Come on!
I grit my teeth, glare at the stream, and shout the chant again.
Nothing happens. Not even a little splash.
Releasing a frustrated sigh, my arms flop down by my sides.Some witch I am.
After jotting down a few notes, Kaleb looks over at me with a tender expression. “Try not to be frustrated. This is all trial and error-- and nothing happening is as informative as something happening.”
He purses his lips and taps his pen against his notebook. “It’s not directly related to water, but witches that are strong in water can heal minor to major injuries depending on the strength of their power.”
“Damn, my pocket knife is back in the house,” Donovan grumbles, patting at his jean pockets, then sighs, “I’ll go get--”
“No!” I yell, my heart hammering in my chest, and they all freeze with shocked expressions. “No one is hurting themselves for a stupid spell.”
“Use me,” Connor offers, his face completely calm, because apparently offering to be cut with a pocket knife is no big deal.
“Absolutely not,” I growl, remembering the deliberate slices in my skin when my father decided to do his own version of a thousand cuts. The thought of cutting into Connor’s flesh makes me ill. “I’m not hurting my friends for--”
“Callie, it’s fine,” Donovan interrupts, walking towards the stairs. “If you can’t heal it, it’s no big deal. He can--”
“I said no!” I shout, and a cold shiver runs down my skin followed by a harsh wind that whips through the trees.
Connor, Nolan, and Felix look around at the effects of the raging wind, Felix the only one unaffected by it, while Donovan and Kaleb trade communicative looks.
Kaleb strides over to me, his clothes pressed flush against his body, and places a gentle hand on my shoulder. Gazing into my wide eyes, he speaks calmly over the wind, “Callie, it’s okay. We won’t do it, I promise. Try to relax.”
I nod back, tension easing out of me with the depth of sincerity laced in his deep baritone voice, then the wind settles as quickly as it came.
“I’m going to take a stab in the dark,” Felix interjects into the shocked silence, “that Callie may be strong in air magic.”
There are bursts of tension induced laughter, and I wilt with a mixture of relief and embarrassment.
“What was that about tornadoes?” Nolan teases Donovan.
“Don’t piss off Callie, or she’ll level your house,” Donovan shoots back.
I groan and wish the ground would swallow me whole.This is what I was afraid of.
Kaleb drops his notebook and pen, so he can use his other hand to draw my face back towards him when I attempt to look away.
“You’re okay. We’re okay,” he promises, his thumb making a soft arc near my ear.
My insides tighten as I wait for him to ask the obvious questions. I lost it and he’s going to want to know why. I brace for it, quickly searching for the words that will be enough without me falling apart.
Instead, he searches my eyes for a moment, then says with a smirk, “Now, let’s see if we can figure out how to do that on purpose.”
My laugh sounds slightly wet around the edges, but has the desired effect and I relax. I’m not dumb enough to think they didn’t notice, but it’s starting to sink in that they’re waiting for me to bring it up. Waiting for when I’m ready to tell them.
Soon. I’ll tell them soon---ish. Soon-ish.I sigh over my own internal battle.I’ve known them four days! Can’t I have a week before I hand them over the blueprints to my crazy?
“So, um… did you find anything for air spells?” I ask, doing my best to sound normal.
Kaleb smiles and carefully pulls a twig from my hair. “I found a chant that uses air to levitate something.”
I shrug, and start digging through my hair for more leaves and twigs. “Okay. What should I attempt to levitate? Please make it something I can’t break.”
Reaching down for his notebook, Kaleb chuckles. “How about one of the medium sized rocks near the stream?”
