“No, I've got this end, but could you put the beads out?” She pointed to the stacked pile of decorations scattered in front of the garage doors.
I found the box of party supplies that held the Mardi Gras beads. Michelle had the same decorations each year. Just as I had the same Halloween party, she had her New Orleans streamers and party beads. I had cotton–sometimes razor-sharp webs–and spiders.
The short strands of beads were to be draped in the hedges and the longer garland beads were for wrapping around the railings. I grabbed the garland strands and started untangling the purple, green, and gold strands from each other.
“I was kinda hoping we could talk.” I finally said it out loud.
“About what, honey?” Her tone was the usual mom tone she’d always had. Maybe I was imagining her earlier upset.
“Well, Michelle asked if I was leaving home.”
“Well, I'm assuming you both will for college. Wait, you’re not going to tell me you’re not attending?” I didn’t have to look at her to know she was worried. I looked up to see she was hanging on the ladder, staring intently at me and waiting for my reply. Her foot tapped eagerly on the rung of the ladder.
“Oh, I'm definitely going to college. You and dad have made that perfectly clear.” I started to laugh but thought better of it.
“Good.” She pinned the banner to the house and climbed down the ladder, so she could move it to get the other side up.
“No… She seemed to think I was going to go live with my biological family.” I bit my bottom lip, a habit I noticed I started not long after the school wall cracked. It was my new nervous tick.
“Oh?” The tone in her voice said she hadn't even considered such a thing. However, I could feel her heart skip and slow just briefly. Then her pulse quickened, and I was sure this was the reason for her recent mood swings.
“Yeah.” I started working the beads into the bushes on either side of the porch. “I told her she was crazy. I couldn't leave my family to go be with strangers.” Just like that, Helen was calming. Her pulse returned to normal and I could see the stress in her face fade.
She hesitated for a moment, but asked me, “Was she satisfied with your answer?”
“I think so, but I'm sure she wouldn't have minded getting my bedroom.” We both laughed then.
It was official. Helen's laid-back demeanor we had all known her for quickly retuned. A smile spread across her face but was quickly replaced by a look of fear when the door swung open. The rope attached to the banner pulled from her hands. She lunged forward and balanced herself against the house. She held the back of the ladder's flat top as it started to rock.
It was as if I were watching it all happen in slow motion. The rope had wrapped itself around the doorknob. As the door swung open fully, my eyes traveled down the rope to where it was also trapped under the ladder. The relief she felt as she caught the side of the house was short-lived because the rope pulled from under the ladder and sent it backwards, Helen with it.
I heard someone yell, and quickly realized it was me as my hands flew forward to catch the ladder, but I wasn't close enough. The world went still. My heartbeat was entirely too loud in my chest as my hands stopped in the air and the ladder pushed forward, righting itself.
Helen didn't scream or cry out as she fell to the ground. In complete slow motion, she turned and looked at me, and I thought I heard her whisper, “Help me.”
Blue flame ignited in my palms and shot forward. It wrapped around and shielded her from the impact, pulling her to the safety of the lawn. Then the world sped up again.
Chad was running from the side of the house and made it to my mother first. He grabbed her by the hand and helped her to her feet.
“Mrs. A, are you okay?” He stood between us, his back to me.
“Chadwick?” She looked at him, blank-faced.
“Nice landing, Mrs. A.” He gave her a playful laugh.
“Yes.” She stood and looked up at the house where the banner was hanging, then down to where the rope was wrapped around the leg of the ladder. “I guess so.”
“You okay, mom?” That was the first time I realized Michelle was the one who opened the front door. She looked terrified.
Helen straightened her shirt by pulling at the hem and smoothed her hair back into place. “Yes, baby. I think so.”
"Mrs. A, why don't you let us finish out here. I think you've had enough excitement for one night.” Chad led her to the front door, his arm draped across her shoulders.
“Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Thank you, Chadwick.” She looked dazed, as if she had been given a sedative. Her face was lax, and she just walked with no apparent direction in mind. She was in Lala Land.
Chad handed Helen off to Michelle to bring her inside. When the door closed again, he ran over to me. I hadn’t moved. The ladder still stood well out of my reach. Mardi Gras beads hung over my arm and the rest were at my feet, on the driveway.
“Hey.” I could see Chad in front of me; could feel his hands rubbing my shoulders but couldn't register anything else. “E? Hey, she's okay.” He whispered so low, I could barely hear him. “You didn't hurt her. You saved her life. I told you, you’re not the destroyer you think you are.”
I looked at where Helen would have landed. The iron railings would have been the first thing, then the concrete steps. She would have been severely injured if she even survived the eight-foot drop. Her back would have been broken on impact. Then her head…
"She's okay?” I finally registered his words.
“Yes, she's fine.”
I started to hyperventilate. It became harder and harder to breathe. I dropped to my knees. Tears welled in my eyes and ran hot down my face. I don't know how long I sat there, but when I finally got up, the sun had completely gone, and the moon had risen to show its full spender. The cold of the ground sunk into my bones and when I stood, my knees screamed in agony. Chad never faltered; never left my side and didn't push me to talk. He just kept his hands on me to soothe and comfort me, as I wiped my face free of tears and snot.
