added spell on her, they’re awakening the rest of it quite rapidly indeed.”

Nigel stared down at Luna, seeing the ugly pulse of magic in the aether around her. It all began to make sense in his brain. Luna, as Jastira’s kin, must have been extraordinarily attuned to sorcery, positively brimming with potential. But that potential in itself would make her a target, both for Jastira and for all the rival sorcerous households, eager to stop Jastira’s machinations before they manifested.

“Her parents,” Nigel said softly.

“Her father was a sorcerer,” Arabella supplied. “Peregrine Thorpewillow. Not a Dark Sorcerer, but well-respected in his field. Her mother, our little cousin Cordelia, was a hedge witch. Both gifted in their different ways, gifts which they passed down to their daughter.”

“They were murdered by Dark Sorcerers,” Aurora said, making no effort to temper the harshness of her words. “Afterwards, Luna came to us.” Here, her stern expression softened ever-so slightly as she gazed upon her niece. “My mother and eldest sister were powerful enough, we believed we could keep her safe. They planted the wards, which Arabella and I keep tended, in case our Luna ever chose to come back. It was they who also suppressed her magic—her Green Magic as well as her sorcery, unfortunately.”

This was why, Nigel supposed, Luna always insisted she wasn’t as talented as her aunties. Her potential had been hobbled. On purpose. But it was always there. And after several years of not drinking their suppressive teas, it was coming back, bit by bit. Look at the way she was able to sense those protective wards he’d placed with such subtlety around the shop! Sense them and pry them up from the sidewalk without any apparent effort. That took real power, untrained though it might be.

“Why the awakening spell, though?” Nigel murmured, more to himself than to the aunties. “Why would they want to empower her?”

Arabella immediately looked up at him, her golden curls bobbing around her face. “Why, to make her more habitable for Jastira, I should think.”

Nigel looked at her sharply, horrified to hear the words stated so boldly by such a sugar-cookie kind of voice.

“What?” Arabella blinked innocently back at him. “You think we don’t know all about that?”

“Careful, Bella,” Aurora cautioned. “He’s a sorcerer, remember. He might be in on it.”

“Oh, don’t be silly, Rory,” Arabella answered with a little flip-flap of one hand. “Youknowwho he is! And isn’t he just the cutest?”

Nigel cleared his throat. “So . . . you know about the Brotherhood and their intentions?”

“Oh, we’ve known about that all along. And Jastira’s plans as well. Why else do you think we brought her here? Of course, we were all delighted to have the little cherub in our lives, but before we knew her, it was all quite a practical decision. We wouldn’t want to bring about the destruction of the world for lack of a little hospitality, would we?”

Turning his gaze back to Luna, Nigel wished he dared cross the room and take her hand. She looked so frail, lying there in that patch of fading daylight. But with both the aunties standing in between, he didn’t dare make a move. It was one thing to storm Nocturnus Tower, confronting the worst Dark Sorcerers of the century, but these two tea witches scared him right down to his toes.

“Can you undo the awakening spell?” he asked. “Or reverse it? Put the suppressions back in place?”

Aurora shook her head. “It took years to suppress her magic. It takes very little time to awaken it. To undo the awakening would only cause her great harm. Insanity, perhaps. Or death.”

Nigel’s breath quickened. “What’s to be done, then?”

“We can encourage her Green Magic to awaken too,” Arabella said hastily. “It’s very strong, stronger, perhaps, than her sorcery. Why, back in the day, one would hardly know she had sorcerer blood at all, so brimming was her Green Magic! It might be that, if we let it loose as well, it would overshadow the sorcery and make her a less appealing host to Jastira.”

Nigel nodded, considering. While he had no intention of allowing Jastira’s spirit to come anywhere near Luna Talbot, whatever could be done to offer her just a bit more protection must be worthwhile. “Do it,” he said.