Chapter One – Having a Bad Spell
Present Day—Galdorheim Island, somewhere in the Barents Sea
Kat ran up the steps of the schoolhouse as a flash of red light pulsed from the space beneath the front door. A screech of girlish laughter followed by shouts of “yes!” and “whoa!” got louder when she pulled the door open. Her heart sank. Dang it. Late again.
A muffled bang accompanied by puffs of red and violet smoke billowing out from the back of the room gave her cover to rush to the last available seat. When the smoke cleared, Kat rolled her eyes, barely controlling a snort. Her brother Rune’s used-to-be vampire bat now clung to his finger chirping angrily while his best friend’s was-a-rat now stared with hungry eyes at it in the temporary form of a scruffy gray cat.
Unfazed, Miss Mariah cleared her throat and glared at the boys. “Would you please wait for everyone else?” Rune and Dalton grinned at each other and transformed their respective familiars back to their original forms.
Grow up, bro. Really! Kat thought, but a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She was proud of Rune’s mad skills, since she couldn’t spell herself out of a beanbag chair. She knew she had the power; everybody knew it. What she lacked was control. Every spell she tried to cast went wrong in the most disastrous way.
Rune’s bat flapped to the rafters and hung upside down, glaring down at his owner. Rune dodged a drop of guano, picked up his wand, and tapped it on the desktop. With a high-pitched squeak, the bat dropped to the desk and folded its wings, but it didn’t look happy.
Miss Mariah muttered, “Fiksu aasi noita.” She watched Kat as she hunched over and dropped her book bag on the floor. “Nice of you to join us, Katrina. See me after class about your tardiness.”
She faced the class. “Now then, please take out your chalk and wands for today’s lesson, which is,” she shot a semi-annoyed look at Rune and Dalton, “transformation.” The Wiccan students rustled bags and whispered to each other while they did as told.
When the witches and warlocks in training looked up, she continued. “Although some students can transform without benefit of pentagram and wand, those of you who are beginners, or less motivated—” she paused and gave Kat a hard look, “must practice first with the proper equipment.”
Kat’s face warmed, and she sank lower into her chair. Heaving a sigh, she set her brown bunny, Teddy, on her desktop and fumbled in her bag for her spell book, yew wood wand, and chalk.
Merry, the curly-haired blonde witch sitting next to Kat, waved her arm in the air.
“What is it, Merry?” Miss Mariah asked.
“Can you make Katrina sit somewhere else? Whenever she’s near me, my spells don’t work right. She’s a jinx.”
The class snickered. Kat grimaced at Merry. If I got my hands on her…aw, what’s the use?
“No, everybody stays right where they are,” Miss Mariah snapped. She pasted on a fake smile and continued in a treacle-sweet voice. “Now, class, draw the pentagram on your desktop and place your familiar in its center.”
The younger students practicing their first transformations looked to the board where, under Miss Mariah’s control, the chalk drew a practice pentagram stopping short of completing the last of the five points. She tapped the board. “An unattended pentagram can cause all sorts of problems, the least being a tusser or tomte taking advantage of an open gateway. They’re harmless for the most part but like to play tricks. So be prepared with your spell before completing the pentagram.” More than one kid smudged an opening in their already drawn star.
“Children, you must focus. Don’t let yourselves get distracted.” Miss Mariah adjusted a child’s grip on his wand as she walked by.
Merry curled her lip and hissed, “You’d better not screw me up. If I can’t work this spell right, it’ll be your fault.”
“Tough luck, Merry,” Kat snarled. “If you’re such a great witch, my being here shouldn’t make any difference.”
Turning away from Merry, Kat finished the final leg of her pentagram and set the bunny in the center. “Stay right there, Teddy,” she whispered to her little brown rabbit, setting a chunk of carrot in front of him. He made a dash for the edge of the desk. Kat hauled him back. “Cut it out. You’ll smear my chalk lines.” She stroked his soft fur for a moment. “Hope this works.” He twitched his nose twice, closed his eyes, and hunkered down.
Kat checked her spell book one last time, took a deep breath, and completed the spell with a loud “Fullgerður!” and a dramatic sweep of her arms, just missing Merry’s head with her wand.
