Page 23 of When Storms Awaken

“What’s stupid about it? I figured you would laugh at us and call us crazy.” I shrugged.

“It is crazy, but not for the reason you’re thinking. Spells are dangerous, you have no idea what you are doing.” He ran a hand through his silky blond hair, which somehow still looked perfect despite the fight that had gone down outside.

“So…you believe in spells? In magic?” I asked.

“We have a lot more to discuss than I thought, it seems,” he declared, running a hand down his face. “I need a drink.”

“Let’s jump right in, shall we? Because you obviously know a hell of a lot more than we do,” Tess added.

“That’s right,” I tacked on, nodding my head.

“Well. Two against one.” Nik smirked. “My favorite.”

“Ew…” I said at the same time Tess said, “Gross.”

“Let’s start with why you two had theinsaneidea to do this”—he pointed at the charred feather that still rest on the carpet—“and then we will get into my half of things. Scouts honor.”

“Fine,” I agreed. “Tess, would you like to do the honors?”

“Hell no, this is your deal,” she replied. I shot her a cold glare that had her squirming in her seat. “But I have your back, girl,” she tacked on.

“Gee, thanks for the support.” I rolled my eyes, stopping to gather my thoughts. Where should I start? “When I was at school earlier today, I was having a hard time opening my locker, and I felt this energy and frustration building inside of me. I said ‘open’ to the locker and, well, it…did,” I finished. Nik gestured for me to continue.

“I tried it again, to make sure it wasn’t a fluke,” I added.

“You’re leaving out a big part of this story,” Tess said, polishing her nails off on her shirt. “Like…big.”

“Thank you for the commentary, Ms. Fowler,” I deadpanned with a glare. “That’s why I said you should tell it.”

“What are you leaving out?” Nik asked, genuine curiosity in his voice.

“Earlier this week I had an…incident,” I started hesitantly. “I drove home from school and felt like I was having a panic attack. I came into the house, and I felt this pressure on my chest, I couldn’t breathe. It built and built until I screamed and it sort of…exploded out of me.” I could see a muscle tick in Nik’s jaw as he leaned forwards, clasping his hands together as he rested his elbows on his knees.

“I shattered the glass slider and all the lights in this room, hence the make-shift door.” I indicated the back wall where my mom must have called a handy-man to install a mis-matched slider to keep the room closed off until we could order a new one. “And a fire started in the fireplace that I could haveswornwas not there when I walked in.”

I sat back and let out a deep breath, relieved to have told someone else what was happening with me, besides Tess.

“Oh, and it started thundering and lightning, there was this huge storm off in the distance,” I finished. “Strange for winter.”

Nik remained silent, his electric blue eyes never leaving mine. Did he know what was going on with me? Did he have answers to all the questions I’d had since he came to town?

“And your wolf buddies out there,” Tess started, pointing at the front door, “we saw one of them on Sunday. At Diana’s mountain landing that she likes to visit for alone time.”

“You make me sound so…weird,” I interjected.

“Sorry babe, it is what it is,” Tess offered with a shrug.

“That wasn’t one of my ‘wolf buddies’ that you saw on Sunday,” Nik replied with air quotes.

“Then who was it?” I asked, “because it was a giant black wolf that looked exactly like the ones we saw outside. It was huge, with piercing blue eyes.”

Nik paused, rubbing his chin, thinking about how he wanted to answer. His eyes met mine with an almost sad expression in them, and he let out a sigh as if he knew this moment was inevitable.

“It wasn’t one of those other wolves that you saw on the mountain landing. It was me.” A heavy silence hung between us as none of us said anything for a long moment. Nik’s eyes held mine.

“Sorry…one more time for those of us in the back…” Tess started, raising her hand up in question as if she were in class. She shot me an unbelieving glance.

“That wolf that you saw in the clearing at the mountaintop. That was me.”

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