Something Witchy (Mystics & Mayhem)

by AJ Myers

  I looked away quickly when Nathan turned his gaze to me so he wouldn’t see the hurt and rejection that was clear to see on my face. I wanted to shut up, I really did, but I couldn’t seem to stop the words from pouring out once they began.

  “I told you, you should have let him go. So he had a toy to play with for a couple of days. So what? It’s not his fault I was stupid enough to fall for his game. Now do what you should have done to start with. Tell him where his soul mate is and let him go.”

  If I had been able to look Grams in the eye as I spoke, I might have noticed the storm that was about to break. In my defense, it never occurred to me that she would make the worst assumption based on what I had said.

  “You didn’t,” she hissed. I turned to find her staring at Nathan with a murderous gleam in her eyes.

  “Don’t be absurd,” he replied coldly. “Do I look that stupid to you, Shea?”

  I looked back and forth between them for a second, confused, before I realized what was going on. She thought I meant we had…

  Oh, I only wish! I thought, then immediately blushed. I glanced at Nathan, hoping he was too engrossed by the fact that Grams was getting ready to kill him to listen to my thoughts, and my face got hot enough to fry an egg on when his eyes widened slightly and turned toward me. Wait! I did not just think that. Just…just forget you heard that.

  “Oh, God, Grams!” I cried, jumping to my feet and ignoring the smirk that was turning Nathan’s lips up in the most annoying way. “That’s so not what I meant.”

  For reasons better left to the mysterious realms of stupidity, I dashed over to stand in front of Nathan with both arms held out like I was going to shield him or something. Grams took a step forward, and I saw something in her eyes I had never seen before. I couldn’t really say what it was, but it was almost…electric. My heart sped up and the hair on my arms and the back of my neck began to prickle as something deep inside me seemed to quicken in response to it. I clenched my teeth against a building pressure in my chest as she took another step toward her intended homicide victim.

  “That isn’t what I meant!” I gasped again, fighting the sensation that was beating at me. “Grams! Chill!”

  I felt sweat bead on my forehead and my heart was pounding like a jackhammer. I closed my eyes and counted to ten, but it didn’t seem to help at all so I tried again. Still nothing. If anything, it was getting worse with every passing second. I began to count down to what could only be a disaster by the frantic beating of my heart.

  Tha-thump!

  My hands balled into fists as if I could hold back what was coming that way. Fat chance. Whatever was happening to me was coming at me like a speeding freight train. I could see my pulse racing in flashing lights as I closed my eyes. And still that pressure built, tightening my chest to the point where it was actually starting to hurt.

  Tha-thump! Tha-thump!

  My body began to tremble convulsively. Now I was completely terrified to go along with all the other things I was feeling. What the hell was wrong with me?

  Tha-thump! Tha-thump! Tha-thump!

  My chest was killing me. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. Something terrible was about to happen, I just knew it, and there wasn’t a thing I could do to stop it.

  Tha-thump! Tha-thump! Tha-thump! Tha-thump!

  “Shea! Help her!” Nathan demanded, sounding slightly panicked, as I started to sway on my feet.

  Help me what? I screamed mentally. What were they talking about? Something was wrong with me and they were just standing there.

  Tha-thump! Tha-thump! Tha-thump! Tha-thump! Tha-thump!

  “You help her.”

  Yeah, Grams really sounded concerned. Not. No reply from Nathan. Big shock there; I already knew he didn’t care. I was falling completely apart and neither of them thought it was their job to help me. I hoped they would both be happy when I spontaneously combusted right there in the middle of the kitchen. It would serve them right.

  Thump thump thump thump thump thump thump!

  And that was about the point when the oven door blew open and a jet of fire shot out of it, the orange-red tongue of flames licking at the countertop across from it like it was looking for something to consume. I immediately backed away from it, my already racing heart picking up extra speed I wouldn’t have thought it capable of, and found my back pressed against Nathan’s chest.

