Chapter Sixty Four
Willow was going back to our house, because we were going to finish this once and for all. We have argued about that outfit for days now, without a resolution. I’m not about to let my sixteen year old little girl walk around in it – not in front of half the school. I had been a teenage boy at one time. Just the thought of them looking at her wearing it flipped my stomach over.
I had sincerely hoped that Willow had been joking about giving it to her. I had even tried to strike a deal with her, and say she could give it to Ember after the party tomorrow.
She knew that I would trash that sucker so fast both their heads would spin, if she had only waited until then…
Since she had given it to Ember tonight, she would feel obligated to wear it. What’s even more infuriating is that my little girl wants to wear it.
Willow had been evasive on the revealing birthday outfit topic. I should have known that she would never give in so fast. She knows me so well that it was beginning to drive me to a new level of frustration. There she sat in the backseat, trying to look all doe-eyed and innocent.
We’ll just see who would be victorious…
Even as I resolved to have my way in this, I was terrified that I would be surrendering to her before it was all said and done. I fully realized that if she won this particular battle what it would mean. Ember would be wearing THAT outfit tomorrow, in front of all those boys!
Maybe Willow’s evil plan included my eminent demise??
She seems bent on my domination, if not, my complete destruction as of late. So here I have two girls – both strong minded, at that – working against my every decision. Willow also has the nerve to say I’m the one fighting dirty, when they have this crazy hold over me – no way! My Ay’sha skills are my only viable defense at this point, because tomorrow might likely be my ultimate downfall.
I can’t bring myself to use a full obliteration against Willow though. She at least deserves to think she might have a fighting chance to defy it…
Ember had a good time watching the battle of wills. So now I had a whole new worry to contend with. If my little girl broke mine and Willow’s ‘code speak,’ she would learn more than I wanted her to know before I wanted her to know it. I have sheltered Ember her entire life and I detest the thought of that outfit clinging to her body.
I felt the sweat trickle down the side of my face. I couldn’t decide if it was from suppressing half of my ability for so long or if Ember has turned into a human heater somehow. The warmth seemed to radiate from her, but I thought maybe it was just my imagination. I turned up the cool air though and neither of them seemed to mind.
My little girl gave me a tentative look when we pulled into our driveway with Willow still in the car. But, she didn’t ask me anything about it. Ember just leaned over and hugged me, thanked me and told me she loved me. Running through the wind toward the house, I saw no sign of her spirit light. I want to hold onto her innocence somehow, but I knew it was a losing battle from the start. She’s like a sponge. The more she learns, the more mature she becomes. I had been happy to have Willow’s help, because Ember certainly keeps me busy enough. This outfit was the one thing that stood between our normally united-front.
Willow continued to sit in the backseat with her arms crossed, defiantly. She had that very same look the first day I met her.
Wow, she looks beautiful when she’s all stubborn like that...
“Are you gonna use your full ability now?! I need to know if you’re gonna make me cluck like a chicken. I’ll give you my camera phone and show you what button to push, because I’d love to see the video…” she said and then, offered me her cell.
“Chicken clucking is my last resort – come up here with me, please…” I requested.
I reached into the back seat and held out my hand to assist her. She complied with my request and then, she turned to face me. I didn’t know if she was ready to argue about the outfit again or if she just wanted to surrender to my will and make up with me. Somehow I figured it was the first one, but a guy can dream, right?
It turns out that her mind was elsewhere though – typical, huh?
Leave it to a female to throw a guy off his game…
“What’s your take on Ember tonight? That scene or trance – heaven help me, I don’t even know what to call it?” Willow asked quizzically.
Then, I remembered the incident. Ember had sat motionless and refused to speak at all. She grabbed her chair tightly and held on for dear life like Willow did later as she struggled against my skill. My little girl radiated with an unearthly heat while it was happening. I was also terrified that she was going to float away again. Fortunately, gravity held her in place. When Ember finally ‘returned’ to us, her pupils were fixed and dilated. They were bloodshot too like she had gotten drunk from some invisible source. She even slurred her words slightly once she eventually spoke.
