Witchling (Curse of Kin) (25 page)

He looked down his nose at me, no hint of smile on his face. “I really don’t think that you are in a position to make the rules here,” he said quietly.

“No. How do you figure that, sport?” I snapped. “This is my life, and I will live it the way I want. I really don’t care what is written in some book in some bloody castle. I want to have my life my way.”

“You are so selfish.” He shook his head. “So, all that has gone on before you means nothing. The loss of life, Jasper’s wife, my aunt, his daughter, and all of those who have tried before you mean nothing.” He spoke in a quiet, silky-smooth sound that scared me more than his usual tone. “What your brother and mother have gone through, your best friend and his mother. All that, you would discard without a care so that you can have a normal teenage, hormone, boy-filled life without me watching over you. Get over it, Nera.” He raised his voice. “I did not ask for this any more than you did. I have been waiting for 800 years to help you with this, and all you can do is complain about what you might miss out on if I am in your life. What about what everyone else has had to sacrifice while we waited for you to grow up? What of those that follow you? Do you want to be responsible for the loss of more life while you laze around your room alone?”

“How dare you speak to me like that,” I lashed out at him.

He grabbed my hands in a vise-like grip and pulled me so close I could count the eyelashes over his dark eyes as he blinked. “Do you want to see your family suffer, Nera? It won’t go away if you ignore it, you know. She will keep coming and hurting those that you love.”

His warm breath covered my face, and my mouth felt dry and dusty. A strange feeling was heating in my stomach, and it took my breath away. “Can you live with yourself if you walk away, knowing that you could have stopped it? Can you live with yourself, Nera? Can you?”

He pushed me away and stormed back into the house. I rubbed my wrists and looked at Jasper who had moved away to the edge of the garden. I had never felt as small as I did now. Once again I had let my mouth get the better of me when it was easier just to go with the flow. No, I did not want to have a shadow for the rest of my life, but if it was the only way that we could be safe, would it be so bad? To me at that moment, the answer was still yes, no matter what feelings he might bring out in me.

Jasper shook his head. I knew what he was thinking. The same thing he always thought when I let my mouth take over when I should just keep it shut.

“Well, what did you expect? You know how I like my own space, and you thought I would just fall into this without the occasional spit, right?”

“I never expected you to take this laying down, girl dear, but I really did expect you to have better manners than that.” Jasper raised an eyebrow. “I hope Bones doesn’t take it too much to heart.”

“If he knows me as well as he thinks he does, he would have seen that coming and knew when to duck for the next blast,” I said. I knew I was a bitch, but he had it coming.

Jasper motioned for me to follow him over to a stone seat by the rose arbor. I sat with him while he told me the reason I needed to accept that Bones would be with me for the rest of my life and what would happen if I refused to go along with him. I couldn’t sacrifice my family for my wants and dislikes because it would be what I was doing if I refused to play along with Bones. They would all die. I had to try. As much as I hated to think life as I knew it was over and I was no longer alone, I think I owed them that much.

Brie and Sully texted me saying they would be back after lunch, and it was then I called a truce with Bones. I was sure he knew about the discussion I had with Jasper in the garden, but I went through it all again. Yes, I was sorry I was such a bitch, but what did he expect if I only got half the story. We could try to get along. The world apparently was relying on us, even though I couldn’t give in gracefully and probably never would. It was who I was, and he had better get used to it.

***

Sully, Brie, and I were sitting talking in the library with Jasper and Bones. Brie had asked Jasper more about the gods, Mari in particular.

“You are named for, her girl dear,” he explained to me. “Your name in Hebrew means burning light which, translated to the modern era, means lightening. To you, she is the most important witch. It is from her decree that your power comes.”

“What about us, Jasper?” Brie asked. “If we are connected like you suspect, could we have any powers like Nera?”

“I really don’t know. What do you think, Bones?”

“We can try to teach Brie and Sully to see if they have anything. A protection spell is easy to master to start with. But they will have nowhere the capabilities that you have, Nera. You get the really big stuff all to yourself.” Bones smirked, looking at me.

“Thanks for nothing,” I shot back at him.

Jasper shook his head. I was still quietly seething about this morning’s spat.

Bones just grinned. “Come on, Sully. Why don’t you give it a go?”

“Why can’t you just give me a spell to put my mother back to what she was?” Sully blurted out, taking everyone by surprise. “What good will one of your bloody protection spells do for her? We never asked to be here.”

“Sully, there is every reason to believe that once this battle is over, so will your mother’s illness be over. And we will then begin to age normally. Until Nera shows the others the door, so to speak, we won’t know for sure. But that is what Jasper and I discussed last night.”

“Oh, great,” I said, “just one more thing to put on my shoulders,”

Sully dropped to the couch, his face as white as a sheet. His mouth was open, but no words were coming out.

“Oh shit, Sully. I’m so sorry,” I said. “You know I didn’t mean it like that.” I ran to his side and grabbed his arm.”You know I would do anything to get your mom back to how she was.”

Brie sat looking horrified, her mouth working to get the words out that her brain was still trying to form. “Why is it all such a big deal to you, Nera? You have the power, everyone knows it. Why can’t you just deal with it and stop going on like it’s the end of the world?” she said, her voice getting louder the more she worked herself up. “It’s not always about you, you know. There are other people who give a damn.”

I turned to her. I was full of rage and hurt. My eyes glowed, and I could feel the power radiated up my body.

