Embrace (13 page)

Kaylee flung the door open and threw her arms around his neck. “Thanks for getting me out of that place.”

Josh smiled the first real smile I’d seen from him in days. “Don’t mention it.”

“What should I do with her pajamas?” I asked.

“Give them to me.” Isaac held out his hand. “I want to burn them. She doesn’t need anything to remind her of the last few days.” Isaac took the pajamas and disappeared back up the stairs. I wondered if he was actually going to burn them.

Kaylee’s eyes darted around the room, and for a moment I thought she saw her demons.

“Where are we?” she asked, her voice soft.

“Isaac’s house,” Josh said. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired and hungry.”

Josh took the burgers out of the fast food bag and handed one to Kaylee and one to me. We sat on the floor to eat, the bag torn open so that we could share the fries.

“Did you save me one?” Isaac asked when he rejoined us.

Josh handed him a burger.

Kaylee was halfway through hers before she said anything else. “They’ll come for me. They’ll find me and then they’ll punish me.” She bit her bottom lip nervously.

Please, don’t let us be too late
. The fact that she hadn’t begun to scream hysterically since Josh had crushed the onyx charm, however, gave me hope.

“Kaylee, you have to listen to me.” I put down my food and took her hands. “Nothing is coming for you. It was all a hallucination. What you saw at school. What you saw at the hospital. None of it was real.”

“But the spiders in the classroom, they crawled out of my backpack. Hundreds of them were coming after me.”

I shook my head and gripped her hands tighter, willing her to believe me. “There were no spiders.”

Kaylee looked at Josh.

“Nothing was there,” he confirmed.

Kaylee’s brow furrowed. “And you didn’t see those people at the hospital? The ones with red eyes and the markings on their skin?”

Josh shook his head. “They weren’t real.”

“How do you know?” Kaylee asked, her whole body trembling. “They spoke to me. They said they’d find me no matter where I went.”

Kaylee looked around the room. It was like we’d lost her, like she’d never be the same person.

“Nothing can get to you down here, not with my wards in place,” Isaac said.

“Your what?” she asked.

Isaac started at the beginning and explained about his powers, about Josh’s and mine too. He even produced blue flames in the palm of his hand to show her. He then explained how he had different wards guarding his room. How no one who intended to harm us would be able to come down the stairs. How outside forces wouldn’t be able to feel our magic.

“You haven’t seen any spiders or demons since I crushed that necklace, have you?” Josh asked.

Kaylee shook her head.

“That necklace was cursed,” he said. “As long as you had it on, it controlled your thoughts. It made you see those things.” Josh placed a hand under Kaylee’s chin. His powers rippled through the air.

Kaylee touched her arms. “Are you doing that? It feels like being wrapped in silk.”

Josh grinned. “That’s me.” He removed the metal cross from around his neck.

“Another necklace?” I asked skeptically.

“I’ve put some of my magic into this one.” Josh put the necklace on Kaylee. “As long as you’re wearing it, no one will be able to put you under another spell.”

Kaylee ran her thumb over the cross. “Thanks.”

“Don’t take it off,” Isaac instructed. “There’s too much power in Gloucester. If the person who put the curse on the onyx necklace realizes Josh has powers, that we all have powers, and that we interfered with their spell, they may come after you again.”

“Why didn’t the necklace affect me?” I asked. “I’d worn it too.”

“The curse could have needed to be triggered,” Josh offered.

“Or your powers provided a level of protection,” Isaac said. “Like the difference between a table made out of pine and one out of oak. The oak is naturally stronger. Had you worn the necklace longer, though, I’m sure it would have gotten to you too.”

I couldn’t help realizing Kaylee was the weakest person in our group. She couldn’t protect herself from outside forces. Not that I knew how to protect myself either yet. But I had powers in me. I could learn. I would be able to protect myself. I could even do harm to anyone who tried to hurt my friends or family.

Just knowing this warmed my blood. It filled me with the sort of anxious energy I got before parties or festivals. I felt as if I could transfer my energy into a tangible form. Without really thinking, I held the palm of my hand up in front of me. The air above it sizzled and hissed. My powers moved down my arm to my fingertips like millions of army ants marching away from their colony. The taste of copper filled my mouth. Then, almost as quickly as this wonderfully delectable feeling came, everything stopped, and a sharp sting burned my outstretched hand.

Isaac—eyes narrowed and dark—frowned at me. His expression scared me, and I looked away.

“That wasn’t nice,” I told him. My fingers curled into a fist trying to block the pain.

“That wasn’t me,” he replied. “That was your powers yielding to the promise you made.”

