Rave took off running, zigzagging among the trees at volkaane speed.

  10. PROGRESS

  THE NEXT WEEK FLEW BY. Leesa worked hard on the growth spell every day. The stone continued to grow a little more at each session, except on the fourth day, when she had a small hiccup in her progress. The day before, the rock had finally reached the size it had been in Jenna’s illusion. The next day it stubbornly refused to grow any more, despite more than a dozen attempts from Leesa. The difficulty had not been unexpected, and Leesa simply shook it off. She was fairly confident now she would be able to break through that barrier and was determined to do it on her own, without another assist from Jenna. The next day, that’s exactly what happened—the stone finally grew bigger than Jenna’s image.

  The stone had become too big and heavy for Leesa to levitate—it was now thigh high—so for the last two days she and Rave had simply left it where it sat and returned to the same place the next day to work on it.

  That spot was in the middle of a stand of pine trees not too far from the bank of the Connecticut River, about ten miles west of the volkaane settlement. Leesa didn’t mind practicing in the same place for a few days in a row—the scent of the pines was refreshing and invigorating, and the carpet of fallen pine needles provided a nice cushion for resting on whenever she needed a break. The thick foliage gave them plenty of cover. With Rave’s volkaane senses on alert, there was no chance anyone would stumble upon them by surprise.

  As usual, Leesa warmed up with some of her easier spells, both to build her confidence and to insure she didn’t lose the ability to employ them easily should the need arise. With Dominic having destroyed the black waziri and chased the Necromancer into the dark table, she had no magical enemies to worry about, but you never knew when magic might be called for. She was determined to be ready. Besides, she had an idea in the back of her mind that might require lots of magic from her somewhere in the future.

  She turned her attention to the stone, which was really more of a boulder now. Today, she wanted to see if she could perform the growth spell without actually verbalizing the incantation out loud, the way she could with many of her other spells, including the plant growth spell. Being able to cast spells silently could prove useful sometime. And it was faster to do it that way, too.

  Picturing the rock growing larger was pretty easy for her now. This time, she accompanied the visualization with a silent chant inside her head. Her first two attempts failed, but on her third try the boulder swelled an inch or two in every direction.

  “Good job,” Rave congratulated from his spot sitting with his back resting against one of the pines. “You didn’t even whisper the spell, or I would have heard it.”

  Leesa smiled. There was no cheating when Rave was around. His volkaane ears didn’t miss anything.

  “Thanks. It feels great to have come this far.” She glanced at the rock for a few seconds, then turned back to Rave. “I think I’ll do it another two or three times before moving on to a real test of this spell.”

  Rave looked perplexed. “Real test? What have you been doing for the past week, pretending?”

  Leesa laughed. “No, of course not. This has been really challenging. But I had help twice from Jenna, remember? I need to be able to do this all on my own.” She grinned. “Well, maybe not entirely on my own. I could use a little bit of help from my big strong husband.”

  Smiling, Rave pushed himself up to his feet. “What do you need?”

  “Could you go find me another rock, please? One that doesn’t look anything like this one would be best, I think. I’d go with you, but you’ll find one a lot faster without me slowing you down.”

  Rave bounded across the small clearing and kissed Leesa on the forehead.

  “One new rock, coming up.”

  In a flash, Rave had disappeared into the woods. Leesa shook her head. Despite his speed, she hadn’t heard even a whisper of his passage through the trees.

  She barely had time to fire a few energy bolts at the boulder before Rave returned, carrying a rock that was as different from the first one as it could be. The original stone was roundish in shape, and since it had come from the middle of a stream, the flowing water had smoothed all its surfaces and edges. Rave’s rock was rectangular, filled with angles and sharp edges. It was also dark gray in color, as opposed to the earthy brown hue of the first one.

  Rave dropped the stone a few feet from the one Leesa had been practicing on. Despite its weight, it landed on the pine needles with only a soft thud.

  “Will this do, my lady fair?”