  “Did she…?” Nathan gasped behind me.

  “Yes, she did, indeed,” Grams said, sounding extremely happy about her oven going wild and trying to burn down her kitchen. “What do you suppose is next, Nate? Considering how close you’re standing to her at this moment, you’d best hope it’s not you.”

  Wait. They thought I had made the oven go nuts? Were they on drugs? That was fire! Even if I had been planning to kill them, I wouldn’t have lit a fire in the same room with me!

  Just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, Nathan wrapped his arms around me and it all just…stopped. No more racing heart, no more anger. The only thing that remained was that terrible pressure in my chest, like I had been holding my breath for way too long. Uncomfortable was an understatement.

  “Calm down, Ember,” he murmured against my ear. “Just try to breathe normally. It’s all right, baby. I won’t let you fall apart. Just focus on me.”

  I leaned back into him and listened with my eyes closed as that wonderful voice continued to whisper in my ear. The longer I listened, the clearer and more painful the truth became. It would have been so easy, being with him, like breathing or blinking. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world to be held by him, like that was where I was supposed to be. But it wasn’t. That space was already reserved for someone else.

  “There isn’t a two of you, huh?” Grams asked from somewhere nearby, an amused edge to her voice.

  Really, she just didn’t know when to leave well enough alone, did she?

  “Don’t, Ember,” Nathan whispered in my ear when I started to ask her just that. “It doesn’t matter, not anymore. Just let it go.”

  I fumed silently but obeyed him without even thinking about it. He must have used his weird vampy compulsion thing on me again. I wasn’t really known for being obedient, after all. I was just too independent to abide someone else, even my parents, telling me what to do. But I did what Nathan said without even asking myself why I should.

  The pressure finally receded, and I was left weak and drained. If it hadn’t been for the strong arms around me, my mutinous body never would have supported me. Had I been asked to describe the feeling, I would have equated it to the exhaustion I felt after stupidly allowing Kim to talk me into running a local marathon with her. I was as exhausted as I had been then. That was okay, though. Nathan was holding me and I felt safe and…kind of loved.

  I should have known it wouldn’t last.

  The instant I sagged against him, Nathan guided me back to my chair and put the entire width of the kitchen between us in a hurry. For one second I’d had something wonderful, then it was gone as if it had never been. Let me tell you, that is utterly soul-crushing. I flinched involuntarily, and I saw a flash of sadness in Nathan’s eyes before they became as hard and cold as ice as he turned to face Grams.

  “Tell her what she needs to know, Shea,” he bit out frostily, glaring at her.

  “My, my, my,” Grams crooned mockingly. “Someone’s a bit out of sorts aren’t they? Gotten under that thick skin of yours, has she, Nate?”

  “Let it be, damn it!”

  Nathan’s furious roar was loud enough to shake the walls around us. Grams had finally managed to push him past his breaking point. To her credit, Grams didn’t look all that impressed. Smug? Yes. Impressed? Not even close. I personally believed she had gone too far and it would probably be in her best interest to shut up.

  If the tension in the room got any thicker, we were all going to choke to death on it. I didn’t dare look at Nathan, and looking at Grams wasn’t doing wonders for my temper, either. Therefo
re, I dropped my gaze to my hands and began to nervously pick at a chipped nail, a habit I honestly believed I had outgrown years before. I didn’t even lift my eyes when Grams knelt in front of me and placed her hands over mine to keep me from destroying the rest of my nails.

  “Ember, I know this is a lot to take in, honey,” she began softly. “I wish I could make this easier on you, and if I could have spent more time with you as a child I might have, but I can’t. “

  “Are we…witches?” I whispered, staring at her hand where it lay over mine. “Tell me, Grams.”

  “Yes, sweetheart, we are,” she said, brushing my curls away.

  Even though Nathan—and even my probably-dead hero, Tyler—had told me that very thing more than once, it was only then that I believed it might be true. I don’t know if it was the way I had felt before, when I’d thought I was going to shatter into a million tiny fragments, or if it was just because it was Grams telling me, but I suddenly thought maybe it might be true.