Damn, my hand stung. Imagine holding your palm over a lighter, and when you can’t stand the heat anymore, you leave it there. Geesh! A little warning about the consequences of breaking my promise would have been nice. I’d just figured it meant I shouldn’t do spells, not that I wouldn’t be able to. A,
Hey, magic will be painful if you try to use your powers before I show you how,
would have been nice. And it was true: if he had told me even accidental spells wouldn’t work but would leave a wicked sting, I might not have made the promise.

Give me a break; I couldn’t control my emotions one hundred percent of the time, let alone the powers I unleashed.

Sorry, I should say the powers I
embraced
.

What was more annoying than my throbbing hand was that Isaac seemed to be able to read my mind.

“It only stings because you used your anger to fuel the spell,” he said.

“I—” I was going to say,
I did not
, but Isaac fixed me with a shrewd glare—one eyebrow raised. “I didn’t do it on purpose,” I snarled instead.

“Control,” Isaac said. “You must be in command of your thoughts when you cast.”

“He’s big on that.” Josh handed me a bottle of water. Its coolness felt good against my skin. “But I know how you feel.”

“Thanks.”

Kaylee couldn’t stop looking around us. Yet no screaming at least meant she didn’t see her demons, the spiders, or maybe something worse. “Why me? What did I do for someone to—” She didn’t seem able to say the word
curse
.

“They weren’t after you,” I mumbled.

To think I’d almost ruined my best friend’s life. Not that I’d known anything about the powers before this morning or that I had done it intentionally, but I should have told Mark no when he gave me the necklace. What had I been thinking? Then again, I never would have guessed Mark could be so cruel. So evil. It wasn’t like we’d gone out and I’d dumped him for Isaac. There never was a Mark and me.

Never.

“There was no way Mark could have known I’d give Kaylee the necklace.” I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around my shins. “That curse was meant for me.”

“Mark has powers?” Kaylee asked. “He’s so, I don’t know, average.”

“He must,” I moaned into my legs. “I’m so sorry, Kaylee.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said, stifling a yawn. “You didn’t know the necklace was cursed.”

“That weasel,” Josh growled. “What are we going to do about him?”

“March up to him and punch him in the face,” I said, pounding my right fist into my left hand. “Hard. And I want to be the one to do it.”

“We bind him.” Isaac reached into his pocket and pulled out what remained of the onyx necklace. “This will be the base of our spell. Using an item he put his own powers into will make our spell stronger. We’ll need some of his hair, and a piece of his clothing would help.”

I smirked. “I’ll gladly yank out his hair and rip off a piece of his shirt, right after I hit him.”

“No one will be punching Mark,” Isaac said.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t,” I asked. Seriously, I wanted to see Isaac stop me, and I already knew not to promise I wouldn’t.

“If he knows we’re onto him, he’ll do everything in his power to stop us, including a spell to keep others from binding him,” Isaac said. “I know
I
would, if I were in his shoes.”

Kaylee shuddered. “I don’t want to see him. I can’t handle it, not yet.”

“That’s not a problem,” Josh said. He looked sideways at Isaac, who wore an apologetic expression. “We didn’t exactly ask permission to take you from the hospital. I’m pretty sure the nurses have noticed you’re gone by now.”

Kaylee’s bloodshot eyes grew wide. “My parents will be worried sick. I should call them.”

When she looked to her right, I knew she was looking for her purse, which was still at my house on the floor next to her backpack.

“You can’t,” Josh said. “Isaac and I already talked about that. Your mom won’t remember we were there. The hospital won’t know exactly what happened to you. We’re hoping the doctors think your mom undid the straps to make you more comfortable and that you just wandered off. They’ll search the hospital first. It will buy us some time.”

“What happens when their search comes up empty?” I asked.

“They’ll contact the police.”

Kaylee giggled under her breath and stifled another yawn. “I’ve been kidnapped.”

Isaac’s bedroom
would
make the perfect place to hold someone prisoner.

“In the meantime, the safest place for you is here,” Isaac said. “My parents have wards on the house. Their faith ward will be to our advantage. Even if the police come to the door, they’ll believe what I tell them. If I say I visited you at the hospital and left when you fell asleep, they’ll nod, jot it down in their notepad, and leave. My wards will help keep others with powers from sensing you’re down here, and if they try to come down to take a look for themselves, they won’t be able to. At this time, looking for you is the same as intent to do harm. As long as I believe that, it shall be, and my wards won’t budge.”

Kaylee nodded.

“You need some sleep,” Josh said.

“I don’t want to sleep.” Kaylee moved to the foot of the bed and curled up. “I’ll just rest here while you guys come up with a plan.”

Kaylee was asleep almost as soon as she lay down.

And the planning turned out to be the most fun I’d had in days.

Chapter 11

Fire and Water

J
OSH
T
OSSED
W
HAT
R
EMAINED
of our dinner away. He came back and stood a few feet from Isaac. With me a few feet in front of them, we formed a loose circle—triangle really, but in magic you always draw a circle, so if you connected us with lines, they’d have to be curved.

