Hidden Magic

by Melinda Kucsera

  I hissed at the burn, but then the coolness of her magic eased it. Her element was water. Cooling a burn was simple for her. When she was done, she smiled.

  “There. All better.” She brushed my hair behind my hair. Slowly standing, she leaned forward to kiss my forehead before going back to sit beside my father.

  My father, Brantlee Stratan, was one of the coven leaders from one of the founding families in the area. He was an extremely strong witch, as was my mother. My father liked to play outside of the coven rules at times. It always made me smile when he did. He was a handsome man in his early forties, his dark russet hair only just showing signs of silver. His green eyes still sparkled with love whenever he looked at my mother.

  They had always been a perfect match. Not what the coven had wanted of course, but like I said, my father had never cared. They had met abroad, fallen in love, and married, all within a short time. They balanced each other out as he had powers to control and work with fire and earth and she water and air. Their magics complimented each other. In the end, the coven elders had to concede what an amazing mated pair they were. A powerful magical couple not to be trifled with.

  I always wanted what they had. I looked to my beautiful mother. It never looked like she aged, and I often wondered if she managed to use air magic to give herself a facelift. I ducked my head, trying not to smirk.

  My father took a deep breath before speaking.

  “You remember the stories about your great aunt?” He looked at me expectantly.

  I frowned at him but nodded. “Of course.”

  “Well, my dear, the thing is. It seems the Great Divine has decided that you are going to be the next great weather witch of our generation.” He spoke in a rush.

  I sat in stunned, shocked silence. It explained so much, but weather witches were rare. Those who were found to be weather witches were usually taught how to control their magic at an early age. Most also had objects of power, ones they wore to help control the magic that built up inside them. The powers showing up so late in my life was a true anomaly.

  They continued to tell me all about my great aunt and everything she had gone through. They explained how she had shown her powers at such a young age, how she had been groomed by many covens to be able to control her power. And when she had been just a little older than I was, she had fallen in love and gotten married, once again disregarding any advice from the coven elders since they all thought she had married beneath herself.

  But she was in love and had done what she had wanted. It was on her wedding night that everything had gone wrong. She had been having such a wonderful time on her honeymoon that she sank the dang island she was on. Can you say Atlantis all over again, anyone? It was a thing, truly it was. Did anyone really think the original Atlantis actually sunk to the bottom of the ocean? It sure as heck was not a natural occurrence. No sir, it was not. It was a full-blown, emotional weather witch who lost her crap. The earth had started to shake, the waves on the ocean turned into a tsunami and bam! No more Atlantis. To the bottom of the ocean it sank.

  Weather witches could be male, but typically they were not. The power was given to the woman because women were able to contain and overcome so much more than men. We were the multitaskers, the creators, the nurturers, and we hid our emotions well. Men, as full weather witches, usually managed to kill themselves within the first few years. They got drunk and drowned themselves, got into a brawl and got struck down by lightning … stupid crap. Men couldn’t handle the power, so the Divine often searched for the ones they found who could handle the power behind the magic. I had yet to figure out why the Divine had chosen me for it. I was a mess of a witch before the rest of this power even came to me. How the heck the Divine thought I could figure it out now was beyond me.

  Mom and Dad were almost scared about it all. I knew they thought this shouldn’t have happened, but since it did, they were trying to shelter me the best they could. They offered little tricks to help me control it, too, but mainly because they were terrified the high witch counsel would show up and take me away to do what was best for all. And if they did, maybe they’d teach me to control this new power so they could use me for their own purposes, or perhaps they wouldn’t teach me at all. If they deemed me as too much of a threat, they would execute me.

  Suffice it to say, fear held me in its clutches as well, and I didn’t return to school after I found out what I was. Which was just fine with me. I didn’t want to face anyone there, anyway. My phone had been blowing up with text and voice messages. Nick tried to call, but I refused to speak to him. I even had my father turn him away when he showed up at the house.