  Oh. Frigging. Great.

  “I should have tried harder with your mother when you were younger,” Grams said when I raised my eyes to her face. She didn’t even look away when she saw the anger starting to brew beneath the surface of my calm expression. “Camille is a practical person. To her, we are another disease to be diagnosed and understood. When I called her that summer and told her you had already started to exhibit phenomenal power, she just couldn’t take it. I had hoped, given time…”

  I could have told her that was a vain hope and she should have known better. Was it possible that Grams had never understood Mom any more than Mom had ever understood me? Mom was incapable of changing her mind. Once she decided something, that was it. It was the one thing we had in common. Dad affectionately referred to us as his pit bulls. Once we sank our teeth into a decision, there was no shaking us off.

  I remembered that long ago summer, the way my mother had screamed hysterically that Grams couldn’t have me. She’d said that I wasn’t like Grams, that I was just a normal little girl with a normal imagination and that Grams was just trying to make me like her because she was sick and twisted and wanted a prodigy.

  Mom had always known the truth, and she had never said a word.

  “I don’t understand,” I said aloud. “If we’re…witches…” Was it truly ridiculous that I still couldn’t say that out loud without stumbling over it? “Doesn’t that mean Mom is, too?”

  “No,” Grams said, grimacing. “It’s rare for the child of a bandraoi to not have any powers whatsoever, but it does happen. Your mother is one of those cases.

  “Your mother grew up surrounded by a world she could never be a part of.” Her voice had dropped to almost a whisper, and I saw tears form in her eyes before she rose swiftly and walked to the window overlooking her garden to hide them from me. “She was never accepted by the others. They didn’t trust her and she learned very quickly to reciprocate in kind. I believe that is why she became so obsessed with making everyone normal. If everyone is normal, then she doesn’t have to feel like the outsider anymore.”

  Poor Mom, I thought, sadly.

  I had figured out at a very young age that I wasn’t like everyone else, just as she must have, so it really wasn’t hard for me to understand what that must have been like for her. The difference between Mom and I was that I had accepted my differences and learned to work around them. Mom had started a crusade to rid the world of those she viewed as different, to mold and shape them into little Ice Queen Clones. I guess we all deal with the stuff in our lives in our own way, but I still felt sorry for her.

  “What about me?” I asked Grams, shaking off the sad thoughts of my mother’s childhood.

  “You’re very special.” When I snorted skeptically, she turned and gave a weak smile over her shoulder. “You’re a powerful witch, Ember, born to parents who don’t have a mystical bone in their bodies—though there has been some debate over the years about your father. Even with my blood running in your veins, that shouldn’t have been possible. Still, like your mother being without any power, it does happen. Those children are revered. Most witches hold only one true power, but those children, children like you, are a veritable fountain of power.”

  Revered? What a joke. I had been ignored most of my life. And a fountain of power? Who was she kidding? I wasn’t a fountain of power. The only power I had was the amazing temper I was so well known for. A temper I had inherited from her. A temper that was about to blow like a volcano.

  “Why am I only finding this out now?” I demanded, torn between screaming at her and crying my head off. “Do you know how long I’ve felt like I was a freak, Grams? My entire life. You should have told me.”

  “I couldn’t,” she said miserably, closing her eyes for a second. “It was agreed by the Council that you would be bound until you reached maturity for your own safety. They further decreed that you were to have no knowledge of your heritage until such a time as they deemed it safe.

  “To have left you to develop your powers on your own would have been a disaster,” she continued, her face paling slightly as some terrible thought crossed her mind that I didn’t even want her to tell me about. “Very bad things happen to witches who develop their talents without the guidance of a mentor, a teacher, to instruct them on how to control those gifts. Young bandraoithe, in particular, are a danger to themselves and to others. We did it to protect you, but I now believe that was a mistake. I am so sorry, sweetheart. So very sorry.”

