Free Witch's Brew - Spellspinners 1 (Spellspinners of Melas County) by Heidi R. Kling Page A

minds without adding a witch into the mix.”
    “Good man,” Chance said.
    The waves rose beneath them, and they took off for the shore.
    For the moment Logan might have meant what he said.
     
    Lily
    “This emergency meeting was called to discuss Lily’s contact with a warlock outside their boundaries. A warlock who claimed to be the son of Jacob.”
    The large group of coven members gasped at Camellia’s words.
    “The bad news and first order of concern is exposure. If Jacob finds out, he will accuse us of trespassing. Lily knew better than to roam that far from the coven, especially that close to Black Mountain,” Camellia chastised. “Especially this close to such an important solstice…”
    She left the rest of the sentence dangling. I doubted the young witches knew just how important the solstice was. That the Year of the Curse was about to begin. The elders nodded knowingly, however.
    “Yes. I apologize for that,” I said, keeping my head bowed in respect. I’d begged Iris not to tell Camellia about the euca leaves, and she hadn’t. But I had to swear I’d never consider cheating again. I’d promised in earnest, squeezing Mom until I thought she’d crumble into dust. Then she’d warned me about the meeting: take responsibility, be entirely polite. So I took responsibility. I was entirely polite. I was appreciative of her keeping part of my secret. But I hated this.
    “How did she make contact with a warlock?” an old witch named Pansy asked.
    Camellia explained that I’d been out hiking, and that I was hexed by a spell that left me sleeping on a rock. That the warlock stumbled upon me. The room burst with concern and theories.
    “This had to be Jacob’s doing!” a brunette witch, Laurel, blurted out.
    A hush went over the group when Camellia silenced them with her hand.
    “If Jacob trapped Lily and ordered his warlock to play this game with her amulet, then he is the one breaking the Seven Sisters’ rules about contact outside the Solstice Stones,” Camellia said. “Though I admit, it seems unlikely. Jacob may be a lot of things, but he isn’t a rule breaker. He has too much to lose risking a disciplinary infraction from our Congression majority so close to the Gleaning.”
    The elder witches exchanged glances. “This could be a different situation. The boy could be acting alone.”
    I didn’t want to give up my opinion of Logan. True, he didn’t seem like someone who would act as a pawn for his master, but I believed him when he said he hadn’t enchanted me.
    Camellia peered at me over thin glasses, her purple eyes probing. “If we’re up against one young warlock, we may get the amulet back.”
    “How so?” I asked.
    “You must have made an impression upon him. Iris said he revealed his ink to you?”
    All eyes were on me now. I squirmed in my bean bag. “Yes, but that was situational. We, well, when we, um, touched, the amulet burned us.”
    “When you touched?” a young, curly-haired young witch, Daffodil, blurted out. “You touched a warlock!”
    “What did he look like?”
    “How old was he?”
    “Did he have horns?”
    “A pet dragon? I hear they ride on their shoulders?”
    The room exploded with questions and comments. Camellia had to flicker the lights like an angry schoolteacher, just to get them to stop.
    “Quiet! Lily will share all she knows, but we must have order to this meeting. So, Lily. It appears you shared a…heated moment, no?”
    “There was…um, I guess, tension between us.”
    “How so?” She paused. “Go on, we’re all curious.”
    “And don’t hold back on the physical details,” Jasmine called out from the window seat. I was mortified. Not only did I have to admit I was wandering around near warlock boundaries, but now I had to share all these personal details about Logan?
    The witches hung on my every word, nodding at each other, their eyes sparkling. The younger ones looked at me with a mix of awe and respect. Especially Daisy, who was