“And what was that about how Callie wasn’t going to blow something up?” Felix chimes in, pointing a cheeky smirk at Donovan.
He glares back, before answering my question, “Earth. My best guess, it’d fall under earth.”
Felix tilts his head to the side, his brow furrowing in thought. “If we ignore Kaleb’s attempts to get Callie to cast spells fromHarry Potter…”
“Again, I haven’t read the books,” Kaleb interjects, pulling his sweater off and using it to wipe at his face.
“She has accidently made a thunderstorm, so water magic, created fresh gale force winds, so air magic, and just made a tree explode, which apparently is earth magic.” Felix’s face lights up with excitement. “You’re like the witch equivalent ofThe Avatar.”
“The what?” I yelp.
Donovan groans. “This isn’t TV, Felix.”
“That’s literally impossible,” Kaleb adds at the same time. “We’re simply interpreting the spells wrong.”
“You guys have no imagination,” he chides, rubbing his hands together and bouncing on his toes. “Okay, pretty girl, we just need to figure out how to make you throw a fireball.”
“Fire,” I squeak, my heart hammering and my stomach twisting.Oh god. Not fire. Anything but fire.
“She’s not the damnAvatar,” Donovan grunts.
Connor’s amber eyes narrow as he watches me, and I do everything in my power to press down the horror filled memories of my scorched flesh.Shit. Shit. Shit.
“What’s theAvatar?”I ask again, my voice thin.
Nolan searches my face for a moment, before reaching up to pull the tie from my hair. While he carefully pulls bits of tree from my tresses, he explains, “It’s a character from an animated TV show who had the power to control all four elements, whereas everyone else only controlled one.”
“Characters.There was more than one show, and they have direct connections with Spirits!” Felix proclaims. “Their duty is to master the elements and keep balance among the elemental nations, while also keeping the balance between mankind and the spirit world.”
“Considering I just blew up a tree by accident, I wouldn’t really call myself a master of anything,” I interject with a cough.
Most of the tree debris has made it to the ground, covering the grass, rocks and stream, along with us, in a fine pale beige dust.
“Don’t worry about it,” Felix reassures, his medium brown hair falling into his eyes with his bouncing enthusiasm. “It took Aang a year to master all four elements, and fire was his most difficult one too.”
“And is complete human fiction,” Kaleb sighs, uncovering his notebook from beneath a large shard of bark. “Witches are strong in one element, possibly two, if they’re really powerful.”
“And yet, Callie has accidently cast in three different elements,” Felix challenges, crossing his arms and raising a brow.
“Or she’s inadvertently found three creative ways to cast with air,” Kaleb counters, looking somewhat worse for wear.
“Regardless, let’s not have Callie try to light something on fire,” Nolan comments, finger combing my hair. The gentle pull of his fingers is soothing. “I’m hoping my parents won’t notice the exploded tree. I really don’t want to figure out how to explain to them how half the back property burnt to the ground.”
“I’m really sorry,” I apologize, twisting to look up at him. “I really didn’t mean to do it. That day… I remembered the way you looked…”
“It’s fine,” he assures, his lips pressing into a line. “How about we go get cleaned up? I’m sure I can track down something you can change into.”
“I’d like that,” I murmur, worry and guilt weighing heavily in my gut.
The others make grunts of agreement and head back toward the house.
Nolan throws one arm over my shoulder, and begins to steer me toward the stairs, my hair tie still wrapped around his wrist.
I grit my teeth, and out of desperation to hold onto something, wrap an arm around his waist.
Connor noticeably waits until we pass, choosing to walk up silently behind us.
“You alright?” Nolan asks, concern lacing his sultry voice, when he notices the trembling I can’t seem to stop.
