Single Witch's Survival Guide by Mindy Klasky Page A

David slumped back into the chair. “Hey,” I said, reaching out with my foot to shove at his calf. “It’s not you. It’s me.”
    He managed a wan smile. “Great. What every man longs to hear.”
    “Seriously,” I said. “I’m sorry Pitt came after you like that. It wasn’t fair for him to use either of us to get at the other. But he did, and the Court did, and now we don’t have a lot of options. Let’s get back home so I can share the good news with my students.”
    I could tell he didn’t believe me. He still blamed himself. But he clasped my hand tightly the entire way back to the house. Spot stayed close every step of the way, on high canine alert.
    We found Raven and Emma lounging in the living room, tall glasses of iced tea sweating onto nearby coasters. Raven immediately raised her phone, pushing the button to activate the camera.
    “Forget it,” I snapped. And then, I told them about the Charter. I explained that my entire witchcraft collection was on the line, Neko included. Their reactions actually made me like them more than I thought possible—each sucked in her breath as if she’d taken a blow to the gut.
    “So that’s it,” I concluded. “We have until Samhain.”
    Emma’s voice was very soft. “That won’t be a doddle. What do you want us to do, then? What’s our Major Working?”
    I looked at David. Ordinarily, I would consult with him about something this important. We might spend days, weeks even, bandying about possibilities, considering pros and cons, measuring out costs and benefits.
    But now, we didn’t have the time. And I was the magistrix, after all.
    I looked at Emma, saw how she was fighting to be patient. I watched Raven’s fingers twitch as she started to reach for her phone out of habit. And then I said, “We’re going to restore the health of the lake here on the farm. We’re going to reverse the effects of the drought and make it thrive once again.”
    My students merely nodded. I wondered if they even knew enough to comprehend how substantial a working I had just announced.
    But David wasn’t a student. He understood before the words were out of my mouth. “Jane,” he said. And I watched him struggle for his next words. He obviously didn’t want to undermine me in front of Raven and Emma. He didn’t want to say that my suggestion was patently absurd—a weather working on that scale was more than any trained magistrix could manage, with dozens of enrolled students.
    I raised my chin. “There can’t be any question,” I said. “There can’t be any doubt that our working is sufficient. After we repair the lake, no one on the Court can possibly argue that we failed to do a Major Working. I won’t let them take away the Osgood collection.”

CHAPTER 6
     
    THE FOLLOWING MORNING, I tried not to worry about the Major Working as I fortified myself with a sourdough waffle. And orange butter. And pure maple syrup—the type that came from real trees in frosty northern forests. I was deep in the middle of brunch with my grandmother and Clara, a tradition that Gran had instituted a few years back. She thought shared meals would bring all three of us closer together.
    She was right—at least in the literal sense. Ever since Clara had retreated to Sedona, we had relied on David to transport her to our monthly gatherings, using his warder’s magic. This morning had been no exception; he had spirited Clara from her perch by the Vortex, dropping her off at Teaism in Washington, D.C., a mere stone’s throw from the National Archives and a few other government buildings that all looked like Greek temples.
    Gran swallowed a hefty bite of French toast and reached across the bamboo table to pat my hand. “Well, dear, I think you were incredibly brave. I don’t know what I would have done, if that horrible man had showed up in my living room.”
    Despite my anxiety, I smiled. Gran made Norville Pitt sound like some sort of insect pest that could be taken care of by