Page 52 of Seven Secret Spellcasters
Mia shook her head. “No, I think I’m going to say something hard to understand, and I don’t want to scare you. So can you have an open mind for a minute?”
Finn took a bite of her bread. “Of course.”
“Finn, I think you come from people who, I mean, a family with witch’s power.” Mia nodded. “I think you’re a witch.”
Finn finished her bread, then sipped her coffee as she considered what Mia was saying. Finally, she nodded and said, “Cool.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
Finn shrugged. When she finally spoke, she chose her words carefully. “I’ve felt different all my life. My mom said my dad was special. I thought she meant I had Asperger’s or something like that. The cat in the library—she’s not real, is she?”
“Peaches is real, but she’s a ghost. We have ghosts in the building too. I’m what they call a kitchen witch. And so is my grandmother.” Mia decided that Abigail and her family needed to decide on when to tell Finn themselves.
“She felt strange. I could feel her weight, then it would disappear and I’d think she’d jumped down, but when I’d look, she’d be there, purring.” Finn got a second slice of bread. “Did she make me sick yesterday?”
Great, now I have to tell her about dragons too.Mia took a deep breath. “Not quite.”
The alarm she’d set on her watch went off as Abigail pulled into the parking lot. “Sorry, I have to run. Abigail’s here. I’ll have her come upstairs. We can finish this talk tonight when you get back from the Lodge.”
“Cool.” Finn pulled a bride’s magazine over and started flipping through it. Then she paused and looked over at Mia. “Does Abigail know about you and the ghost cat?”
Mia smiled as she answered. “Abigail knows everything.”
Downstairs, she filled Abigail in on what they’d talked about. “I left out your status. I thought I’d let you make the decision about telling her that.”
“Dear, we’re in for a penny, we’re in for a pound. But thank you. I’ll talk to her about the situation she finds herself in and what happened yesterday. And I’ll tell her about Buddy and Cerby. If she’s going to stay here, she needs to know to take care of herself.” Abigail held the door open for Mia. “Tell Cleo hi for me.”
Mia was halfway to the coven headquarters when she realized she hadn’t told Abigail where she was heading. Maybe Trent had mentioned it or Cleo. Probably not, but thinking that kept her from worrying about Abigail reading her mind too. Having Trent there before she found out felt weird enough. Having his mother able to hear her thoughts, well, that just felt icky. Oh, the joy of living in the witchy world.
She parked in a two-hour-free space and grabbed her purse. She hurried up the stairs and found herself back inside the large rotunda. She took a deep breath. This place made her happy. Probably something they pumped into the ventilation system, but right now, she didn’t care. She walked over to the desk, where Cleo was on the phone.
When she got off, she smiled and nodded toward the clock. “Five minutes early. I knew I liked you. Come this way.”
Mia followed Cleo past the doorway that hadExamination Roometched on the frosted glass. The hallway looked like they were at Harvard or any Ivy League school. Finally, they stopped at a door labeledSummons and Requests. Cleo opened the door and they walked into a room filled with wooden file cabinets. A table with a pen and paper sat in the middle. There was no attendant.
Cleo indicated that Mia should sit. She pushed the pen and paper closer to her. “So this is based on a simple request system. Write down what you want to know, and the room will provide any file that has at least some of that information. Be as specific as possible. One witch was hurt by falling files one year for requesting all information on illegal spell work. Way too general.”
“Okay, write down what I want, then what? Where do I put the note?” Mia looked around at the file cabinets. “Is there a slot or something?”
“Just write the question and wait. All will be clear soon enough.” Cleo turned and walked toward the door. “I’ll be back to get you in forty-five minutes, so you won’t miss your meeting.”
CHAPTER21
Mia sat and thought for a few minutes, then wroteTrent Majors and familiar reports to the national officeon the page. As she set down her pen, one piece of paper materialized on the table. She tentatively pulled it toward her and read the paragraph. She wrote down the date and the person who filed the report,Marsha Fieldstone, coven familiar coordinator, then tried to summarize the report. It confirmed what she and Trent had assumed. The Goddess had sent Trent, listed as inactive, a familiar named Cerby, whose breed was listed as Maltese, followed by a question mark.
Mia glanced at the back of the page, but there was nothing else there. She took the paper and pen that Cleo had given her. It was now blank. “Okay, then, more specific.”
She wrote,An investigation request into Trent Majors into why a familiar was provided to an inactive witch. Maybe using their terminology would give her more information. She set the pen down. She’d been right. This time four more pages appeared.
Mia took her pen and wrote a number one on the report she’d read, then numbered the others consecutively. She picked up the page she’d labeled with a two. It was also from Ms. Fieldstone.Cerby, Trent Majors’s familiar, has been invited to hellhound training with McMann Hellhound Training and Boarding.She questioned why the Goddess would send a hellhound to an inactive member of the coven.
Again, Ms. Fieldstone’s report had been short and factual.
The next request came from Brandon Marshall. As the board president, it made sense that he would have asked for an investigation. He probably read all of Ms. Fieldstone’s reports. Or he had someone in his office read them. The request was short and to the point. It requested an investigator to establish whether Cerby had been placed correctly and determine the possibility of a delivery error. That made Mia blink. Even if Cerby should have been sent to Levi, there would be no way Trent would give up the little guy willingly. He loved his pocket puppy.
She wrote down Brandon’s name and the date of the request in her notebook. This wasn’t telling her anything she couldn’t have guessed herself.
Finally, she read the correspondence she’d marked as number five.The investigator will arrive next week.