  Nick had been part of our family for years now, so he usually walked through the front door without knocking. Now, he couldn’t make it past the front door. My father stood there as a sentinel, often leaning down and whispering what I imagined were threats in his ear. I had a lovely view when I watched from the living room, and I never actually had to face him. The thought of seeing him face to face made me instantly sick to my stomach, and I would almost start crying every time.

  Although, when I looked in the hall mirror now and noticed his black eye, I did get a small sense of pleasure from that. Bess told me his own brother had given it to him when Nick tried to get past him to come after me. I smirked at that, although anger and sadness still battled in my heart. I had to stay calm through it or else the weather would keep changing, and that couldn’t happen.

  In the mirror, I watched Nick’s eyes go wide and he looked slightly frightened by whatever my father had said that time.

  He gulped before speaking. “Yes, sir.” He turned and fled.

  I wasn’t sure if I could ever love my father more than I did in that moment. Racing to him, I wrapped my arms around him and crushed him in a hug. He grunted but held me close.

  “I won’t let him hurt you anymore, Sky. Your mother and I will always protect you,” he whispered, hugging me tighter. “No one hurts my little girl.”

  Days turned into weeks. I finished my senior year at home. My parents agreed it was for the best and made all the arrangements. Learning how to cope with weather-witch powers in a public witch school would not have been a good idea. There were too many rolling emotions there, too many triggers that could set me off. It was a lonely new existence but it had to be done until I could get a handle on things. It took almost a week before I could even have Bess over. She had called and texted, of course, and we talked a lot. Just not in person, because that way, I always fell apart.

  So there I was, almost three weeks later, walking along the beach while trying to feel absolutely nothing.

  And I meant nothing.

  I was trying to feel as empty as could be, to show no emotion at all. Everything would continue on if I could reign in all of my feelings and emotions which wasn’t as simple as it sounded. Not by a long shot. The beach was one of the few places where I felt calm. The sound of the waves and their rhythm on the shore, helped bring my emotions back into a passable form of control.

  But seriously, how could anyone possibly expect a teenager to control their emotions? How was that even possible? How could the Great Divine have thought this was a good idea? Why me? I didn’t want this. A crack of thunder and lightning filled the air.

  “I HATE YOU!” I screamed to the sky, falling to my knees as tears streamed down my face. I had never cried as much as I did in the last few weeks. And I didn’t hate the Great Divine, I was just overwhelmed. It was so frustrating.

  A soft pattering of rain started to fall. It had been a calm evening before my intrusive thoughts ruined it. The harder I cried, the harder the rain fell, and the louder the thunder grew, although it wasn’t booming, yet. My hair whipped and stuck to my face in the middle of the wind and rain, so I gathered the mahogany-brown tresses up, pulling them into a messy bun. A simple calming action.

  “Think nothing, be nothing; think nothing, be nothing; empty, empty, empty,” I repeated over and over again until the thun
derstorm stopped.

  Still sniffing, wiping my face with the back of my sleeve, I glanced up. Where there had been clear skies before, a double rainbow now appeared in the sky. A smile spread over me even as an uneasy feeling grew in my chest. It had taken so much to make that happen, and I had been responsible for it all.

  Being an almost eighteen-year-old weather witch was a pain in the butt. Especially a weather witch who could affect the weather with her emotions. It was rare and could be extremely dangerous, which was a lesson I’d learned pretty quickly. Sure, there had been weather witches in the past, but most could only make slight changes to weather patterns. A witch who could affect the weather because of her emotions was rarer still, and more precarious. I would have to learn a delicate balance with my emotions. And I had no idea if I could or not.

  Having a bad day? Have a little thunderstorm. Having an extremely bad time of the month? Well, heck, I could make a volcano explode. Extremely happy day? I might’ve accidentally turned winter into a summer day. Those were things I had to fight for control over every single day, and that wasn’t easy when I was eighteen years old and an emotional hormonal rollercoaster of a teenager. Well, almost eighteen. How the heck was any of that fair?

