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I grab the thing and yank it free.
“Ouch!”
The bird squawks when I throw it into the air, sending it into the night so I can check on my witch. “Are you all right?”
Josie fingers through her ebony waves, shaking out her hair. “I’m fine. Just startled. What was wrong with that bird?”
My gaze shifts to the bird in question—a crow—that, despite my aggressive launching of it, hasn’t flown away. Instead, it is sitting perched on the iron railing of the stairs, its beady eyes staring at me with too much intelligence for my liking.
“That thing is creepy as hell.”
“It’s right behind me, isn’t it?” Josephine’s eyes shift, searching for the bird behind her.
“Not for long.” I take a tentative step forward, flinging my hands towards the bird to shoo it away.
“Now, don’t go doing anything stupid.”
I pause. That didn’t sound like Josie’s voice.
“Rune, that’s not a regular bird.”
That’s my witch’s voice—unmistakable… and urgent.
As I turn back around, Josie’s wild black mane is fanning out around her with the wind created by the force of magic she calls to her aid. Her gaze is fixed on the crow, and I step out of the way.
“Tenere.” Josie casts.
The spell traps the bird in a floating sphere of dim light. The bird’s hefty wings beat angrily against the transparent walls of its prison.
“Let me out of here, you skill-less child.”
Skill-less? The bird has no idea what it’s talking about. Josie’s skills as a witch have grown tenfold in the short time I’ve known her.
She is—hold on… The bird is talking?
“Uh, Jo?” I squint at the bird’s beak, but it doesn’t move. “Did you just warn me not to do anything stupid?”
“It’s sound advice for you, but no.”
I scrub my fingers through my beard and wrap my head around that. “Okay, then the bird must’ve said it.”
She looks at me like I’ve gone crazy. “Did you say the bird was talking to you?”
“You didn’t hear it? Could it be some kind of animal communication spell?”
“It spoke directly to you?”
“Uh, yeah. I think so.”
“Has that ever happened before?”
“Nope. First time.”
“Yeah, yeah, the bird talks. How long are you going to freak out before we can move on?” My head pivots on a swivel as I face the mouthy marvel.
“My bad, do you have a crucial crow business meeting to attend that we’re keeping you from?”
“Rune, that’s a raven,” Josie corrects at the same time the bird screeches into my brain.
