Excerpt: Elements of a Witch Apprentice

Chapter One
Sewers 101

I hate sewers. Everything you’ve ever heard about sewers? Multiply that by a hundred.

The whisper right into my ear made me jump. “Wanda, are you okay? You look pale.”

“Shh!” I landed in something yet more disgusting than the last unknown substance I splattered on my black jeans leg. I patted the jeans. They’d been good to me, this pair of denim, but they would be taken from me too young because I was burning them as soon as I got out onto the streets of Columbus again.

Mimi Marshall, my best friend, cringed. “That looks disgusting.”

I hunched my shoulders. As a ghost, she didn’t have to deal with any of the grossness that assaulted me at every turn. As a ghost, she still looked great. No hideous stains anywhere on her, no sweat trickling down her face, no grime on her hands or under her nails. If not for that pesky detail of being dead she’d be perfect.

I, on the other hand, looked like I should be dead.

I had a small flashlight in one hand to keep the other free. I had a backpack on over my winter coat. I’d chosen one that was waist-length because I knew I’d be going into the sewers tonight and there was no way I’d sacrifice a warm coat along with a pair of loyal jeans. I wished more than anything that I was wearing gloves but I found that they interfered with my magic. Last year I’d found a pair that were cut off at the fingers, just below the last joint so the tips were uncovered. I thought they let me control the elements enough that I’d be okay. Then I was almost killed by a poltergeist. I’d learned my lesson well because, even though I could see my breath and my fingers were cold, I hadn’t even brought any gloves with me.

I found one good thing about the sewers. I was surrounded by the earth and the water so it was easy to gestalt with them, feel their energy and use it as needed. If I got too cold, I’d siphon off some heat to help me stay warm. Right now, though, when I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, I couldn’t waste my power on something so frivolous as being comfortable.

I found it disturbing that, somewhere along my incredible journey, I’d decided that comfortableness was frivolous.

“I wish Owen was here.” Mimi walked through me, something new she’d started doing that I really wish she hadn’t.

“Shh!” When would she learn that you had to be quiet on these things?

“Um, Wanda, you’re the only one around here that can hear me.” She smirked, flicked her long blonde ponytail over one shoulder and strode past me into the next intersection.

“Don’t!” I hissed, trying to keep my voice down.

She looked back at me, her smirk bigger and she winked. “Also? You’re the only one that can see me. Let’s go this way.”

“We don’t know that!” I hurried after her, trying to splash as little as possible and hug the wall without actually touching it. “Slow down!”

“I can’t wait to see a minotaur!” I saw she was already at the next intersection. “I hear something this way.” Then she darted down the left passage.

I struggled to catch up. Even when she was still alive, she had poor impulse control. Right now, watching her blunder about without a care in the world, it made me wonder how she ever made it 27 years. “I wonder if Owen would classify it as a miracle.”

I careened around a corner, through Mimi and came to a stop. There, less than a few hundred feet away, was the creature I’d come down to find.

At almost seven feet tall, it made me feel tiny and helpless. Even in the murky light, I could see muscle lines all over the thick frame. From the neck below, it looked like a tall human who might star as the villain in a mega action flick.

The head, though, was something to behold. It belonged to a powerful bull, complete with massive black horns sporting deadly tips, with a golden coat and angry disposition. As I watched, a huge plume of steam escaped the large bovine nostrils while it made the slightest grunt.

“I can’t believe how huge it is!” Mimi moved up besides me. “I can’t believe that it’s real.”