“Gah.” My body shuddered. “Done.”

Faustus and Dog looked at me skeptically.

“Don’t worry. This next part will be far more impressive.” I rubbed my hands together. Time for the incantation.

“Here we go,” I said, giving my audience a wink before closing my eyes.

I had been expecting to feel a tingling of magic running through my veins at this point, but seeing as I could crack concrete without feeling anything, I wasn’t too concerned.

I clenched my fists by my sides, then cast out the words of the invocation.

Winds of night, winds of night,

Stoke the fire, blind the sight,

Fuel the rumors, real or not,

Grow the fear in every Graves heart.

Blaze the panic, force the fear,

Drive out the culpable, bring them near.

In the mind horrid fascinations churn

In the wildfire the guilty burn.

I opened my eyes.

A literal cricket sounded in the corner of the garage.

Huh.

Dog, Faustus, and I exchanged looks.

Normally with these types of spells something happened right away. I had assumed a telltale rush of power would automatically surge through my body and out into the world. But that certainly hadn’t happened.

I frowned. I had done the spell correctly. I was sure of it.

Granted, I didn’t have the help of a coven. But that shouldn’t matter for this. I used to be able to handle far more powerful spells.

Of course, once again, the key phrase was used to.

No, I needed to give it some time. The spell would work.

Just as I had the thought, out of nowhere, a hot gust of wind hit my shoulders, jolting my body forward, and sending my arms flying back.

I caught myself before I hit the ground, then spun around looking for the source, but there was nothing to see. Everything was still. In fact, the punch of wind had come and gone so quickly it was almost like it had never happened. The only clue left behind was the fur on Faustus’s back. It was standing straight up.

“That was unexpected.”

The cat gave me a sideways look.

“I’m sure it’s fine. Whatever that was, it’s gone.”

Suddenly, the wind gusted again, sending me spinning in a complete circle. When it stopped, I stood frozen in front of the worktable, arms out for balance.

Both Dog and Faustus looked quite concerned now.

I dropped my arms. “Okay, that too was strange. But you saw me do the spell. It went off without a hitch.” I had barely gotten the words out when a scorching heat enveloped my feet. It felt like I had been dropped barefoot into blistering hot sand. But there was no sand, and I was not barefoot. The heat was purely magical.

I could see the wind this time. It was circling my boots, and along with the dust and dirt it had stirred up from the floor, it was streaked with angry-looking flames.

I blinked. Hmm, a tiny tornado with flaming, mystical winds. The grimoire hadn’t mentioned that as a possibility. A footnote might have been nice.