Page 3 of Upside Down Magic

“Noteven a little bit?Likemaybe you first make fire and then it turns to ice?”Iasked, hopeful.

“No!It’sice from the start!Itstarted this morning whenIwent to make breakfast.”

“Howlong did you try?Maybe?—”

Hefixed me with a withering look. “Itried many,manytimes, witch.”

Iheld my hands up. “Okay,Ibelieve you.”Bitingmy lip,Iconsidered the issue.Magicdidn’t randomly switch elements.Formages and witches, the element they wielded was part of their power, part of theirDNAas paranormals—fire, air, water, earth, and spirit.Itwould be like a wolf shifter randomly turning into a panther.Itjust wasn’t possible.

Andyet, it was happening.

IstudiedBrimstoneagain.Hewas way too agitated for all this to be an act, andIcouldn’t see any kind of tubing attached to his hands to make ice happen.

Hismagic had been turned upside down somehow.Thepower of a spell or potion able to do that would have to be staggering.Anddark magic had to be involved, of course—good magic didn’t work like that.Goodmagic brought the best out of you, not turned you into a completely different paranormal.

Ihad dealt with dark magic before, but this was mind-boggling and deeply upsetting.Yourmagic was part of you, it couldn’t justchangelike that.Thepower needed…

Deepbreaths,Hope.“Don’tdwell in what you don’t know, but what you can do.”

“Thendosomething,”Brimstonedemanded, shoving his icy hand in my face again.

Ipushed it away and retrieved some moon water from the cabinets.

“What’sthat?”Brimstoneasked, eyeing the spray bottle with deep suspicion.

“I’mgoing to do a cleansing spell on you.Don’tmove.”Isprayed moon water on his hands, then set the bottle aside and held them in mine.Closingmy eyes,Icalled in on my magic.

Letany spelldisappear.

Iput in a decent amount of power into the intention, and a slight tingling spread where our skin touched.

Leaningback against the counter to stay upright,Ilet go of his hands and smiled encouragingly.

“Trynow.”

TWO

Brimstoneheld his hand out,palm up as if he was cradling an invisible object.

Aball of ice formed there.

“Witch!”

“Nopanicking!”Ibrought his hand to the sink and shook it until the ice ball dropped with athud.

Ablack tentacle spread from the faucet and poked the ice.Itjerked back immediately, then tentatively touched the cold surface again.

“What.Is.That,”Brimstoneintoned from behind me in the darkest, most ominous toneI’dever heard.Iwas pretty sure ifIturned around to look at him,I’dturn into stone.

Icleared my throat. “It’snothing.”

Thetentacle began to roll the ball of ice around.Abigger blob popped out of the faucet and two happy eyes blinked at us.

“Okay,”Iadmitted. “It’sa tiny kraken.”

Brimstone’shands clamped on my shoulders and he turned me around until he was staring at my face so close our noses almost bumped.

“Witch, did you do this to me?”

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