Spellcaster

Chapter 1

BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE. NADIA FELT THE CHILL.

She wasn't sure why. Her father already had the car's heat on because of the awful weather. Her little brother, Cole, was too engrossed in his game to have rolled down any windows. The only sounds were the slap-slap of the windshield wipers, Cole's thumbs tapping on the tablet screen, and Dad's classical music-some piano Concerto, notes rippling and rolling over them, not unlike the driving rain outside. It was just like the other countless hours they'd spent in this car today.

There was no reason for the trembling cold that snaked its way along Nadia's skin. No reason for her head to swim as all her senses heightened.

No normal reason anyway.

Nadia straightened in her seat- in the back, next to her brother. The passenger seat in the front was always left empty, as if mom might suddenly return at the next rest stop. "Dad, where are we?"

"Almost there."

"You said that three states ago," Cole chimed in, never looking up from his game.

"I mean it this time," Dad insisted. "We should get into town any minute now. So hang in there, guys."

"I just mean-my head hurts." Honestly explaining what was wrong was out of the question. Nadia already knew that the strange sensations washing over her weren't physical or emotional.

They were signs of magic.

Dad turned the piano music down to a soft wash. "You okay, sweetheart? There's painkillers in the first-aid kit; we could pull over."

"I'm fine," Nadia said. "If were almost there, let's not stop now."

Even as she spoke, though, she felt as if she had made a mistake-as if she ought to have said, Yes, pull over, let's get out of this car as soon as possible. Everything within her told her that they were traveling closer and closer to a source of magic- unlike Any she had known before. But instinct alone told Nadia this magic was...primal. Powerful. Potentially overwhelming.

Her eyes flickered over to the empty Seat next to her father. Mom would have known what to do-

Well, Mom's not here, Nadia told herself savagely. She's still back in Chicago, probably off drinking cocktails with some guy she just met. I'll never finish my training. I'll never be able to use magic the way she did.
But we're Headed into something dangerous. I have to do something.

But what?

Nadia glanced sideways at Cole, who remained wrapped up in his game. Like her father, he was oblivious to the forces they were approaching; like all males, they were magic blind. Quickly she closed her eyes and settled her left wrist in her right hand. On her left wrist she wore what Dad called her charm bracelet- and it did look like one, at a glance.
Even after Mom had left, ruining their lives and all Nadia's hopes, Nadia had kept wearing the bracelet every day. It was too hard to let it go.

Her fingers found the small pendant of ivory, the material she needed to balance her spell.
Silently, she went through the spell for illumination of magical shape. The ingredients came back to her faster than she would have thought.

A winter sunrise.
The pain of abandonment.
The knowledge of love.

She went deep within herself, calling up the ingredients, experiencing each more powerfully than real memory-as if she were living them again-

The sun rising on a sharp, cold morning when the snow was high enough to sink into knee- deep, painting the sky a pale pink, while Nadia shivered on the balcony.