Spellbound

I raced down the hallway at a dead run, dodging room service carts and ignoring the frowns of Dante's guests and staff. I was going to be late for my training session with Pritkin unless I hustled. He'd been in such a bad mood lately I didn't want to give him an excuse to come up with new ways for getting my butt into shape. Sure, I could use my powers as Pythia to shift there in an instant, but I didn't like using them unless I had to.

Pritkin isn't what you would describe as good-natured, but the last couple of days his temper had been on a short fuse, even for him. Something was worrying the mage. And if it was worrying Pritkin, it had to be something bad. Really scary bad.

I pulled up short outside the door to the training salle and had to bend over with my hands on my thighs to catch my breath. I checked my watch and slowly breathed out. Almost a minute to spare. Pritkin's training sessions were actually starting to pay off! I wiped my sweaty face against the sleeve of my sweatshirt, took a final lung-filling breath, and sauntered in.

Pritkin greeted me with his usual scowl, but I was surprised to see Jonas there, too.

"You're late," Pritkin snapped.

The alarm on my watch went off. Grinning, I shoved it under Pritkin's nose. "No, I'm not. I'm exactly on time."

His eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything. He grabbed my wrist and turned off the alarm. I did my best to stifle a grin, glad I had set my watch back a few minutes before racing out of my room. Who needed to be Pythia to control time?

I turned to Jonas before Pritkin got suspicious. Pritkin could read me too easily. "Hi, Jonas. Do we have a training session now?"

Jonas is the current acting head of the Silver Circle. In his professional capacity and as a close personal friend of Agnes, the previous Pythia, he learned a lot about how the Pythia is supposed to operate. Since Agnes died after providing me with, oh, about thirty seconds of on-the-job training, it had been all learn-as-you-go for me until Jonas volunteered to share what he knew about the job.

I didn't think our session was until this afternoon. Something was definitely up. My internal worry meter inched up a notch.

"Hello, my dear." Jonas gave me one of his broad smiles. His blurry blue eyes had their normal good-natured twinkle, so whatever it was couldn't be too bad. I hoped.

"Jonas is here because I asked him to come." Pritkin sounded oddly formal. "Cassie…" He hesitated and the dial on my worry meter spun to max. "I believe a spell has been placed on you. It has taken me several weeks to realize this. I haven't been able to determine its precise nature, but I'm hoping Jonas will have more luck identifying it than I have."

"A spell? Another one?" I already had three tracking spells on me. One had even been cast by Pritkin. Pritkin's grim expression kept me from starting that argument again. "What does this one do?"

"That's not important. Jonas, check her."

Jonas nodded and raised a hand.

"Wait a minute!" I backed away from the two mages. "Nobody is doing anything until I know what's going on!" I turned to Jonas. "Who did this to me? What kind of spell do you think it is?"

"Well, Pritkin suspects…"

"I knew you'd make this difficult." Pritkin's angry green eyes glared at me. "Just check her!"

"John, she has a right to know. You're not protecting her by keeping her in the dark."

Pritkin's lips compressed into a thin line as he stared at Jonas. If Jonas had any sense, he'd keep quiet. But I was done with secrets in my life. "What. Is. Going. On?"

I must have been scarier than Pritkin because Jonas actually answered my question. "My dear, John suspects a geis has been placed on you."

No. Not another geis. My chest tightened and I forced myself to breathe. This had to be a mistake. I looked at Pritkin. His serious expression did nothing to make me feel better.

"But it's gone! The geis Mircea placed on me is gone! I don't feel that way about him anymore."

Pritkin's head snapped towards me with an indescribable expression on his suddenly pale face. "Not that one. Not Mircea." His voice was hard and clipped as he forced the rest of the words out. "It's a new geis that affects us."

"Us?" It took me a moment for his words to sink into my rattled brain. "Us, as in you and me?"

Pritkin's curt nod might as well have been a punch to my stomach. This couldn't be happening. No wonder I had come to care so much for him so quickly. The feelings I had for my war mage partner were all because of another damn geis?!

Something of my pain and horror must have shown on my face, because Pritkin snarled at Jonas, "Get this over with. Check her now."

Jonas raised his hand again. "It'll take a moment to do a deep scan." A purple glow spread from his fingers and surrounded me. I felt a warm sensation like lying out in the sun on a hot, humid day. After what seemed like forever, the glow and the heat abruptly disappeared. I shivered from the sudden cold and the fear of what he would say next.