Magic Is Afraid of Me

How it begins

The first spell fled Clara Dorr through a keyhole. She watched its blue tail disappear and added magical infestation to the list of things her landlord would insist were her responsibility.

By lunchtime, the workshop's warming charm had escaped through the chimney, the self-threading needle had become an ordinary needle and a customer's enchanted boots refused to cross the threshold. The customer called her a fraud. Clara pointed out that the boots were the ones refusing to work.

Arun Keene arrived at three, wearing the gray coat of the city magicians. He carried a containment lantern.

'You reported displaced magic.'

'I reported cold feet.'

He set the lantern on her counter. The flame inside saw Clara and flattened itself against the glass.

Arun's expression changed. He moved the lantern a little farther away.

'Has this happened before?'

'Not until yesterday.'

'Anything unusual yesterday?'

She considered the question. Her sister had written. A heel had snapped on the mayor's wife's shoe. She had found an old brass buckle in the lining of a boot nobody remembered bringing in.

At the sight of the buckle, every charm on Arun's coat went dark.

He sat down without asking. Clara decided not to charge him for it.

'Where did you get that?'

'I was about to ask the same thing.'

The brass was warm beneath her fingers. Across its back, letters began appearing in a language she had never learned and somehow understood.

YOU SAID WE COULD GO.

Outside, the street's lamps went out in sequence. A small blue spell slipped under the workshop door, trembling. It did not look dangerous. It looked cornered.

Arun reached for his lantern. Clara put her hand over it.

'Before you contain anything,' she said, 'I think we should find out what it believes I promised.' The little spell waited.