The White Witch (14 page)

“I’m sorry.” I say as we reach his Tahoe.

Logan stops, his back to me. “No, I’m sorry.” He turns to face me. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, especially not today, not on your birthday… it’s just that…” He shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head as he walks to the car.

I stand frozen, my gaze on the walkway below me as storm clouds roll in, viciously consuming the sky above us and opening up onto us. The rain falls hard, pelting my skin, but I don’t move, I only look up and see him standing there.  I start to walk down the pathway away from his car.

I hear him calling for me, but I don’t turn around, my senses numb. I fill the sky with thunder and lightning and continue walking. I turn the corner of the strip mall where the coffee shop is and run into the alley, finding shelter beneath a backdoor awning. I barely hear him yell for me through the rain and thunder but I stay here. My insides turn over as I think of the hurt on his face and his own revelation to me, my heart, nothing more than a stone in my stomach.

I make it rain for another ten minutes, but I don’t leave the shelter of the awning for a good thirty. My phone flashes with several missed phone calls and messages but I can’t bring myself to check them. I thank God for the waterproof case that my dad bought me when I first got my phone and call a cab to come pick me up.

As soon as I walk through the door, I head up to my shower. I strip my wet clothes and leave them in a pile on the floor. I let the hot water warm every inch of my body as hot tears make their way down my cheeks. Logan called me out again and was right, again. I would have been just as hurt if he had done it to me. I probably would not have even stood for it as long as he did. After I dry myself, I pull out my favorite jeans from the closet and my tight quarter-sleeve black shirt.
I need to skate tonight
.

I sit on the edge of my bed with my phone in my hand and start scrolling through Logan’s messages. My heart breaks more when I hear that he didn’t want to leave me in the rain, that he even got out of his car and searched for me. He apologized for letting it all get to him. But I know that it wasn’t fair for me to do that to him. By the time I get to the most recent message he is asking me to tell him where I am because he is worried and feels like a complete jerk.

I hit the reply button and let him know that I made it home safe, but that I wouldn’t be here much longer. His response is immediate and he asks if he can call me. I tell him that I wouldn’t be good conversation right now.

I sit, staring at the phone and the time, realizing that I needed to get out of there, because I didn’t want to be home when Dad and Liz got here. I certainly didn’t want any questions about where Logan was, or why I was already home without him.

I pull on my black rider boots with buckles on them, grab my hoodie and walk out the door. I drive out to the beach for a little where I watch the waves and try my hand at controlling the winds around me. I am successful a handful of times, but it doesn’t last long. I stand to return to my jeep and search for the gunmetal grey SUV, but I don’t see it, which is a relief and at the same time, unnerving. I pull out my phone and text my parents to check in on them. Both at home, relaxing, the nerves are calmed just a little bit.

I sit in my car and stare at the picture of Logan that I have set as his caller ID. I take a deep breath and send a message.

Can you skate?

As always, his response of yes is immediate. I smile and ask him to meet me at the rink at ten. I park my jeep in front of the main entrance and open my trunk so that I can sit inside on the edge and enjoy the night air while I wait for Logan. The scent of rain is gone and the breeze carries with it, the scent of the swamp azaleas that are planted around the larger white oaks surrounding the building.

I sit rocking my legs back and forth watching every set of headlights that slow down near the entrance hoping it’s Logan. My heart jumps when a large set of lights turn into the parking area. The black Tahoe makes it’s way to the front of the building and parks right behind me. As he pulls up, he turns off his lights, probably so he doesn’t blind me.

Logan steps out of the truck and I see that he has also changed his clothes. He is in jeans and wearing a blue polo that brings out his eyes. He has a set of hockey skates dangling from his hand as he closes the door.

“Angel,-” I hold up my hand as I walk up to him.

“It’s my turn to talk.” I say softly, though I don’t immediately say anything else. Unsure if he wants to hold my hand, I just ask him to follow me.

I walk up to the door and insert my key, unlocking both deadbolts before swinging it open and running to the alarm control panel nearby and punching in a code. Logan closes and locks the door behind him, giving me a soft smile.

I grin at him as the swarm of butterflies are back in full force. I turn on only the lights over the hockey rink and we walk in the darkness toward it. I flinch from the surprise when I feel Logan’s hand slide into mine, but I entwine my fingers with his and allow a smile to make its way across my face again. We walk in silence until we reach the bleachers where we sit down and begin to put on our skates.

“So, hockey skates?” I close my eyes.
Really? So, Hockey skates? That’s my first line after making him come over here?!

“Lived in New York, remember?” He shrugs his shoulders.

