“She lost everything for me,” I murmured. “Probably her life.”
“But she knew you would be the best thing for witch kind. She had faith in you.”
I nodded slowly. I had wished every day that this hadn’t been my circumstance, but after seeing my mother give up everything for the fighting chance of change… I wanted to make her proud.
“We have to fix this. Fix everything,” I whispered.
“No, you do.”
He was right. I did.
CHAPTER 24
Class was too mundane for me. After Watson's intolerable lecture on passive voice and Stephenson's second-period history lecture on the Civil War in Charleston, I tuned out completely. In my fourth period, which happened to be communications, I was instead completely entranced by the second hand on the clock hanging above the door. Tick, tick, ticking.
"Persuasive speaking involves communication with the intent to change beliefs, attitudes, behaviors..." Tick, tick, tick.
"What are some examples of why people resist persuasion?" Tick, tick, tick.
"Miss Rembrandt."
I turned quickly towards my teacher, trying to rack my brain for the answer. Mrs. Morris looked at her expectantly. "Uhm," I stuttered.
"Maybe instead of staring at the clock, you should be taking notes."
"Okay."
"Do you feel persuaded, Miss Rembrandt?"
"I-"
"What I just told Miss Rembrandt is an example of a value speech. It argues virtue, accuracy. I am merely persuading her that what I am telling her is correct."
I sighed. Then the distinct sound of the intercom clicking on stopped Mrs. Morris in her tracks. "Due to the impending destructive weather, school will be released after fourth period, for a return date of Monday, September sixteenth."
Cheers erupted throughout the classroom, and I looked around anxiously. I turned to the girl sitting next to me. "What destructive weather?"
"There's a hurricane coming," the girl said excitedly. "Hurricane Wanda; haven't you been watching the news?"
Hurricane Wanda. I chuckled at the coincidence.
"Settle down, my class isn't over yet," Mrs. Morris insisted. Nobody listened to her.
◆◆◆
Once school let out, I looked up at the sky anxiously. Almost seventeen years in South Carolina, and I'd always been west enough to never have to deal with the effects of a full-blown hurricane. Here was different, being so close to the coastline.
The sky was a dark gray looming over the school. I looked around for the bus to Gardenside, but it was nowhere in sight. I sighed. Mr. Sawyer probably didn't even bother to notify Gardenside of the early release. Typical asshole.
"Noa!"
I turned to see Lily, Cyrus, and Alana. Alana lately had been cool for the most part, avoiding any mention of magic. My training continued to be held by Cyrus and Lily, with some extra additions of Josie, Harry, and Taylor. Jane, Alana's younger sister, joined once but Alana had come swiftly to take her away. Outside of that, Alana still treated me like a friend, but now she was wary of my secret.
"Hey," I greeted them as they came up to me. "How are we getting home?"
"Alana called Mama, so the bus is on its way."
"Okay."
We decided to all four walk to the bleachers behind the school to wait for the bus. I tugged at the sleeves of my shirt, feeling my hands get clammy and red. "Have y'all had a hurricane before?"
"We get them pretty much yearly," Lily shrugged. "Cy, you remember Florence?" She turned to face me. "We were out of school for like three weeks. But we didn't have power for most of it. It sucked."
"What do y'all do if there's an evacuation?"
"There's another county home in Greenville; we get bussed there. But we haven't evacuated in years," Alana said.
"You think they'll evacuate us for this?"
"Nah," Cyrus spoke up. "It's only a cat two. We might lose power, but we'll live."
I nodded slowly. "Okay." With my fears and anxiety now squashed, I turned to the matter at hand. "This will be the perfect time to get to the mayor."
"Noa, stop." Lily's voice wasn't joking or playing around anymore. She was dead serious. She gave me the don't you dare look, but I paid no mind. I stared at Cyrus.
"If I can just keep practicing the mind control spell, I can simply just tell him not to close down Gardenside. I don't have to do anything malicious or harmful."