Merry shrieked and jumped out of her chair. She glared at Kat while wiping green goo off the side of her face. “Your rabbit stinks. Just like your spellcasting!”
Kat’s mouth hung open for a moment; then she clamped it shut when she glanced down at what was left of Teddy sitting in a pool of slime dripping onto the floor. Merry was right about one thing. The goo smelled like pond scum.
Teddy looked up at his witch with sad, bulging eyes, the top half of a frog’s body floating in the green glop. Kat groaned. Poor, long-suffering Teddy. Green and slimy—that was the good part. The pink nose and floppy ears—not so good. If she couldn’t master transformation and the other mid-level junior spells, she’d be left behind again.
“Katrina, are you sure you’re saying the spell correctly?” Miss Mariah flicked her hand, cleaning up the goo and transforming Teddy back into his normal bunny self. The teacher turned her gaze to Merry with a warning in her narrowed eyes. The girl tightened her mouth but plopped back into her chair without a word.
“Yes, Miss Mariah. I’m sure.” Kat winced at how whiny she sounded even to her own ears. Merry sat with her arms folded tightly over her chest, her gaze tossing imaginary daggers.
Kat stroked Teddy. “Sorry.” The rabbit looked up at her and shrugged.
The teacher stared at Kat, her eyes narrowed and her voice dangerously calm. “Recite the spell again, please.”
Holding her wand over the pentagram, she repeated the spell, omitting the spell’s finishing word. Miss Mariah shook her head. “Katrina, you said îgwaz instead of perßô.”
“Oh. Okay, let me try again. I really did memorize this.” Kat glanced at her spell book, but it had flopped closed. She’d have to rely on her memory. Just great. She raised her wand and spoke the simple spell slowly. Hesitating, she hunched her shoulders then whispered, “Fullgerður.”
A splintering crash echoed through the classroom. Merry’s chair legs collapsed, and the girl fell on her rear end…hard. She let out a loud shriek and shouted, “I told you so! I knew she was a jinx!” The angry blonde witch jumped to her feet and pointed her wand. Kat crouched and covered her head with folded arms. Miss Mariah stood frozen, looking on with wide eyes. Attacking a fellow student with magic meant expulsion from school for the perpetrator and being grounded for about a million years.
Something black swished by Kat in a blur, and suddenly Rune stood between his sister and Merry, his arm raised, wand at the ready. “Don’t even think about it,” he growled at Merry.
Miss Mariah centered her attention on Merry, who screeched again and dropped her wand like a hot potato, which it now happened to be.
“Sit!” Miss Mariah spoke with her command voice, a guttural growl that rattled the windows. Merry dropped on her butt. She snarled then snatched up her fallen wand. She stood slowly holding her hands up in surrender. When Miss Mariah looked away, she kicked the splintered remains of her chair.
The teacher nodded at Rune, a slight smile curling her lips. “Rune, please return to your chair at once.” She stared at Merry again. “Nothing calls for that behavior, young lady. I will notify your parents.” Merry hung her head, but Kat saw the smirk on her face when the girl cast a sidelong glance her direction.
Miss Mariah turned back to Kat. “Are you being difficult on purpose, or were you too forgetful to study your assigned spells?”
Kat groaned. Merry almost slapped a humongous damage
spell on her, but somehow she was the one being blamed. She threw her wand down on the desktop, where it hopped once, then dived into her pack. “Don’t you mean stupid?”
“There’s no need to shout. Perhaps you should practice the spell at home.” Miss Mariah’s lips twisted into a forced smile. “Maybe Rune can help you?”
Kat grabbed her chalk and spellbook, stuffing them into her schoolbag. She tucked Teddy into his carry sling. “That will not be necessary,” she muttered as she headed toward the door. Rune reached out to her as she walked by. She bumped knuckles with him.
She waited impatiently for the school to deploy its front steps to let her out then emitted a squeak when her feet came off the top step, floating her to the ground. Thank the stars for Rune! Once outside, her classmates’ snickering laughter followed her as she stalked away. “What a loser.” “Couldn’t even spell her way out of a wet paper bag.” “You’d think—” Kat jogged then picked up speed. She ran home with tears splattering the cobblestones.
Excerpt from Midnight Oil