“How dare you talk to me like that. Didn’t I help you? Was that me who saved you from drowning in the mud, or was that some other witchy person you just happen to have as a friend?” I threw my arms up in the air and screamed in frustration. I was so angry I didn’t realize the heat building inside my body was anything other than my emotions reaching boiling point. The red hot pain raced down my arms. As I watched, the tips of my fingers exploded into flame. I pointed them at Brie. Jasper tried to grab me, but I danced away from him. “Who was it who saved Roman? Was that you, Brie? Did you get into his mind and drown with him? Did you feel the cold, dark water fill your lungs until you could have made a pact with the devil for air?” All the frustration over the last few weeks was coming out, and I couldn’t stop it.

I threw small balls of flame at Brie. The windows flew open, and gusts of wind rushed into the room swirling around us, grabbing hot tongues of fire from my fingertips. The more I ranted, the faster the wind ripped through the room. The fire lit up the high ceilings.

“Is it you who is charged with saving the whole frigging world? No. It’s me, so how dare you say otherwise. It
is
all about me.” I screamed again, a blood-curdling cry from deep in my soul for what I had lost and what the past had thrown at me without a care to what I wanted.

The sound died in my throat, and I stopped in front of terrified Brie. She was cowering on the couch, her arms over her head.

“Don’t you understand?” I cried, tears running down my face. I tried to explain to them what Jasper had told me. “If I fail to break the curse, I die. I die along with everyone in my family, and you are all in the same position for another generation.”

The heat on my fingertips died out as my anger subsided. I dropped to the floor, distraught.

Brie looked at me, her ashen face a mix of emotions before she knelt on the floor by my side. “Nera, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “We didn’t think about it like that. I’m so sorry.”

Sully sat on the couch, looking at us with wide eyes. “Don’t do it, Nera. Please don’t do it. We can all stay the way we are. I couldn’t bear it if we lost you,” he said.

“Son, she has no choice. None of us do,” Jasper whispered. “None of us.”

I sobbed on Brie’s shoulder until Sully picked me and carried me to the couch. “It’s okay,” he whispered into my hair, holding me close. “We can do this together, just like we always do. Don’t let it get to you. We didn’t mean it like that, honestly.”

“Well, that was quite something,” Jasper said. I followed his gaze, looking around the room to make sure nothing was burning. “I think a cup of tea is in order and then we can regroup. Give me a hand, Bones. We will leave the young ones to themselves for a minute, okay.”

“What brought all that on, Jasper?” he asked while they headed out of the library to make the tea. Their voices receded, and I tried to pull myself together.

Things had calmed down when they returned to the library. We were sitting together on the sofa in front of the fireplace. Sully had his arm around me, and I had curled my feet up on the sofa gazing into the flames.

“Here we are, then.” Jasper passed me a cup of tea as he tried to lighten the mood in a chipper voice.

“I’m sorry I lost it,” I said. “I don’t know what happened.”

“Nera, it’s okay,” Jasper said. “You have a lot to take on, and I think it’s just sunk in. It’s a natural reaction, child. Nothing to forgive.”

“There is. I should never have attacked Brie like that. It was unforgivable.”

“But you did, Nera,” Bones said, getting into the conversation, “and I’m glad that you did.”

“Are you nuts?” I shot back. The guy was insane. “I could have hurt her.”

“My point exactly. See what you are capable of when you get upset. Brie was fine. We were here to help. To get to the issue, Nera, you need to be able to harness that energy and use it. You have to be able to control yourself.”

Even though I was offended he thought I had a lack of control, I started to go over what had happened without feeling horrified and ashamed. If I could do that again but with some sort of control, well, it was an interesting thought. “How do you suppose I do that?”

“Use the same feelings you used when Brie pissed you off. You just need to hold onto them until you are ready—that’s going to be the hardest part. Then you just send them where you want them. Just like shooting an arrow,” he said. “Not a lot different from making the wind do your bidding. Fire is just a little more dangerous.”

He watched me take it in and turn it over in my mind.
Sounded easy. Get pissed off and shoot flames at someone.
I looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“Not, really. Not quite as easy as that, but that’s the general idea. You may or may not have noticed that the other ‘episodes’ occurred when you were emotional. I can explain it better later. Now, where is my cup of tea, Jasper?”

***

After I had calmed down, Bones took me outside to explain the power of the flame and its process. “Use whatever emotion you need to, Nera. Just do it slowly to start with,” he instructed.

He stood in front of me, his dark gaze intent on my face. I closed my eyes so that I could concentrate on the flame and not him. He still made me feel unnerved, and I didn’t want to have to think about it with him around.

Breathing deeply, I let my mind go blank and started to feel the warmth of the fire building in my veins. It coursed through my body, the tiny spears if fire swelling and heating, creeping under every cell and skin surface as it awoke and formed into tiny tangible flames in the palm of my hands. I looked at them in wonder, terrified they would disappear in the blink of an eye. They were mine, and they thrilled me like nothing else ever had. I risked a quick glance at Bones. A smile lit up his whole face, mirroring the warm fuzzy feeling I had in my stomach.

Dropping my gaze, I concentrated on my new power. The heat warmed my skin like a ray of summer sun but didn’t burn as I would have expected it to. I cupped my hands together joining the small flames to make one larger-sized ball. Tilting my head, I watched it roll from one hand to the other. I dipped my fingers into the edge of the fire and picked it up off my palm. I looked at the colors, fascinated by the hot flames licking my skin, and tossed it in the air. I couldn’t help but laugh when Bones took a step backward.

“Careful. Nera, don’t get too carried away just yet.”

“Not worried, are you, Bones?” I smiled and closed my hand over the ball. In my mind I saw it sizzle out. Holding my arms out, I opened my hands and showed him my empty palms.

A wave of exhaustion washed over me, and I faltered. The last hour had drained me; I was lightheaded and tired. Bones grasped my arms and pulled me into his chest. I rested my head against him and closed my eyes, the need for sleep almost overwhelming. The smell of leather and soap filled my senses, and I shook my head, stepping back. “I’m fine, thanks.”