Tempt the Stars

they nodded. “It
would
be in a city,” Jasmine sighed.
    “Why does that matter?” I asked—stupidly. Because it wasn’t like I was going to understand the answer.
    “It doesn’t,” Caleb said, sounding disgusted. “Magic is magic.”
    “We use a reserve of power to augment our own,” Jasmine said, ignoring him. “As you do with the Pythian power. But ours is generated by the earth itself, the song of the sky, the land, the seas—”
    “Bullshit!” Caleb said. “You’re messing about with wild magic, and it’s going to get you killed!”
    Jasmine rolled her eyes. “You use talismans, do you not? They also gather the magic the earth gives off.”
    “Slowly, carefully, safely. What we do is like using electricity. You play around with lightning!”
    “That’s an exaggeration, as you well—”
    “How many of your people have been fried, trying to channel wild magic?” Caleb demanded.
    “And how many of yours have poisoned themselves playing about with alchemy?” the Valkyrie interjected. “Magic is inherently dangerous—”
    “Not if you know what you’re doing!”
    “Ah, and there’s the rub, isn’t it?” she said, sneering. “Just because you can’t do it—”
    “Can’t—” Caleb flushed. “We
choose
not to use something dangerously unstable and innately unreliable—”
    “So unreliable we fought you to a standstill—”
    “So unreliable you were all but destroyed!”
    “After you betrayed us! Broke your promises and turned your back on honor—”
    “As if a coven witch would know anything of honor!” Caleb spat.
    And won himself another whack from the little witch’s stick.
    For a moment, everyone just glared at one another.
    “I’m not sure I understand what you plan to do,” I told Jasmine, who seemed to be keeping her cool better than the others.
    “Druid is a combination of human magic—pre-Circle— and fey,” she explained. “The combination allows us to borrow directly from the earth’s natural well of power to augment our own, instead of using talismans to slowly gather it up. Being on earth requires altering the spells somewhat, which is why it is considered a distinct system from that of the fey. But it works quite well, I assure you.”
    “And that’s different from what the Circle does?”
    The three witches exchanged glances again.
    “Theirs is based on ancient alchemy,” Jasmine said slowly. “What we call hard magic, something that can be put into a test tube and experimented on. The Circle always wants something they can see and taste and touch, something they can control. The wilder, more flexible, more intuitive magic of nature eludes and confuses them. They cannot master it because they do not feel it.”
    “You see?” Caleb asked me. “This is exactly the sort of mumbo-jumbo you can expect from the covens. I can give you formulas, show you precisely how a potion or ward or spell works—and how to reverse it. And if Augustine was using the Arcane, he could, too—and we wouldn’t be in this mess!”
    “The Arcane is Circle magic?” I asked, for clarification. I’d heard the term before, but I wanted to be sure I understood what they meant. It was my responsibility to Jules to be sure.
    The witches exchanged another look. Even Caleb appeared a little taken aback. And then he got whacked again.
    “Witch!” he snarled. “If you hit me with that thing one more time—”
    “Don’t you take that tone with me,” she told him. “And you deserve a good whipping. Why is the Pythia asking a question like that?”
    “Like what?” I asked.
    “You see? She doesn’t even—” The little witch made another jab, but Caleb danced back out of the way.
    To my surprise, though, he wasn’t glaring at her. If anything, he looked a little shamefaced. “That wasn’t my call.”
    “Then whose call was it?”
    “She was brought up by the vampires. And the one she lived with didn’t want her trained.”
    “At
all
?” the Valkyrie demanded, looking incredulous.
    Caleb didn’t say anything. But the truth was kind of obvious.
    Jasmine just sat there, looking appalled. But the Valkyrie couldn’t seem to quite grasp the concept. “You’ve received
nothing
?” she demanded.
    “He’s exaggerating,” the little witch told her. “He has to be.”
    And then someone pinched the hell out of me.
    I jumped and twisted around, but no one was close enough. Not that that meant anything with vampires, who could move like the wind. But I