Page 12 of Loved By the Orc

“How did you know how I like my tea?” I asked.

He grinned at me.

“You just seem like the milk and sugar type, but wanted to be sure.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant but before I could ask anything else, Goodie Albright was asking for my hand.

“What are you going to do?” I asked nervously, because she had produced a long, extremely sharp-looking needle from somewhere.

“I’m going to test your blood to see how much magic you have,” she said simply. “I’m sure you have some—enough to get you here, anyway.” She frowned. “By the way—did a key appear for you before you came to Hidden Hollow?”

“A key? No.” I shook my head. “I thought I was going into the ladies room—the bathroom, I mean,” I corrected myself. “But instead, I wound up here.”

She raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“Hmm—so you didn’t even need a key to enter? This should be interesting.”

She pricked my index finger quickly and then held it over the empty test tube. She squeezed the tiny wound until three drops of blood had fallen into the tube and then wrapped my finger in a small strip of soft linen.

“There—that will stop the bleeding in a minute. Now, let’s see…”

She started by sprinkling a bit of the shiny silver dust from the first test tube over the blood at the bottom of the third test tube.

At once something started happening—the blood turned green, then yellow and began to glow.

“Ah—interesting!” Goodie Albright nodded to herself. “And now let’s see how it reacts withthis.”

She sprinkled some of the golden glitter from the second test tube over the glowing blood and then gave a little gasp.

I gasped too and so did Tark because the reaction was swift and immediate. The golden yellow liquid turned into a kind of semi-solid foam and began to expand so fast it shot out of the top of the tube.More and more of it came shooting out—like someone squeezing a tube of toothpaste as fast as they could.

It was like some kind of chemical reaction, I couldn’t help thinking. Only I guessed it was a magical reaction in this case.

“Goodness!” Goodie Albright exclaimed and then she said a word I couldn’t understand—though I felt like I should be able to for some reason—and made a hand gesture. At once, all the glowing stuff that had grown from my blood disappeared and the test tube where it had been was suddenly empty.

“What the fuck was allthat?”Tark growled, raising his eyebrows.

“That was proof that your new friend hasplentyof magic in her blood,” Goodie Albright said briskly. “I hope you didn’t spill the tea—did you?”

Tark hadn’t. He handed us our cups and I took a sip and sighed with pleasure. It had a sweet cinnamon flavor and the warm liquid running down my throat was soothing and delicious.

“So I reallydohave magic?” I said, after taking another sip. “If that’s true, how come it’s never come out before?”

“Magic works in mysterious ways,” Goodie Albright said, smiling. “Some witches don’t discover they have magic until they’re well into their later years. You’re lucky my dear—you found yours earlier than that.”

“But what good does it do me if I don’t know how to use it?” I asked. “I don’t even know how to get back home again.”

“Oh, that’s easy enough. Here.” She unpinned a broach from the lapel of her robe and handed it to me. I took it and examined it. It was shaped like a tiny silver key, about an inch long, with diamond chips imbedded in the head of it.

“I can’t take this!” I protested. “It looks really valuable.”

“Then just consider it a loan,” Goodie Albright told me. “As long as you’re wearing it, all you have to do in order to get back and forth between Hidden Hollow and the Human Realm is just draw a door inthe air with your finger. The door will become solid and lead you back to the place you want to be.”

“Really?” I looked down at the tiny key cupped in my hand in surprise.

“Really,” she asserted. “And I hope you’ll be a frequent visitor, my dear. If you keep coming back, you should eventually find out what kind of magic you have.”

“Madam Healer said she thought maybe Harmony’s magic was like hers,” Tark offered. He had already drunk two cups of tea and was pouring himself a third. The china teacup looked like a toy from a child’s tea set in his big hand.

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