“Where do we begin?” I asked them.

“With your powers,” Isaac said, “you don’t have to be in our coven. Josh and I discussed it already, and we would welcome you if you chose to join, but it is your choice. I’ll show you how to use your powers no matter what you decide.”

Josh was like a brother to me, and Isaac and I had a connection, one I hoped went beyond powers. Together we could stop Mark from hurting anyone else. “I want to join.”

Isaac nodded.

Josh closed his eyes and shook his arms the way a person does when he is trying to relax.

“You want to clear your mind before practicing magic,” Isaac explained and copied Josh.

I did the same, although I peeked a few times just to make sure I wasn’t taking too long to clear my mind. I opened my eyes when I heard Isaac’s sangfroid voice.

“You will be our air and Kaylee our earth.”

I’d read about elements on the Internet. When I had tested my own powers, I’d had something representing each element in my circle: the wine glass for water, candle for fire, salt for earth, and knife for air. The website mentioned that covens often assign each member to an element.

“Kaylee doesn’t have powers,” I said. “How can she represent earth?”

“Magic is at its strongest when all the elements are represented,” Isaac explained. “Kaylee has an emotional bond to you and Josh. By her representing earth, she will help to ground us to the here and now. By her being a part of our coven, when she’s strong again, we can transfer some of our power to her. She won’t be helpless to defend herself from magical forces.”

“I thought if someone who’s not a natural witch called upon outside forces, they would call upon demons or something dark.”

“Many do,” Josh said.

“And in doing so they stain their soul,” Isaac added. “Mess around with a big enough demon, and you could lose your soul. Natural witches risk this too. You need to understand your powers before you use them. They are a part of you and everything around you. They are the stones beneath your feet and the air that you breathe.”

“Everything is connected,” Josh said. “I remember when I first embraced my powers, I was eight. My father made me promise I’d keep them a secret. He said as I got older I would learn to taste others’ powers and know without a doubt who I could trust with my secret.”

Powers are a part of everything
, check.
Keep them a secret
, check.
Trust few
, check.

I nodded to let them know I understood.

“When you use,” Isaac said, “you’re taking from these powers and transferring the energy into your spell. If you’re not in control of your thoughts and emotions when you cast, your spell will end up out of control like the fire at your house.”

“The first spell you did was fire?” Josh asked, a mixture of astonishment and surprise in his expression.

I frowned. “I lit a few candles.”

“And almost burned down the house,” Isaac so kindly reminded me.

Josh let out a low whistle.

Isaac continued, “Now that you’ve embraced your power, you’ll start to see the things around you with more clarity.”

“It’s almost as if everything is crisper,” Josh said. “Like watching a movie in high def. You’ll be able to see and feel things you couldn’t before.”

“Like how I can taste your magic?” I asked.

“Exactly like that,” Isaac replied. “And the taste of someone’s magic can tell you a lot about the person. Your magic reminded me of dirty pennies. That’s how I knew the energy that went into it was fueled with negative emotions.”

Great
. I reminded the guy I liked of pennies, and not just any pennies, dirty ones. I had to work to keep my disappointment from showing in my expression.

Isaac went on. “Power is easy to bend to your will. As you get stronger, you will be able to absorb power from trees, grass, people, even the air around you.”

Isaac held his hands in front of him as if he were holding an imaginary basketball. The air around him crackled. The vanilla and spearmint that was his magic suffused the space between us. I could actually see a ball of energy, translucent and pulsing, in his hands. Josh held a hand in front of him, and the ball of energy stretched and shifted until it was a long tube that connected his hand to Isaac’s.

I felt like a child who’d just seen a magician pull a quarter out of her ear.

Isaac and Josh pulled their hands away from the tube, and it vanished. I reached out in front of me, feeling the remains of their power in the air. Lush like velvet, it caressed my skin.

“Magic is often subtle.” Josh flicked his forefinger off of his thumb like he was flicking a crumb off a table, and a burst of air brushed past my cheek. “Or it can be forceful.” This time he held his hand to the side, palm out toward Isaac’s closet. A moment later, the clothes were pushed in as if someone had fallen against them.

“And it can be countered,” Isaac said. “Like I did at your house. Are you ready to try?”

Was I ever!

“Yes,” I said in a voice much smaller than I’d meant to use.

“Then let’s create our bond and see what you can do.”

Isaac and Josh raised their arms above their heads and looked at me. I raised mine.

“By the power of water,” Josh said, an expression of complete calm set in his features.

“By the power of fire.” Isaac’s eyes were suddenly alight with a fire of their own.

And since they both were looking at me, I took my cue and said, “By the power of air.”

Isaac and Josh said the next part together: “We shall cast with the powers of three times three.”

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to say it too. Just in case, I muttered, “Um, what they said.”

