“It feels awful,” I muttered as I continued to push my aura down to my feet. I knew it was going by the soft ache its absence left behind. There was a taste of metal on my tongue, and I glanced at the black surface, my mouth dropping as I saw my reflection in it for the first time. My red hair hung about my face, looking just as I would have expected, but my features were lost behind a smear of amber. “Is my aura brown?” I asked.

“It’s bright gold,” Nick answered as he dragged his stool around to my side of the counter. “Mostly. I think you got it all. Can we …move on?”

Hearing the unease in his voice, I met his eyes. “Please.”

“Good.” He sat and pulled the book onto his lap. Head bowed, he read the next passage. “Okay, put the scrying mirror into the transfer medium, being careful not to let your fingers touch the media or your aura will reattach and you’ll have to start over.”

I refused to look in the mirror, worried that I’d see myself trapped in it. Shoulders tense, I scuffed my slippers back on. My feet ached and my head throbbed with the beginnings of a migraine. If I didn’t finish this quickly, I was going to be stuck in a dark room with a washcloth all day tomorrow. Taking up the mirror, I gingerly slipped it into the media. The specks of wild geranium flashed to nothing, dissolved by my aura. It was eerie, even by my standards, and I couldn’t help an “ooooh” of appreciation. “What’s next?” I asked, wanting to be done with it so I could take my aura back.

Nick’s head was bent over the book. “Next, you need to anoint your familiar with the transfer medium, but you have to be careful to not touch the media yourself.” He looked up. “How do you anoint a fish?”

I felt my face go slack. “I don’t know. Maybe I could just slip him into the vat along with the mirror?” I reached for the book on his lap, turning the page. “Isn’t there anything about making a fish your familiar?” I questioned. “Everything else is in there.”

Nick pushed my hands from the pages as one tore. “No. Go put your fish in the spell pot. If it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else.”

My mood went sour. “I don’t want my aura smelling like fish,” I said as I dipped a hand into Bob’s bowl, and he snickered.