A/N: Oh wow, guys. Thank you so much for all of the reviews, as well as everyone who's read or followed. The first time I uploaded this chapter the file went corrupt or something, so hopefully it's fixed now. Confession time: my favorite part of writing is coming up with the sarcastic chapter titles.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

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It was way too late to make dinner, but Asteria did make it back a few minutes before Charlie got home. She decided to lay down on the couch and hope for the best. The sound of a car pulling into the drive had her on edge. Finding a calm she didn't know she possessed, Asteria forced herself to act calm.

"Hey kiddo," Charlie said as he took off his boots by the door. "How was school?"

Asteria immediately relaxed. That was not the tone of an irate parental guardian. The Cullens must have either decided against it, or hadn't called yet. "It was fine, but I still feel a little sick from yesterday. Sorry, but I came straight home and laid down after school, so there's no dinner made. I can probably make something really quick though."

"You've made dinner a lot lately. Let's give you a break and order pick up from the diner," Charlie said.

"Charlie, if I didn't know any better I'd say you're trying to get out of eating the food I make," Asteria said.

"Never, but a man could use a greasy burger every now and then," Charlie defended. Asteria shook her head with a smile, but didn't comment as he disappeared into the other room to place an order over the phone. He left several minutes later to go pick it up.

Dinner was quiet, but not horribly so. Asteria was still worrying over what the Cullens would do. She couldn't find it in herself to feel bad about the entire thing though. She was convinced something was terribly off about the Cullens and the more distance between them, the better.

After dinner Asteria announced that she was going to turn in early. With the dark circles forming under her eyes and how quiet she had become, it wasn't hard to see she was feeling unwell.

"I think we may have sent you back to school too early," Charlie commented.

"Possibly," Asteria said while she formed an idea. "I think all I need is more rest, but if I go to bed now I won't have time to do my homework for tomorrow."

Charlie walked right into the trap, bless him. "Just focus on getting some sleep. I'll call you in sick tomorrow so you can spend the day catching up. Are you sure that won't make you fall more behind?"

Asteria shook her head, careful to keep her face from giving away her evil plot. "I don't have any tests coming up. I have a paper due Friday, but I have everything I need to finish it here tomorrow so it won't be late. Other than that it's just notes and some homework that I can have Rachael text to me."

"Didn't the Cullens bring you your homework yesterday," Charlie asked.

Asteria almost flinched, but didn't let herself. "Yeah, maybe I can ask them to bring it over again tomorrow."

"Alright, well go on up to bed," Charlie said. "Have a good night."

"You too," Asteria managed to sound as tired as she could while she trudged slowly up the steps.

It was extremely late when Asteria finally went to sleep. She had been studying the book of shadows more when she heard him start up the stairs and quickly hit the light and threw the covers over her. Charlie paused outside her door like he was going to check in, but seemed to think better of it and went to his room as he turned out the hall light. She waited at least ten minutes before turning her light back on.

Linette's passages in the book had come to an end as it was passed down to her daughter, Brigid. Brigid seemed to be a much more practical woman than her mother and Asteria became more relieved. Linette's happy, carefree attitude had nearly driven her insane. Brigid seemed very sensible, but seemed to have her doubts; her first entry noted that she hadn't seen any sign of a gift and was having trouble finding any talent.

While Brigid's entry was comforting, it wasn't very helpful. There was nothing new for Asteria to copy down so she settled for reading through Brigid's accounts of life in 1859. Asteria realized a little late that the Civil War would happen during Brigid's time with the book and wondered what impact it had on her family.

Brigid had several entries detailing her failed attempts at spells. Her mother and grandmother comforted her, saying the age of fifteen might be too early to find your gift. Asteria snorted at that one. Her own gift had shown early signs at fourteen, and by sixteen it was at full blast. Brigid should consider herself lucky, as far as Asteria was concerned.

Asteria yawned and took that as a sign to get some sleep. It's not like she couldn't continue it tomorrow, after all. Tucking the book back into its hiding place safely, she turned out the lights and hoped that for once she could get some rest.

Asteria was at the party again with the humid July air making it a little hard to breathe. Someone pushed into her from behind and she felt a drink splash on her as it fell to the ground. Voices were swallowed up by the sound of the bass thumping too loudly.

"Hey, pool party," a voice shouted in the distance. Suddenly kids were hopping the fence for the neighbor's yard.

Asteria was filled with a sense of dread and knew something bad was about to happen, but she couldn't remember. A hand tugged at her wrist and she looked over to see Ryan, her then boyfriend, smiling and saying something she couldn't make out. It felt wrong, though.

Asteria looked around the party for help and her eyes settled on the wooded creek that ran behind the house. A woman stood at the edge of the woods looking like she just stepped out of a historical film. She wore a dark green dress that reminded Asteria of a Civil War documentary and her brown hair had been pulled carefully up on top of her head.

The tugging on her wrist persisted, but this time Asteria was able to use a strength she didn't know she had. Breaking her wrist free, she walked easily towards the woman she was sure didn't belong there.

