Kelly McClymer-Salem Witch 03 She's A Witch Girl (15 page)

Before I could be told it was against the rules, I waved at him. “Welcome to witch world, Angelo.” I tried to see the witch part of him, but all I saw was the same old hot-ness as always. Was he really a witch switched at birth with a mortal boy?

“Pru?” He did a double take, then gave me a faint wave back.

The Old Lady in Red commanded, “Examine him!”

A wizened old witch floated over to Angelo and placed his hands on Angelo’s cheeks. He bent his head close to Angelo’s. He took a deep breath and held it for moment. Then he let it out in a rush and he turned to the council. “This boy is indeed a witch. I can sense his Talent is strong. I suspect Patience Stewart is correct, and he has manifested an Attractivity Talent while living in the wild with mortals.”

Angelo had a
Talent?
I was bumming now. How come he didn’t even know he was a witch and his Talent showed up, anyway? I wouldn’t exactly call that fair. Of course, it was interesting that Angelo was a witch. That meant he was no longer off-limits as potential boyfriend material. Didn’t it? As long as I left Tara out of the equation.

“I think there’s been a mistake,” Angelo said calmly, addressing the council as if he were in his own house instead of in front of a council of scary-looking witches. He looked at each one of them and smiled.

“Maybe there has been,” Agatha said soothingly.

I thought she was joking. Until I looked at her face and realized that her wrinkles could not obscure a definite effort to flirt with Angelo—a boy the same age as her great-grandson to the nth, Daniel!

Even the witches on the council weren’t immune to his charm. Kilt guy said a hasty spell to dampen Angelo’s Talent, and Agatha—and all the female witches on the
council—sighed and shook themselves a bit before continuing. They asked him things they already knew, like his age and name and where he was born. He answered, though I think there may have been a spell compelling him to, given his scowl. Even I could see he was the son of the first witch I’d seen being questioned. There was a very strong resemblance between them.

The questioning was not the most productive. It seemed like they already knew all the answers and were just going through the formalities for some reason. Maybe to give Angelo time to get used to the idea that he was a witch. Angelo hadn’t believed in witches ten seconds before he was popped into this room to answer questions about his birth—questions that were asked by people even he couldn’t doubt were actual witches. He was taking the knowledge that he was a witch pretty well. Or maybe he was just in denial.

The council didn’t seem worried about whether he was happy about finding out he was a witch. Right after they stopped lobbing questions at him, they started lobbing rules. The rules they set on him were pretty harsh. He couldn’t tell his mortal parents that he was a witch. He must leave their home at eighteen and never talk to them again. He couldn’t see his real parents until he’d been properly educated and evaluated and everyone had signed off that he was a witch without any glitches from being
raised by mortals for so long. His Talent would be bound until the final decision too. He’d learn to use it in controlled situations only. I took that to mean among men, since his Talent unbound pretty much seemed to devastate women.

After rattling off these rules, Agatha then asked, “Do you understand you must abide by these rules and begin your witch training without delay?”

I remember how Angelo had always said he didn’t feel like he belonged. He’d straightened, and stopped shaking his head about halfway through the questioning. It didn’t surprise me at all when he said, “I do,” without hesitation.

He was just that kind of guy, whether he was a mortal or a witch.

“We will let you know of our decision to accept you as a lost witch after we have finished with our testimony,” Agatha said.

The guy with the scythe pointed at Angelo, and he disappeared. Then the scythe pointed at my mom, and suddenly she was in the light. I was surprised to see what good pores she had.

“We have reviewed your evidence that this boy, born of a witch, switched with a mortal at birth, is indeed a witch. We concur.”

Agatha leaned forward. “How did you come by this evidence?”

Mom didn’t seem all that nervous in front of the council. “My daughter made friends with the boy, and I had the opportunity to observe his ability to attract the attention of females of all ages.”

Agatha, of course, leaned forward. “Including yourself?”

