Capitol Magic by Mindy Klasky

dangerous if Sarah was ducking her own male protectors. And I’d take Neko with me, so it wasn’t like I was truly alone. And if push came to shove, I could always reach out to David, could always bring him in at the last minute.
    And really, how much could go wrong if I had a sphinx—a real-life, vampire-tested sphinx—beside me? Sarah and I had certainly managed to rein in James Morton in the basement of the courthouse before he could harm me.
    I squared my shoulders and said, “Well, let’s get what we need from downstairs.” I led the way to the basement before Neko could gainsay me. Before I could lose my nerve.
    It took me longer than I expected to find the necessary things. With my belongings semi-packed, it seemed that I was missing half the tools for every working that came to mind.
    Muttering to myself, I hunted for a book on the subtle interaction of herbs and crystals. I knew there was one somewhere—it used to be on that shelf, right beside the couch. “Neko?” I finally asked, when I tried and discarded the fifth moss-green, Moroccan-bound, gold-stamped volume.
    â€œDon’t look at me,” he said. “I haven’t had anything to do with packing.”
    â€œNo,” I said acidly. “You haven’t.”
    He managed an angelic smile, so I decided to take another magical tack. “Why don’t we start with runes?” I collected a silk-lined leather sack. Before I could lose my nerve, I added a silver flask and the smallest of the boxes that held my extensive crystal collection. For good measure, I picked up a couple of elementary spellbooks as well. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go back to the kitchen. There’s more light there.”
    Sarah obligingly reached for the runes as I juggled my bounty. “These feel like Scrabble tiles,” she said.
    â€œClose.” I laughed. “They aren’t ordinary letters. But the pieces are carved out of rowan wood, and the symbols are painted with vineblack.”
    â€œThe bag looks brand new,” she said, as we settled around the kitchen table. Neko was already clearing away the remnants of our cupcake feast. Without my instructing him, he produced a length of white silk from one of the nearby drawers. After spreading it on the table, he sprinkled it with purifying rainwater from the silver flask. I nodded my appreciation before responding to Sarah’s implied question.
    â€œThe bag is new, and the runes inside. There were several sets in the basement when I first came across the collection. But we had some … problems last summer, and all my runes were destroyed. These rowan ones are the first replacements I’ve found.” I turned to my familiar. “Neko? Can you go out to the garden? I’ll need some radish leaves, and cuttings from the vervain and rosemary.” He nodded, as if I asked him to harvest an herbal salad every night, and then he slipped out the cottage’s front door.
    I dreaded the thought of leaving the Peabridge garden. Its colonial plantings held almost everything I required for my herb magic. Over the past three years, I had memorized where each plant grew. My powers had matured with the very leaves and stems and roots that I collected. I knew the Peabridge grounds in a way that I could never learn another plot of earth. I couldn’t stay put here—Evelyn would see to that. But if I lived with Melissa I would be close enough to visit, to … borrow from the Peabridge whenever I needed to complete a working.
    I shook my head. I wasn’t going to solve the puzzle of my next home that night. I looked up into Sarah’s patient green eyes. “Sorry,” I said. “I lost my train of thought there for a moment.”
    â€œI know how that can happen,” she said. “What can I do to help here?”
    I settled the bag of runes on the table. “There are lots of ways to work with these symbols,”