  Leesa studied the rock. She hadn’t been expecting Rave to return with a stone SO completely different from the first one. She had a feeling this was going to be quite a challenge—but in the long run, she hoped the challenge would be a good thing.

  “This rock will do wonderfully.”

  Rising up onto her toes, she gave Rave a lingering kiss upon the lips.

  “Mmmmm…” Rave sighed, smiling. “Maybe I should go find you a couple more rocks.”

  Leesa grinned. “You don’t have to fetch rocks to get me to kiss you, handsome. All you have to do is ask.”

  Rave raised his dark eyebrows. “Really? That’s all? Okay, can I have another kiss, then?”

  Leesa laughed and drew him into her arms. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  She kissed him again, harder this time, pushing her tongue against his mouth. Rave opened his lips and welcomed her tongue with his.

  Leesa gave herself over to the rising heat between them. All thoughts of magic and making rocks grow disappeared as their mouths and bodies pressed against each other. She grabbed the bottom of Rave’s shirt and pulled it up over his head. He responded by picking her up and depositing her softly upon the bed of pine needles. The rest of their clothes quickly followed Rave’s shirt as they once again consummated their love, surrounded by the thick pines and with a bright blue sky above them.

  An hour, or a lifetime, later—she couldn’t really tell which—Leesa reluctantly slipped back into her T-shirt and jeans. Their lovemaking had left her feeling relaxed and satisfied and very much in love. Now it was time to get back to work.

  The dark stone Rave had fetched for her waited patiently in the center of the clearing. She studied its irregular angles and sharp edges, trying to picture what they would look like as they grew larger. When she had the image firmly in her mind, she cast her spell.

  “Blitha morun sumuss,” she said loudly. She was not about to try to make this new rock grow by merely thinking the spell inside her head. That would come later, after she had enlarged the stone several times.

  Nothing happened. Leesa pushed down her disappointment. She had hoped her proficiency with the spell would transfer immediately to her new target, but she was not really surprised when it didn’t. The old rock had become very familiar—she was easily able to picture it growing, since she had seen it do so numerous times. She had no such experience with the new one. Getting it to grow the first time would be her biggest challenge. This was almost like learning a new spell—she would need to be patient.

  She tried three more times without success before deciding to call it a day.

  “That’s enough for today,” she said, looking up from the rock. “Let’s go home.”

  Rave popped back up to his feet from where he had been sitting and watching. He motioned toward the dark stone.

  “Are you bringing that with us? Or do you want to leave it and come back here tomorrow?”

  Leesa levitated the rock until it was floating in front of her waist. She reached out and grabbed the stone with both hands.

  “This thing goes where I go,” she said determinedly. “It’s not leaving my sight until I make it grow at least once. The more familiar I get with it, the sooner that’ll happen.”

  Rave smiled. “Fair enough.”

  He scooped Leesa up into his arms. A moment later, they were racing through the forest toward home.

  11. KISSING IN THE RAIN

  THE NEXT DAY, a major storm front swept across the area. Gone were the pleasant temperatures and bright blue skies of the past week; in their place had come chill winds and leaden gray clouds filled with moisture. The forecast called for two or three days of intermittent rain, heavy at times.

  Leesa didn’t care. She was still going to work on her magic. Indeed, she felt that using her powers to keep herself dry while performing other spells would be a useful challenge. The foul weather was of no concern to Rave, either. His inner heat kept him warm and dry no matter what the weather. The heavier the rain, the more he simply turned up the fire inside him to evaporate the moisture as soon as it struck him. Leesa had been with him in one storm so fierce she could hear the water hissing as his heat evaporated it.

  They stood with their arms around each other near the highway at the edge of the volkaane settlement, waiting for Cali. The dark stone Leesa was going to try again to make grow sat in the mud in front of them. Leesa had levitated herself an inch above the ground to keep her gray and blue running shoes out of the muck, and she maintained an air shield above their heads to block the rain. The water poured off the air shield’s edges in tiny waterfalls. She and Rave had chosen a spot far enough back from the road that no one driving by would be able to notice the inexplicable phenomenon.