  Thinking about the birthday party and the trip with my friends that had been planned forever ago made me sad and angry again. It wasn’t going to happen. It couldn’t. I couldn’t even bear the thought of seeing Nick again. I was only talking to Jordan and Baxter now via texts and snaps. It was supposed to be our grand summer before all of us left for college and became great members of witch society.

  Bess and I were supposed to be planning an engagement party. Nick and I had talked about getting married after graduation. I glanced down at my now-empty ring finger. Clenching my fists, I scowled at the unfairness. A crack of thunder followed, making me shake my head.

  “Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. Mustn’t cause a tsunami while trying to get my calm on at the beach,” I muttered, moving to kneel in the sand. Shoving my hands into it, I let it sift through my fingers, a repetitive movement that soothed me. “Stupid weather witch powers. I don’t want them. I want them to go away.”

  I really did. I was being honest. I’d been nothing but an emotional rollercoaster lately, and I didn’t want to be responsible for setting off something catastrophic. It still hurt to think about Nick, although not as much as before. I was slowly coming to terms with it, slowly getting over him and his betrayal—even if there were days that I missed him terribly. Knowing I was better off without him had been the key to moving forward. He couldn’t control my actions any longer, and I wouldn’t let him make me lose my crap and set off a tornado or something. He just wasn’t worth it.

  I needed to figure out how to let fire magic be my life again. Fire was my main element as a witch. There wasn’t much I couldn’t do with it. I had been learning how to use it since I was about six years old and these weather powers were mucking it all up.

  Lifting my clenched hand, I stared at it, unclenching it to see a small ball of flame resting in the palm of my hand. I grinned, watching as it morphed itself into a small fire cat that purred and rubbed its head against my fingers.

  “If only things were so simple,” I said softly, blowing out a breath like one might blow out candles. The flaming kitty disappeared into the night like tiny sparks dancing on the wind.

  “Impressive,” a deep voice said from behind me, startling me.

  A crack of thunder split the sky. I spun into a defensive half-crouch, my eyes landing on a guy only a few paces behind me. Where had he come from? I hadn’t seen him when I’d started walking. I quickly stood, feeling slightly off-balance because he’d caught me off guard. I knew better. Always be vigilant. You must not let non-magical see you do magic.

  Dang it, I hated this.

  There was another crack of thunder, louder and closer than the last. My anxiety grew and so did the storm. Go figure. Lightning like a spider web split the sky, the echo of thunder shaking the ground under my feet.

  “You were too upset to notice me when I came over the dune,” he replied, answering my unspoken question as he glanced toward the sky, taking in another web of lightning stretching across it.

  My eyes widened and a shiver of fear ran down my spine. Tall, six-two at least, and dressed in shorts and a t-shirt with flip flops on his feet, the guy was gorgeous. His dark-blonde hair was short in a messy style that told me he must run his hand through it often. His smile was bright against the coming darkness, making his bright azure eyes almost glow. Just looking at him made my blood hum. I could tell he was a magic-user. The energy emanating off of him was like little shots of electricity to my weather witch side.

  “Who are you? What do you want?” Not the friendliest of openings but as a witch of my abilities, I had to be careful. There were those out there that sought to contain and control weather witches for their own nefarious purposes. Or so my parents had been teaching me.

  He grinned, his hands coming up in supplication and peace. “I came here to swim and found you. I could ask why a weather witch is out here on my beach,” he countered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his swim shorts and raising an eyebrow in question.

  I scoffed. “No one owns this beach.”

  “This part is owned by my family, actually. I think you may have gotten yourself turned around. Not that I mind, of course.” He grinned and eyed me from head to toe, the admiration clear on his face.