I went inside to check on Helen, but she and Michael had already gone to bed. Michelle’s light was on, but I didn't bother her. I grabbed my overnight bag and went back to Chad. He was leaning against Cooper, swinging the keys around his middle finger like it was a mini hula-hoop. He opened the passenger door when he saw me step outside. The ladder had been put away and the banner was hung. The decoration boxes had been relieved of their contents. Brightly colored beads were strung in the bushes and wrapped around the railings. Michelle's party would go on as planned.
The rest of the night was a bit of a blur. As per the usual, I slept in Chad’s room with him. We were content to hold each other close through the night. Neither of us had any plans on complicating an already complicated time in our lives. Not that Chester had an opinion. To him, we were both adults. He was officially the coolest parent in town.
The air was warm for early May. Too warm, or maybe it was the exceptional shifter body heat I was feeling. I tried to remind myself that Helen was fine, but every time I closed my eyes, I saw her face as the ladder went one way and then the other. It all played in slow motion, as if it were a television program. I had done that. Or did I? Maybe I just imagined it had happened that way. Maybe it was a quicker reaction that registered in my mind differently.
I did, however, remember wrapping her up with my blue flames and cradling her down to the ground. That flame had only ever been used to attack, but I had used it to save her life. Maybe Aunt Bea was right. Maybe it's not the magic that makes someone evil. Maybe it was actually how you use it that defines you. I figured most of my problem was trying to wrap my head around having evil and dark Sigmis family magic in me. I forgot that my dad had it in him and he changed for the better. The magic could have as well.
Chapter Five
The party was amazing. I had let myself develop a happy exterior. Helen was in a particularly good mood, much better than she had been
. Even Michelle looked like she was enjoying herself. Michelle had always been a fan of bright colors and wild parties. She loved attending the Art Center’s Mardi Gras celebration every February and chose Mardi Gras as her theme for her birthday party every year. That was one of the reasons I didn't laugh at the bright pink jeep that found its way into our driveway with a great big white bow. Michelle had been hinting around for months and Michael and Helen listened.
The yard was decked out with streamers and confetti poppers that were going off at random times. The silly string was a new addition and made things much more interesting. Helen was sure to spend hours the next day picking it out of her azalea bushes.
“Elyse!” I heard Clara calling me over to the side of the house.
“Hey!” With Chad by my side, we headed over to her.
“I got your text this morning, but you didn't tell me why,” she said, clearly unsure if she should say anything in front of Chad.
“Why what?” I knew I’d sensed Chad's confusion the moment she spoke.
“Why I no longer felt the need to store some of my powers.”
“Store? Like what? In Tupperware?” I sensed frustration in his question. I definitely didn’t need to be an empath to detect the anger in his voice.
“I didn't think I could handle it. Clara came up with a great idea to store some in a piece of jewelry.”
He looked at Clara then. A scornful expression crossed his face, but he wasn't angry with her. I could feel it. He was angry, and then saddened, but not at Clara. It was directed at me.
“I thought it could help her. Ya know, but still have it close by to use it when she needed to. Until she figured out how to control it all.” Clara defended me.
“I don't think that's a very good idea.” He turned on me. “What if you weren't able to access it?”
“I know. Last night proved to me that I could learn to control it. I want to.” I pointed out.
“Well, that's a relief. You need to accept it and understand it.” He stopped short, as if he never wanted to speak of what he would say next. “In the future, you will be the one who will need to teach the next Crawford Priestess how to control it.”
I had never even thought of that. Since both of my family’s powers were in me, each generation after me would inherit all of it. My family had increased in power, and the Sigmis line had ended with me…or had it?
The implications of that realization brought my mood down a bit. It wasn't until Crystal and Matt both appeared at the party that I was able to forget the trouble we were all facing for a few hours. Crystal had been weird through all of it. She came to me once to see how I was dealing, but then resorted to just text or a phone call. She knew I was afraid to hurt someone and understood that Clara's coming by all the time was for Michelle’s benefit, not mine. Still, the old Crystal would have come over insisting I deal with it.
The yard was full by midafternoon with the same number of kids from school as we would see at our house for my parties. My mom kept both engagements an open invite for all to attend, and just like with the Halloween costume party, Mardi Gras went off without a hitch every year. It was never quite seventy degrees at that time of the year, but some kids even managed to end up in the pool.
As usual, the DJ was set up indoors and a dance floor had been made up in the dining room. I'd heard a rumor around school that Michelle's gift table would have been filled with the same gifts I had received. That, I couldn’t wait to see.
During my Halloween costume birthday party, I was given prank gifts, as was the usual thing for an eighteenth birthday present. Most of the kids in our school wouldn't turn eighteen until months after they had graduated. Our parents had decided to start me in school a year later so Michelle and I could be in the same classes. I actually could have started a year before Michelle, since the guidelines said a child had to be five no later than December 14th in order to start.
