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“I can’t.” Sunny shook her head, panicking. “I’m not very good with heights. I got dizzy when I had to clear the gutters at the cottage...and the ladder’s only five feet tall.”
“The trick is not to think about your doubts,” Willow said, “but your strengths. When I first learned, Celeste told me to imagine my life depended on it, so perhaps you should think about the Viscount and Cullen. If you had to walk across a bridge of air to reach Cullen, and you believe that in theory you could, would you do it for him?”
“Without a doubt,” she replied. “But that’s because I already can’t quite imagine life without him.”
Willow squeezed her hand, but kept hold of it. “Use Cullen as your focal point. From there it’ll click into place, and you’ll be able to call upon the skill should you need it. Rowena is right, it’s really good for escaping situations that threaten us.” Willow chuckled, as if remembering something. Sunny was curious, but didn’t ask, because they were right on the edge of the cliff again and she could feel the currents of air buffeting her body.
“Take as long as you like,” Willow said, “just let me know when you’re ready and I’ll guide you.”
“That’s why there are three of you,” Sunny said, looking across at Rowena and Aveline standing hand in hand, treading the air, waiting to be joined.
“Exactly. I wasn’t going to point it out,” Willow replied, “but we all three came because we can rescue you when you fall.”
“When?” Sunny gulped. “You’re...you’re expecting me to fall?”
“We all stumble when we learn to walk, Sunny. This is no different. I have a friend, and not a magical friend, who is in a wheelchair. She once said to me you have to fall out of your wheelchair twice, before you truly accept the wheelchair is part of you. A wheelchair enables her to live and be independent. Abilities like levitation have to be learned and accepted into your life the same way. Find a parallel you can understand, and learn through that.”
Sunny stared out at the other two women.
She let her mind go back to school days, when she was often bullied. Whenever she was told she wouldn’t be able to do something because of who she was, she would prove them wrong. That’s all you could do with people who judged and despised you. Would it work for her, here?
These three magical women wanted her to embrace what she’d inherited, and they believed she could do this. Could she bring her old headstrong, stubborn ways into play here, turn them inside out, and join her friends?
“You’ll catch me if...”
“We will.” Willow squeezed her hand again.
Sunny took a deep breath, and then nodded.
“Cullen is out there.” She pointed at the horizon. “Viscount Fox has him, but you can draw him back, you can save him.”
Sunny recalled the emotion she’d felt when they were in the caves below her very feet, and let it well up. It built, from the sandy bed, through the ancient rock, magnifying all the way, until she felt its power inside her, bubbling over. She pictured Cullen on the horizon looking back at her, ready to be her hero whenever she needed him, and in that space she opened her eyes and moved.
Without allowing her time to change her mind, Willow stepped off the edge of the cliff, drawing her along behind.
Imagining a bridge between her and Cullen, she walked, unsteadily at first, clutching at Willow’s hand. Gulls wheeled across the sky close by. The breeze hit her, and she swayed. Willow gripped her hand tight as she staggered forward.
Aveline and Row
ena moved swiftly to her side, levitating, their feet not moving as they joined her in creating a circle.
“I feel sick,” Sunny blurted, trying not to look down.
Her companions pulled her closer, their arms slid around her and they came together in a huddle.
“It’s like parachuting but without.....” She looked around. Big mistake. Whatever it was beneath her feet, it disappeared in a heartbeat. She felt herself falling down, her stomach bolting up inside her.
She screamed out, then hit a ledge, but it wasn’t a ledge, it was Aveline’s shoulders beneath her feet.
Swaying wildly, Sunny’s hands clutched the forearms of the other two women.
Willow locked her gaze. “You can do this, don’t doubt yourself. It’s the doubts that make you wobble.”
“Step up,” Rowena encouraged. “Rejoin us.”
Determination set in, gritty determination. Sunny put her foot in the air and levered herself using her emotions as steps, calling on long buried feelings about love and loss and her unusual upbringing. As she did she remembered something her grandmother had said. Everything you experience is special, even the bad times. Remember them, so they can make you stronger if you need them. Each piece is essential to who you are now, and be proud of it, all of it. You are a survivor, and Mother Nature knows this and recognizes you as one of her own.
She’d never truly understood it before now. But yes, even the bad times counted.