  Today was Cali’s scheduled day to join them, and she had insisted on coming along despite the storm. “What’s the big deal?” she had said on the phone earlier in the morning. “I’ve got a raincoat and an umbrella—I won’t melt.”

  Leesa was not surprised that Cali was coming. As much as her friend loved magic, Leesa guessed that nothing short of a hurricane or a tornado warning would keep Cali away. And maybe not even that.

  A pair of headlights cut through the gloom and curved across the highway as the car made a U-turn and pulled over onto the shoulder. Leesa levitated the rock up into her hands. Since levitation provided only vertical movement, Rave used the arm he still had wrapped around Leesa’s back to direct her toward the car. The sensation felt a little like being on a moving sidewalk—she was moving forward without taking any actual steps. When they reached the car, she let the stone float back down to the ground.

  Cali got out and came around to join them. She was wearing a bright yellow rain slicker with a large picture of Donald Duck’s head on the front, as well as a matching rain hat and black rubber boots. The pie-shaped sections of her umbrella alternated pink, purple and gray.

  “Nice day, huh?” she said, smiling. She looked up at the rain bouncing off and sluicing over the edges of the invisible barrier above Leesa and Rave’s heads. “That’s pretty cool, Leesa. If you can figure out a way to add some bright colors to that thing, you might have a winner.”

  Leesa laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind, next time I’m waiting around in the rain with nothing to do.” The more she thought about it, though, the more it seemed like that might be a good combination of spells to try. She didn’t see a use for such a pairing right now, but she was always looking for ways to stretch her abilities.

  Rave bent down and effortlessly picked up the heavy stone. Leesa watched an area of lighter gray spread out on the surface of the rock from around Rave’s hands as his heat began to dry it out.

  “Since you’re riding with Cali,” he said. “I’ll carry this.”

  “You don’t have to carry it, Rave,” Cali said. “We can put it in the trunk. It’s already a mess back there. A little mud and wet won’t hurt it any.”

  Rave hefted the rock and grinned. “No, I want to carry it. I earn kisses from Leesa when I fetch and carry rocks for her.”

  Leesa’s grin was at least as wide as Rave’s. “That you do,” she said. She leaned forward over the rock in Rave’s hands and gave him a long kiss on the mouth.

  “Ugghh…” Cali groaned with mock disgust. “Could you two be any more in love?”

  Leesa ended the kiss and smiled at Cali. “Nope. I don’t think so.”

  “Me, either,” Rave added.

  Cali shook her head and smiled. “Well, if you two are done playing tonsil hockey, can we get this show on the road? I only get to do this once a week. I want to see some more magic.”

  Leesa’s smile widened as an idea came to her. “You want some magic?” she asked. “Rave, show her some magic. Give her a kiss on the cheek. Make it a warm one.”

  Rave looked surprised for a moment, but then his expression changed to one of amusement. He put the rock down and bent over to kiss Cali’s cheek.

  Cali’s eyes went wide as Rave’s magical heat spread from her cheek across her face and then down through her body. When Rave finally lifted his lips from her skin, she let out a long sigh.

  “Wow…now I know why you’re so hooked, Leesa. I think that was even better than a vampire kiss.” Cali’s lips curved into a thoughtful grin. “Though to be fair to Stefan, he’s only kissed my hand. Next time I see him, I’ll have to get him to kiss my cheek, so I can make a better comparison.” Her grin widened as she looked back at Rave. “And then I’ll probably need another kiss from you, Rave, soon after, to make the comparison fair, you know.” She turned to Leesa. “I may even let YOU kiss me, Lees, to add a wizard kiss into the whole mix. I could become the world’s greatest expert on magical kisses.” She nodded in approval at her idea. “I think that’s a goal worth shooting for.”

  Leesa could only shake her head and laugh. Cali was too much sometimes.

  “Incorrigible,” Leesa said. “Totally incorrigible.”

