The townsfolk gasp and flock to his cart.
“That wasn’t real magic?” Laini asks me very quietly. A lock of her blond hair falls and she tucks it behind her ear with a dye-stained finger.
I feel my nostrils flaring. “No. I don’t know how he’s doing this, but it’s not right.”
I whirl back to my own cart where I still have one solitary customer—the butcher. Laini and Kaya whisper about the tacky illusion as I force a smile.
“What can I help you with, good fellow?” I ask the goblin. “Would you like a brand new spell that I just developed?”
His black eyes glitter, but a pop sounds from Argos’s cart and the butcher glances that way.
I lean over my goods. “Eh, pay attention.”
“Uh, yes, of course. What does this new spell do?”
“It’ll protect you and your family from being fooled by illusions like those.” I jab a thumb toward the unicorns Argos has summoned with his trickery.
“But they seem harmless.”
Laini eyes the butcher. “If Tully says they aren’t, I believe her. She is a witch, a master of magic. Have you ever heard of a minotaur who can work spells?”
Spark narrows his slitted dragonfox eyes at the butcher.
The male rubs a hand over the back of his neck and blinks. “When you put it like that. How much?” he asks me.
I give him a grin. “This one is on the house.”
“Really?”
I nod. “You’re one of my most loyal customers. I like to reward loyalty.”
The goblin grins at Laini and Kaya and they smile approvingly.
Once he is focused on me again, I imagine a wall of protection over him. I visualize a sheen of magic welded like metal over his entire form. As I tip my wand this way and that, I imagine his daughter and his wife, then I draw the magic over where they would be standing beside him if they were here. The magic fills the air with the green, savory scent of sage and a smelllike the blacksmith’s forge fire. The dome, which is invisible to everyone else, shudders and I whisper strength into the spell. I draw my wand in a tighter circle to tie the magic together neatly.
Then the dome of power shivers and blasts outward—a complete disaster!
“No!”
Chapter 4
Tully
My heart shoots into my throat and I grip my cart to keep from falling on my arse. Laini shouts and Kaya falls back a step. What is happening? I whip my wand in a quick movement as the magic tugs at the length of rowan wood. My hand is shaking.
My spell flies toward Kaya’s stall. The magic grabs a stack of scones and flings them across the square. Maplecats scatter, snow flying from their fast-moving paws.
The wayward magic zooms back toward me.
“Duck!” I say to Kaya and Laini.
“What’s wrong?” Laini grabs my wand arm and drops into a crouch with me.
The spell zips over us.
Sweating, I shake myself free of Laini. “Nothing. Hold on. I’ve got it.” My magic has never acted like this. It’s like I cast a major working—and a chaotic one at that—instead of a simple protection dome.
With a gust of magical wind, the spell grabs my little brooms and shoots them like massive crossbow bolts across the town fountain. People are running and screaming.
