I didn’t want that—I actually like dogs. The only reason we didn’t have one was that Mr. Groperson had a no pets policy at his apartment complex. I didn’t want to send any of these guys home to bite and snap at their owners because I had missed getting a magical burr out of their fur.
Sighing, I got to work, starting with the little Pomeranian.
Every dog had no less than fifteen “anger burrs” in its coat and every one hurt to take out. It was the same feeling you get when you’re trying to remove a real burr from your clothes or hair. The kind that have the long spikes and prick your fingertips when you pull them out.
The task was both painful and time consuming and I felt every burr I removed like a painful pricking in my fingertips. Plus, it didn’t help that the dogs kept running around, moving when I was trying to get to them. It was like trying to play that game Operation—where you remove the different organs on the little patient guy without touching the sides and making the buzzer go off—if the patient guy was running all around. I kept grabbing for burrs and feeling them slip through my magical fingers, as the dog I was trying to help jumped or ran or slipped away as I was helping it.
“This is ridiculous!” Megan exclaimed, after we had been tree’d for almost an hour. “We’re going to be here all night!”
“I’m really sorry, I’m going as fast as I can,” I muttered. “If only they would stop moving…”
“Megan? Are you all right? I felt your fear through our bond.”
We both turned and saw Griffin coming towards us. Bran and Lachlan were with him and all three of them looked concerned.
“Oh, Griffin!” Megan looked immensely relieved. “Thank goodness you’re here! Morganna’s latest spell is awful!”
“I can see that.” The tall Nocturne’s face was like a thundercloud. “I will send all these beasts away so you can come down, sweetheart.”
“No, wait!” I said. I explained to him how all the dogs were infested with the “anger burrs” and how I didn’t want to send them home so angry. “But it would help if you could make them hold still,” I said.
“And Bran and I can help you pick out the burrs, as well,” Lachlan added.
It wasn’t difficult magic—just time consuming. But it went a lot faster with the guys helping. Thanks to Griffin’s gift of being able to control animals, Megan and I were able to come down from the tree where Lachlan, Bran, and I were able to de-burr them.
It took another hour, but finally all the little red magical anger burrs were untangled and removed from the dogs’ coats and Griffin was able to send them all home.
“Whew!” I swiped at my forehead, feeling utterly spent. The magic had taken a lot out of me and it had hurt a lot too. Not like the awful agony of having the geas removed or the severe pain of breaking my mom’s addiction, but you try getting your fingers pricked over and over and over again for hours and see how you feel afterwards.
It also wasn’t lost on me that the spell probably hadn’t cost Morganna anything. She had pushed the pain away from herself, no doubt, while casting the spell and I had to bear the painful cost of removing it.
“This is beyond the pale,” Griffin said angrily, as he sent the last dog on its way. It stopped to lick my hands before it went—it wasn’t a bad dog, it had just been driven crazy by Morganna’s magic. “What if this tree hadn’t been close enough for the two of you to climb?” he went on. “You could have been seriously injured or even killed!”
“I doubt Morganna cares about that,” I said wearily. I was getting really tired of this magical war I was locked into with the Fae girl, just because she didn’t like me.
“No, I think she does care—she meant for harm to come to you,” Lachlan said, frowning. “This is like the spiders—it is not just a retaliatory spell—there was actual intent to cause harm here. This is more Black Magic.”
“What will happen to her if she keeps it up?” I asked, as we started back towards the Academy. “I mean, will her soul get corrupted and she’ll turn ugly or something?”
“Eventually,” Lachlan said, shaking his head. “Though it will take some time.”
“I just don’t understand why she hates you so much!” Megan said, shaking her head. “She’s awful.”
“She hates Emma because now that her geas is lifted, Morganna is no longer the most beautiful girl in school,” Bran said simply. “Just like Mab, the queen of the Winter Court, she wants to be the fairest of them all and she no longer is, since Emma went through her transformation.”