“Let’s go through the rest of the elements then. After that, I’ll give you a demonstration.”
Something my grandma said came to mind. “Wait a moment. What about the consequences? Doesn’t the fundamental exchange have rules? Energy is never used up. It’s merely transformed. If there is a consequence to changing matter, what is it?”
A slow smile formed on Tamara’s face. “You’re a smart girl. What happens to an object if you slowly grab bits and pieces of it?” She took a step toward the house. “What if you took this hand and removed a sliver of the cells on a finger? Not much. There are massive amounts of power there. But the sad thing is that, as spellcasters pulling from ourselves, we have little say in where we pull from. You could be pulling from your fingertip. You could be pulling from your stomach. The worse spots are your internal organs.” She laughed as dread rose through me. “Or even worse you can pull from your heart. How about a bleeder from there? The ones who truly lack self-control pull from up here,” she tapped her head. “And then it’s all over.”
Grandma had been unconscious for five days due to one spell to save my life. What the hell was I getting myself into this time?
“You ready for a demonstration then?”
The word no came to mind, but I nodded instead.
Tamara mumbled under her breath, the words weren’t discernible to me. First, there was nothing but the sounds of the rain and the feel of the drips on my coat. The chill in the air flowed from my forehead down to my toes. She was strangely calm, serene. I never had such a feeling. The only person I’d ever seen with such a calm spirit was Grandma.
Then I saw the drops of rain that fell go back up again almost as if gravity had flipped. The very sight made my jaw drop as I watched even more rain that normally would fall to the ground being sent up towards the sky. The best way to describe it would be as if time went backwards.
“Amazing,” I whispered. “How do you do it so easily?”
She opened her eyes and gave me a knowing smile. “Ten years to discover what the werewolves had lost. Another twenty years looking for a master to teach me werewolf magic. Another ten years to find the spellcasters who would teach me.” Her voice rose as her determination shone in her brown eyes. “Time was on my side to master what I needed to know. But there are still secrets to be found, and I want to find them all.”
Her head jerked to the left. The upside-down rain changed direction, coming back down as it did before. She shoved me in the back toward the house. “Demonstration is over. Back to the house. Now.”
“What’s going on?”
A strange smell drifted toward us from downwind. To the east, something a few miles away advanced quickly. The rustle in the trees increased. The crack of a branch reached my ears. “What’s out there?” I whispered. The need to freeze touched me, but Tamara kept pushing me toward the house.
We rushed up the two steps and past the red door. She slammed it shut behind her, and, shortly afterward, leaned against it to whisper something to the thick wood.
Luda thundered down the stairs in a nightgown with a robe. Tyler wasn’t far behind her.
“Is it here again?” Luda asked.
“What is it? What’s going on?” In a few minutes, I’d be turning into a damn parrot with these people.
Tamara pressed her palms against the door and spread her fingers wide. She continued to mumble, ignoring me as I paced the space in the living room.
She stopped to turn and look at me. “Shut up! Luda, send them back to their rooms. I need to concentrate.”
Luda took my arm and tugged me toward the steps. Outside the windows, the sky had darkened instead of lighting up with the sunrise. Rain continued to belt the glass, removing any opportunity to listen for what lurked outside.
“Why can’t you tell us?” I hissed at her.
“We’re under attack!” Luda said.
“No shit. From what?”
As we approached my room I tried to slow her down, but she was stronger than she looked.
She shrugged and I smelled the truth in her confusion. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen it and Grandma said I wouldn’t want to know.”
“Well, I do.”
“We could help her fight it,” Tyler said.
A laugh came from downstairs. “You go ahead and come try,” Tamara said.
“Did you see anything?” Tyler asked.
“Not really,” I replied. “I just caught a scent. One I’ve never smelled before. It was really weird.”
Luda leaned in to whisper to us. “I’ve never seen it, but I know it did walk up to the front door once. When it first started attacking us, she said it couldn’t cross the field. Then she said the wards in the house walls should hold it back. That the beings trapped inside—”
The front door creaked as if the wood shuddered from something hard leaning against it. Then the wood rattled and shook.
Screw standing around. I raced into my room. My backpack should’ve been on one of the chairs by my bed, but it had fallen over onto the floor. One of the objects I’d brought with me gleamed on the floor: the goblin blade. It had come in handy during my road trip to save my father, so I took it with me. The goblin blade had transformed again, leaving something long poking out of the zippered opening.
The door downstairs shook again. Zoya screamed while Tyler tried to calm her. All the while, I stared at what the blade had become. Each time it changed like this, I dreaded what had to be nearby. What evil force did the blade try to prepare me to face.
The knife’s hilt had elongated to baton length. The sharp blade was now an opaque crystal. My breath caught as the crystal pulsed with a strange dark blue light. The stench of burnt hair made me blink. Before my fingers touched the weapon, the house went silent. For seconds, I hovered, waiting for the next sound.
But nothing came. Nobody moved.
The dark sky brightened as the rain retreated.
When I glanced back at the goblin blade, it was back to its original form.
Chapter 11
It was time for answers. Now, as to who was willing to give them to us was another thing entirely. When Tyler, Luda, Zoya, and I came downstairs, Tamara was gone. Her scent trailed out the door and disappeared a few feet from the house.