"The reason why that spell is so difficult is because it's wrong, Noa," Lily spoke exasperated. She threw her hands up into the air. "Free will is a whole ass thing. We can't just take it away from people."
"It's for a good cause. It's not like I'm using it for selfish reasons."
"Taking away someone's ability to make decisions is selfish."
"Cyrus." Both girls spoke at the same time and turned towards him. He held up his hands, shaking his head.
"Nope, don't involve me."
"You think you can do mind control?" Alana asked.
"I think it's something we can attempt," I responded, shrugging my shoulders. "What other choices do we have?"
"We let the Order handle it," Alana snapped. "Just like we should let the Order handle the bloodborn."
Alana had a giant case for why they should turn me over to Elsa, and thus the Order. Sure, they wanted me dead at one point. But when they saw that I was grown and able to control my powers, we should be fine. That was Lily's hope. Cyrus didn't want to risk my death, however. And why cease training during the debate? I was also highly against informing the Order of my own existence.
"I don't think you're ready," Cyrus said. "Especially since I can't give you as much attention anymore because Josie's starting to use magic, and I gotta help with her lessons…”
“I wish I could help,” I said.
“One day.”
"Disadvantages of being the bloodborn."
"Not all of it can be perks," Cyrus agreed.
"But what can be a perk is keeping Gardenside opened by using my powers to our advantage," I insisted, going back to our original conversation. I was determined to convince them I was ready.
"Noa, you can't even do the spell. Yet you wanna go break into someone's house and hope for the best?" Lily scoffed. "You're not ready."
"When are you going to stop treating me like a baby?" I snapped. "Trying to turn me in to Elsa and the Order, trying to stop me from using my powers to their full extent? Are you really my friend? Or are you just jealous and hindering me because you want to be me?"
Lily stood up and laughed. "Get over yourself, Noa Rembrandt. Just because you're a little bit more special than everyone else doesn't mean you're some bad bitch now." With that, she turned and stalked down the bleacher steps towards the buses, Alana following close behind. Cyrus shrugged and followed her, leaving me alone with my own thoughts.
CHAPTER 25
Apparently, it was tradition to sneak out of Gardenside when it was pouring rain, in the middle of the night, to get drunk as hell at a so-called Hurricane Party.
“It’s going to be fun!” Lily exclaimed, dressing in a short red dress with shimmer more suitable for a New Year’s party. She curled her shoulder-length hair and put on enough make-up for two people.
I picked at my nails. Lily had picked out a green mesh top from her own closet and paired it with black skinny jeans from mine with black booties from Alana. She begged me to do something with my otherwise limp hair, but I refused. I barely even put makeup on.
“It doesn’t sound like fun. What are you gonna do when you’re soaked and freezing?”
“Find a cute boy to warm me up,” Lily responded with a wink. I rolled my eyes but still smiled.
We finished getting ready and headed out. Cyrus and Alana went on their own time, and Tomás had already sent a text to me with a you’re coming, right?
So with a minor reluctance to go, but excitement burrowing in my belly, I left with Lily in an Uber, hoping Elsa didn’t notice all of her high schoo
l kids missing. What would she do if she did?
The party took place in town, in a historic building owned by some rich parents whose kid was privileged as all hell. The rain was incessant and continuous, making the road seem invisible to the driver, and I very much feared for my life during the wild ride.
Back in colonial times, the building must’ve been a meeting hub or something along those lines. It was pretty much just one large dance room with an bar and two bathrooms towards the back.
The room was dark, and music was making the building pulse enough to make the blind able to hear. Lily pulled me to the bar and ordered two cranberry vodkas. It was an open bar, courtesy of whatever rich kid’s credit card had a tab going. Lily handed one glass to me and I took a small sip.
Alcohol was gross.
Or maybe it was the cranberry juice. I wasn’t a huge fan to begin with, and adding vodka was probably not much better.
Still, I continued to sip on the drink after watching Lily gulp it down. “Whoo!” the girl yelled as she slammed the glass down on the table. “Can I get another?” I asked the bartender, and then held up two fingers, “and two shots of vodka.”
