Page 2 of Witch's Rite
With an impish grin, he folded them against his back again and dropped on top of me. An explosion of love and warmth spread from my chest as he pulled me into a tight embrace and peppered my face with kisses.
"I'm not damned in the slightest, even if I am a demon now." He shifted to look at me with his crystal blue gaze. "Because of you, my love, I am truly blessed."
1
DEJA
"Focus, Deja."
My grandmother's voice carried through me like a soothing breeze as I let out a deep breath, trying to clear my mind.
"Picture it in your mind and then say the words."
I concentrated hard on the image behind my eyelids, memorizing every small detail. I saw myself rooted to the ground like a tree, my arms extended like branches and whiplike vines growing from my fingertips.
As I focused, energy held me in place like an anchor while traveling up from the ground through my feet at the same time. It traveled through my veins like a river of heat and pure power.
The image in my mind nearly disappeared as the earth's magic surged through me but I held on, letting it coil up and build before I released it.
"Nothing gained, nothing lost," I said in a clear, commanding voice. "Life and death of equal cost. Here to grow, here to bleed. Leave this world and sow your seed."
My eyes shot open just as the magic exploded like gunshots from my fingertips, the force shooting back and making me stumble a few steps.
"It worked!" I shrieked triumphantly.
Long, green tendrils of magic sparkled like jade in the late afternoon sun as they wrapped around my target, a vase sitting on a coffee table across the room.
"Try to move it. Be gentle." My grandmother, Diana, contained her excitement better than me, but I still heard the pride in her voice.
I slowly waved my left hand and to my delight, the magic carried the vase in the exact direction I gestured. I rotated my wrist and the vase turned upside down in mid-air, a few drops of water spilling out.
"Try bringing it toward you," she suggested.
I moved my hands as if pulling on an invisible rope until the smoky green tendril held the vase directly in front of my chest.
"Well done, Deja," she praised. "You've truly improved by leaps and bounds."
"Thanks, Gran," I said as I directed the magic to return the vase to the coffee table. "You said I could use this spell on people too?"
"Yes, as long as you have enough magic manifested you can pick up and move mountains if you want to. But that takes a lifetime of practice," she chuckled before turning serious again. "This spell is ideal for restraining and subduing people without injury, if you ever find yourself in such a situation." She raised an eyebrow pointedly.
"Right," I nodded, chewing my lip. The last time I used magic on someone, I broke a guy's leg. To be fair, he was about to rape a girl so it wasn't like he deserved better. But at the time, I had just found out I was a witch and had zero training on how to channel my power. If I had somehow missed him and hit someone else, I'd have a much bigger problem on my hands.
"I wish your mother could see you now," Diana beamed as she lowered herself onto the couch, her stark white hair illuminating her face like a halo. "She was so excited to teach you the craft of our people."
I settled into the armchair across from her, picking up my teacup which had gone cold.
"Will you tell me about her?" I asked after some hesitation.
A week ago, Diana quite literally appeared at my front door and told me a story that turned my life upside down. I had been adopted as a newborn to a deeply conservative religious couple. Growing up, I never felt like I truly belonged in my adoptive parents' world. Only after meeting Diana, my biological grandmother last week, did I learn that my birth mother was a witch and therefore, so was I.
My birth mother died soon after I was born under mysterious circumstances, although Diana was convinced that my deeply religious father made a deal with a demon to have her killed in order to protect his own reputation.
"She was always so happy," Diana began softly, smiling to herself. "So full of light. Deirdre saw the good in everyone and the upside in every bad situation. She was kind and gentle to every living creature, even ants that got into our kitchen. I know she would have been an excellent mother to you."
A wave of sadness filled me at the thought of such a beautiful person being taken away from this world. Someone I never got the chance to know and learn from. It felt wholly unfair that such a huge part of myself was kept hidden from me for so many years.
My adoptive parents, while they weren't cruel, believed my powers were a source of evil and did all they could to stifle my abilities with prayer and Bible study. In their own minds, they probably believed they were genuinely doing the right thing.