“Where did she go?” I asked Zoya.
“I don’t know. She does this sometimes. She’ll be back, though.” Doubt circled her words. She laughed to add levity as she urged us to come inside. “We’re safe now. Let’s have some breakfast.”
I didn’t want food. I wanted to know what threat I faced. When the Long Island werewolves came to South Toms River to take over, the pack had an idea of what was coming. They could form a defensive plan and place pack members at the best position. Such a luxury vanished when the threat was unknown.
After an early breakfast, a trip to the bathroom for a shower sounded so wonderful. The trio remained downstairs while I finished up.
On the way from the bathroom to my room, I spotted someone inside. A short figure hovered over my bags: Tamara had returned without coming through the doors. I froze to keep the floorboards from creaking. The need to rush in and shout, “Hey, those are my things,” was the first reaction, but I stopped when I saw her tilt my backpack to force the contents to spill onto the floor. The goblin blade was at the top of the pile.
“Now this is unexpected,” she said with a grin. “You’re far too powerful of a toy for a little wolf to play with.” She leaned toward the floor, her hand stretched out to pick it up. I expected the blade to form the weapon used on me, a silver knife, but something else happened entirely.
For each inch she advanced on the knife, it scraped along the floor away from her. When she was finally within reaching distance, it shimmered and vanished. Tamara chuckled. “Fair enough. You’ve made your choice, but sooner or later she’ll have to learn your secrets.” She turned to leave but paused. “You’re too much for her to handle.”
As she turned to leave the room,
I sprinted back into the bathroom like a deer escaping an oncoming truck. I hid in the bathroom until my heartbeat and breathing slowed. By the time I poked my head out, Tamara was gone again.
When footsteps echoed across my floor the next morning, I was ready. My eyes snapped open and I turned into a roll off the bed, somehow landing softly on the hardwood floor.
“Damn, I really wanted to raise the bed off the floor like in The Exorcist.” Tamara tsked, pulled a granola bar from her pocket, and ate it. There wasn’t a wrapper on it either.
With my palms, I rubbed my bleary eyes. Such a gesture hopefully helped me avoid the fact she pulled the unwrapped snack from her pocket. “You do know that’s kinda messed up.”
“It’s a dark world, honey, and magic is a gumbo with the darkest ingredients of them all.”
Memories of my grandma flashed in my mind. “Something tells me magic is only as dark as you let it be.” I put on my shoes.
“You enthusiasm is disgustingly sweet.” She finished the food, wiped her hands on her skirt and headed outside.
Wow, Aggie had competition in terms of eating habits. At least my best friend cleaned up after herself.
Instead of heading out to the field, our next lesson took place in the kitchen. Day two would begin with a bang.
“Time for fire,” Tamara said.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked.
Zoya was in the middle of frying up eggs and Luda had a bunch of stuff out to make what appeared to be cakes and pastries. Luda had a bucket of water while Zoya had enough grease to contribute to a huge ass grease fire.
“The house has only caught fire two or three times.” Tamara patted the wall. “She’s a pretty tough broad.”
“Tough broads burn just as easily,” I replied.
“Let’s get started. Recite everything you learned yesterday.”
Zoya added eggs to a plate and with a wary eye watched me recite all the words to manipulate water. As I finished blurting everything out, she frowned. “You said you didn’t know anything.”
“I didn’t,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “I learned this yesterday.”
“Some people actually have talent, Zoya,” Tamara said. “Finish cooking breakfast. Just because you couldn’t remember your own name even if it was taped to your forehead doesn’t mean somebody else couldn’t figure it out.”
Zoya’s black eyes seemed to darken. “I can remember just fine.”
She opened her mouth as if she had more to say, but turned away to concentrate on her cooking.
“Just as I thought. Don’t write a check you can’t cash. I have work to do, and I need folks who can keep up.”
“You don’t have to talk to her that way,” I whispered.
“Whose house are you staying in?” She placed her hands on her hips.
“Yours, but that doesn’t mean you should belittle her either.”
Tamara walked right up to me until our noses almost touched.
“She’s been trying to learn old magic from me for the past few months, ever since I moved back here. Every day, she recited each spell, but none of them ever stuck. Not every one has the skill.” She tapped her forehead. “Memory is a tricky game, and when it comes to knowing things that can potentially save your life, you either know it or you don’t.”
My mouth formed a straight line and I stared right back at her.
She laughed a bit. “If you feel the need to play Mother Teresa and get her up to speed, that’s up to you.”
“If she wants my help, I’ll offer it,” I said.
Tamara snorted. “Good luck with that. Zoya’s more stubborn than the foxes in the field. Enough discussion. I speak. You repeat.”
She stood over the double sink and began to go over fire spells. The words to manipulate fire were similar to water except the verbs were different. Not hard to figure out. I listened intently, closing my eyes again as if I had an order to fill.
“Got it?” she asked as she soon as she finished.
“Yes.”
“Hop to it, then.”
“Huh?” The last thing I expected her to do was ask me to perform.