I cringed. I wanted to say no, tell her it was okay. Lily probably wouldn’t have let me anyway.
Lily handed one shot to me and held the other up. “To letting go of our problems for one night,” she said, waiting for me to clink our shot glasses together.
“To letting go,” I responded, making the unfamiliar movement. Then I took the shot.
Oh, gross. It burned my throat like strep and caused the familiar chest pain of anxiety, but instead, it was alcohol-related. I took a sip of my cranberry vodka, hoping the cranberry could take away the disgusting aftertaste.
It didn’t. I sighed.
Lily pulled me towards the dance floor, the steady pulse of bodies in the room. I left my drink on the bar. I didn’t pay for it, and I hoped it was gone when I returned.
Lily moved freely in the crowd, pumping her fists and shaking her butt to the music. I tried to lose myself just as much as Lily had, but I couldn’t. I looked around. Where is Cyrus?
I saw Alana in the corner, wearing a maroon turtleneck sweater and a short red and black plaid skirt with thigh-high boots. She had her hair in a messy bun behind her ears, and darker makeup on. She had a half glass in her hand, talking excitedly with the other. I felt self-conscious at the sight of Alana’s body, much better proportioned than my own. I was suddenly embarrassed at my mesh top that showed way too much skin.
Across from her was Cyrus. I breathed a sigh of relief, tugging on Lily’s sleeve and pointing in our friends’ general direction.
Lily saw Cyrus and then nodded at me. “You go,” she mouthed.
I broke away from my roommate and headed towards Cyrus. Halfway there, we made eye contact and neither broke away from it until we were close enough to hear each other.
“Hey,” Cyrus spoke over the loud music. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“Lily,” I said with a shrug.
“Hey Noa,” Alana said with a smile. She had come around, eventually, to my newfound status of witch kind. She was still amazingly nice. Too nice for me to hate when she touched Cyrus’s arm gingerly.
“How you liking the party so far?” Cyrus asked.
“It’s… new,” I nodded. “But vodka is trash.”
Cyrus laughed.
I felt a hand on my back and turned quickly. I’d seen enough episodes of Law and Order that I felt unprotected in such an unfamiliar location.
But it was just Tomás, dressed dapper in a button-up and jeans. He smiled down at me and kissed my forehead, earning an eyebrow raise from Alana and a sad look from Cyrus. “Having fun?” he murmured in my ear.
I felt uncomfortable, with all the eyes on me. I nodded slowly, unsure of what to say. Tomás handed me a new glass of something light yellow. More alcohol.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Long Island Iced Tea, you’ll like it.”
I trusted him, and he was right. It was dangerously sweet and so good I didn’t notice the room start to spin and my words begin to slur after my glass was finished. I fell against Tomás’s chest, laughing and sputtering over my sentences. He wrapped his arm around me, bringing me to a chair to sit.
“Let’s go somewhere quieter,” Tomás murmured in my ear, pushing a lock of hair behind it.
“Yes please,” I said in a babylike voice, hiccuping after I was done speaking. “Oopsie,” I said with a giggle.
I followed Tomás upstairs to some sort of meeting rooms. It was quiet when he closed the door behind us. I sat in one of the big leather rolling chairs, spinning in circles until my tummy burned with nausea. “I don’t feel good,” I admitted.
“Stop spinning then,” Tomás responded. He pulled me up from the chair and sat me on the big conference table in the middle, pulling my chin up so he could clash his lips against mine.
I liked the way his lips felt. I liked when he held me in a certain way. He grabbed at my lower back, pulling my hips closer to his and I suddenly felt hunger in his touch. I pulled my face away and he did too.
“I’m sorry,” he spoke. “I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m not gonna make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“Thank you,” I murmured.
Just as the door broke open and an angry Cyrus stood in the threshold. “Get the fuck off of her, dude.”
Tomás spun around. “Get out of here, man. None of your business.”
“She is my business.”
Tomás backed away immediately, raising his hands. “Yeah? Last time I checked, she was my girlfriend.”