  “When?” I choked out, allowing a tear to slip down my cheek. “When did you bind me?”

  “The night after your mother came for you,” Grams admitted miserably. “And even my power wasn’t enough to bind you completely, which was why you continued to see the spirits of the dead.”

  The night of the fever, I thought, staring at her like she had become a new and unusual life form. A dangerous one. The night I had the ribbon dream.

  I would never forget that dream as long as I lived. I could still see the moonlight streaming through my cotton candy pink curtains; see the way it had made the pretty white ribbon in Grams’ hand shimmer.

  Let’s play a game, sweetheart, Grams suggested with a smile.

  What kind of game? Thinking maybe she had come to rescue me, I flung myself into her arms and let her hold me close.

  We’re going to dance with the ribbon, Grams told me, stroking my curls and smiling down at me sadly. Would you like to do that, Ember?

  Grams tied the end of the ribbon to my ankle and smiled at me. Okay, baby girl, just start twirling like the little ballerina you are.

  Thinking it was the best idea Grams had ever come up with, I laughed in delight and started to twirl. The cool, satiny, feel of the ribbon against my legs had tickled, and I kept giggling as Grams began to sing softly in a language I didn’t understand. As the ribbon wound higher and higher, however, I stopped laughing. It felt like something inside me was trying to make me stop, like it was making it hard for me to breathe, hard to move.

  Just a little more, Grams told me when I started to slow down, her eyes full of tears. Do it for Grams, sweetheart. Come on, my little love, just a few more twirls.

  And because I loved her, I had done it. I ignored the way my body protested and twirled and twirled until I was completely wrapped in the white ribbon that had seemed so pretty to me when Grams had first appeared, but had turned ugly and scary.

  The next morning I had woken up violently ill and burning up with fever. Until right that second, I had always believed it was a dream, a hallucination brought on by the mysterious illness none of the doctors who examined me could diagnose.

  “You bound me with a white ribbon, didn’t you?” I asked, my voice trembling. “You said we were going to dance with the ribbon. I remember.”

  “No!” Grams gasped, her face paling. “Oh, sweetheart! I’m so sorry. You weren’t supposed to remember.”

  So, the dream had been real. How many of the others had been real?

  The dream of
me as a very little girl holding a rose in my hand and giggling as the petals opened and closed like the wings of a butterfly?

  What about the one where I was holding an injured bird with tears streaming down my cheeks as it glowed bright white and then spread its wings and flew away, good as new?

  The one of Grams and I that last summer I had been with her, lighting candles without matches or a lighter as she tried to make me face my fear of the flames?

  How many of the things I had thought were just dreams made up by a child’s imagination had been real memories?

  “Were they all real?” I whispered, closing my eyes and my heart against the tears on Grams’ cheeks. “The rose? The bird? The candles? Were all those dreams memories? Tell me, Grams.”

  “Yes, sweetheart, they were,” she said, sadly, laying her soft hand on my shoulder. “I shouldn’t be, but I’m glad you didn’t lose those memories.”

  I shook her hand off and gave her such a furious look that she actually took a step back, away from me. I’d heard what she hadn’t said just as clearly as what she had. I wasn’t supposed to be able to remember, because she’d tried to take those memories from me, too.

  “I need some air,” I said, knowing if I didn’t get away from her I was going to start screaming and never stop.

  I didn’t give her time to argue. I’m sure Nathan could have stopped me, but he didn’t even try. I left the front door swinging behind me, uncaring whether or not Grams would be upset with me. Grams’ property was surrounded by dense forest, and I dashed toward the safety of the trees.

  I ran from everything. I ran from the fear I wasn’t accustomed to feeling. I ran from the world I was about to be forced into that wasn’t the world I knew. I ran from Grams and the anger and betrayal I couldn’t hold at bay that she had allowed such a terrible secret to be kept from me for so long. I ran from Nathan and the things he made me feel that could only lead to misery for me.