Mom glanced at me guiltily, then nodded. “Including myself. The boy’s Talent will be a strong one, and I recognized immediately that he needs someone to teach him to control it. Prudence can testify that I did not waste time in informing the council as soon as I realized what must have happened. I knew he needed immediate intervention.”

“It may be too late for re-education,” Agatha said in her typical glum way. “Stronger measures may be called for.”

Okay. I’m not a dummy, but this was my first visit to the council and the whole thing was throwing me off my game. Stronger measures didn’t sound good, but I didn’t really clue until the light was on me.

“Prudence Stewart, it is our understanding that you know the boy who was switched at birth. Is that correct?”

“I know him.” I didn’t like her tone, so I said a little tartly, “His name is Angelo.”

The lady next to me—Angelo’s mother—cried harder.

I added, “But he’s not a witch, he’s a mortal.” Weird that I was fighting for Angelo to be mortal, since that made him off-limits again. I just couldn’t believe it—it was all happening so quickly.

“Do you presume to tell the council that you do not believe in DNA tests?”

“No!” I floundered. “But ... but . . . he can’t summon. I’ve never seen him even try to cast a spell.”

“You have not felt the pull of his Attractivity Talent?” Agatha looked at me with narrowed eyes that make more wrinkles in her face. I knew she was thinking of Daniel. She’d always blamed me. Said I was a bad influence, even though everyone said Daniel had been incorrigible before I came onto the scene.

Oh. Well, then. “I meant, I didn’t know he was a witch. I thought he was a mortal.”

“So you have not observed him doing magic, even unintentionally? Say, summoning something to eat when he is very hungry?”

“No.” Was that good or bad? I couldn’t tell. “Maybe.”

“Make up your mind, girl.” This time, it was Old Lady in Red who was impatient with me.

“I didn’t think of it as magic before, just some serious chemistry. But if he is a witch, then I think maybe he can make girls like him a lot.”

“The Attractivity Talent.” Agatha nodded. Then she shook her head gravely. “One of the most dangerous of the Fire Talents for the untrained.”

“But he’s not a hound at all,” I protested. It sounded like Angelo needed protecting. “He doesn’t take advantage. He
doesn’t even seem to know why all the girls like him so much.”

That didn’t make the council members any happier.

The light switched off me and back to the lady next to me. Angelo’s mother looked utterly miserable. I checked her out more closely. She did have those nice lips like his. Her eyes were blue, but her dark lashes were long, like his. Even though the evidence was pretty clear, the whole thing was still hard to believe.

The one slightly positive thing about the whole experience was that, despite all of Agatha’s huffing and puffing, she wasn’t trying to blow down the house of Pru. Not today, anyway.

Just when I started to relax, the light spotlighted me again. The Old Lady in Red looked at me, and she was scarier than Agatha. “Have you any reason to feel magicked upon when you are in your home?”

“No.” Magicked upon? Even the Dorklock wouldn’t dare cast a spell on me with Mom on eagle-eye watch. But then I realized she was asking about Angelo again. The light went off of me and onto Angelo’s mom again.

“Celestial Fleur, do you relinquish all responsibility for the education and testing of your son, the mortal-raised boy Angelo, should the council decide to grant him a probationary testing period to see if the damage done to him during his formative years can be reversed?”

If? I wondered what the alternative would be, but with Agatha and the Old Lady in Red in charge, I couldn’t imagine Angelo would enjoy it.

“I could see to his education myself,” Angelo’s birth mom said. But even I knew, given her Water Talent ethereal nature, that that was not a good idea. I would have to remember to ask Mom how a Water Talent could give birth to a Fire Talent. I watched her pat Celestial Fleur’s arm soothingly. Mom was an Air Talent, and Dorklock had a Magic Talent. I wonder what my Talent would be—if I ever manifested one.

“That is not wise. You have done enough for him,” the Old Lady in Red said dryly. “You must relinquish all responsibility for his education and agree not to contact him until he is rehabilitated and has proven himself a true witch.”

