Page 36 of Courting Danger
I wasn’t familiar enough with the practice to even try and guess what he was doing, just that would help us in the long run.
When he paused for breath, I said, “I have an idea.”
“Burn down the forest you just grew?” King said.
“Got it in one,” I said. “Crush mama spider, and then we burn her babies.”
“Already working on it,” King said. “How did you grow a forest?”
I looked out at it from his perspective. What did he know about witchcraft? Did he have any witch friends? Was he one of those progressive alchemists who said at parties,Some of my closest friends are witches? No, not an alchemist like King.
He might know witches socially, but I bet that he didn’t talk magic with them, because he didn’t like getting in arguments with people in public.
“I had some seeds in my bag. I’m a kitchen witch, so —”
I didn’t even need to finish the sentence, King was already nodding. Kitchen witches, with their reputations for hasty and creative spellwork, would get me out of a lot of problems.
“The bamboo is flammable?” King asked.
“Crush mama spider first,” I said.
King shook his head, “No, I want to burn down the forest first, get her —”
“— distracted,” I finished, nodding. “That’s a good idea.”
The whole time we had been talking, King had been drawing. I glanced down at his work, but my understanding of alchemy circles was limited to kindergarten-level spells.
“Is this going to burn down the rest of the house?” I examined the walls, the house beyond us. It was far enough from its neighbors that the firefighters would be able to put it out before it spread. However, as a Californian, I wasn’t much of a fan of fire at all.
“I think I can limit it to this room, as long as the bamboo aren’t growing runners under the floor?”
He glanced at me, and I read in his gaze curiosity more than suspicion. He clearly didn’t understand witchcraft any more than I understood alchemy.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
Nonetheless, I pulled some of my magic back from the bamboo, and felt it begin to wither. It was drying up, its root system disintegrating into nothing. “You should work quickly.”
King snorted at my command, but after examining the alchemy circle for a moment he stepped back and pressed his palm to the outer circle. It glowed green, and when his eyes opened, they looked like two lights in the darkness.
I felt myself drawn towards him, a moth to those bright flames. He was powerful. I hadn’t ever seen an alchemist with as much power as he had… Well, ever. With that much power, what was he doing playing the cop?
I didn’t have time to worry about it, because the flames were instantaneous.
King might not be sure that his spell would keep itself to the room, but I could be. I drew on the water I still felt swirling out of McCallum’s sink. It puddled on the floor, sucked up by the thirsty bamboo. With a soft hum of song, I coaxed it to circle the bamboo forest, a swirling whirlpool of water that lapped atmy feet. Anytime a spark dropped from one of the tall bamboo shoots, it was instantly doused in the water.
My eyes glanced at King, expecting him to question it, but his eyes were already on the massive spider, which was now panicking as flames surrounded it.
It was rearing back, circling, trying to get out. King looked up, and began chanting. The chandelier above the spider crashed to the ground, and our panicking, murderous spider was now a pancake.
Not one that I wanted to eat, no matter the fact that I hadn’t had any food since lunch almost eighteen hours ago.
The flames were reaching higher, as the fire ate through everything. I drew in more magic, so that the bamboo became brittle, collapsing in on itself.
I squinted at it. I could feel the heat from the flames, it stretched my skin, drying me out. But there was something else that was bugging me.
“Did you design this fire to only burn bamboo?” I asked.
“Yeah,” King said, panting. “That’s what took so long.”
