"Do you have any gluten-free non-dairy tea?" Kate asked my Gran, who stood dumbfounded. I sighed, wondering if I could escape this madness. Kate was dead serious when she said this. Gran, who tried to smile back, seemed confused.
"I'll have to check." She finally said. Kate stared at her, not blinking. Eventually, my Gran left to go check on what tea we had. Kate, who finally blinked, looked over at me. I had been inching away, heading towards my bedroom.
"Your bedroom is upstairs," it wasn't a question. It was more of a fact, but I nodded anyway. She then headed up the stairs. Huffing, I followed her. I just wanted to nap.
She knew which bedroom was mine and plopped on the floor. I watched in both awe and fear as she spread out all of her books. There had to be about thirty books and she opened each of them with a slight raise of her hand. I hurried to shut the door, so no one would see us. It didn't really matter, Gran and my mom both knew that Kate had powers.
Knowing my luck, Dara would come home and see Kate's power. I didn't want Dara to know any of our powers. I still didn't know Dara's main power, which truly frightened me. It had to be powerful enough for her to think she could kill me.
I collapse across from her. There was a lot of homework I had to do, but I wasn't in the mood. Except that Kate was reading thirty books in front of me, so maybe it wouldn't hurt to do my homework. So, I unloaded my backpack and started in on it. It was nearing towards the end of the term and I had a lot of projects and tests coming up.
When I finish my worksheet for math, I can't help but think about Erik. It's stupid, but I feel guilty. He's obviously hurt -- and it's my fault. I just wish I knew why he was upset with me. He keeps saying it's nothing, but I know that isn't true. It has to be something with Daniel, right? I rack my brain for a reason he would be mad and once again I come up blank.
I'm almost finished with science homework when my phone buzzes. My heart skips a beat, wondering if it's from Daniel. It's not Daniel. It's from Addie. I unlock my phone and read her text.
"Hey, I talked to Erik. He wouldn't tell me what's going on between the two of you, but I think he's jealous that Daniels back. I tried to explain to him why you're hurt that Daniel's ignoring you, but you know Erik. He doesn't listen. Anyways, I know you're with Kate, but maybe tomorrow the three of us can hang out."
It's a long text and I read it twice. She's not mad at me anymore! I'm relieved. I couldn't handle her and Erik being upset with me. I sigh, taking a couple of minutes to formulate a response.
"I truly don't know why he's mad at me. I am sorry though -- for whatever I did. Also, I would really like for us all to hang out. Tomorrow sounds perfect!" I hit send and set my phone down. Kate is wildly reading, flipping the pages with her hand. Her brows are knit together, causing an "11" mark in between them. She has such focus it is a little intimidating.
"What are you doing?" I finally ask her. It takes her almost thirty full seconds to rip her eyes from the pages.
"Reading. I thought that was obvious." Her tone monotone. I roll my eyes. I forgot how literal she should be.
"I mean, staring at the pages like that. I just saw you flip through thirty books like it was nothing." I explain. Her eyes move back to the books, still as can be. Then, her brown eyes meet mine. I wonder if she knows her parents were fighting last night. I'm sure she does, then again it is Kate.
"I'm trying to work my telekinesis into my mind. Instead of moving things with my hand, I want to move them with my mind." She's frustrated as she tells me. Clearly, whatever she is trying isn't working. Her words remind me of what Mir told me.
"Like Mir's power?" Apparently, that wasn't the right thing to say. She glares at me. I hold up my hands defensively. "She told me her powers were growing, that's all," I add. I know Kate's power can't be used against me, but I hate when she glares at me. It's nearly sinister.
"All powers can grow," she says. "I'm trying to get mine to advance too. It's not working though." She sighs. "Ive really wants us to be stronger, especially since we're preparing for whatever Dara has planned." I'd never heard anyone call Ivelyn anything other than Ivelyn, so it throws me a little when she calls her "Ive."
"I'm sorry. I feel a little guilty about all of that." Today was a day for feeling guilty. I did feel bad about Ivelyn being so hard on Kate and Mir. If it wasn't for me and all my problems, maybe Kate wouldn't be working so hard to advance her powers.
Kate waved me away.
"You shouldn't feel guilty, it's what we've been preparing for." She wets her lips, then explains. "Before you got here, we were praying a lot to the Goddess, asking for an assignment. That's why when you first moved here we were a little intense. We were trying to figure out if you were the sign we'd been asking for." In the weirdest way possible, I understand.