"Who are you," Asteria called out over the loud music.

"I am Brigid, my dear. I've come to warn you," the woman replied.

"I don't understand, what's happening," Asteria said. She was confused; this was her dream, she was sure of that much, but the woman hadn't been there before. Belatedly she remembered the newest addition to her dream. "We have to get away from here, these woods aren't safe. There's something in there."

"I know, child. That's why I'm here. You're on the cusp of something, and it's dangerous. Be careful. Your necklace will only protect you so much," Brigid said while backing into the trees.

"Wait, come back," Asteria called after her. Her feet felt rooted to the ground; she could only watch as the woman slowly disappeared in the shadows.

"Embrace your gift, it's the only thing that will save you," Brigid called out before she disappeared entirely.

A booming noise went off behind her and Asteria was finally able to move. She saw the shed go up in flames and heard the screaming. People started running in every direction.

Asteria bolted upright in bed shaking. This wasn't her usual nightmare; weirdly, she felt a calmness about it that went against her racing mind. The dream had taken on a new life and it was unsettling to say the least. Her tired mind chalked it up to reading Brigid's entries so late at night before bed. Still, it was at least an improvement from how her nightmare usually went so that was a plus.

Shaking her head, she saw it was ten in the morning. Considering she went to bed at four, she called it a successful night's sleep. Asteria wandered down the stairs and made some toast for breakfast. Sitting at the counter, she wondered over the newest addition to her dream.

Brigid had told her to embrace her gift. While it was probably some unsettling side affect of her lack of sleep, it struck a chord inside her that she knew had to do with her intuition. Like it or not, Asteria was going to have to suck it up and take a more active role in things.

After she ate, Asteria went back to her room and flipped through the spells she had already copied down in her journal. Taking Brigid's appearance as some sort of subconscious warning, she decided on a simple protection spell she had seen in Eveline's notes. Grabbing what she needed from her room, Asteria headed back down to the kitchen with a sense of purpose.

Putting on some music in the background, Asteria pulled her hair into a bun and set everything out on the counter. The spell called for a mixture of herbs to be put in the four corners of the house, which seemed simple enough. The second half of the spell was carving a strange rune into a candle and lighting it. As long as the candle was lit, no evil could enter the house.

Rolling her eyes at whatever 'evil' it was supposed to ward off, Asteria nonetheless began. She had to start somewhere, so it might as well be at the corner of delusion and insanity. The song "Angela" by the Lumineers came on in the background and she hummed along as she got to work.

Several of the herbs weren't available to her; she had exactly no clue what 'Angelica' was, but figured she would just wing it. What was it really going to hurt anyway? Grabbing a bowl, she mixed together basil, bay leaves, garlic powder, rosemary, and sea salt. Probably not the use the good people of McCormick Seasonings intended when they started selling spices, but hey; if it didn't work, she could always use it to season dinner anyway.

Asteria grabbed the white pillar candle that had sat gathering dust for over a year and took her pocket knife out. She was supposed to carve an intricate Celtic knot into the side of it; it was circular in shape with little intertwining loops that was supposed to represent a shield. She didn't exactly butcher it, so she called it a success.

Sighing, she guessed she couldn't really just dump a weird mixture of spices in the corner of the floor and call it over with. Asteria grabbed an old towel from the laundry room and cut it into small squares. She threw a little of the mixture into them and then tied them tightly with some spare yarn. She supposed that was as good as it was going to get.

One got thrown behind the washer, and another in the closet downstairs. The downstairs bathroom had one placed behind the toilet, but the last corner was an issue. The living room didn't really have anything in the corner for it to hide behind, and Asteria really didn't want Charlie to find it. She ended up dragging the little end table to the other side of the front door and hoped Charlie wouldn't ask too many questions about it. Duct taping the little package underneath the top of the table, she figured even if he moved it chances are he wouldn't find it.

Asteria cleaned up her mess in the kitchen and took the candle upstairs. Hopefully where the candle was when it burned didn't matter. Shaking her head, Asteria realized none of it really mattered. Whatever 'evil' it was going to guard against wasn't really an issue considering she didn't think there was some supernatural entity out to get her.

Lying on her bed, Asteria decided to let the candle burn for a bit and read more of Brigid's entries. Abruptly, she wished she hadn't. Brigid started off by saying that her mother had gone to a nearby meadow in the morning to collect strawberries and different wildflowers necessary for her spell work. Her mother hadn't returned home by sundown, and now her father and several men from town had gone to look for her. Her grandmother, Eveline, was staying with Linette while the men went searching. Eveline tried her best to appear calm, but it was clear to Brigid that she knew something was wrong.

The next entry was more than a week later and Brigid's usually careful handwriting was partially smeared in some sections. They had finally found Linette's body after days of searching. It seemed that she had been mauled by a bear and in horrible condition. Brigid's father refused to let her see the body. Brigid's grief was a tangible entity in her entry and it filled Asteria with her own grief. Linette hadn't been her favorite account to read, but she hated to see her come to this.

