Jade didn’t answer as she walked side to side in front of the package, trying to sniff every angle of it.
It smells old but seems otherwise okay. It’s got a post label, so someone mailed it to you.
I gave her a mystified look. “Old?”
It’s hard to describe how my cat brain interprets smells. It just smells old to me.
My mind jumped to images of denture cream, potpourri, and other things associated with old people. I knelt and tore open a corner of the box, unwilling to take it inside until I knew what it was.
As I tugged it out of the packaging, I gasped. It was a spell book!
Everyday Household Spells: Cleaning, Cooking, Gardening, and More!
A note was taped to the front of it. Opening it, I read a few simple sentences in elegant scrawl.
Sage,
I asked a neighbor boy to take this into town and mail it to you. I thought you might find it useful.
Love, Faith
A smile spread slowly across my face as I ran my fingers down the worn leather cover.
“I think the word you meant to use was ‘musty,’” I teased Jade, refusing to tell her that I’d interpreted “old” to mean “elderly.”
We went inside and I prepared a simple meal of spaghetti for the both of us. Jade wolfed it down, as usual.
“Jade, are you eating during the day?”
I get by.
I frowned. “I’m going to start leaving out a bowl of tuna on the porch every morning, or other stuff if you prefer. Maybe even crackers and cheese. You don’t have to starve until dinnertime.”
After a few moments of hesitation, Jade rubbed up against my ankles, making me laugh. I reached down and gave her head a tentative little pat.
I ate more slowly, poring over the book. I’d never considered myself particularly domestic, but a lot of the spells looked useful. My favorite was a spell for coating against dust so that I wouldn’t have to dust as long as the spell held.
When I finished, I picked up the book and closed it, hugging it to my chest.
“Thanks for the book, Faith.”
Chapter Seventeen
Over the next week, I worked with the book of basic spells and even tried a few from of the household spells book. I’d put the dustproof spell on all the furniture and it worked, much to my delight.
“Now I just need to find a spell to make my laundry wash and dry itself, and I’ll be all set.”
A laugh echoed through my head from the living room, where Jade lounged on the couch. Good luck with that.
I sighed. “What’s the point of being a witch if I can’t get magic to do everything for me?”
Jade slunk into the laundry room where I was sorting lights from darks. Magic has limitations, you know.
I gave her a wry look. “I noticed. But why put limits on laundry?”
I don’t know about that, but limitations are good. A lot of TV shows about magic portray witches and wizards producing things from thin air, but that doesn’t happen. It defies the laws of physics. When you use magic to create something, you have to start with raw materials.
The corners of my mouth pulled down into a thoughtful frown as I considered her words.
“I guess that makes sense. Otherwise, people could just spontaneously produce money or guns or stuff like that.”
Exactly.
A small chuckle escaped me. “People say you learn something new every day, but I learn at least ten new things these days.”
Jade batted idly at the arm of a shirt hanging over the edge of the basket. That’s a good thing. People who don’t learn every day lead sad lives.
After starting the load, I picked up the basket of clean clothes and headed to the living room. Jade took her usual spot in the chair across from me while I folded. We’d settled into a comfortable routine, Jade more or less living full-time at the old townhouse.
Even though she was a cat, it felt good to have company in the house. I hadn’t had any more nighttime visitors since I’d put up the stronger barrier around the house, but having Jade in the house was comforting, too.
She’d become my mentor of sorts, instructing me on the spells I practiced. I’d completed all the beginner spells in each of the chapters of the basic spells book except seven and eight, for obvious reasons. We’d moved on to intermediate spells, which both thrilled and scared me.
Despite all my study, I’d gotten nowhere with the hunt for Theresa, a fact that irritated me daily. I’d even recruited Jade to wander around town during the day, seeing if she could pick up on any interesting gossip, to no avail.
Are you thinking about taking a whack at that door in the basement again?
A shiver passed through me at her words. Ever since the last failed attempt, I’d more or less avoided the door.
