Home > School Spirits (School Spirits #1)(5)

School Spirits (School Spirits #1)(5)
Author: Rachel Hawkins

"Maya," Mom returned. She gestured at me. "Mind if me and Izzy come in for a bit?"

Maya glanced over, seeming to notice me for the first time. I raised my hand in a tiny wave. "Hi."

Maya didn't wave back, but sighed and said, "Too early in the morning for Brannicks." Then she turned and walked back into the house.

I dug a little hole in the shells with the tip of my boot. "Does that mean we should go?"

To my surprise, Mom just chuckled. "No. If Maya hadn't wanted us here, trust me, she would have let us know."

"Who is she?" I asked, but Mom didn't answer; just trudged up the steps and into the house.

And after a long moment, I followed.

The house wasn't quite as spartan as our place, but it still wasn't what anyone would call homey. No pictures lined the walls, although Maya did have one of those crazy cat clocks, the swinging tail marking off seconds, its eyes darting back and forth like it was watching for something. The only other things of note were a sagging couch covered in an ugly orange-and-brown plaid and a crooked coffee table. But that wasn't what had me freezing in the doorway. Instead of magazines or heavy books, the coffee table was covered in...feet. Not human feet-at least I didn't see any-but half a dozen chickens' feet, several of those rabbit's foot key chains, and a brown, furry paw. Char marks dotted the table's scarred surface, and there was a cracked leather book lying open facedown, its pages wrinkled. Everything about it screamed magic, but I hadn't sensed anything when we came in, so I didn't think Maya could be Prodigium. Maybe she was just a... taxidermist or something. Mom had made some weird friends over the years.

And she must've been here before, because she didn't even blink at the bizarre collection. But she did lean in and whisper, "Don't say anything until I tell you to, okay? And don't take anything Maya gives you to drink."

I tried very hard not to gulp. "Got it."

Sure enough, Maya came out of the kitchen holding three mugs, steam rising off of them. Even across the room, the smell turned my stomach. Still, Mom accepted two cups before sitting on the couch. I sat next to her as Maya took a seat on the floor in front of the coffee table. She was wearing a long skirt, and it jangled softly when she moved, as though there were bells hidden in its folds.

"So you're Izzy," she said, blowing the top of her drink. "Your mama brought Finley here plenty of times, but she always said you were too young to go out on jobs. How old are you now, thirteen?"

I had always looked younger than I was. "I'll be sixteen next month," I told her, and she gave a low whistle. "My, my, time is flying. When I first met you, Ash, Izzy was what? Five? Maybe six? It was right after her daddy died, and-"

"We didn't come here to chat, Maya," Mom broke in. "I wanted to go through the file."

Maya rolled her big blue eyes. "That's it? You could've e-mailed, you know. You didn't have to hike all the way out here for that kind of thing. I thought at the very least you wanted another locator spell. See if we'd have any luck finding your girl this time."

CHAPTER 4

With that, she rose to her feet and went back into the kitchen. While she pulled things out of cabinets and drawers, I leaned closer to Mom. "A locator spell? For Finn?"

"Hush, Izzy." She said it calmly, but her shoulders were stiff, and she was bouncing one foot up and down.

"She's a witch?" I hissed. "You went to a witch looking for Finn and you never told me?"

"It was none of your business." Mom's voice was sharper now, her hands digging into her thighs, and I jerked my head back like she had slapped me. To be honest, I kind of felt like she had.

Then Mom sighed and leaned closer to me, her voice softer as she said, "Iz."

I shook my head, biting off anything else I wanted to ask about Finn. Instead, I said, "I couldn't feel her. Maya. And I can always sense witches."

"I'm a hedge witch," Maya said, coming back into the living room holding a folder overflowing with paper despite all the rubber bands wrapped around it. "Which is why your mother is insulting me greatly by using me to gather this sort of stuff." She waved the folder a little, and few Post-it notes fell out.

"What's in there?" I asked, and Maya sighed, pulling the rubber bands off the folder.

"Articles, weird things that popped up on the Internet... Basically, I keep an eye out for any news story that seems to involve the supernatural."

I turned to Mom. "This is how you find cases?"

Mom had never looked sheepish in her life, I was willing to bet, but something really close to that expression crossed her face now. "Not always. But sometimes it makes sense to...outsource."

I knew Mom had friends who helped her out on cases from time to time. There was the guy who got her the boat when she had to find those killer mermaids, and we always seemed to have plenty of money that came from some mysterious source. But a middle-aged lady in the middle of nowhere collecting articles about possible supernatural happenings? That seemed kind of...lame.

As Maya sat down in front of the coffee table, I pulled the sleeves of my shirt over my hands and asked, "What's a hedge witch?"

Clearing all the feet away, Maya opened the folder. "The kind of witches you're used to are born that way. What is that stupid word they have for themselves?"

"Prodigium," Mom and I answered in unison.

"Right, well, Prodigium come into their powers at what, twelve? Thirteen? And they can just do magic. No wands, no spell books necessary unless they're trying to do the super-dark crap. Point is, it's an inborn ability." Maya began paging through the papers. Some were newspaper articles with big garish headlines. I spotted one that blared, SEA MONSTER SPOTTED AT NEW ENGLAND RESORT!

"Now, it strikes me that this is incredibly unfair," Maya continued. A pair of glasses dangled from a beaded chain around her neck, and she picked them up, balancing them on the end of her nose as she continued to scan the papers. An article that seemed to be about crop circles drifted to the carpet.

"Why should some people be born gods while the rest of us poor mortals have to struggle through the mud of humanity, trying-"

"Enough, Maya." Mom turned to me. "A hedge witch is someone who can do magic, but they've learned it from books. And their abilities are severely limited compared to natural witches."

   
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