Trio of Sorcery by Mercedes Lackey

was all personal; there would be no Guardian help here. Which meant that she needed to be as economical as possible.
    â€œAs economical as possible” meant minimal use of energy, and minimal use of energy meant that she had to give careful consideration to exactly what she needed the spell to do. It was possible to give whoever touched a phone on this party line while Di was making her call the illusion that they were hearing static. But that would take more energy than she intended to use, and on top of that, it might have repercussions. If someone wanted to make a phone call and got static, he or she might go from door to door to find out who had left the phone off the hook. And while that might not be a big deal, it just might, if someone found out that she was a witch.
    So the best, safest, “cheapest,” and simplest thing was just to set up something that would tell her when someone was listening. It was a spell that witches had been using for hundreds of years, and it was pretty obvious why a witch would want a spell like that. When you were doing something that was going to get you hung, burned at the stake, or otherwise shuffled off the mortal coil, it was agood idea to have a way to tell when someone was snooping around.
    After casting wards around the phone, Di touched it, infusing it with a bit of power, and with her finger, drew the sigil against eavesdropping on the middle of the rotary dial. She felt the energy leave her, making her feel a little more drained than she had the moment before.
    Well, at least it worked.
    She picked up the handset and dialed Lavinia’s number first, watching the sigil, or rather, where she had drawn the sigil. Only if there was a third party on the line would it flare into life.
    The other end of the line rang twice before someone picked up; the moment the person’s hand touched that phone, Diana knew it was Lavinia. Just as Lavinia knew it was her.
    â€œGood heavens, Diana, you are a suspicious little creature. The sigil against eavesdropping indeed.” Lavinia chuckled. “And of course you are calling about young Joe, because you cannot believe I would have sent him to you. If you had bothered to call me when you first moved here I would have told you all about him.” Oh, dear. A social faux pas. The Queen was Not Amused.
    Di rolled her eyes. “And you are entirely too credulous for a Guardian,” she said crossly. “For one thing, I’m on a party line. And for another, you should know better by now. For all I knew this Joe O’Brian found your name on a casebook and—”
    â€œAnd how would he have gotten your address then, if I hadn’t given it to him?” Lavinia replied archly. “Really. You hippies—”
    Diana suppressed the urge to make a rude noise. “I am not a hippie. But I’m considering becoming one, if only to irritate you.” She settled down into the chair next to the phone and prepared to take notes. “Tell me about O’Brian.”
    â€œHe’s not really a cousin, he’s the son of a very dear friend who always called me her cousin. He’s a good boy. And more to the point, dear, he has had his share of cases he couldn’t explain, and he’s quite ready to Believe.” The way Lavinia said the last word, you could hear the capitalization. “I have worked with him a time or two when I got the Call. Mind you, I never, ever let him see just what we were getting into, but he certainly knew that there were things that I took care of that he would never want to put down on his reports.”
    Well, if he’d gotten even a glimpse of what most Guardians got into, his hair would be white. “All right so far. You absolutely vouch for him?” She didn’t need to capitalize anything. “And did you get—”
    â€œYes. And yes. This is something that needs to be handled, and not by me.” Unspoken was the “by you.” Di felt