  I opened my mouth to contest, but then I let my gaze roam the area and realized I had walked much further than I’d intended. I very well could’ve been on private property right now. My cheeks flamed in embarrassment, and a gust of warm wind whipped around us. The lightning and thunder slowed as I started to get over my nervousness.

  He chuckled. “Quite alright. It looked like you were trying to figure things out. I certainly don’t mind the company, but my parents might not like having things burned to a crisp by a weather witch in a bad mood.”

  “I...I…” I stuttered, not knowing how to respond to that one. I would never knowingly burn anything down. I had control of fire; it was one of the few things I did have control over.

  “What makes you think I’m a weather witch?” I asked with suspicion. My anxiety started to rise again, the waves behind me rushing in faster with my amped-up agitation.

  He chuckled. “It seems rather obvious to me. Every bit of your emotion shows on your face and the weather surrounding us is corresponding to it.” He shrugged. “Not a big deal. I’ve never met a weather witch before. My parents have only told me stories of ones before.”

  My eyes were wide, still trying to process all of this. He seemed harmless. Or at least he wasn’t trying to attack me or anything. I figured I might be safe.

  He grinned at my awkwardness, stepped forward, and held out his hand. “Braxton Conrad, at your service.” He dipped his head, almost giving a bow, and a fluttery feeling passed over me.

  I sucked in a breath. I knew that name. His family was a powerful witch family, one nobody ever crossed if they could help it. It was well known that to cross the Conrad family was to court your own demise.

  Some would say the same about my family, too. The Stratan family was also an old witch family with many ties. It was actually rather odd that he and I had not crossed paths before. Though if I remembered correctly, Braxton was a few years older than me. And besides, given my upbringing, my father was not one for following the family traditions. Maybe the fact that we hadn’t met before wasn’t so far-fetched after all.

  “Sky Stratan,” I managed to say as I reached forward and gripped his hand. Fire and sparks raced across our hands, and a soft shower of fire sparkles started to fall.

  “By the Great Divine,” he whispered in awe.

  Where the bursts of fire fell, it sizzled, but it never burned. Then a realization struck me: our touch was doing this. I had never had this happen before. It was localized too. Just a small ring of fire falling over us, no
t burning, even though we both flinched as it hit our skin, our grips tightening to prepare for the pain.

  “I would say that the great divine wished us to meet Braxton Conrad.” I looked up to meet his shocked gaze.

  He swallowed a few times, as if trying to gain some composure before speaking again. Finally, he nodded. “I would have to agree, Sky Stratan. Would you care to join me for an iced coffee?”

  I smiled, giving his hand a squeeze as the rain of fire turned to fireflies in the night.

  “What about your swim?” I glanced back at the now-calm waves of the ocean.

  He gave me a smile that made me shudder. I hadn’t ever had this feeling with Nick. He gripped my hand tighter in his, his thumb brushing back and forth on the top of my hand. It felt so good. So right.

  “The ocean will always be there. Unless you mean to change it?” He arched an eyebrow at me in question.

  My eyes went wide at his suggestion and I chuckled. “No, I don’t want to change anything. This place is calming for me.”

  “Good, I love it here too. So coffee?”

  His hand tightened over mine, and that touch gave me a sense of peace I hadn’t felt since before these powers had emerged. A wave of calm washed over me, giving me even more control over my power. A pleasant shiver traveled down my spine, and I realized all the negative energy that had been surrounding me had evaporated just because he was holding my hand.

  The Great Divine really did have a plan for me after all. Fate had brought me there to meet that man. He would bring the calm and solace I needed to control my power. I hoped. Only time would tell.

  “I’d love that.”

  The coven of elders are coming for the new weather witch and they have their own nefarious ideas for her.

  Sky may be the new weather witch, a reluctant one but what is yet to be determined is if she and Braxton can bring new promise to the age of witches.

  Find out what happens to Sky and Braxton in “Weather Witch Worries,” part of Wayward Magic, the next book in the Magic Underground trilogy of anthologies.