I couldn’t believe that in my testosterone fueled quest to win this battle of wills against Willow that I had forgotten about that insane incident. Alarm immediately overwhelmed me. I had this urgent need to run inside and shout a demand to know exactly what had happened at that restaurant tonight. I grabbed the handle of my door to open it.
“She won’t tell you…” Willow announced quietly.
It was like she knew that I was going to go storming into the house and try to force Ember to tell me what happened.
“You don’t know that,” I protested.
“You know it – just like I know it – she’s holding it back. I don’t think it’s intentional at all. I think she honestly doesn’t know what it is and therefore, doesn’t want us to panic – like one of us has a tendency to do from time to time…”
“If she’ll tell us what’s happening then, we can help her…” I replied – pleading with her when I should be inside pleading with my little girl.
“Can we? I’m not trying to freak you out any more than necessary, but we’ve been in touch with everyone. No one has any clue about where she’s getting her gifts from and so, we have no one to teach us. You realize we’re usually winging it – you, me and Aunt Celeste, that’s what we’re doing. Even you’ve started to demonstrate abilities that aren’t recorded in our stories or handed down.
“Your parents haven’t been seen…” Willow tried to continue, but I interrupted her.
“I have no intention of seeing them and I don’t want anyone searching for them either – got it?” I replied, angrily.
Willow looked at me with a very soft expression and then, she reached up to stroke my cheek.
“They won’t be of any help, anyway – you know it...” I told her quietly as my anger slipped beneath the surface under her touch.
“On a happier note, Ember did remarkably well tonight…” Willow offered something positive in an effort to sway my mood in the other direction.
“Yes, I’m very amazed. We managed to all stay ground level and – minus that one, whatever it was – it was perfectly normal,” I remarked in a sarcastic tone because I was flipped out by what she just told me.
“I’m going to go in and talk to her. She’ll be more likely to confide in me on this one, sorry,” Willow stated emotionally.
“You’re right…” I admitted and wished I could change it somehow.
How can I fix ‘it’ if I don’t know what ‘it’ is?
“Tray, you’re gonna have to allow her the chance to experiment with all of her powers. I know you’re terrified and I am too. Aunt Celeste is right though, she has to learn to control them or they can takeover. We both know what happens if that occurs. I love my baby Ember so much…”
“I do let her experiment Willow, but you need to understand something. I need her to experiment when I can handle it. I know that’s too slow for both of you, but you have to admit, I’m giving a little here – a little there. You think I’m invincible and I wish you were right. I’m not. I can’t just
let her go off on some insane tangent of some sort and lose her soul again…”
“What do you mean ‘again’?” Willow asked me with fear in her eyes.
“I’ll tell you all about the day we ran away from home and I’ll tell you about the incident at school in November. They both scared me into a new level of awareness. I don’t understand either of them, but I saw Ember robbed of her soul. It took days after we ran away before she even spoke a single word. I thought I had lost her forever…
“After I tell you about both of those incidents then, you can help me decide how much to permit her to do and when to make her stop. You’ll understand what I’m talking about and why I’m so incredibly cautious about every move she makes.
“But you don’t have all the facts right now because I haven’t been able to talk with you alone. Our ‘code language’ doesn’t have sufficient words to talk about all this stuff around her either. Besides, she’s probably broken the code already. Some things I need to be able to keep from her until I know what to do about them first. She’s so much like me, and you’re so much like me…I feel like I’m arguing with myself most of the time,” I admitted this vulnerability to her.
“I think she’s planning something tonight. It’s nothing she’s told me just a look I ‘recognize’ from another life…” Willow said and smiled knowingly.
“Holy Creator help us, what chaos should I prepare for now?” I asked and crossed my fingers that she would be able to tell me.
“I don’t know yet, but I’m gonna try to find out,” Willow offered and then, reached for the door handle.
“Be careful, Carolina – she’s tricky like someone I know from another life…” I told her.
“I’m going inside – you coming?” she asked and I told her I’d just wait out here.
I wanted to give them a chance to talk alone, girl-to-girl and I needed to pray.
“Wish me luck…”
“I’ll go you one better. I’ll pray for your survival.”
Ember Rising Light (Book One) Page 68
