The Witching Hour

Chapter 22 - Frustration

"Ivy, what the fuck are you doing? Call your vines off." Aura's wind stood no chance in trying to pull the greenery away. It was so tightly woven around her that only fire would get them off at this point. Ivy's anger seethed, the vines moving higher up Aura's body.

"Always have to be prepared, don't you?" Ivy retorted, even though she knew the vines had done that on their own. She called upon them to let Aura go and turned to walk away. A giant gust of wind pushed her forward and then yanked her into the air.

"Yeah, you do." Aura spat as she held Ivy in the air.

"Let her down," Ella commanded, trying to bring order to the training.

"Ivy, you still have so much to learn." Aura stared her down, a shadow falling over her face. "What would you have done if the werewolf attacked you? What would we have had to do? You can barely fend off our attacks."

"Aura, c'mon." Marina looked disappointedly at Aura.

"Oh, we're still on that, are we?" The sky only grew bleaker. Thunder rolled in the distance. "I apologized for that, but I guess because I'm not Ella I don't have the right to act on instinct."

"Hey!" Ella protested and stood up a bit straighter.

"No, it's true. You're the one who gets to act on instinct and lead us based on your intuition." Ivy still struggled in the air.

Ivy hovered too far above her for her vines to greet her. A bright idea popped in her head. Before Aura had a chance to react, Ivy called upon a tree to grow between her and the rest of the Pentacle. It shook Aura enough to lose her concentration and startled Ella and Marina. A branch shot out to catch Ivy before she could smack into the ground. It brought her to the other women.

"There. That's better. We're on more even footing."

Thunder roared overhead at this point. Marina's eyebrows shot up. As Ivy stared down Aura, lightning cracked and lit up the sky as rain poured down. Ivy pulled herself closer to her tree, using its leaves as an umbrella. The others ran over and did the same. Anger radiated from Aura and Ivy as they could barely look at one another.

Meanwhile, the storm intensified. Marina put a hand on Aura first, and she calmed without a fuss. When Marina put a hand on Ivy, she was met with resistance. Ivy let the wrath of the storm brewing within her to flood Marina's senses. Marina's hand recoiled at the feeling of power just under the surface. The empath sucked in a deep breath and went for another try, and Ivy could feel Marina wading past the internal storm and get to the root of Ivy's frustration.

Images of Hunter, his treatment of her and a quick shot of the werewolf and the feeling of confusion unfolded before Marina's and Ivy's eyes. The werewolf took Marina by surprise, the catch in her breath giving it away, but she didn't have time to dwell on that. She injected as much calmness and power as she could muster into the earth witch. Ivy immediately stilled, and the rain ceased. Clouds returned to their light gray, and the storm that once raged overhead dissipated.

"You..." Ella stared at her, mouth agape.

"How did you do that?" Aura questioned, her eyebrows furrowing. Whatever annoyance she held toward Ivy had disappeared.

"I really don't know..." Ivy hugged her shoulders and tucked a stray ringlet behind her ear.

"Has it happened before?" Marina squared her shoulders. "That takes a lot of power, more than we should have."

"Not that I know of?" Ivy avoided their eyes as she racked her brain. If she were honest with herself, there was one other time that she could think of, but the details remained hazy.

"We're going to see Calliope tomorrow." Marina crossed her arms over her chest. Ella opened her mouth to protest, but Marina put a hand up. "This –" she gestured to Ivy, "is not normal. Calliope would know."

"For now, everyone return to their corners." Marina looked at each of them sternly, the youngest speaking reason this time. "We could use a break from one another."

Aura and Ivy exchanged sheepish looks. Both knew what they did was wrong, but neither was ready to reconcile. Ella headed in Aura's direction while Marina joined Ivy. They walked in silence to the cars before Marina finally spoke up.

"You're still stuck on the werewolf, aren't you?"

"I had a feeling you saw that." Ivy bit her lip, her eyes casting downward.

"I saw when I also realized you were the cause behind the storm." Marina looked down at her hands. "I also noticed that you and Hunter are struggling. Is that were some of the frustration stemmed from today?"

Ivy looked away, back toward the slabs and vines. With a slight flick of her wrist, it disappeared as if it hadn't been there. She took a deep breath and met Marina's gaze.

"He caught Griffin and me working in the shop the other day," Ivy sighed, leaning against her car. "Hunter got really possessive, which rubbed Griffin the wrong way, who ended up leaving. Hunter assumed something had actually happened even though I told him nothing did."

Marina tapped her lips with a finger. "Did something happen?"

Ivy opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"I don't think so?" Ivy said after a pause.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Marina cocked her head to the side, her dark hair falling to the same angle.

"We just repotted plants and talked." Ivy shrugged her shoulders. "He had to help me with my sweater because my camisole got caught on it, but we went back to work after. He talked about his mom and how she was an earth user."

"Is he one as well?" Marina's ears perked up. "No one ever found out what Griffin ended up specializing in. It's remained a mystery."

"I don't know. I never asked and he never said." Ivy ran a hand through her curls. "I didn't want to press him, especially when he had already said so much."

"Well, do you think Hunter was right to think something happened?"

Confusion hung in the air. Ivy shifted from foot to foot. At surface level, it seemed like an innocent afternoon between two people who could be friends. However, when she remembered how she felt after Griffin left and she was left with Hunter, something stirred within her. Ivy pulled her car door open and slid in.

"I love Hunter."

"Are you trying to reassure me or yourself?" Marina countered as she got into her side of the car.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Ivy said, dodging the question. "Text the group what time we should head over?"

"See you tomorrow, doll." Marina drove off, honking goodbye to the group.

Ivy took the drive home to clear her head. When she got home, she expected Hunter to be up and reading on the couch. Instead, an empty apartment greeted her. She slid into bed and waited for sleep to catch up with her.

A/N

Welp
This was fun to write. Not everything is peachy-keen between the witches, as expected. It had to come to a head 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hope you're doing well!
Thanks again for the reads, comments and votes. Would love to hear what y'all think ☺️