Free Corruption (Grumpy Old Wizards Book 2) by John O'Riley

in.
    “They’re a bunch of isolationists. There’s always a price to pay in closed communities like that,” Josephine said.
    When the weekend came, Josephine took her first close look at the instructions for the enchantment that Lorcan had given her. She spread the papers out on her dining room table and studied the diagrams with care. After a painstaking hour, she was ready to start her work. Josephine went to the antique desk and pulled out five cluster quartz crystals from the supplies drawer. Even with the inordinate power she could generate, Josephine realized this would take every single damned night for her to finish this project in three weeks. Of course, she didn’t plan on giving these to him anyway.  On the other hand, Josephine suspected he would find out if she just didn’t do anything at all. He might have a way of detecting the signature energy of these enchantments from a distance. That was entirely possible and she couldn’t risk the lives of her friends and family.
    Josephine placed the crystals in a backpack with care then drove down to a bank on Beach Road that was only a few blocks from the Siesta Key beach and its vortex. She parked her car and placed the crystal on the passenger seat. She reached out and tapped into the vortex knowing that no one would suspect what she was doing. Category five wizards had the ability to link with a vortex but had to be within thirty feet. Josephine had discovered weeks ago that she could accomplish this feat from more than two miles away. She took another look at the instructions and then placed her hand over the first crystal and began tuning the energy matrix of the enchantment. It took great precision as these were the most complex magical constructs Josephine had ever worked on. After an hour, Josephine called it quits and with the added boost in energy, estimated that she was two weeks into the project which was more progress than she’d intended.
    Josephine returned to her condo and locked up the crystals in her antique desk. Her cell rang which startled her. Josephine wasn’t used to receiving very many calls from it yet. Flutters of anticipation stirred inside her when she saw it was Mark.
    “Hey, Mark,” Josephine greeted him.
    “Josephine, how are you?”
    “I’m great. I had a good time the other night.”
    “Me, too. I was wondering if you were up for dinner and a movie tomorrow?” Mark asked.
    “Sure. I’d love it,” Josephine said.
    “Great. How about I pick you up at five?”
    “That’s perfect.”
    They said their goodbyes and Josephine still had a wide grin on her face when Alice stopped by for an unexpected visit. The two of them seated themselves on the couch in the living room.
    “I was wondering if you got started on that battery thing,” Alice said.
    “Yes, I finished working on just a little while ago. It takes a lot of power and is very complex,” Josephine said.
    “Can you tell more about its function now?”
    “Lorcan is definitely hiding something from me. They are batteries but they are designed to connect with something. It’s possible that twenty or more could be used as the same time and they are designed to hook into something else even more powerful. I’m not exactly sure what. Maybe a stronger battery that he’ll have me make in the future,” Josephine said.
    “You don’t plan on finishing these devices for him though, do you?” Alice asked.
    “Of course not!”
    “Good.” Alice looked relieved. “I was worried you might just go along with his plans thinking it would be safer to just do what he wants.”
    “I could always report this to the police,” Josephine mused.
    “I never considered that.” Alice’s brows furrowed as she mulled this over. “It would bring everything out into the open. Maybe it would take the pressure off you if the law enforcement and government knew about the secret groups.”
    “It seems like an excellent idea but I can’t help thinking that surely someone else