I had never been religious, but I understood the importance of magic. It was empowering, but it made you want to do something with it. When I had the vision about Kellie Jones being the next victim, the only thing I wanted to do was prevent that. I'm sure the others were feeling the same way.
It did explain why they had been so eager when I first moved to Salem. It also further explained Ivelyn and why she was always so intense. She just wanted to feel like she belonged. Plus, with her parents never home, she was probably really lonely. Once again, I felt bad.
"Do you think I was the "sign?" I use quotation marks. I was curious to see what Kate said. She was so loyal to Ivelyn, but she was solely fact-based. She would tell me the truth and spare my feelings. That's why she and Ivelyn got along so well.
"I'm not sure. You've definitely given us a purpose and we've grown as a Coven, believe it or not." We both laugh. "But I'll be honest, the fact that you're a Mercy's Descendant is very unpleasant." I can't tell if I should be offended are not. It's Kate, so I'm always asking myself that question.
"Why is that?" I've been wondering what it even means to be a Mercy's Descendant, but neither my mom or Gran want to talk more about it. I guess I could pick up a book and find out myself, except that most of these books Kate had brought were in various languages.
"A lot of Mercy's Descendants have gone evil or been murdered by Dorcas' Avengers. There's a lot of theories about this, but it's basically just not a good omen." I hadn't heard that term before Dorcas' Avengers, but I didn't like the sound of them. "To be fair, if you were related to Dorcas, it wouldn't be much better." She laughs and lounges back. Her brown hair creating a curtain.
I gulp.
So, my fate is either to be killed by my cousins or go evil. Great. That sounds awesome. I hang my head, trying to think of what could possibly go wrong. Dara is trying to kill me, which must mean she's going evil, so my chances are high with being killed by my cousins. That is if Dara doesn't kill me first.
"Have you tried advancing your power?" Kate pulls me out of my turmoil.
"Um, no. I still haven' had a vision yet." She frowns at this.
"Have you tried to get one?" I shake my head. "I wonder," she trails off, tapping her chin.
"What?" I ask, sitting upright.
"I just wonder if your other main power works. Can I try something?" She moves forward. I back away, not liking where this is going. Kate thought that I, like Sarah Good, had two main powers. One, being my visions, and the second being my ability to reject or deflect other Witches powers.
"What are you going to do?" My voice is an octave higher.
"Please relax, this won't hurt." She smiles sinisterly. "Unless your rejection power is down too." The grin intensifies. Before I can say anything else, she waves her hand. A large book makes its way towards my face. My first reaction is to run, but I quit that part of my brain. The next reflection is to grab the Amulet, but I shut that thought down. My hands are down at my sides and I flex my magic muscle.
I feel the energy surrounding the book and the force Kate is using to move it. I can almost see the thread around the book. Instead of moving my hand to stop it, I push the book with my mind. I picture the thread, glowing and I cut it. The book hovers in front of my face, then drops to the floor with a thud. I blink, then look at Kate's reaction.
"Interesting," she trails off. I already know she's going to try something else, maybe a lamp this time.
"Let's not throw anything else at me, okay?" I huff.
"It's interesting that you can still use your deflection. It's almost like a shield." She hmm's. I watch as she grabs a small book, about the size of a journal, and flips through it. It's in a different language and brilliant red color. "Interesting," she says again.
"What?" Kate gets easily caught in the rabbit hole. She grabs another book, looking for something.
"I can't tell why one power works and your other doesn't. It's so rare to even have a second main power, so there's not a lot of information on it. Still, I think it is very peculiar." She continues to read. "It's almost like something is blocking your visions." She shrugs, closing the book. Her words trigger something in my mind. It's a memory.
When I overheard Vayne and Dara talking in his car, the night I heard them talking about murdering me. I remember Dara asking Vayne, "what if she sees us coming?" His response had been that they had it taken care of. His exact words were that they were blocking my visions. How was that possible?
"Uh, Kate," my mind was reeling at the possibilities. Of course, they were into all sorts of black magic, why wouldn't they be able to perform a spell to block my visions? "I think the cult is blocking my visions." It felt like a dream, just saying it out loud. I should have seen this before. I should have seen a lot of things before, but once again I was naive.
I explained to Kate what Vayne had told Dara. In fact, she had me tell her the whole conversation, starting with the beginning. Then, she had me tell her again. I think she was trying to memorize every word.
"You're kidding me." I shake my head. "We have to tell the others," she jumped up. "They definitely blocked your visions, but thankfully they don't know about your deflection power." She grabs her phone and calls someone. I'm guessing it's Ivelyn. I slump to the floor.
