The Witch Born to Ignite

by Tanya Milne

  ‘Shit!’ said Max, kicking one of the walls before replying. ‘On my way.’

  I waited for him to leave the room, but he stood silent.

  All of the oxygen left my body, and my head went so light I thought I might pass out.

  ‘Little bitch,’ he said quietly. ‘I will get you.’

  And then he was gone, walking back across my room and running down the stairs. He slammed the door so loudly that the whole house shook.

  For a few seconds I stayed where I was, and then I opened the door, crawled out of the cupboard and sat down, shaking like a leaf, and cried.

  After a while, I managed to stand and stagger back into my bedroom, where the smell of Max and his overbearing cologne, mixed with his essence of sadism, lingered in my room. I walked to the window, opened it and let the cool air rush over my face.

  After a few deep breaths, I scrambled to my bedside table, picked up my phone and texted my parents.

  Come home now. Elijah arrested. No idea why. I’m okay. Eva X

  Then I tapped out another one.

  Elijah, where are you? Are you okay? X

  I heard Elijah’s phone ding from his room.

  Crap!

  I sat down on my bed and stared at my phone, waiting for a reply. As the shock passed, my mind started to whirl with thoughts and questions – questions that left me sick with dread.

  I didn’t know what they had on Elijah, or what might happen to him, but I knew who’d done this.

  Jet!

  Heat from the fire of darkness started to burn inside me, spreading to my fingertips.

  I picked up my phone, scrolled through my school’s contact list and sent Jet a text.

  I will never forgive you for what you have done.

  I held onto my phone and paced the length of my room, up and back, up and back. I stopped, texted my parents again. Waited. Texted. Nothing. I called them. It rang out. I called again and again, and it rang out each and every time.

  A rising panic filled every inch of me as it dawned that something must have happened to my parents as well, and that I was on my own with this.

  My phone dinged, and I looked down to see a text from Jet.

  Something happen to the big bad wolf?

  I waited for my hands to stop shaking before I tapped out my reply.

  Elijah was arrested and I don’t know what happened to my parents. Happy, arsehole?

  I looked around the room, which was filling with soft golden light. How could something so terrifying be happening in this town, in this place that was so quiet and beautiful?

  My phone dinged and I read Jet’s reply.

  What! Are you for real? What happened? Tell me everything.

  This time I didn’t wait for my anger to pass. I let it fill every inch of me.

  Go to hell.

  The time for waiting was over. The time for being a victim was over. I was a witch! A witch with powers that had been passed from one generation to the next. A witch didn’t cower in a cupboard, waiting for someone to attack them.

  I felt the power of this knowledge resonate through every cell in my body. My mind cleared and I knew then what I must do. I closed the window, gathered what I needed and put everything into my backpack. I quickly changed into my black jeans, jumper and thick jacket, then slid my phone into my pants.

  I ran down the stairs, two at a time, and left a note on the bench, explaining what had happened to Elijah and that I was okay and would be back as soon as I was able.

  I grabbed some food and water, shoved them into my backpack and took one more look around the room, which was being flooded with darkness from the impending night, before leaving through the back door.

  The moment I was outside, I zipped up my jacket and ran straight to the bike shed, where I grabbed my old bike. After heading out the back gate, I peddled as fast as I could to the woods. I stashed my bike behind a tree, out of sight from the road, and started to run.

  Adrenalin surged through my body as I used the last of the light to jump over fallen debris, swerve between trees and duck under low branches.

  I felt alive – more alive than I could ever remember. I knew that ice-cold terror lay beneath this feeling, and if anything were to happen to my family I probably wouldn’t survive, but I pushed these thoughts and feelings down and locked them away. They couldn’t help me now.

  I arrived at the river at the same time as night fell. I stopped for a minute to catch my breath. How could it have only been this morning at sunrise when I stood in this same place with Elijah beside me? It hardly seemed possible, yet somehow it was.

