Ellora's Sun

Chapter Four

"I know it's a lot, but I promise I'm not lying. Think about all the things that have been happening. How else can you explain the car alarms, the broken coffee cups, or my boiling tea?" Christoph asked her sincerely. Adelaide shifted in her seat so she was facing him again, but he kept his hand on hers. When she didn't say anything, he kept going.

"Look, I can prove it." He looked around them before his eyes landed on the bookshelf sitting against the wall next to them. It was decorated with leftover Halloween decor - little glass pumpkins, skull candles, and pieces of candy. Christoph moved his hand from hers, picked up one of the candles, and put it in between them on the table. He glanced up at her to make sure she was watching. Adelaide's gaze was on him and the candle, waiting curiously for his "proof".

"Watch." Christoph instructed, pointing at the wick of the candle. He picked his hand up, snapped his fingers, and a flame appeared on top of the little skull candle. Adelaide stared at the small fire, her mind running through every possible illusion or trick he could have done to pull that off.

She came up empty.

"Okay..." Adelaide started cautiously. She knew, rationally, that she should've been more freaked out by the display. But she also knew that the day's events had surpassed logic a while ago.

"Let's say you're right, and I am a witch. Why am I just now finding out? Shouldn't there have been a Hogwarts letter when I was eleven or something?" She questioned him, squeezing her hands together in front of her. Adelaide eye the candle, that was flickering between them, before looking back up at Christoph.

"It's...complicated. You are a witch, and you've always been one, but your magic has been sort of inactive, or dormant."

"Okay well why is it active now? Can't you just make it dormant again?" Adeline questioned, internally hoping that there was a simple fix that would help make everything go back to normal. Christoph, however, laughed at her suggestion.

"Yeah, there's no stopping it now. Your magic is...restless. It's been bottled up a long time." He explained, looking her up and down as if he was looking through her. Adeline audibly groaned at his response. She clenched her hands together tighter, digging her nails into the skin on the back of her hands.

"That key," Christoph nodded his head towards the pocket of her jacket, "is what activated your magic. Now that you've found it, there's no going back."

Adelaide's head spun with the information. She remembered picking up the key at her office. It hadn't felt like she suddenly gained magical powers at the time. But Christoph was right - weird things were happening around her, things she couldn't explain.

"What does any of that have to do with you or Lorenzo? Why are you here?" Adelaide questioned, tapping her foot restlessly below the table. Christoph eyed her hands, still clenched tightly together next to the candle, before looking at the cup of tea he'd pushed to the side. Despite being almost an hour old, the liquid was bubbling rapidly.

"Hey, relax," His voice softened, and he reached a hand across the table again, wrapping it around both of hers, "I'm not with Lorenzo. I'm not going to hurt you."

Adelaide pulled her hands away from him, placing them on her lap to calm her shaking leg. She sent Christoph an apologetic look, taking in a deep breath to calm herself.
She thought back on the other strange events she'd been noticing. The books flying off the shelves when she was yelling at James, or the car alarms going off when Richard scared her. She'd always thought of herself as pretty in control of her emotions - or at least in control of the emotions she let others see. It seems her magic had other ideas in mind.

"Lorenzo is a witch from Risoluté coven. They're from Europe, mostly Italy, France, and Spain. They're a bit...rebellious, you could say," Christoph explained, attempting to search for the right words, "They're main motivation in life is to do whatever the want, even if that means endangering humans or hurting other witches."