"Time shifting
We discover the entry
To other planes...Our minds bend
And our fingers fall
Entwined, we dream
I know..."
21. Rosemary
We trudged down a path behind the large barn-like clubhouse until we hit a spot with a circle of large rocks, big enough to sit on. Cecily gestured for both of us to do just that, so we squished together on one rock.
"You cursed me out yesterday," Cecily began.
Really? Nice opener. "Well, no offense but I had good reason."
She waved her hand flippantly. "Bygones," she said. "I know you're probably confused about the things that have been happening to you. I think I can help a little."
"How?" I asked skeptically.
"By sharing the little bit of information I have. Elizabeth - "
"Liz," I interrupted.
"Liz. You've realized by now that you're special. You've tapped into something that many people have died in the pursuit of: Power. You have an immense amount of it. Your coming has been foretold for a thousand years."
"My coming," I giggled, and Ana couldn't help but to snicker along with me.
"Yes, your coming. Your life, your deaths, your magic. You came back much more than human. You are a master of both life and death."
I didn't laugh this time. Her words made me both excited and incredibly terrified.
She reached down to the pitch-black ground and raised her arm, letting a snake coil around her arm. "The serpents come to you," she breathed. She kissed the snake on its head and set it back down so it could slither over to me. "You are currently the most powerful woman living on this planet. But with great power..."
"Thanks, Uncle Ben. So I'm special and all that, but what's the bottom line here? Do I have some kind of awesome destiny to fulfill?"
"I don't know," she said.
I was quiet for a full minute. "What do you mean, you don't know?"
"All that the prophecies say is that you will ascend to the highest position of power and bring about the revolution. Nothing as to how or why or who this revolution is against, though I'm willing to bet it's the Dark Ones."
"Don't you think you should give them a name that's a little more lame? Like, you could name them The Cockheads, or The Martin Shkrelis. Dark Ones sounds too cool."
Ana giggled quietly beside me. "The Cockheads," she whispered.
"So, these fuckers have been around my home. How can I protect everyone from them?"
"You can easily ward your home from attack, like a repellent of sorts. But I would go a step further and cast a protection spell on everyone close to you. It's very likely they've seen the people you live with and that they'll try something when someone isn't within the protection of your home." She snapped her fingers and in her hand appeared a large book. She read silently from two separate pages, and then suddenly I could hear her voice inside of my own head.
"How am I supposed to remember all of this?"
"You will. Trust me." She stood up and snapped her book shut. "I have to go back in."
"Wait." I stood up, too. "Those evil witches have come and talked to me twice. Why haven't any of you?"
"We tried," she said. "Lily found you in the library, but that was the closest we've gotten and you seemed hostile. Lurking around your house would have pushed you from being open to us at all if we were discovered. And we couldn't take that kind of chance."
I knew without asking that Lily was the blonde; no way was that dark haired chick on the good side. "What is it that you all want from me?"
She fixed her pale green eyes on me. "We want you as an ally. At the very least, we want you to not join the Dark Ones, because if you do... our end is imminent."
"You think I'm a bad guy?" I crossed my arms and kind of shrugged. It really made sense if you thought about it - I was more a villain type than a hero.
"You're a person, or were for the majority of your life. Being bad can be easier than being good." She was about to walk past me when I stopped her, my eyes rooting her in place.
"I have another question. I was told that Seth... that wolves and witches are natural enemies." I let it hang there, because we all understand what the actual question was.
"Your wolf is your single biggest ally. He will protect you." She leaned a little closer to me and spoke softly. "Hex bags are a bitch. I would keep him close until the threat lowers."
"Any other pertinent wisdom you should send my way? Because honestly, that wasn't much."
A smile curved her lips. "All in good time, dear."
Vague. As. Fuck.
The ride home was much better than the ride out. We jammed and sang and had a good time. There was still no word from Seth or Josh, though we tried to contact them both; we just had to give them some time. Neither Ana or I had put a ton of thought into how this situation would have made them feel because we were both hung up on our own fears and insecurities. Looking at it now, they were both probably horrified at being anything less than their loving selves to us, and also terrified of hurting us.
I could definitely relate on the lack of control issue.
When we got back to our silent, empty home, we both felt the sting of disappointment that they weren't here waiting on us. We tried texting them again, then calling and still nothing. Ana decided the best course of action for her was to drink until she fell asleep, but I couldn't stomach the idea of drinking again after last night. The alcohol was still sitting heavily inside of my belly.