  I checked my phone again, but there were no replies. I looked out over the dark waters that rippled against the breeze. The moon was rising in the sky, its perfect orb casting its yellow light onto the trees, the leaves and the water before me.

  Something stirred inside me. It was as though an ancient power that had witnessed the waxing and waning of moons since the beginning of time was waking up. I raised my arms to the moon, closed my eyes and let its powers wash over me.

  A gust of wind sprang up around me and I opened my eyes, expecting to see the waters stirring and the leaves moving, but the wind was pushing into and away from me – and only me. I opened my hands. Wind shot out in a straight line and hit the water, making ripples and small waves appear.

  It felt so primal and so exactly right that I took a deep breath and let the light and energy from the moon soak into me and pass through me into the waters, causing the waves to grow larger until the normally still river was frothing and churning with waves that sloshed up against the banks and onto the ground in front of me.

  When the waves splashed at my feet, I lowered my hands and looked at them, breaking my connection with the moon. The wind settled and the river slowly returned to its tranquil state.

  What. Just. Happened.

  I’d accepted I was a witch and that I would need to learn my craft. I knew my hands possessed powers, powers to conjure up my witch’s mark, but never in my wildest dreams had I thought they would possess the power to generate wind. I placed my hands together – they were cool and electric.

  What else can they do? What else can I do?

  You can help your brother, came a little voice in my head.

  Crap!

  I’d been so bewitched by the moon that I’d lost track of what I was there to do. I stood taller and pulled my backpack close, and with the water lapping against the banks, I turned and ventured deep into the woods, where I’d attempt my very first potion. A potion that could help me rescue my brother and hide our identity, or could fail and leave me helpless to assist Elijah.

  I shuddered to think of him, what might be happening to him right now, in this very moment. As twins, we’d always been in sync with each other. And now, as I walked in the woods so thick that the moon only managed to scatter its light into the darkness, a feeling of dread sat deep within me. Elijah was in trouble. A small cry escaped me, and the feeling of pure and beautiful power that had flowed through me under the light of the moon seeped into the earth beneath my feet, leaving me empty and hollow.

  I climbed through the small gap in the circle of trees, which was soaked in moonlight. Immediately, the darkness that had accompanied my every step in the woods lifted. I walked quickly to the altar, where my little angel sat, facing the sky full of stars.

  The moon was still climbing towards its midway point, where it would cleanse my crystal. I still had a couple of hours, and I’d need every single one of them to get my potion ready.

  I shrugged off my backpack and made myself eat one of Mum’s banana muffins. How could it only have been yesterday morning she made these? I wiped away a tear that sprang to my eyes and pulled out everything I’d need. Then I set to work.

  I started by casting a magic circle. I felt slightly ridiculous as I stepped out six steps east of the altar. I crouched and placed the feather on the ground and said the words, ‘Spirits of Air, I call on you.’ A current of electrici
ty pulsed through me, and I fell back onto my bottom, then sat unmoving for a few moments.

  Any feelings of self-consciousness melted away as I stood and took ten more steps to the north. I crouched and placed the rock on the earth, saying, ‘Spirit of the Earth, I call on you.’ The same current of electricity passed through me and this time, I closed my eyes and sent it back into the earth. I stood and repeated the process to the west, where I placed some water from the river in a small shell and called on the Spirit of Water. Finally, ten steps south, I lit a candle and called on the Spirit of Fire.

  The moment I was finished, I directed the current to connect the four points of my circle. Instantly, I felt its invisible force buzzing through each of the four points, enclosing me. The feeling of everything being as it should be, that I was exactly where I should be, flowed through my veins.

  I went back to the altar and one by one, I placed the flowers, herbs and roots that I’d collected from the river on my previous trip, along with a container of water, my talisman, the boline and lastly, the heavy pewter chalice that I’d stolen from my mum’s cupboard.

