Page 142 of The Warlock's Trial

“True,” Chloe agreed. “Let’s try someone whose mind is not in the gutter.”

Onyx volunteered, and the girls read her mind to find she was thinking of holiday candies and hot cocoa. She must’ve set a precedent for holiday cheer, because other people started thinking about the holidays, too. Professor Warren volunteered next, and the girls read images of him playing in the snow at Yuletide as a kid. They read Lucas, and found he was thinking about the times he went sledding with his brother down the hill behind their house.

They tried to read Mandy next, and Chloe’s features fell. “I’m sorry, Mandy. I’m not announcing that. It’s too personal.”

“It’s fine,” Mandy said. “I want everyone to know your spell works, and it’s not like nobody knows how I feel.”

Chloe sighed. “I hear the same words over and over. I wish Amy was here.”

The room went silent. We were all really sad about the people who weren’t here this holiday season, and talking about them put a somber tone over the room.

“How about you, Nadine?” Talia piped up. “Do you want to go next?”

“Sure,” I said, but I already knew what they were going to read.

The ends of their Wands glowed. I couldn’t feel them poking around in my head, but I knew what they must’ve seen. I was thinking about Grammy, and how much I missed her.

Chloe dropped her gaze. “Sorry, Nadine.”

I gave her a reassuring smile, though it was forced.

Talia turned to Verla. “How about you, Clarice? Want to give it a go?”

Verla crossed her hands over her lap. “Yes, but I’d like to try something, too. I won’t tell you what it is until you let me know what you see.”

Talia and Chloe spoke their incantation, and the ends of their Wands glowed. They swayed from side to side in that trance-like state the spell put them in. Seconds turned into minutes as they poked and prodded inside Verla’s mind, but Chloe’s brow only continued to furrow. Talia looked like she was struggling to see anything.

Finally, the girls dropped their Wands. “I don’t get it. We didn’t see anything,” Talia said.

“That is because I have placed mental wards up,” Verla replied. “This power you call teleinsight is strong and may prove useful against our enemies, but if we can learn how to use it, the priestesses have the potential to learn teleinsight as well.”

I didn’t think Verla meant to spark a panic, but we all sat up a little straighter then.

“Within the coven, only something as powerful as the Wands can get into your head without consent, but there is magic in this world that is not confined by witch rules,” Verla continued. “Vampires, for example, do not need consent to compel you, because their abilities are different from ours. What’s to stop the priestesses from obtaining a vampire object that could read our minds? Alongside learning how to use this power, we must all learn how to defend against such a spell. If our enemies can get into our minds like this, they could easily find us and the Wands at any time.”

“But how did you do that?” Chloe asked. “You aren’t as powerful as two Oaken Wands combined.”

Verla shook her head. “No. But I only have to be more skilled at warding my mind than you are at extracting information, and at utilizing the potential of the Wands. It’s about skill, not power. I’m an experienced and powerful witch who has been practicing mind warding for quite some time now. I spent my summer with vampires, and I had to learn how to protect my mind from potential threats. Mind reading is difficult, even for a demigod to do, so if you’re talented enough, you should be able to hold anyone off, even if they’re using teleinsight.”

“Can you teach us?” I asked.

“Certainly,” Verla offered. “Let’s begin with a meditation.”

We all got in a comfortable position. Verla began breathing deeply so we could all follow along.

“To protect yourself, you will visualize two layers of magic,” Verla instructed. “The first will encompass your body, to protect from physical threat. Imagine the second layer as an impenetrable shield around your mind. That way if the first protection spell is penetrated, you have a second that’s even stronger.”

I drew a deep breath and imagined protection magic wrapping around me. In my mind’s eye, the protection spell glittered with gold.

“Project your aura outward, and expand beyond your physical body to create the first layer of protection,” Verla said. “Lucas, you’re already getting it!”

I opened my eyes to see Lucas’s aura glowing beside me. His whole body was outlined in a purple glow. He looked down at himself and flipped his hands over several times, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“It feels easy,” he remarked.

“And yet we can still hear your thoughts clear as day,” Chloe said as the end of the Oaken Wands glowed. “We’re still connected to you, and you’re wondering why you’re glowing purple.”

“Purple’s the color of spirituality,” Onyx offered. “People with a purple aura often go through deep spiritual journeys.”

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