It was around midnight when I decided it was time to go ahead with the protection spell for our house. The rest would have to wait until the guys were present. Ana was pretty hammered and decided she wanted to - and I quote - play witchy woman for the evening, so we turned the lights out and I lit a few candles with my mind, sat down together in the floor and held hands.
"Invocamus militum virtute tueri. Propagare uidemini, et habitantes in ea patria clipeum. Ab iniuria tueri ab influentia obscurissimi sunt. hisce verbis fiat." The spell flowed smoothly from my lips and upon finish, a greenish glow arose from our two person circle and encapsulated our home.
"Cool!" Ana squealed.
"Very," I said in return. There was something niggling my insides now, something I couldn't place or control. I was about to stand up when instead, I gripped her hands hard and locked eyes with her. I could feel my body shaking, could see the frightened look on Ana's face, but I couldn't stop until finally, the fire erupted from my hands and carried over to her.
We dropped hands and the flame disappeared. She stared at her palms, turning them over as her breath quickened. "What the hell was that?! What did you do to me?"
"I don't know," I answered honestly. "It was... I don't know, it was an accident."
She was on the verge of tears. "You put it in me, Liz! You put magic in me!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, I just..."
She looked up at me frowning. "I wouldn't have cared if you had asked me first."
"Ana, I swear I didn't know what I was doing. I'm sorry." I couldn't believe that I'd done that to her. If it was just giving her power, I wouldn't feel guilty... but I felt like I'd just dragged her into a war that neither of us had been aware of before, and neither of us were the least bit prepared to fight or to win.
She sniffed. "S'okay." Then she held her hand out and squinted her eyes, slowly becoming more frustrated by the lack of anything happening.
"Um, you may want to watch it with that. Every time I try too hard, the weather gets crazy and occasionally things break."
She half smiled at me. "Can you teach me?"
I smirked. "That will have to be a process for us both. I still have zero idea what I'm doing." It was true, but as I said the words a realization hit me. I did have an understanding, and that was that I could do almost anything I wanted in some way or another. The problem was that I didn't yet understand the repercussions of my magic, and just that the amount of power I could feel roaring inside of me was absolutely frightening.
I waved my arm and in one vast swoop, the candles went out, the light turned on, and the thunder rumbled outside.
Ana laughed. "Well, if we're not going to do that..." she reached down into her bra and pulled out a baggy of weed. "Got a blunt wrap? Papers?"
We rented a movie, blazed down and chilled for a while. We eventually paused the movie and brought a ton of random snacks to my room, then started playing music and forgot about the movie completely. She convinced me to drink some with her and for some reason, it hit me pretty hard. We changed into our pajamas and shared my bed with the various foods as we talked ourselves right to sleep.
It was pitch black in my room when something jolted me awake. My eyes adjusted enough to notice Ana being lifted from just beside of me, and my first reaction was panic. It took about point two seconds for me to look up far enough to see that it was Josh cradling her sleeping form, and Seth was just behind him.
I swung my legs over the bed, took two steps and latched myself onto him, still drunkish and now crying. He gripped me to him, one hand on my back and the other in my hair, holding me like he never wanted to let go. We stayed like that for an eternity, until he moved one arm lower and bent enough to swing me up into his arms, and then he carried me back to the bed.
"I'm sorry, Elizabeth."
I let one hand glide up his face, then yanked his hair gently. "Don't leave me again, okay?"
"Never," he promised, pulling my hand down to kiss the back of it.
I kissed him and it was like gasping a lungful of air after too long underwater. My body acted on it's own; fingers weaving into his hair, clawing at his back, legs tangling around his, chest heaving against his strong body. I was just so hungry for him and I couldn't at all control it.
He was hesitant, but slowly melting into me. He ground his middle against me once and growled deeply, his big hand tightening on my hip just to the edge of pain. "Fuck, baby. You sure about this?"
I got up onto my knees and pulled my clothes off quickly. I climbed on top and straddled him, then leaned down to kiss him. "I'm always sure about this," I whispered against his lips as my hands pulled the latch on his belt free.
He put a hand around my back to steady me as he sat up slowly, pulling off his shirt. My hands and mouth were connecting to his flesh as he pulled his legs in; now we were both on our knees, face to face. Every moan, every breath was a silent ode to the other: I want you. I love you. I need you. Don't ever stop touching me.
I gasped when he slid into me and he shuddered, breathing my name. His lips covered mine, arms holding me up and easing my body back and forth, building and building into a crescendo of pleasured and frenzied cries of lust.
When I finally opened my eyes, the candles were lit again.