  I remembered back to my childhood, always seeing the chalice on my parents’ window ledge in their bedroom. I used to run my finger over the golden star carved into its side, not knowing that what I was seeing was a pentagram, known also as the wiccan’s or witch’s star, with each corner representing one of the five natural elements. It was an ancient symbol and I found myself running my fingers along its ridge, wondering at when the chalice was last used. I imagined my mum when she was younger, her dark hair down around her waist as she made her potions.

  I took off my jacket, released my hair from its braid so that it fell down my back. I slipped off my shoes and lit candles for the altar. At last I was ready. As the moon inched higher into the sky, I prepared my ingredients that I’d memorised from the book on witchcraft. Using the sharp boline, I cut up the petals from the roses and flowers from the lavender. I finely chopped the herbs of fennel, juniper, rosemary, anise and frankincense. I tore off leaves from the eucalyptus tree, crushed up small berries and sliced the roots from the many plants I’d scavenged from the muddy earth next to the river.

  Finally, I was ready. The moon was nearly at the midnight point. I placed my hands firmly on the altar and stared up at the moon. The sound of howling nearby made my breath catch in my throat. I opened my eyes wide and searched the darkness. There, next to the entrance, lit up by the glow of the moon, was a set of golden eyes – wolf’s eyes – fixed on me. It raised its head and sent its eerie call to the moon.

  I clutched onto the altar as my legs buckled. Running away would be useless – it would outrun me, and when it found me…

  Fear ran through me like a drug in my veins, and my slow and steady breath deserted me. The wolf stopped howling, and looking directly at me, it strode forward. I gasped, but I made myself look into its golden orb eyes.

  Stay still. Stay still. Stay still.

  Slowly it slunk closer.

  ‘It’s okay, boy,’ I said quietly, my heart racing like a bullet train.

  The sound of my voice made the wolf stop and cock its head to the side. It was now only several meters from the edge of my circle. The wolf was enormous, at least twice the size of me, and its thick white coat glowed in the moonlight. For a split second, I forgot to be terrified and saw the wolf for the incredible, majestic creature that it was. And then it moved again. This time it sprinted. I screamed as it leapt up, the circle’s perimeter buzzing as the wolf flew through the air, directly towards me.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I crouched, put my hands up over my face and braced myself for the impact. I heard the sound of bodies colliding behind me, and I turned in time to see the wolf land on top of a black panther that had hit the ground.

  A terrifying fight unlike anything I’d seen before broke out – teeth were bared as they snarled at each other before they launching themselves, smashing into each other over and over again. I stood, completely frozen, as these beasts released unworldly sounds.

  I’d started to back away when the panther’s emerald-green eyes turned towards me. In a heartbeat, it launched itself at me. At the last moment, the wolf attacked it, pushing it away from me and rolling to the ground.

  In a split second, the panther was back on its feet, its body arched, its head lowered, its teeth bared and dripping with blood. I looked over at the wolf and saw its flank was covered in blood. The panther was winning… The panther was going to kill the wolf that was trying to save me, and then it would kill me.

  Sweat broke out all over my body and trickled down my back. The panther sauntered slowly towards the wolf, whose legs were giving way but who continued to stand bravely.

  ‘Hey, you!’ I yelled out, loud and clear.

  Both animals turned towards me, green and golden eyes staring at me. The panther growled, a deep-throated growl that told what was about to happen. The wolf moved, but it was too late. The panther sprang from the ground, straight towards me.

  Heat surged like fire through my hands. I raised them towards the panther, whose body arched against the flames that emerged from my hands. It fell into a heap on the ground at my feet. I stepped backwards and held my flaming hands out as the panther found its feet and snarled and snapped at me. I stepped closer, the flames dancing on the panther’s skin.

  The panther screamed out, rolling on the ground, putting out the flames, and then tried to launch itself onto the wolf. I quickly moved between them and raised my hands to the panther, who buckled in the air, its body catching on fire. The smell of burning hair filled my nostrils as the panther fell to the ground and rolled, dousing the flames that danced upon it.

  The panther got to its feet, slower this time. The hate from its emerald eyes saturated me. I stared back and took another step forward, yelling, ‘HA!’

