The Trouble with Spells

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

    "I've come to spring the captive free," Grandma Mullins said with a smile as she stepped through the door. "Vance called me and said I better hurry, that a massive interior redesign was taking place, spurred on by boredom and magical experimentation."

    So Vance had been keeping mental tabs on me from school during the morning. That made me feel good—even if he was spying without my knowledge.

    "I'm quite happy with my work to be honest." I grinned. "Would you care to come have a look?"

    "Sure, why not?" Grandma followed me to my bedroom.

    "Wow. Green. It's a good color. When dealing with magic, green symbolizes balance and healing. It's a very good choice."

    "Is that why you use it for the labels on the bottles in your store?" I asked, curiously.

    "It is," she replied with a smile. "Is that where you got this color from?"

    I nodded. "I've always loved your prettily labeled bottles."

    "You must be naturally attracted to it. With all that's been going on in your life, you probably could use some balance and healing . . . , which actually brings me to my other reason for coming over."

    "What's that?"

    "I need to make some more things for the store. I was wondering if you wanted to come spend the rest of your time out of school with me. I could teach you how to make some of my favorite potions and lotions. Babs is going to cover the register for me. I figured we could work at my house where things might be a bit safer, since it has the same type of protection charms your dad has here."

    "That sounds lovely," I replied with a sigh of relief. "I've been going crazy. The time passes so slowly. That's how all this experimentation began," I explained. "I was trying to make it through until lunch, but then Vance said he wouldn't be coming back. I didn't know what to do with myself."

    "Well, it doesn't look like it's been a bad thing. I'm glad you decided to try some things out. It's how you'll learn." She turned to walk out of the room. "I need to go get some herbs from your dad's office that he picked up for me. Why don't you grab some of your stuff, and we'll get going. You might as well spend the nights there too. Then we can work whenever we want, and I won't have to worry about you being here alone."

    I packed a small bag of things for myself, while sending a mental message to Vance about what I was doing. He told me to have fun and said he'd meet me at Grandma's after school. When we pulled in front of Grandma's house, we saw my dad had just arrived also.

     "Hello, Sean," she called to him with a wave as she exited her vehicle. "What brings you here?"

    "Can we talk?" He inclined his head toward the house looking very serious. A wave of apprehension washed over me. Something was wrong.

    "Sure. Let's go inside," she replied, leading the way, and soon Dad and I settled in the living room, watching her light a couple candles before she sat down across from my dad.

    "Is there news, Sean?" She leaned forward in her chair, getting right to the point.

    "There is. One of my sources found some activity in the area of Albuquerque. I believe it may be the person we've been looking for. If it is, he already moved on from this new location, but it puts him significantly closer to our position. I think we should call Marsha and Vance and see what we need to do from here."