Page 37 of The Rising Dark
Michelle repressed the urge to step backwards as the creepy child approached her.She held out her hand again, expecting some other thing to be placed on it.Instead, the boy grasped her right hand in his, his black eyes boring into hers.Thoughts flitted through her mind: the sound of drawers opening and closing, nimble little fingers leafing through pages, the searching beam of a lighthouse converging, converging.
The thin layer of sweat on Balor’s warm, small hand clung to hers.A rustling of leaves, snatches of long-lost voices.Then Balor, without warning, cast her hand away from his.His unnerving eyes slid away from her, as if she were of no more interest to him than a speck of mud.He stepped back to his fellow witches, and Michelle stopped herself from wiping her hand on her jeans.It was ridiculous, but somehow it now feltunclean.
The witches didn’t speak to each other to compare notes or impressions.They didn’t need to, apparently.
“The trials have concluded,” Arran said.
“And?”Whatever these tests had been, Michelle was pretty sure she had failed.There had been no majestic surge of amazing power, or latent trickery that she could suddenly access.She had no idea what that would look or feel like.All she knew was that she felt just like she always had, except perhaps some additional embarrassment over standing in the middle of a clearing with a couple of vampires and triad of witches.
Balor answered, his voice eerily high yet resonant.It was as if every word had an echo that chased his speech.“Your magic is infinitesimal.It is a spark without a flame, a minute flicker of desperation.”
“Does this mean I have to come with you?”Michelle didn’t voice her second question:does this mean I’m a witch?
Althea sneered.Arran, only barely more political, said, “No.It would not be worthwhile to train you.Perhaps the flame could have been ignited in you when you were still malleable and young.It will now stay dormant.”
Barely a witch then.Perhaps not even a witch at all.
It was an incredible relief.While Michelle likedPractical Magicas much as the next person, she couldn’t imagine going withthem.She briefly imagined having to live with the creepy child, his unrelentingly black eyes following her throughout her day.It was the stuff of nightmares.“Right.Well.Thank you for your time.”The platitude came out rather limply, but she didn’t know what else to say.The witches, now that the main event was over, seemed to have lost any interest in her.Arran turned to Vesta.
“Regarding our shared enemies.We are closing in on the warlock.Once they are caught, we will share any further information we can glean from him with the Sisterhood to seek out the rogue they are in communication with.”
Vesta inclined her head.She made it look graceful and natural.“The Sisterhood thanks the Council for their generous openness regarding this issue.We look forward to a return to normality and our accustomed peace and prosperity.”
“Indeed.”Arran nodded to Vesta and Lavinia and, without any further glance to Michelle, the three witches turned, walking straight into the solid tree trunk they had stood in front of.Michelle blinked twice, not trusting her eyes.As they stepped into it, the bark somehow became translucent, as if made from the thinnest of weaves, and the witches were swallowed up into its depths.Michelle had seen some weird things over these last couple of weeks—hell, she had evendonesome strange things, like offering her blood to a vampire—but this took the cake.
Lavinia shook her head.“Told you.Damn witches.”
“Not here,” Vesta warned.With a graceful gesture of one arm, she broke the hold that this show of the impossible had cast on Michelle and guided them out of the clearing.Walking back to the car, Michelle fell into step beside Lavinia.“The witches freak me out.”
“They unsettle me too.Many of us think they do so on purpose.”
Michelle shivered, and not because of the grey drizzle steadily drifting from the clouds.“I’m glad I don’t have to go with them.”
Lavinia glanced down at her, her green eyes darkened by the leaden sky.“Me too.”
Chapter Twenty
Michelle stretched across the sofa in the TV room.The movement made the cushion underneath Lavinia shift and caused a lance of pain to stab through her hip.The doctor hadn’t been lying when he said it would take some time to recover.She could walk, but any kind of high-risk situation was out of the question.
The Sisterhood was on high alert since the nest had been found so near their base.Rogues were reckless, and they occasionally lived together in small family groups caught in some kind of shared blood rage, but the Sisters had never seen a group so large in such a remote area.Nor had there been any reports of humans suffering mysterious deaths, one of the signs that rogues might be hunting in a region.Somehow, they had not only hidden themselves, but had also managed to feed covertly.Lavinia couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something different about these rogues.Her Sisters were out there right now, scouring the surrounding hills for information on what the hell was going on.
Instead of being there with them, Lavinia had been benched over the last week, forced to take a break while the skin of her scalp knitted back together and the bruising in her hip healed.Normally, she would have been impatient to go back out there.Realistically, she was still somewhat restless at the thought of not backing up her Sisters.But the enforced time off also meant spending time with Michelle, which was an absolute pleasure.
“I can’t help but feel somewhat rejected,” Michelle said.She leaned over Lavinia to grab another strawberry from the plate on the coffee table.Lavinia could have handed her the plate, of course, but Michelle seemed content with the arrangement, and so was she.They had chosen to sit in the TV room, which was smaller and cosier than the downstairs rooms.Few of the other Sisters ever went here, giving them a sense of privacy that was often lacking in the Sisterhood’s headquarters.
“Rejected?”
“The witches.Them telling me I’m such a terrible witch that I might as well not be one at all.”
“Would you want to be one?”It had been a weight off Lavinia’s shoulders when the witches dismissed Michelle.Lavinia hadn’t wanted to consider the possibility that Michelle might be one of them.Her perspective on the insurmountable difference between human and vampire had slowly been shifting.The chasm between vampire and witch, however, still prevailed.If she had indeed been one, Michelle would have been forced to be taken into the fold of the Witch Council, and they would have been drawn into different directions by their different allegiances.
At least now Lavinia could hold onto the small and distant hope that somehow Michelle might not have to be completely lost to her after all of this was over.Perhaps they would find a way for their paths to cross, sometimes.For now, though, she would enjoy every moment with her that she could find.
“Not really.I mean, I don’t know.It really depends on what witches can do, right?Would I be able to magic away illnesses?That would come in very handy at my job.”
“I think they probably get sick like everyone else,” Lavinia said.“Vampires do, too.”
Michelle sighed.“Probably.”