I hear bits and pieces of their conversation. In the background, I hear Ivelyn call me an idiot and I don't blame her. I should have told them everything from the start and maybe I wouldn't have forgotten about this major part. Think of all the visions I could have gotten by now! I might have been able to see Daniel coming back and bringing his cousin, Giu.
Kate clicks her phone off.
"Ivelyn is going to get Mir and Addison. They're going to head out to the abandoned buildings and see if they can figure out what they used for the spell." She sounds so calm. I, on the other hand, have the opposite reaction.
"Wait, what? They can't! They need us, we should go." I start to panic. If anything happens to them I don't know what I'll do.
"We're staying here to figure out an unblocking spell. They'll be fine." She says everything so nonchalantly. I try to breathe. She's right Ivelyn has her fire ability and Mir can calm people down with her mind and Addison--
"Why isn't Erik going with them?" There's no way Erik would let Addie go there alone. He must still be mad at me. Except, Addie said she talked to him.
"Ivelyn said he couldn't go because he has a date tonight." Again, she sounds so calm. She even shrugs, as if it's no big deal. Is it a big deal? I try to ask myself why I'm upset. Why is everything so complicated?
"Oh, okay," I muttered, mostly to myself. The time it takes me to respond, Kate is already reading another book. I go to my bed and lay down. Kate doesn't make any indication that she cares.
My mind races back and in forth between Daniel and Erik. What was my problem? Daniel wanted nothing to do with me, but here I was still thinking about him. Was he ever going to talk to me again? I reach for my phone, about to text him. I stop myself. I can't do that to myself. Today has been hard enough without adding more drama.
Then, there's Erik. He was so hard headed and he never could never express his feelings. He was so protective to the point of suffocation. Not to mention how smug and arrogant he could be. I could come up with so many more things, but none of it really mattered. It didn't compare to how compassionate, kind, and loyal he was. I know he would never intentionally hurt me, not like Daniel did.
I couldn't even be upset that Erik was on a date right now. I only had myself to blame. I basically pushed him to go on a date with someone else. No wonder he was mad at me earlier, I was so indecisive. Last night, Erik had spent the night and then Daniel showed up at school. Nothing had happened last night between Erik and me, but that was beside the point.
He went to school and we were fine. Then, Daniel shows up and I start bawling like an idiot. Of course, he was confused by that. I was confused by myself! People really need to stop me from making decisions because clearly, I am no good. There were so many things I wished I could tell Erik, but I couldn't form the words.
Plus, what would I even say? That I am utterly confused by him and that Daniel coming back to Salem didn't help. That all I know is that I don't like that he's upset with me. That and I didn't like that he was on a date. Then again, I wouldn't like Daniel being on a date either.
What did I want?
I had no clue.
I didn't want to hurt Erik. I wanted Addie to be okay with whatever happened between Erik and I and for things to remain the same between the three of us. I wanted Daniel to talk to me, so we could both get closure. I wanted to know why my sister hated me so much that she was willing to kill me. I wanted to know why Dara was with Vayne. I wanted to know what my Aunt Dolores was like and where she was. I wanted to know what kind of tea was gluten-free.
I groaned, grabbing a pillow and smashing it against my face. I let out a tiny scream.
Then, I remembered Kate was in here too.
Shit.
Oh well, it's not like she doesn't think I'm crazy.
Why is it that being a Teenage Witch is so difficult?
"Are you having a fit?" Kate asks from my floor. I groan again, not releasing the pillow. I just wanted to take a nap, but I can't shut my brain off.
"I don't know what to do." It comes out whinier than I thought.
"You could help me with this un-blocking spell." Her tone was so monotone it was reliving. At least there was one person that wasn't going to be upset with me. I tossed the pillow on the other side of my bed, remembering Erik's body. Crap, I can't think about Erik like that.
"Okay, I can do that," I tell her and myself. I can do this.
The two of us worked on finding an un-blocking spell for the rest of the night. I tried not to think about Daniel or Erik. I let myself focus on one thing: magic. Kate and I were going to figure this out and unblock my visions. I was going to start getting visions again and I was going to help people. Dara could try and kill me, but I wasn't going to stop living my life. Kate didn't know if I was the sign they had asked for, but I knew I was exactly where I needed to be.
"I think I finally found some tea you can drink," Gran entered my room with a cup of steaming tea. Kate seemed genuinely surprised and took the cup from Gran. If Gran knew what we were doing she didn' act like it. If Gran could find a tea that Kate liked and could drink things were going to be just fine.