Catalyst (Forevermore, Book Two) (19 page)

As hard as I tried, I couldn
’t stop my thoughts from meandering from Artemis to Mathias. I pictured him lying in his bed, trapped behind the invisible walls of a magical force field. What sort of answers would Artemis come up with, if any? And who was he getting them from? That was the question that nagged at me the most — who did he know that could help Mathias … and why did he seem so averse to telling me?

The next morning Eila
made Serena and me a full breakfast — scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage links, biscuits, and orange juice. I didn’t think I’d need to eat again for a week after that. Serena was uncharacteristically quiet the entire time, and barely touched her food. I wondered if something I’d said last night had gotten through to her; maybe she was finally going to consider talking to her mom.

Despite my reservations, I had Serena drop me off at Haven after breakfast
. Mathias was still locked up in his room and Artemis was said to be out … hopefully searching for information. Noah was up bright and early, sitting on the sectional eating his cereal and staring blankly at the TV. If he noticed me come in, it didn’t show.

I went to my room and fed Willow and spent a few minutes pampering her after having abandoned her last night. She never reacted well when I was away over night, but s
he seemed to be in a good mood. Maybe she was getting along well with my mom.

After tending to the cat, I left in search of Iris.
I stopped and asked Noah what room she was in, and after no answer on three different tries, had to turn off the TV.

“
Hey! I was watching that.”

“
More like you were getting brainwashed by it.”

“
Now I’ll never know if Judy makes that guy pay for the screwed up boat. My life is ruined.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed.
“I think you’ll live. Now, what room is Iris in?”

“
Thirteen. Now give me back the remote.”

I shook my head and tossed the remote back at hi
m. He immediately flipped the TV back on and groaned when he saw it was on a commercial.

I made my way down one of the halls and to room thirteen,
which happened to take me by Alan’s room. I was briefly tempted to knock and see if he was in there, but something told me that now wasn’t a good time; maybe after training. I needed to keep my mind clear and focus on whatever was ahead of me. As much as I hated to admit it, everyone was right. Awesome powers or not, it did me no good if I couldn’t control them. If I were caught alone out again by that ice-wielder, or anyone, for that matter, I wouldn’t have Mathias to save me. I needed to be prepared.

My fingers rapped against the wood of door number thirteen and I could hear shuffling noises in the background. The door opened and Iris greeted me with a grin.

“Morning, Castus Young,” she said and let me in. “Artemis said you’d be here.”

The room was dark and
colorful all at the same time — black walls with intricate chalk swirls drawn onto the paint in varying colors; neon-colored bedspread; lava lamps lining the surface of her desk; glow-in-the-dark stars pinned to the ceiling. The only things that stood out of place were the same basic furnishings that my room had in the kitchen and dining area.

“
Wow,” I breathed once I finished examining my surroundings. “I think that aside from me you’re the only other one to actually do something with your room.”

Iris laughed and I saw the barbell on her tongue.
“It helps if you have a job, I guess. Artemis makes sure we all have a place to stay and food to eat, but if you want to deck out your room in awesomeness you need to bring in your own bucks.”

I nodded.
“Or be able to summon them.”

“
That probably works too,” she said with another bout of laughter. “But seeing as that’s uncommon around here, the rest of us have to settle for work.”

“
Where do you work?”

“
I’m a barista, part time. The rest of my time is spent going to school, majoring in art. That, plus living a secret life as a witch, makes things a little hectic ... but I haven’t died of sleep deprivation – yet.” She laughed again. She was awfully happy and energetic for someone with such a crammed life. I felt bad for thinking I couldn’t handle just being a student and witch at the same time. She had that plus a job … and now she had to train me too …

“
Wow …” I sat down at the kitchen table, thrumming my fingers against the wood. “So ... Artemis says you can help me?”

“
I can try,” she said and leaned forward with her hands on the tabletop. “Telekinesis is actually one of the more common gifts among witches, but it’s one of those easy to do, hard to master sort of things.”

“
Really?” I asked with genuine curiosity and eyed the tattoos inching up her arms. “I never thought about what was common and what was rare.”

“
The rarest gifts seem to be summoning, shimmering, and power stealing. The common ones are Telekinesis, various sorts of healing, Clairvoyance, and all that. Pyromancers, too … regardless how special Noah tries to tell girls he is.” She snorted. “There are a lot of gifts out there, though, and a lot of witches. Probably all kinds we don’t even know about.”

“
Well, you sure do seem to know a lot ...”

She grinned.
“I’ve done my share of reading and learning through Artemis.”

“
Reading?” Now my curiosity was truly piqued. There were books on all this? That would make it much easier.

“
There is a book all about our history,” she explained. “The history of the very first witch, the divide amongst us in which the witches became Clans rather than a singular group. Then there are lots about different powers, potions, and rituals … all kinds of things. Just about everything’s written somewhere.”

“
Who was the first witch?”

“
Ceres. She was supposedly born beneath the stars on a night of a crescent moon and got her power from it.”

“
And that’s why we carry the Mark of Luna?” I subconsciously reached up to my chest and ran my hand over where the Mark was imprinted on my flesh; it was no longer unsightly — it looked just like Mathias’s, as he promised.

She nodded and smiled.
“Exactly. There’s a lot of information in that book I was talking about. It lists all the known powers. I’m probably not supposed to talk about it, though.”

My brows arched at that.
“Why not?”