  The panther startled backwards, and I put my hands forward and ran at it. It turned and bolted, its sleek black body moving back into the night towards the parting between the trees. When it reached the gap, it stopped and glared at me.

  I raised one hand towards it. In my palm was a fireball.

  I spoke in a voice I hardly recognised. ‘Hurt me or the wolf, and it will be the last thing you do. Now GO before I change my mind.’

  The panther hissed before disappearing through the gap in the trees and back into the night. I waited for a few moments before facing the wolf, which dropped down to its side.

  I approached the wolf slowly, calmly, my hands now empty of fire.

  ‘It’s okay, boy. I won’t harm you,’ I said quietly.

  The wolf whimpered, but stayed unmoving as I approached. When I reached him, I slowly crouched down until we were eye to eye. His face was massive, probably double mine, and his eyes, which I’d mistakenly thought were looking at me like prey, were now soft.

  ‘Thank you, Boy – for protecting me,’ I said quietly. ‘I owe you my life.’

  The wolf shuffled forward on its paws and nuzzled its face next to mine.

  ‘You’re a friendly fellow, aren’t you?’ I laughed before putting my hands on his neck, his fur soft under my hand. I patted him, the shock of what had happened and what I was doing – something I’d never imagined doing in my life – starting to sink in.

  The wolf dropped down onto the ground and whimpered. I carefully moved to the damaged side of the wolf and saw blood gushing from the deep panther bite – Boy was in serious trouble.

  My mind raced with ideas on how to help him. I could run back to town for help, but the rate blood was flowing made me doubt whether I’d have enough time. I could try to bandage him up, stop the bleeding, but then what? Out here, he’d be an easy target. That panther would be back before I’d made it into town for help. I checked my phone, but there was no reception out here.

  A feeling of helplessness washed over me. ‘What am I going to do with you, Boy?’

  He moved his head and placed it on my lap. I sat down and stroked the hair be
hind his ears. Heat built in my hands. Not the type of heat that ignited fires, but a warm, slow and steady heat that throbbed in my hands.

  The wolf closed his eyes.

  ‘Don’t you dare. You’re not going anywhere.’

  His body sagged against mine, and a prickling fear pierced my heart.

  ‘Trust me,’ I said quietly, placing my hands over his wound, warm blood immediately gushing over them. I held them there, and the warmth from my hands left me and entered the wolf. I took slow and steady breaths and focused on the energy that was flowing.

  The seconds ticked on into minutes, and fear that I’d managed to keep at bay crept back into my heart.

  ‘Fight, Boy. Fight,’ I said loudly, pushing a big rush of energy into him.

  He was quiet for the longest moment of my life. But then he opened his eyes, and his golden gaze stared ahead as though he were already dead.

  ‘Boy?’ I asked in a whisper.

  The wind died down and the only sound I could hear was my heart, which thudded in my ears.

  ‘Please, Boy, stay with me.’

  And then he blinked and raised his head to look at me. He stood before me, as regal as a king, before he knelt on his front paws, his head dropping to the ground.

  I sat speechless, unable to move or speak as he rose again and came towards me. He rested his head against mine for a moment before striding to the gap in the trees, where he stood, a sentry on guard.

  It took a rush of wind upon my face to bring me back into the moment and remember why I was there, and what I now had to do. I stood, pushed away all my fears and looked down at the ingredients I’d need for the potion. The boline, the crystal, the chalice – they’d all been cleansed by the light of the full moon at midnight. The moon above me sat full and ready, waiting for me.

  Was I ready? Could I do this?

  Letting out a long sigh, I concentrated on inhabiting my body and imagined white roots from my feet growing down into the ground. In my mind, I called on my ancestors who had gone before me – asking for the love and protection from them, my parents and my brother, my twin soul. A feeling of peace settled on me along with another sensation, as though I were surrounded by invisible people, my people, my tribe, all there to help and guide me.