Page 18 of Charmed

The guilt twisting his expression was all the confirmation I needed. “You hum while you work, which can make it difficult to focus.”

I frowned. “My humming hasn’t seemed to bother you before…or have you been performing such a spell my entire apprenticeship?”

His silence was confirmation enough. If his concentration was so fragile, he should have considered thatbeforegetting an apprentice. I managed to refrain from voicing the accusation, but only just.

“I didn’t mean to bother you; I like to hum while I work.”

“I noticed.” He said nothing more as he reluctantly set aside his quill and gave me his full attention. “Is there something I can help you with?” By his tone he clearly hoped the matter would be an easy one to settle.

Even so, he was being strangely cooperative…which made me suspect he didn’t want me to ask about the contents of his list, a suspicion he confirmed by mumbling a hasty spell to blur the words, masking them from my view. Naturally, his attempts to hide the contents only escalated my unquenchable curiosity.

I debated between going against his wishes in asking about the strange list—something I felt particularly invested in, considering I’d been on it—or taking advantage of his rare undivided attention. Naturally the latter won as I reminded myself that the sooner I mastered my tonic, the sooner I could help my dear brother.

“No matter how many times I attempt it, my brew always ends up the wrong color.”

Wizard Alden approached my simmering cauldron and studied the contents. He dipped his hand in and rubbed a droplet between finger and thumb, then carefully checked my measurements and the size of my minced ingredients. “It was prepared well, so it appears this is a magical theory issue.”

I nearly groaned. He had the annoying tendency to insert magical theory into his lessons at every opportunity, facts that were not only confusing but unbearably dull. “What theory did I fail to pay attention to this time?”

“I suspect it either has to do with the order you added your ingredients, the manner in which you added them, or how you stirred them. I have a book that might help.”

I bit my tongue to stave my protests as he wandered to the shelf. The spellbook perked up at seeing its master’s need and inched itself closer in an effort to draw his attention, but he dismissed it with a pat, causing it to droop in a disgruntled manner.

After rummaging through several shelves he still hadn’t found what he was looking for. “Did you rearrange my books?”

“I did. Your original organization was chaotic.”

“But it wasmychaos. I knew where everything was.”

“ButIdidn’t. It was hindering my studies, considering I don’t yet know how to use a summoning spell to acquire what I need, whereasyoudo.”

He muttered something indiscernible, his tone grumpy and his good cheer all but eclipsed by the same tension I’d observed when I caught him with that mysterious parchment.

“You seem on edge,” I observed. “Is something on your mind?”

At my words his gaze made a sudden dart—not towards me, but to the window. “Of course not. Everything is—”

The remainder of his words were swallowed by a gasp at the glistening light that suddenly flickered into view. As it approached, I saw that it was a glowing butterfly, a creature I now recognized as a standard choice in sending messages between magical beings.

Wizard Alden hurried over to wrench the window open and eagerly snatched the ethereal insect. Upon contact, the butterfly melted into a piece of parchment, which he read frantically, his eyes widening with every word.

“What is it?” I asked.

He seemed to scarcely hear me, his attention entirely eclipsed by his message, while his expression warred between joy and nerves.

“At last, after all this time…it’s finally here.”

And that was the moment when the quiet magical life we’d forged drastically changed.

CHAPTER6

Iwatched warily as Wizard Alden whirled about the room, seizing all manner of books, ingredients, and potions and throwing them into the trunk he’d enchanted to follow him as he packed. It wasn’t the only object trailing him—the spellbook had spent the past hour using every manner of silent persuasion in cajoling its master into bringing it with him, pleas to which Wizard Alden was remaining stubbornly unyielding.

From the moment the wizard had received his message, the formerly quiet magical laboratory had been a whirl of chaos as he prepared for his sudden trip which he’d been nothing but cryptic about. He’d only spared as many words as necessary to explain about a magical competition that, should he win, would allow him to earn a prestigious position on some wizard’s counsel I’d never heard of, let alone understood its details.

All I knew was that this venture would require him to be absent for weeks, likely evenmonths, an arrangement I found myself quite disgruntled by when I was only just getting used to my apprenticeship and still needed help learning the basics of my craft, especially if I hoped to master the healing tonics I yearned to create for Corbin.

“How long is this competition supposed to last?” I asked for the third time.

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