Free Hotter Than Helltown: An Urban Fantasy Mystery (Preternatural Affairs Book 3) by S.M. Reine Page A

“At least you’ve got the good stuff. Let’s get this done.”
    I could whip out potions faster than a greasy Slytherin head of house. I could do small circles, too. They helped contain the energy when I brewed potions. Allowed me to make better poultices. That kind of thing.
    Complex spells were a lot more precise and much less instinctive.
    You had to know which cardinal direction you were facing to the exact degree. You had to know just how to balance the elements at the four corners to facilitate the flow of energy. You had to be able to draw runes within the circle without breaking the perimeter.
    Fuck anything up and you get to start over.
    For this kind of ritual, the circle was more than half of the magic. It was the foundation, the walls of the house, the roof. Once it was made, all that remained was filling in the rooms with the witch’s power. Tough stuff.
    Watching Suzy cast the circle of power was downright impressive. She made it as quickly as she could throw back shots of tequila at the company Fourth of July party.
    “You watching, Hawke?” she asked as she spilled salt around the edge of the circle. “You have to do this alone next time.”
    “I know. I’m watching. I can do it.”
    Good thing, too. The clock on the rest of the team’s “break time” was dropping rapidly.
    Suzy talked while she worked, conspicuously leaving part of the circle open so that she could move in and out without breaking it. “Once you’ve got the circle set up, it’s easy. You’ll just have to close the circle and place the target. Use this.” She tossed a crystal from the briefcase at me.
    “Put this on the body, right?” I asked.
    “Exactly.” Suzy grabbed a piece of chalk and continued to speak as she drew a few runes. “You won’t need an incantation for this one. I’ll build everything you need into the runes. Runes are your friend, Hawke. If you just memorize the runic alphabet in the company Book of Shadows, you can put anything together.”
    She spilled magic from her fingertips, flooding the runes with energy. My eyes watered. I sneezed.
    “With runes and practice, of course,” she added.
    “Runes, practice, and memorizing the whole company Book of Shadows,” I said thickly, rubbing at my nose with my sleeve.
    “Just the appendix. It’s kind of like trying to do a speech in sign language just by finger spelling the alphabet. Slow and difficult, but hey, at least you’re talking.”
    She sprinkled herbs over the circle. Clapped her hands.
    The power pulsed like a beating heart, and I sneezed again.
    We were out of time. The door had opened and the forensics team was on its way back down with Fritz at the rear. My future kopis looked incredibly bored, like he couldn’t care less about whether or not I could pull off the spell.
    Suzy was fast. She crouched over the body across the room before anyone made it down, like she was just searching for evidence, and I was left standing by the circle with the focus crystal. It looked like I’d just done all the work myself.
    And they say cheaters never prosper.
    “Ready?” Fritz asked, his tone as cool and detached as his eyes.
    “Almost done,” I said. I could fake it about as well as Suzy. I picked up the salt, stepped into the circle, sprinkled it over the hole in the circumference.
    The circle clamped shut around me.
    Invisible iron bands crushed my chest, and it was all I could do to keep standing. Forget making myself look like I wasn’t surprised by the force of the magic. For a few long seconds, it was all I could do to keep breathing.
    When it relaxed, my vision was murkier. Everything outside the circle was shrouded in gray mist. Everything inside blazed with light. The lines Suzy had drawn on the ground, the jars of herbs, even the salt looked to be on fire. A dome shimmered over the circle.
    Domingo had told me it was like that, but I’d never been able to cast anything like it.
    “Wow,” I said.
    Judging by how unimpressed the