Read Last Witch Standing (Mountain Witch Saga) for Free Online Page A

neighborhood park, and into even finer and larger houses. The signal
came from within a two-story house. Upstairs, she could see the silhouette of a
girl through the curtains. Katie knew instantly that was her witch.
    Powerful. This was the jackpot! The other four
had all been such abject failures, so disappointing —
    She leapt onto the yard, using the Power to mute the sounds
of her landing. As she knelt beside the front door, Katie put her palms to the
wall. The Power. She had to move quickly – this witch, in her ignorance – was
channeling enough power to attract the attention of any member of the magical
kingdom within hundreds of miles. Even if no other creatures were present to
catch the signal, the Citadel witches periodically scanned the worlds for
pulses of power. An upper floor of their Academy held rooms with row after row
of globes of many worlds, Earth included. These models were linked by the Power
to their respective planets or inhabited moons. This foolish girl was
channeling enough to show a spike on the Citadel’s Earth model.
    If they happened to be looking this way, they would surely
come for this child-witch.
    Katie followed the yard’s fence and used the storm drain to
climb onto the roof. Flying, at this point, would be risky. Here, under the
cover of the oak tree, like a sailor climbing a rope ladder up the mast, she
scaled the building.
    At the roof, she paused and scanned the area. Through her sorceress-heightened
senses, she could tell a person was on the bottom floor, stirring. A woman.
Across the street, a young man pulled up in a rundown late model Toyota Celica.
Katie waited for him to go inside his house before she started towards the
upper floor window where the girl was channeling.
    The branches of the oak tree provided cover from the street
and Katie was glad she did not need to channel to approach unnoticed. First
approaches were always the most risky; Katie did not know the witch, the area,
or whether or not she was the first to discover this witch.
    Katie peered through the gap in the curtains. A dark-haired
girl of about sixteen lay upon the bed moving marbles, that were set about the
bedspread, with the Power.
    Katie rapped against the window. The girl looked up, eyes
narrowed, as if caught in the commission of a crime.
    Katie tapped the window again, this time gently.
    The girl jumped up and faced the bedroom door. For a moment
she hesitated, as if trying to decide whether to flee or check out the strange
noise.
    Katie tapped a third time. The girl turned towards the
window and was at it in a few strides. She pulled the curtain back at the
corner of the sill and looked out at an angle onto the roof, body shielded. 
Katie waved. The girl jumped back. A second later, the latch clicked and the
window opened. The girl stared at Katie.
    “How did you get here, sweetie?” The witch-girl stared down
at the sidewalk, probably looking for whoever put the child onto her roof.
    “May I come in?”
    “What? How did you get here? Are you okay?” The girl put
her hands out and lifted Katie into the room.
    The things I do for science. This child-witch
will have to be taught not to touch me. For the moment I will tolerate it – the
potential gain is too large not to.
     “I am not a child, witch.” Katie forced a smile and looked
up at the girl.
    “Pardon?” The girl held the sorceress tightly by the arm,
as if afraid she could somehow fall back out the window.
    “Please let go of me. I need to speak to you about what you
are doing with the marbles. It is very dangerous.”
    The girl let go and stepped back. Katie watched as awareness
dawned upon the girl that Katie was not a child – at least not a human one –
and that the sorceress knew what she was up to.
    “I have come to help you.” Katie looked up at the witch,
counting upon her blue eyes and baby face to resonate benevolence. She touched
the child on the arm. “Let’s take a seat on the bed and we can talk.”
    When