Girlfriend, I thought.
“Noa, we have to go. Now.” Cyrus held his hand out towards me, and I moved to go towards him.
“Noa, stop,” Tomás commanded. I turned towards him, furrowing my brows. “What are you doing?”
“I just…” I turned back towards my friend. “What’s going on?”
“Sofie. She’s here.”
In the haze of my drunkenness, I tried to remember who Sofie was. When my mind cleared, I raised my eyebrows in shock. “What? Why?”
“We have to go. You’re not safe here."
“You’ll stay with me,” Tomás said. “I’ll take you home.”
“No,” Cyrus interrupted. “This isn’t your problem.”
“She’s my girl. Who’s this Sofie person anyway? Why does it matter?”
“It’s not your problem!” Cyrus roared, growing angrier and angrier.
“Well choose then,” Tomás said, throwing his hands up. “Me or him.”
I hiccuped. I looked at Tomás. I wanted so badly to include him, but Lily had been right all along. My life was difficult, I had a whole side to me that I couldn’t even explain. My heart broke into a million pieces at this realization, and I turned towards Cyrus now. Cyrus.
I turned to look at him, seeing him for the very first time. The boy who, at first had been such a brat, but now had begun to forge such an important role in my life. He was quite easily my best friend.
I walked towards him and took his hand. “Take me home, please.”
“Much obliged.”
I left Tomás without a glance behind me.
◆◆◆
As we left the club, I spotted Sofie by the bar, eyeing the trio suspiciously. My heart raced and I felt my cheeks burn.
"Why is she here?" I hissed, my head pounding from alcohol consumption.
"I don't know," Lily murmured, tapping anxiously on her phone for an Uber. "Woman's acting like a snake in the grass."
"She's here for Noa. She has to know. Why else would she be here?" Cyrus snapped.
My chest flamed. "Sofie was responsible for my mom being caught. They were best friends before. Sofie took her in. It only makes sense for her to track me down, too."
Lily closed the screen of her phone and put her hands up to her face, holding in a sob. "They're going to kill us. All of us."
&n
bsp; "No," I insisted, pulling my friend's hands away from her face. "They're not going to touch you."
"They're crazy!" Lily insisted. "They'll hurt us."
"I won't let them."
CHAPTER 26
I didn't know why I was packing a bag. Honestly, it just felt right. But it wasn't as if I was running away to find a new home. In fact, I was trying to keep my current one. With the Order in town, closing in on me, this was my last chance to make things right for the household before I was taken away.
It was just a few hours after the party, and my mind was becoming increasingly clearer by the moment. My head was pounding, but I ignored it. Tomorrow, Lily had said, they would have to quit teaching me magic. It all had to cease. Life as I knew it was changing. We couldn’t let the Order know.
I slid my Grimoire into my backpack, along with a few of Lily's herbs—lavender for clearing the mind, amaranth for protection, and cedar for enhancing my power. I also packed a water bottle and a box of matches, in case I needed to manipulate water or fire. Doubtful, but possible.
I took another look at Lily's sleeping frame and slipped out of the room quietly. Outside, Hurricane Wanda was exhibiting its full wrath. The windows shook with wind and rain, lightning lit up the dark corridors of the quiet Gardenside. It was late, maybe one or two in the morning. I had a long walk to look forward to, in pouring rain in the middle of a hurricane.
Outside on the steps, yet still under the porch, I took out the amaranth, which was a purple plant with tiny flowers. I held my hand out over the plant. It began to smoke, small flames eating away at the flowers. I felt power move up my fingers to my hand, my wrist, my arm, suddenly enveloping my entire body with a sense of protection. I took a deep breath, placing the ashy remnants into my pocket. Protection lined every cell in my skin and provided warmth to my shivering frame.
Now it was time to go.
The mayor's home was luckily on the outskirts of town just like Gardenside was. I pictured in my head a real-life GPS, something to guide my way. I held out my hand and breathed into my limbs where I wanted to go. Instead of taking me out onto the road, it led me through the trees and forests that bordered town.
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