More tears. But she was brave enough to say through them, “I will.”

“The council will inform you of their decision shortly.”

Old Lady in Red didn’t bother with unsilencing the gallery crowd; she just waved them away. Back to whatever they had been doing, I presumed, but I spent the next few moments of silence wondering about it. Wondering about what was going to happen to Angelo was way too scary.

“We’ll take your evidence under advisement and let you know our decision posthaste,” Agatha told mom and me.
We were back in the kitchen before the words had finished echoing around the council chamber.

Sassy leaped into my lap as I sat there, staring at Mom, speechless, clueless, and wondering if I’d dreamed the whole thing. Mom was looking at me with a look that said something big had gone down.

“What just happened?” I asked her.

She didn’t let me get away with pretending I hadn’t understood. “You were there.”

“So Angelo was switched at birth? That’s not his fault. The council can’t—”

She rubbed her temples. “They can, but I think they’ll give him a chance. He hasn’t caused any magic trouble. And Celestial didn’t realize how close to giving birth she was when she went to that concert.”

I thought about what I’d heard in the council. “Which meant she brought a mortal kid home with her. What happened to him?”

Mom tapped the book she’d been holding during the session. “When it was clear he was mortal, he was put up for adoption through the Great Wings adoption service.”

Wasn’t that kind of harsh? “You make it sound routine.”

“Sometimes a witch gives birth to a child who does not have the ability to perform magic, Pru. It isn’t unheard of. Although I would have thought Celestial might have realized that there might be a bigger problem when her son
showed no sign of magic development. But there is no love as blind as a mother’s love.”

I thought of Mrs. Kenton. Angelo’s mom, I’d thought, until now. “Mrs. Kenton will freak.”

Mom shook her head. “Fortunately, she’ll never know.”

“But if Angelo—”

“I’ve already suggested a plan to the council. If they agree with it, Angelo will live with the Kentons while he’s being schooled in magic. Mrs. Kenton will never know.”

“What if Angelo slips?” It wasn’t easy for me to live in witch world, and I had always known I was a witch.

“Pru, this isn’t the first time such a thing has happened. Witches lose their powers briefly after they give birth, and labor is not something you can schedule in your planner— not even as fancy a planner as To-Do.”

“Wow. I’m surprised you would have me and Dorklock in the hospital, then.”

Mom smiled. “That was different. Grandmama was there to put a charm on you so that you could not be taken far from me.” She shook her head sadly. “Poor Celestial, she’s in such pain. But as long as Angelo becomes a true witch, she can make up for lost time with him for many centuries.”

“If not?” I wasn’t really sure I wanted the answer to that question, but I had to ask.

“In the past, when the council decided to try to bring a lost child back into the witch realm, many protective
spells have been cast to keep the mortal realm unaware.”

“And when they didn’t work?”

“I don’t think we need to worry about that.” Mom didn’t look at me. “There have only been a few cases where a lost child has had his magic curdle inside and release evil forces that can’t be contained. Like with Jack the Ripper.”

“Jack the Ripper was a witch?” No wonder the council members looked like they wanted to shake Celestial Fleur until her teeth knocked together.

“A lost witch. He was much too old by the time we realized. He had to be—” She stopped. “Well, never mind. You and I both realize that Angelo is one of the kindest boys you know, human or mortal.”

True enough. So why were the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end?

I can’t tell you how weird it was when Angelo
showed up to “car pool” with me to school. Really. Somehow the witches’ council had made Mrs. Kenton believe that she had filled in the application and visited Agatha’s to get Angelo accepted. Mom was on deck for car-pool duty, or so Mrs. Kenton thought.

She showed up with Angelo the first day, which was no surprise at all. “I’m so grateful that you helped Angelo get into Agatha’s,” she gushed to Mom. “It’s such a wonderful school. He’ll have no trouble getting into any of the Ivy Leagues now.” She beamed as she stood there in the living room.