Page 44 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

How did I not know this place existed? Clearly, my worldly education lacked, if not in all the ways, then definitely in this one. What wasn’t lacking? The power that radiated off of one little stone home in particular. The front of the home had been decorated with a plethora of plants, unlike all the other homes surrounding it. And as I made money from plants, I knew that these had special powers. To keep away evil. Disease. Unwanted guests. Rue, oregano, rosemary, and thyme, just to name a few. A cook wouldn’t hang their herbs outside the front door, so far from the kitchen.

“This is it,” I said to Connor. He stopped, allowing me to climb off his back. It seemed too big a risk to uncloak myself in broad daylight. Hoping I wasn’t making a big mistake, I walked up to the front door and knocked. The plan was to slip inside and uncloak then. Though as a super, she’d see Connor. I hoped he didn’t scare her out of opening the door enough for that to happen. From what I understood, it wasn’t usual for a death hound to show up on your front stoop.

The door opened to reveal a wrinkled, old woman, possibly arthritic, as she hunched over, her hands mangled. She had a wild, dried bird’s nest of hair and a mole bigger than her noseunder her left eye. She stood in the doorway, her eyes traveling from where I stood still cloaked, as if she saw me, then behind me to Connor.

In an accent almost too thick to understand, she ushered us inside. “Best come in before any sense you out.”

We stepped inside and I turned to shut the door. When I turned back, the woman who’d been withered seconds ago now appeared as young as Agatha. I stepped back, shocked. Her deep-auburn hair shimmered like strands of copper flowing down her back. She looked at us through eyes of buckwheat honey.

“The protector can go in there”—she pointed to a small half-bath—“to change.” She knew I stood there? How?

I handed off Connor’s clothing to him, well, I laid them on his back, and he walked into the half-bath. I pulled the door shut.

“You may reveal yourself now,” she said. Mind totally blown. No one, not even Luc or Satan, had been able to truly sense me the way she did.

Part of me wondered if I needed to be cautious, but the more dominant part knew that she was the one I needed to see and so I manifested myself to be seen again.

“I’m Ainsling,” she said. “You are?”

“My name is Simone.”

“And your protector?”

“Connor,” I answered for him because he was still in the bathroom dressing. “We were sent to you by Agatha?—”

“I know of Agatha.” She cut me off. “She’s a powerful witch, indeed. I knew to expect a visitor, though the winds didn’t tell me who.”

At that point, Connor walked out of the half-bath. He draped his arm around my waist to pull me in close to his body. Ainsling watched us.

“Your protector isveryprotective, I see.”

“Yeah, he’s kind of a lug, but he’s growing on me.” I laughed as Connor kissed the top of my head.

“We don’t get mated protectors around here often.”

“But you do get them?” Connor asked.

She nodded. “The last one was a couple of years back. She and her mate needed my help.”

“With what? If you don’t mind me asking,” I asked.

“Well, he had great powers, like the ones I sense in you. And like you, his felt bound.”

“His? The person like me was a man?”

“Please, come sit. You need refreshment before we continue.”

Connor looked a second and a half away from going all hound smash on her, but I reached up to scratch behind his ear and he shook his head at me instead. At least for now, these antics worked on him. Though I couldn’t say for how long.

We followed her into a sitting room with air thick with incense just like Agatha’s place. What was it with witches and flowery incense? She already had tea and cakes waiting for us, as she’d known we were coming.

I accepted the tea and a buttery cake and I scowled at Connor, who tried to refuse. The cake made the trip worth it. It wasthatgood.

“What can you tell me about this other who had bound power?” I asked after swallowing the bite.

“He was strong, but yours is stronger. The bindings bound tighter. Someone really needed you not to have access to them.”

“Agatha had me go back in time to my birth, but it felt like lifetimes ago. Can you help me figure this out?”

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