“I’m not showing you all this for fun. Learning the words is the easy part for you. Executing the spells appears to be your flaw.” She gestured to the sink. “Set that old piece of food on fire.”
My lips went dry. How long had it taken me to master my first spell? I usually could do it when I really needed it. Not when I didn’t want to do it.
I glanced at a piece of crust from toast. How the hell was I supposed to do this? Nick’s words came to me at that moment.
“Magic comes from within or another source. If it’s from another source, they must be touched by magic as well—like the transformation magic that shape-shifters have...”
That part I understood, but there was more I wanted to grasp.
“Even if you do have that ability, you must understand that to harness it, you have to put in what you expect to get out of it. An equal exchange...”
How simple it sounded. Take your inner strength and use it for another purpose. Whenever I cast my calm spell, I was in the height of anxiety. There was only one purpose: freedom from the pain, from falling into an abyss from which I couldn’t escape.
“Magic isn’t a simple formula,” he’d said. “It isn’t like a chemistry set you can put together and expect results every time you put together the ingredients. It comes from your heart. When you have the right tool, the right words, and you believe without a doubt, magic can happen.”
My hands gripped the counter as my heartbeat escalated. My breath quickened. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Luda watching with curiosity. I was on the spot to perform, the court fool asked to do a song and dance. This was my chance to impress Tamara, and I was falling into a panic attack. It had been weeks since my last bad one. My right hand let go of the wood to reach between my breasts for something. The spot was empty. A seashell necklace had been there a few months ago, a gift from Heidi the mermaid that I’d willingly given back to her. I’d have to do this on my own.
Sweat formed on my brow. The crust stared back at me, mocking me as if to say, Your sorry ass can’t set me on fire.
Ha, still not burnt.
Closing your eyes isn’t gonna help.
Holding your breath isn’t gonna help either.
A voice entered my din. “Are you all right, Nat?” It was Luda.
“Just a sec.” My voice came out as a wheeze.
Somehow, I had to find that tool Nick spoke of, and I had to believe. Disbelief was my worse enemy. That was the source of the panic attack: fear that everything was out of control and I couldn’t control it. I spoke the calm spell, reaching and straining for a place that would give me peace. Grandma told me I could have it if I really wanted it. Warmth spread over my chest and spread to my head and limbs. In the next breath, I spoke the fire manipulation spell.
The crust of bread exploded into soggy pieces and rained down as multiple fiery masses all over the kitchen.
“Holy shit!” Luda grabbed the bowl with pastry dough and flipped out as one gooey mess landed on her shoulder.
Tamara hardly moved, merely blocking an incoming fireball with a flick of her wrist. The hint of amusement on her face made me want to run from the room. Tyler stormed down the steps and rushed in to offer a hand.
With a frown, I used a wet dust rag to pat out the tiny fires.
“I think it’s safe to say you have little control over your abilities,” Tamara said.
I threw a dirty look in her direction.
“I’d check the towel over there.” She pointed to the other side of the room to where Luda tried to clean off the table. She managed to take care of one fire. On the other hand, a quilt on the other side of the table had a nice growing flame. Black smoke filled the room. My victory had turned into a burning mass of madness.
“When does she plan to work on the next element? Can she do wind outside? Away from the house?” Luda
laughed and offered me a wink.
I shook my head. Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz came to mind. If I blew the house away, could it land on Tamara?
Tyler offered me a hand to stomp out the burning quilt. He tried to help with the other fires while I took care of my mess. When I picked up the poor blanket, I noticed something weird about the wood underneath. Instead of a minor scorch mark, the dark wood had lightened, almost turning into a reddish hue. I stooped down to touch it. When my fingers pressed against the spot, I heard a piercing scream in my ears. But no one else reacted, so only I must have heard it.
“What the hell?” I whispered.
I looked for Tamara to ask what happened, but she was long gone. My gaze flicked to the reddish spot again. Had I imagined what I heard? Why would a house scream out in pain? Something Luda had said during the attack pecked at my memory—something weird about the house—but I couldn’t remember. I reached for it again, but Tyler touched my shoulder.
“You okay, Nat?” he asked.
The need to say something tugged at me, but I kept my questions to myself. I must’ve been standing here for a while. Tyler looked as if he had worked hard to pitch in. His clean shirt was now covered in soot. He even had smudges of black grease on his face.
“I’ve had better days. I’m so sorry about your clothes.”
He shrugged. “I planned to work on the fence today. I’ll get started on that and then shower outside. I don’t want to mess up the bathroom anyway.”
While Tyler headed outside, with Luda not far behind after she finished her cake, I cleaned up the kitchen and tried to forget about the burn mark. I settled into the familiar rhythm of cleaning. Of taking away what was tarnished and making it fresh and new. This was the most relaxing activity to be honest. I didn’t know where everything went. But that didn’t matter. I organized all the cabinets, wiped the sink until it shined and I scrubbed the floor until it was clean enough to eat on—if you were into that kind of thing.
By the time I wanted to go outside for fresh air and to check on Tyler, the day had passed by. After the rough morning, the cleaning had done my soul good. Yeah, only someone like me with OCD would fall into old habits, but doing what I did back home was like therapy. This place was far too new.
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