The corners of Josh’s mouth tugged upward for a brief moment.

We relaxed our arms, and I waited to see what I should do next. Several of the stones on the floor around us glowed translucent orange. Our circle.

Isaac put his hand out in front of him—like someone does before saying,
Tah-dah!
—and produced blue flames. Josh did the same, only he produced a perfect drop of water that looked as if it had dripped from a large faucet; it dangled suspended above his palm.

“Your turn,” Josh said.

So if Isaac represented fire and in turn produced fire, and Josh represented water and produced water, was I supposed to produce air? And how the heck was
air
supposed to look? My brow furrowed together. I held my hand out and concentrated, focusing on the air in my palm. Absolutely nothing happened.

“What are you trying for?” Isaac asked. I was relieved that he really couldn’t read my mind.

“I’m not sure,” I confessed. “What would air look like?”

Isaac stifled a laugh by coughing.

“I only did water because I didn’t want to copy,” Josh said with a stupid grin on his face. He closed his hand, then reopened it, turning his drop of water into fire.

I ignored the heat of embarrassment that rose to my cheeks and tried again. Seemed no matter how hard I stared at my hand, I wasn’t going to produce the lovely pale blue flames they had.

Isaac canceled his spell and came closer to me. “You don’t have laser eyes.” He put his hands on my waist. His powers glided over my skin as they wrapped around me. There was something behind his usual vanilla and spearmint scent. It was subtle like the spray from the ocean or maybe a breeze through the forest. Outdoorsy. Cologne mixed with magic. I inhaled, my back hitting Isaac’s solid chest.

I could get used to being this close to Isaac. Yet I had to force myself to ignore the feel of his magic against my arms and listen to his voice. It wasn’t easy. His warm breath teased my neck as he spoke.

“You should feel your power building within you, flowing into your hand and into the spell.”

I had felt that before. It was easy when I was angry. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. I focused on each beat of my heart. As I did, I could feel the air in the room charged with Isaac’s and Josh’s powers. I wanted it to be charged with mine too. The taste of strawberries and chocolate kissed my tongue. My powers danced to the tips of my fingers, tickling my skin from the inside. I beamed with sheer delight as fire appeared in my palm. I didn’t create the pale blue flames Isaac and Josh had, though. Mine were the vibrant violet-blue of a tanzanite gem.

“Now throw it,” Isaac said.

“What?” I couldn’t have heard him right.

“Throw it at Josh.”

“Don’t worry,” Josh taunted. “Your little fire won’t burn me.”

I liked my flames and really didn’t want to throw them, but Josh kept staring at me, wiggling his finger to tell me,
Come on
. I couldn’t pass up the challenge. I brought my arm back, saw Isaac grinning like a proud cat behind me, and whipped my flames at Josh, who lazily held his hand in front of him. My spell died with a faint hiss.

It was a little pathetic how easily he’d canceled it.

We continued to practice. It was a good thing Isaac and Josh only threw balls of air and large drops of water at me, because countering spells wasn’t as easy as they’d made it look. If they had used fire, I would have had third-degree burns.

At some point, Isaac’s father called us upstairs. Isaac spun a funnel of warm air around me. It not only felt wonderful—it dried my hair and clothes.

Two police officers stood in the foyer. They were looking for Kaylee and were very disappointed when they discovered Josh was with Isaac and me.

“We were hoping she was with you,” the officer admitted to Josh. “Are you sure she hasn’t gotten in touch with you?”

“I’d know if I talked to my girlfriend.” Josh ran a worried hand over his face as he shook his head. “How could this have happened?” He looked as if he could barely hold himself together. His eyes were the red of someone who hadn’t slept. He looked nothing like he had in the basement. Boy, was he quick with a glamour. He’d managed this one while he had walked up the stairs, and he deserved an Emmy for his performance.

Just like Isaac had said would happen, the officer nodded, jotted notes in his notepad, and thanked us for our time.

After that, I called my dad and asked him if I could spend the night at Sarah’s, using the excuse that I wanted to be with friends. I then called Sarah and asked her to cover for me in case my dad called there to check up.

“Sure, no problem,” Sarah said. “How’s Kaylee?”

“She’s better,” I replied. “But do me a favor and don’t tell anyone we talked, okay? I can’t really explain now.”

“Sure. If you need anything…” Sarah left the sentence hanging.

“You know you’re the first person I’ll call.”

We practiced into the early morning hours. I got the hang of calling upon my powers, and while I was only able to counter a small percentage of Isaac’s and Josh’s spells, I could block just about all of them. By the time I lay down next to Kaylee, I felt as if I’d undergone a rigorous exercise regimen.

Isaac and Josh tossed a bunch of pillows and blankets into piles on the floor, but I don’t remember them lying down. I must have passed out as soon as my head had hit the pillow. I woke hours later with Kaylee’s hand on my face.