No, many of our classmates were a bit jealous at the idea that we were already eighteen well before any of them. Chad, Crystal, Clara and Matt had all already turned eighteen too. As a rule, the magical community don't have massive parties to commemorate such an occasion. So, my friends each only had family and a select number of friends to celebrate with. After the goings-on at my eighteenth party a few months ago, I could understand why they would want to limit the number of people they invited into their homes. Too much chaos.
Considering the eighteenth birthday is one of great significance among the magical community, and I had no idea that I was a part of such a world of people, I shouldn’t have had the party I did either. The eighteenth birthday is when a witch receives their powers. It wasn’t the powers I received in full, though. Those were given to me at the blood rite ritual. No, the birthday awakens the powers within a witch, making the receiver able to obtain his or her full power at the ritual. A high-born’s power is magnified significantly by the ritual and is shared among those within the coven. They could only access those powers when the need for them was present. Their individual gifts from birth had been amplified as well. That was a good thing, too. Chad wouldn’t have been able to help me at all if they hadn’t been. I often wondered after the ritual, while I was making cracks appear in foundations of buildings, why it was that my friends didn’t seem to be having any power problems. I thought they would have had all that power too.
My birthday involved a sort of first-time meeting with my biological uncle–my mother’s oldest brother, Barnaby. He thought he had finally found my mother. Since the storm had awakened my powers, it also removed a spell cast on me to hide me from anyone who may have been looking for my mother and father. I only found out two months ago that Chester and his coven cast that spell. I had thought it was something my mother did. Also, there was the little attack of decorations that sprang to life and tried to eat me, but again, it brought about yet another unanswered question regarding the attacker's purpose. And the cause…
Michelle’s party was in full swing by the time Crystal and Matt decided to show up. They were dressed in white, their blond hair making them look washed out amongst their fair skin and white clothes. The multicolored beads and rainbow-accented top hats they both wore saved them from looking like full-on albinos.
Since they moved their relationship to the next level, you could say they had been keeping to themselves. They would attend circle meetings, when they were started up again, but they mostly spent their free time together. Crystal was looking forward to attending an out-of-state school, but when she got her acceptance and Matt got a denial, they started discussing community college in the fall. To me, it looked like sex had made them start to rethink every plan they ever had for the future.
I had thought about what would happen after school was officially over. It was only about two months before we stepped across the stage and said goodbye to our childhoods. I hadn’t really ever given college much of a thought. Not to mention, I didn’t really have time to think about it. I just knew I was going, so I needed to pick a school, and fast.
“Hey, cool party.” Matt started to scream above the music but lowered his voice as the song came to an end.
“I’m surprised to see you mingling. I thought you’d be locked up in your room.” Crystal regarded my apprehension at being around even a few people. Yet here I was, and even managed to dress up.
I found an old jean skirt that stopped short above my knees and a tie-dyed pull-over blouse, complete with flares at the wrists. I had stunned my sister when I tie-dyed a pair of knee-high socks to wear with my black leather Mary Janes. Normally, I didn’t wear heels since Chad and I were matched in height without them. However, he said he could deal with me being a bit taller since he was really enjoying my ‘Rainbow Bright look.’
“I have to start trying to be around people. At least, that’s what I’ve been told,” I said, giving a sideways glance to Chad, who had a hold of my hand. Matt giggled a little at the sight.
“What’s your problem?” Chad asked.
> “It’s just weird after all this time. You two…”
“Really?” Crystal gave her boyfriend a strangled look. “Everyone else guessed they’d be together before they knew they would. Are you seriously saying you didn’t see that coming?”
“Well…yeah.” He laughed, and Crystal slapped him playfully across his chest.
The buzz of the party went on well past midnight, and when my parents turned in for the evening–after the excitement of gifts being opened and the car reveal–my sister and Clara went for a short ride in the new hot pink Jeep. The guests didn’t start to leave until three o’clock in the morning, and just as it happened in years past, more would return the next morning and the party would continue. My parents provided nourishment for the first day and night, and for Saturday and Sunday, food would just show up. By Monday morning, nobody would be able to go to school. Or they would, but teachers noticed a lot of heads on desks. They got super annoyed because it was the first day back from spring break. We should have been well refreshed, is what they’d say.
The rest of the school year carried on in much the same way. Parties popped up all over the neighborhood in anticipation of graduation. Bellatrix–or Aunt Bea, as I’d started calling her– seemed to think that figuring out what Sabina was after would have to wait. She knew that since I finally received my powers, Sabina couldn’t take them away from me. If she had known about my inability to control those powers, she would probably have already made her move.
Instead of worrying about Sabina, Crystal and I met up at her house to go through some of her mother’s old spells, to concentrate on releasing Gwen and Silas. We were using the Books of Shadows to see if there had ever been a spell written that could either help with my power struggle or with returning my parents. Unfortunately, the only information I received was that Elle hadn’t kept up her book as she should have.
“Sorry about that, girls. My life just isn’t about magic anymore,” Elle had said as she left for a work meeting one Saturday afternoon.
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