Page 16 of Kiss of Magic

“It’s not me that needs the help. It’s him.”

“Indeed?” Mama Xiaoling inspected Blake with new interest. “And what assistance does someone so big and strapping need from an old woman like me?”

“I’m after a witch. I need protection from her spells. She’s already blindsided me once.”

Mama Xiaoling stiffened.

“Why would I help you hunt one of my sisters?”

“Just trying to return her to her coven, Mama X. She ran away and they’re worried about her, that’s all.”

“Which coven?”

“The Angelus Coven. Can you help me or not?”

The wiccan fixed Blake with a long stare, her eyes almost black in her wizened face. Tala watched anxiously.

Mama Xiaoling had heightened senses, as most witches had, but surely she couldn’t tell that Blake was being untruthful. She had no reason to doubt him. Most witches thought of the Angelus Coven as ultra-conservative and old-fashioned. Fewknew of their true purpose. Even the Emperor of Nush’aldaam had only learned of it recently.

“Does she practice dark magic?” Mama Xiaoling asked eventually.

“I don’t know. I’m not an expert.”

“But we have to prepare for the possibility,” Tala said quickly. Maybe Dani didn’t use dark magic but some of those chasing her would. “Can you shield him from it?”

“It’s a difficult spell. Requires basilisk blood. And there’s a lot of him to shield.” Mama Xiaoling’s eyes ran across Blake’s shoulders. “It would only last a few days.”

“But can you do it?”

She tapped her chin.

“I could make him impervious to any object or spell aimed directly at him. But it won’t work on someone using their bare hands, nor on indirect attacks. If your witch brings down a building on his head, there’s nothing I can do about that.”

“What if he puts a dampener on her?”

The wiccan frowned.

“An energy dampener? That’s inhumane, even for you, shaitun.”

Blake looked from one woman to the other.

“What’s a dampener?”

Tala explained.

“Most beings with magic – fae, say, or jinn – carry the ability within themselves. Vulcani can create fire just by thinking about it because the power is part of them. Witches are different. They can only create things by transforming the energy that’s around them. Does that make sense?”

“Not in the least.”

“All you need to know is that it’s possible to render a witch helpless by cutting off her access to external energy. If she can’t draw power, she can’t work magic.”

“And a dampener can do that? Great. Let’s get one of those.”

“Forget it,” snapped Mama Xiaoling. “I might help you find a runaway but I would never deprive a witch of her power. Now go away, both of you, before I make you regret your impertinence.”

She was bristling with anger and Blake could feel an unpleasant vibration in the air. Like a nestful of wasps preparing to swarm. He backed up a few steps.

“You’d better tell her the truth, Blondie,” he said. Tala shook her head.

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