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She reaches inside herself, breathing slowly as she calls her own magic to the surface, warm and fluid as she raises her arms high. Despite her training with Denzel, it's still a strange feeling, but not as strange as it no doubt feels to Laith, if he can even feel it at all. He doesn't realize he could hurt them, because he probably doesn't even realize he’s the one causing it.
Closing her eyes, Elara connects with the magic, finding it in the air around her, then imagines she's putting a blanket over the top of a fire. The thrashing of the trees instantly stops,encouraging her. Her fingers flex, and she imagines the blanket lowering, bringing down all the emotion and chaos with it.
Elara slowly lowers her arms, and the wind drops. The trees stop shaking. Silence and peace cautiously return.
She opens her eyes when she realizes it’s a little too silent.
Laith is staring at her, as are her friends. They’re looking at her as if she’s some strange sort of creature they’ve never seen before. Elara drops her hands to her sides, swallowing hard. She knew there would be consequences for her actions when she decided to use her magic to subdue Laith, and now it's time to face the music.
And in some ways, she’s now unrecognizable to them. There are days she doesn’t recognize herself. She’s a witch who can wield magic. Imagine if they knew she's a werewolf as well. Admittedly, she just demonstrated a pretty impressive use of magic, but there will be time to preen later. Right now she's more concerned about the two frightened humans and the one potential werewolf who look like they're going to scream and run for the hills at any second.
She can’t blame them. But she also can’t let them do that.
To everyone’s surprise, Laith faints, crumpling to the ground in a heap. Elara goes to rush to him, wondering if she accidentally did this, or if he’s just exhausted and shocked. But a garbled sound beside her has her spinning back to Jordyn and Kira.
Jordyn’s mouth is open, a scream obviously climbing up her throat, when Kade appears behind her. With two taps to the back of their heads, he knocks Jordyn the Kira out. The two girls fall into his arms, unconscious. He carefully juggles them to the ground, then spins to face Elara.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he explodes. “Now is not the right time to expose the supernatural to the world!”
He glares at her and she wonders if she’s supposed to be intimidated. Even scared.
But she’s had enough of feeling like she keeps getting this wrong. Especially when she never chose these abilities or powers. Not to mention she did what she had to keep her friends safe. For a brief second, Elara considers shooting back whether there’s ever a good time to expose the supernatural, but another question quickly replaces the first. And it only amplifies her anger.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” she snaps, stalking toward him. “You’re the one who scratched me.”
Once again, Kade’s turned up when things have gone wrong. And he not only said he knew about the supernatural, but he just knocked her two friends out with nothing but a touch. Too many pieces fit into the puzzle.
His jaw tightens. “Who scratched you isn’t important. Right now, we have to make sure your friends don’t remember this. If they do, they could expose all of us.” He glances at Kira and Jordyn. “I’ll have to wipe their memories.”
Elara’s hands hike to her hips. He’s neither confirmed nor denied that he changed her, which only frustrates her more. There’s no way she can trust him.
She steps between her friend’s unconscious forms. “Don’t touch them,” she growls.
“You don’t understand. They can’t know of the supernatural.”
“Is this what you do, Kade? Make people forget whenever you try to cover something up?”
Like he did when he turned her?
A muscle twitches in his jaw as his blue eyes glare at her. She silently dares him to confirm or deny what she just said. To give hersomething. “Fine,” he snaps. “It’s your choice.”
He turns and walks away stiffly, once more not answering her questions. Elara draws in a breath. Then a second, trying to reign in her anger. Right now, she feels like she could go supernova, and that’s not something she wants to see.
All of Mercy City will know the supernatural exists if she loses control.
She calms quicker than she expected, which is good. She’s not going to let Kade leave their conversation at that. He will give her some answers.
Elara’s taken one step when a groan sounds behind her. She turns to find Laith staggering to his feet. He glances at his hands, and then his surroundings.
Finally, he turns to face Elara. “I can’t believe this. That was magic. I’m a witch.” He stares at her with wide eyes, slowly raising a hand to point at her. “And so are you.”
20
Elara
“I’m a witch,” Laith repeats, and Elara draws back as she realizes he isn’t upset or scared. He actually sounds…excited. “That is so cool!” he breathes, once more looking at his hands in wonder.
“Ah, yeah, you are,” she says, knowing it’s lame, but at the same time, she’s never been in this position before.
