Blood of Half Gods: Kallen's Tale by Bonnie Lamer

finding humor in Kegan’s well-timed comment.  My cousin has successfully defused the situation and I am impressed.
     
    Xandra walks over to Dagda and pulls his hand down from his eye.  It is quite red and a little cut underneath his bottom lid is still bleeding. I suspect he will be ordering his kitchen staff to make sure none of the carrots have sharp edges in the future, though it was probably more the velocity upon impact than the sharpness of the carrot that caused his injuries.  Still, he tends to be unreasonable sometimes.
     
    He looks warily at Xandra as she draws magic to heal him.  She only pulls a small amount and directs it towards his eye.  “Can I take the wall down, or are you still planning to kill her with cutlery?” she asks him.
     
    He does not respond, but pulling his own magic, Dagda calls all the items he threw at Radella back to the table.  Xandra lets the wall around Radella down and walks over to her when Dagda’s eye is fully healed.  Radella flinches when Xandra reaches out to the touch her arm.  Xandra scowls at her.  “I’m the one who just saved you, remember?  If I wanted you to be hurt, I could have just sat back and watched the show.”
     
    Reluctantly, Radella holds her arm out.  Immediately, the small gouge in Radella’s arm is healed.  She looks amazed the whole time.  “I have never seen anyone heal this quickly with magic,” she says to Xandra.
     
    Xandra shrugs.  “One of the benefits of being a Witch Fairy.” 
     
    “Radella, that will be all for the evening.”  Dagda’s tone is crisp.  He did not add ‘and you are fired’ to his dismissal, but it was implied in his tone.  I doubt she will be able to do any type of security work anywhere in this realm after this.  It is her own fault though, she received plenty of warnings.  Without hesitation, Radella quietly opens the door and disappears. 
     
    Taking Xandra’s hand in mine, I tug gently until she sits down again.  I lean in and give her a soft kiss.  “Glad to see you can sometimes control that temper of yours,” I tease. 
     
    Instead of sitting back down, Dagda walks to the door at the far side of the room and goes into his bedroom.  He comes back out in a minute holding an old tome.  He pushes his dishes away from where he had been sitting at the head of the table and puts the book down with a thump.  Dust flies out from it, ruining any chance of anyone being able to finish their soup.  Rapidly, he flips through the pages.  Finding the one he is looking for, he rotates the book towards Xandra and points his finger at the page.  “Can you do this spell?” he asks her.
     
    Xandra shrugs.  “I could try.  It looks easy enough.”
     
    Kegan has been peeking at the spell from across the table.  He laughs.  “Yeah, piece of cake.  If you have six or seven Fairies ready to do it with you.”  In his defense, that is suggested in the explanation of the spell.
     
    Xandra sticks her tongue out at him.  Turning back to Dagda, she asks, “Do you have all the stuff for it?”
     
    Reading the spell over her shoulder, I say, “I believe she can do this without problem.” 
     
    “Everything we need should be available in the surrounding area.  We are deep within the forest, not the plains yet.  I will send Sindri and a small team out to locate what is needed,” Dagda says.
     
    Xandra is getting nervous.  “It won’t make me stop dreaming forever, will it?  People can go crazy if they never dream.”
     
    “Not a problem for you,” Kegan says.  “You are already as crazy as you can get.”  Xandra kicks him under the table.  He lets out a howl and leans down to rub his leg with exaggerated motions. 
     
    “No, it will not,” Dagda says, pointing to the line in the spell that puts a time limit on it. 
     
    “Yeah, I saw that, but spells don’t always work out the same for me as they do other people.”  That is an understatement.  “I might say it’s