“
It’s kind of off-limits ... Artemis caught me flipping through it when I was sixteen and tore it from my hands. He was furious and hasn’t spoken of it since, but I sneaked back into his room any time he was away and read page after page of that book until I reached the end.”

“
Is it still here? The book? And why wouldn’t he want all of us to know everything …”

She shrugged.
“It’s probably there. Don’t know where else it’d be. I haven’t looked in a few years, though. If you’re good with a lock you should check it out.”

“
Good with a lock?”

“
Well, yeah. How else do you think I got in while he was gone? He’d never leave his door unlocked.”

“
Ah, right …”

“
And as far as why he doesn’t want us to know it all? You’ve got me there. Artemis is kind of mysterious that way. Good as they get, but a weird one, you know? But who am I to talk about weird, right?” She laughed again.

“
Is there anything about Shimmerers in it?”

“
Not a whole lot. They’re pretty rare.”

I frowned, my hopes dwindling. So much for finding answers on my own.

“But anyway, let’s move some shit!” She winked as she stood, chuckling. “You’ll be my first trainee, so if I screw up or you don’t understand something, just say so, okay? Not going to hurt my feelings.”

“
Okay …” I said and followed her further into the motel room. She sat on her bed and patted the spot next to her; I sat down.

“
I’m going to bring one of those earrings over to us, and then I want you to send it back,” she said and pointed to a pair of long, dangling dream catcher-shaped earrings on her desk. “To control where it goes, focus not on where you want it, but on its journey there. That make sense? Like, don’t just see it where it is or where you want it, but the whole trip coming to you. Got to picture it vividly in your mind hovering forward and landing in your palm, like you believe it’s already happening, and it will.”

I nodded slowly, although I had no idea how exactly I was supposed to
do any of that. Watching her, I studied the way her eyes squinted in concentration and their color turned to a golden orange. My eyes were drawn to the dangling earrings that floated steadily through the air and landed directly on the palm of her hand, as though a ghost had carried them to her.

“
Wow,” I said in awe. “How long did it take you to master it?”

“
A few months,” she said with a subtle frown. “I was struggling with other things at the time, though ... ex-relationships, exams, just a whole lot of shit, you know? It’s supposed to be easy to learn if you concentrate enough, so clear your mind and focus on nothing but the item you want brought to you or taken away.”

“
Okay, I’ll try …” I stammered and looked at the jewelry in her hand.

I pushed away the thoughts of Mathias, the book Iris had mentioned, Alan, Serena and her parents, my family, and everything else that was crammed into my mind. My eyes didn
’t leave the earring, nor did my thoughts. It became my only focal point. I thought of it rising upward from Iris’s palm and floating through the air back over to the desk. I tried to will it with my thoughts by squinting my eyes like she had, but it didn’t budge.

Again, I tried.

And again.

But it didn
’t move.

Giving up, I let out a long sigh.
“Maybe Artemis is right and I don’t have the gift.”

Iris shook her head and lifted my head up with the tip of her index finger.
“I saw it, in your eyes. They flickered orange for a brief second, and I could feel the air around the earring moving. You just need to focus harder.”

My heart began racing; if my eyes had changed, that was enough to tell me that I did have another gift. Letting out another breath, I resumed my focus on the earring and instead of thinking of
it floating its way to the desk I imagined it only hovering a few inches off of Iris’s hand. In shock, I almost let it drop when I saw that it had actually lifted.

“
You’re doing it!” Iris said excitedly.

The earring wavered slightly as it rose above the ground and began moving slowly toward the dark wooden desk on the other side of the room.
A bead of sweat snaked its way from my forehead, nearly causing me to lose focus. The earring started to fall, but rose again. It landed on the surface and I released it with my mind.

Iris was clapping beside me.

“I can’t believe this ... ” I muttered and stared, transfixed, at the earring that was now back where it had originally been. “H-how is this possible? I shouldn’t be able to even have this …”

Her shoulders raised and lowered in a shrug.
“Can’t say that I know the answer to that one.”

“
In that book —”

“
The
Codex of Ceres
?” She said the title almost mockingly.

“
Sure ... whatever book it was you read. Was there anything in there about witches with more than two gifts?”

“
Nope. As far as I know, it’s impossible – hell, even having more than one is unheard of – yet, here you are. Let’s keep practicing, okay? With heavier objects, it can help to raise a hand and direct it.”

My next
task was to safely deliver one of her lava lamps from the top shelf of her desk over to her dresser against the wall beside her bed. She was clearly anxious, and it only made me uneasy. I’d hate myself if I ruined one of her belongings because I didn’t know how to control my newly acquired gift.

I blocked out all other thoughts, including the ever-present fear of dropping and shattering her lava lamp. The one I
’d chosen was full of purple liquid and black sludge that, if it was turned on, would be moving around at a relaxed pace and dimly illuminating the room. It shook at first, but didn’t move from the shelf. Iris gripped onto her comforter nervously and it wasn’t helping my confidence at all. Trying to force out my physical surroundings, I lifted my left hand and pointed my palm toward the lava lamp. It felt silly – unreal and unnatural – but, to my amazement, the lamp followed my hand as if pulled by a tight, invisible string. I lowered the lamp onto the shelf and put my hand down.

Iris surprised me by hugging me excitedly.
“That was perfect! I mean, aside from that horrifying moment there where I was almost positive you were going to break it.”

Laughing nervously, I pulled away and stared at the lamp where it now rested.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and let out a long breath.

“
Everything okay?” she asked.

“
Yeah, just, I don’t know. Hot. Tired.”