  12. TRY, TRY AGAIN

  THE RIDE TO THE PRACTICE SPOT eight or nine miles north of the volkaane settlement took nearly twenty minutes. During the drive, the weather changed three times—from heavy rain to light showers and back to heavy rain. It was during the period of lighter rain that Leesa spotted something along the side of the road that she wanted.

  “Pull over,” she told Cali. “Right here.”

  Cali slowed down carefully on the slippery pavement and eased the car over to the shoulder.

  “What is it?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. There’s something back there I want. Back up a bit, please.”

  Cali backed up slowly, thankful the rain had lightened, making visibility much clearer.

  “That’s good,” Leesa said after they had backed up a hundred feet or so. “Stop here.”

  Cali took her foot off the gas. She tried to look out Leesa’s window to see what it was that interested her friend, but all she could see was a piece of discarded furniture. It looked like an old, round wooden end table.

  “Don’t tell me we stopped for that thing?” Cali said. “It’s barely better than a piece of junk.”

  Leesa had already opened her door, but was keeping it cracked just an inch or so to keep the rain from blowing in.

  “I know. But I may have some use for it one of these days. You told Rave he could put the rock in the trunk, so I’m guessing you don’t mind if I put the table back there?”

  Cali shrugged. “Go ahead. If my wizard friend wants to collect a piece of trash, who am I to argue?” She reached down and popped the latch for the trunk.

  Leesa pushed her door open while creating an air shield above her head at the same time. The rain was still fairly light, so it fell off the edges of the shield in trickles rather than in torrents like earlier. Without Rave to push her, there was no point in levitating, so she stepped carefully across a narrow band of mud to the old table. It wasn’t very heavy, so she lifted it without magic and deposited it into the trunk. She slammed the hood down and returned to her door. Before she got in completely, she sat with her feet sticking outside and kicked as much mud off her shoes as she could.

  “Oh, get in already,” Cali said. “Have you looked down at the floor mat? A little bit of mud isn’t going to matter.”

  Leesa looked down. Cali had a point. The mat was stained with dirt and littered with pieces of trash. She pulled her feet in and yanked the door closed.

  After carefully checking the road behind her, Cali eased out onto roadway. She had just gotten up to speed when the heavens opened up once again. The rain pounded against the windshield with such ferocity that the wipers couldn’t keep up with it even at their highest speed, forcing Cali to slow down to maintain even a semblance of visibility. They plodded along at ten to fifteen miles per hour for five minutes or so before the rain slowed to a mere downpour and she was able to see clearly once more.

  Finally, they reached the spot where the road came closest to the practice place Leesa had selected, and she directed Cali to pull off the roadway once more and park. The rain was still falling at a steady rate, but nowhere near as furiously as it had a few moments before. Both girls got out of the car. Leesa spun another air shield while Cali opened her multi-colored umbrella.

  They set off into the woods, picking their way between the tall trees. The foliage provided partial cover above them, slowing the downpour at least a little. The ground was covered with fallen leaves, creating a surface that was slick but not muddy. Leesa stepped carefully, while Cali stomped alongside in her heavy boots.

  Rave arrived at the secluded clearing only a few minutes after Leesa and Cali. He set Leesa’s rock down carefully on the wet ground to avoid splashing any water or debris up onto the girls. When he stood back up, Leesa locked her arms around behind his waist.

  “Time for your reward for carrying that,” she said before giving him a long kiss on the lips.

  “Oh, geesh,” Cali complained. “Again?” Her smile showed she didn’t mean it.

  When Leesa finished her kiss, she turned to Cali and grinned. “Don’t be so jealous. It doesn’t become you.”

  “Shouldn’t I get a reward for driving you here?” As soon as Cali finished asking, she looked at Rave flirtatiously, clearly showing what she wanted for her reward—another kiss from him.

  Leesa stepped closer to Cali. “Yeah, I think you do deserve something for your trouble.” She leaned over and planted a big wet kiss on Cali’s cheek. “How’s that?”