Page 43 of Witch You Would
Zeke grinned and tossed a ball at me. I caught it, and the light in my hands cast rainbows all over my shirt and our table.I took a bite. Holy shit, it was good.
“You wanna try it?” I asked Penelope, holding up the ball.
Penelope hesitated, then leaned in. I expected her to take it from me, but instead she ate it out of my hand. Her eyes gotbig like she was surprised, and she gave a throaty little moan that went straight to my cock.
Down, boy. “Awesome, right?”
“It’s super good.”
“Here.” I handed it to her. “I’ll steal another one.”
She grinned. “Don’t cry at me later if they run out.”
Not a problem. Her smile was worth giving it up.
Now it was Felicia and Charlotte’s turn. The spell was cool enough, I guess, a swirling mass of tiny crystals that moved upand down and around a central spoke. The casting circle must have been incredibly complicated to handle the motion path andthe looping. It also made a rushing, tinkling sound, somewhere between a waterfall and a wind chime.
Honestly, I zoned out because I didn’t give a shit about those two witches, and also I kept sneaking looks at Penelope whileshe ate the rest of the disco ball. She seemed to be having a religious experience. I hoped Liam wasn’t hating all the chewingsounds coming from her mic. When she finished, she had a tiny dab of mascarpone on her nose; I indulged in a fantasy of lickingit off, then kissing the flavor out of her mouth. Thank goodness I was wearing boxer briefs and loose pants.
Fabienne thought the light was good, Doris thought it was great, Hugh thought it was technically impressive but lacking creativity.Seriously, did they plan that in advance, or did it come naturally to them?
No time to think about it now. It was our turn.
I let Penelope carry the teapot to the table. Our sigil decorations weren’t as nice as Amy and Jaya’s piano, but they weresolid. Hopefully the spell itself would be impressive enough that we wouldn’t get kicked in this round.
Syd gestured at the table. “Tell us about your spell, yellow team.”
Penelope looked at me, and I stuck out my chin at her. Talk!
“We call it ‘Tempest in a Teapot,’” she said.
“Leandro’s idea, I presume?” Hugh asked.
“Only the name!” I grinned and wagged my head from side to side.
“It activates when you put on the lid and turn it.” Penelope demonstrated, then stepped back. The lights went out and we waited.
A trickle of smoky light drifted out of the teapot’s spout. It took longer than I expected to thicken into a cloud. Probablyneeded more time in the fridge. Smelled good, though, just like Penelope planned, a mix of that earthy scent after it rained,a fresh ocean breeze and a hint of night-blooming jasmine. Once it reached critical mass, covering the whole area inside thecontainment circle, the glow was nice and bright—like night during a full moon, but the clouds were doing all the shining.Then the sparks started, bursting inside the floating mass like tiny fireworks, lightning without thunder.
“Does this conclude your spell?” Syd asked.
“One more phase,” Penelope said. “Then it loops.”
I had just enough time to worry the next part wouldn’t trigger, when finally it did. Streams of color shot down from the clouds, greens and pinks and violets that shimmered and shifted like thinshafts of vertical aurora borealis. When Penelope had described her idea to me, it sounded nice, but this was great. Like a magical laser show, but softer, more natural.
The cycle ended, and the colored lights stopped, then the sparkles, leaving just the glowing clouds. That was my cue.
“Presto!” I said, and took a bow. I gestured at Penelope, who fake smiled and curtseyed, fingers pinching her imaginary skirt.
The judges came for us now, checking out the spell from underneath, circling the teapot like sharks sniffing for blood. Thequestions started biting: What did we use to form the clouds? And the lightning effects? How were the scents added? How longwould it persist before dissipation? What if it needed to be dissolved prematurely? Were any of the components toxic if inhaledor ingested? Was it flammable?
Penelope answered most of the questions, which I was totally good with. Leandro Presto was supposed to be a himbo; rule numbertwo, stay in character.
Maybe more importantly, if Penelope was going to have a chance at getting hired after this, she had to prove she could hang.She couldn’t do that if everyone thought I was coming up with the spell ideas or the techniques to implement them, himbo ornot.
Eventually the questions stopped, the judges retreated for final comments, and the spotlights came back on. I wanted to grabPenelope’s hand, but I settled for a quick arm bump and a smile. She smiled back, her usual fake one, barely hiding the facetwitches trying to break through like lightning.
“This is an interesting variation on fog or smoke effects,” Fabienne said. “The cycling works well to keep the spell from becoming static too quickly. Some minor sound element might have been awelcome addition, though it could easily annoy depending on what is chosen.”
