Page 26 of Witch's Dawn
The last thing we tried was power manifestation, which was drawing on the power within you and around you until it became visible in your hands. You could direct it somewhere and fire it off like a weapon, or use it to aid in more complexspells.
Or as my grandmother showed me, you could draw messages or sigils in the air with it. She demonstrated by holding her hands open until two glowing balls of fire hovered inches above her palms. Then like a finger painting, she smeared the orange, glowy magic in the air into the shape of aheart.
When I tried it, my power manifested into green orbs about the size of golfballs that sparked with electric current. I drew our names in the air with it, remembering the mysterious sigil that Sal drew before my eyes last night. It was simple enough to recreate but I didn't dare, at the risk of invoking some crazy demonmagic.
"Well done today, dear." Diana patted my cheek affectionately. "It's like working any muscle. You have to keep practicing but also give yourself time torest."
"Rest sounds great," I groaned while rubbing my temples. Whipping up an herbal migraine salve would've sounded great if my head didn't hurt just thinking aboutit.
"Poor dear. I'll give you the day off tomorrow," Diana chuckled as she gathered up her spellbooks and returned them to hersatchel.
I wrung my hands as I watched her prepare to leave. If I really wanted to know about witch and demon business, there was no better time thannow.
"Grandma... I wanted to ask you about something else," I sputteredhesitantly.
"Yes?" She eyed mecuriously.
"I guess, um." I rubbed my sore temples again. "What's the deal withdemons?"
In the blink of an eye, she was intimidatingly close, towering over me with eyes wide inconcern.
"What do you know about demons?" she demanded. "Have any shown themselves toyou?"
"Um, yeah," I admitted. "I found the Triple Moon bar last night and ran into a couplethere."
"Howmany?"
"Three." I swallowed nervously. "We just had some drinks and they were flirting. That's all that happened but everyone seemed... weird aroundthem."
Diana's face turned into a twisted scowl as she backed away from me and began pacing the tea shopnervously.
"Do you know what they wanted?" she asked, scrubbing a hand over her face and not looking at me as if trying to figure out some complexpuzzle.
"Uh, no. I don't think so," I answered, curious about her reaction. "We just chit-chatted and had somedrinks."
"Demons don't interact with our kind unless they want something." She raised her eyes to me as she continued pacing. "They definitely want something fromyou."
"Like what?" I cried, my voice going shrill. "What would they want fromme?"
Diana huffed out a heavy sigh as she finally stopped pacing, looking at me with a graveexpression.
"I didn't want to tell you this until later," she said. "But demon auras are very distinct. You can spot a demon when their aura is almost impossibly dark, like a blackhole."
"Okay, theirs fit those profiles," I said, not entirelyfollowing.
Diana's lipstightened.
"Deja, your aura has had bits and pieces of that kind of darkness since the moment you wereborn."
The whole room turned to ice and my heart nearly felt like itstopped.
"What does that mean?" I asked, barely above awhisper.
"I fear your birth father consulted a demon to kill your mother," she said just as quietly, her eyes watering. "Instead of letting it kill you, you somehow absorbed that power in the womb. I can't imagine another reason why your aura would be so dark, Deja. And you may have some demon abilities aswell."
We stood across from each other in heavy silence as the information sank in. Still, I couldn't understandit.
"So what would they want from me?" Iasked.