Brigid's teaching seemed to be taken over by Eveline, who had lived just down the road and would often stay with Brigid's family to help through their grieving process. It was a good thing, because Brigid's grief had awakened a powerful gift inside of her.

I must be careful, grandmother says. My gift is wild and ruled by my emotions which have been untrustworthy of late, Brigid's handwriting spread across the page. If I am not careful, bursts of flames appear around me. It is deeply troubling. This morning I was frustrated with the goat and nearly set the barn ablaze. I was only just able to tamp the flames out. I fear this new curse and what it will mean for me.

Asteria swallowed hard and set the book down. She hadn't realized how bad her hands were shaking. If Brigid was capable of so much, who knows how powerful a witch could really be. She felt a deep empathy for Brigid; it was so hard to lose a parent and she saw so much similarity between them. Maybe that's why Brigid had been a part of her dream last night.

Brigid went on with her account of her growing powers even as her father was seeking out eligible men for her to marry. Her family was fairly well off it seemed and she was starting to come of age. Brigid wrote how nervous she was, and as she put it "what if a particularly irksome suitor causes me to set their trousers ablaze?" As bad as Asteria had it, at least she never had to deal with that particular problem.

A knock at the door made Asteria stop what she was doing. The clock read three thirty in the afternoon. Too soon for Charlie to be home, but school would have let out not too long ago. She didn't need any intuition to figure out it was probably the Cullens. The doorbell rang through the house next.

If she went to answer the door, she'd have to talk to them, and to be honest: Asteria was still feeling far too petty about yesterday's events. She had no clue how things had escalated so much but knew she didn't care to talk about it. Given how she was feeling about it still it probably wasn't the best idea to answer the door anyway.

Sneaking over to the bathroom, she looked out the window through the lace curtain and saw the silver Volvo sitting in the driveway. At least her suspicion was right. Asteria wondered which Cullen had been brave enough to come over and managed to see Alice and Jasper standing at the door before Jasper happened to look up at the window.

Asteria pulled away but was sure that somehow even through the thick lace Jasper had seen her. Oh well, they already knew she was home. At least now they knew she didn't want to talk to them too. It took a few minutes and one more ring of the doorbell, but she eventually heard the Volvo pull out of the driveway.

She waited a bit before she blew out the candle and went back downstairs. Asteria thought she saw something by the front door and opened it to find today's homework. Rolling her eyes, she picked up the folder and threw it into the neighbor's yard where it fell into the bush before she shut the door.

Asteria took extra time making a nice dinner. If anything, Charlie deserved a good meal for putting up with Asteria's mood lately, and for letting her stay home so much that week. Loaded mashed potatoes, green beans, and steak was waiting for Charlie when he came home.

"Wow kiddo, something smells good," Charlie said as he came in the door. "It looks like someone dropped off your homework too. You must have been sleeping."

Asteria froze. "What do you mean, someone dropped it off?"

"I found this folder sitting on the front step when I walked up," Charlie said as he sat down at the table.

"Weird," Asteria said while looking at it suspiciously. "I didn't see it there." She flipped through the folder and found several of the pages creased and even found dirt smudged on one; it was proof of their launch through the air, but someone had collected them and put them neatly back in the folder.

Dinner became a subdued event while Asteria tried to figure out what happened with her homework. Maybe the neighbor had found it and put it back nicely on the doorstep. Either way, it was troubling. Charlie insisted on doing the dishes since Asteria had made such a nice meal while still feeling 'under the weather' so Asteria went ahead upstairs. She took the folder with her so Charlie wouldn't get suspicious before dumping it into the wastebasket next to her bed.

The sun was setting outside and Asteria took one look out of the window before lighting her candle again. Ridiculous superstition or not it did seem to settle her nerves. Maybe it would keep the White Blur away.

Asteria opened her hiding place again and grabbed the book of shadows, but paused when she saw the bottle of whiskey. Technically she didn't owe anything to the Cullens at this point, and the bottle looked so tempting after the cluster of insanity she was dealing with.

Shaking her head, Asteria decided to focus on Brigid's story. She felt like she owed it to the other girl to read through what she had to say. Brigid was currently ending the fall and preparing for a harsh winter that year. Eveline stayed a constant present in the young girl's life and she thought the world of her grandmother.

Eveline was teaching Brigid to control her power better and she was now able to subdue the emotions that caused it to flare up. Brigid could now start a fire on purpose more often than not, and was looking forward to this power as it started to turn colder outside. Having the ability to create fire would be nice when the snow piled up outside.

It was nearly midnight before Asteria reached a decent stopping point. She got ready for bed in a hurry. Since she didn't put on any makeup washing her face was easy, and after brushing her teeth she climbed into bed. After switching off her bedside lamp she realized the candle was still burning in the corner.

Feeling far too comfortable, Asteria didn't have the willpower to get up to blow it out. Instead she let the flame flicker safely as the candle sat on its metal dish and fell into a deep sleep. For once, the nightmare couldn't get to her.