As soon as he is done, he stands and waits for me to finish. He puts his hand out to help me up and we unlatch the door to the rink. I breathe in the smell of the ice and let the cold make its way up my body. I take Logan’s hand and we begin skating along the boards, the entire length of the rink. By the third lap I begin to lose myself in the breeze in my hair, in the smell of the ice and in having Logan there with me. Though I don’t make it happen I feel the shavings of the ice, and the snow lifting behind me, following me as the bliss overtakes me.

“Can you skate backwards?” It’s the first time I had spoken since I asked about his skates.

He pinches his brows. “Yes.” He quickly turns and continues skating, keeping my pace. His eyes open wider as he looks behind me and his lips curl up into a smile.

I check the reflection in some of the glass and barely see the whirlwind of snowfall behind me.

“Wanna see something funny?”

Logan smiles at me and nods.

I turn to face the snow and just like last time, it all collapses to the ground.

“Hm, guess it doesn’t like to be watched. Maybe it’s just shy.”

I giggle out loud as we slow down and I lean against the boards along the benches. A moment of silence overtakes us, but it’s not awkward, or uncomfortable.

“I…I’m sorry, I didn’t trust you before. I was just…” I start weakly.

“Afraid?” Logan jumps in.

“Yeah. I didn’t want you to see me the way everyone else did. Like a freak.” My gaze is on the ice as I lean on my arms so I can move my skates back and forth.

Logan grabs my chin gently with his thumb and forefinger and slowly lifts my gaze to him. “I could never see you the way they do. In fact, I thought that was pretty damn cool. I’ve never seen that.”

“You know, I was pretty shocked when you showed me your power.” I blurt out, almost unsure of what to say next.

Logan gives a crooked smile. “I was hoping that maybe you would pick up on it and that it would make you comfortable enough with yourself to realize that there isn’t anything wrong with you.”

“Guess, I should have picked it up, huh?” I folded my arms across my chest. “I mean hell, I was close enough when I was saying that you have a calming effect on me.”

“Well, I probably shouldn’t have assumed that you would catch on to it. I didn’t know how much you knew about our world.” He ends on the last word with air quotes. “And, I guess I was just pretty excited to have found someone who has gifts as well.”

I blush at his words and realize how sweet it is that we share this. “So um, tell me, what powers have you seen?” I ask cautiously, continuing this venture into a conversation I seriously never thought I would have.

“Well, I’ve never told anyone about my gifts so I haven’t really met too many others, at least not that they have told me, that also have gifts.”

Gifts…, hm, I guess that’s one way to look at this
.

“I discovered my gifts when I was a kid. I had a dog that was hit by a car and we took him to the vet, but there was nothing they could do for him. He was a nervous wreck, I could feel it every time I touched him. It was strange, It was like I could feel his emotions just by touch. He was so scared and in so much pain, so I thought, maybe if I could just be calm for him, he would pick up on it. But my mom who was watching the whole thing, knew that it was more than him catching onto it. He didn’t even whimper anymore once I cradled him in my arms. He still died of course, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”

“Oh gosh.” I move to stand in front of Logan. “That’s a hard way to find that out.”

“Yeah.” He huffs, but still smiles.

“So, um, your mom… does she have powers too?”

“Well, hers are more earth oriented.  I guess you can say that she’s got a seriously green thumb.”

I laugh out loud and Logan reaches for the belt loop on my jeans and pulls me forward. I push off the board and listen to the sound of my skates on the ice.

“You made it rain earlier, didn’t you?” He presses his forehead to mine.

“Yes. I wanted to tell you it was me, but I could barely believe it myself. I only recently began to figure out how to control this.” I take in a deep breath and fix my eyes on his which at the moment are soft and endearing and begging me to come closer. “I was so upset for having done that to you, I almost felt like I could hide in that rain. I wanted it to swallow me whole.”

Logan smiles and tucks a tendril of hair behind my ear. “Don’t stress over that.” He waits for me to nod in agreement. “I take it your dad doesn’t have gifts?”

I huff a laugh. “Only the gift of loving a daughter who to everyone else is strange.”

Logan leans in and kisses me and it’s only then that I realized how much I would have missed his kisses. The smell of soap and a soft but very manly cologne surround me and I breathe him in. “So besides the emotion transfer, is there anything else you can do?”

“Apparently fall for a certain girl faster than I ever thought possible.”

I feel a heat consume me and though I want to respond, I can’t.

“Other than that, I have a bit of elemental control, but nothing I’ve tried to master. A bit of healing, as in I heal a bit faster than most people, but nothing can transfer.”

“Erebos has powers doesn’t he?” I hate myself for ruining the moment, but I know I have to ask.

Logan purses his lips.  “Yes. I haven’t really talked to him about them because something about him has always kept me at a distance. But I know he does.” He chews on his lip for a moment. “Is this why you think that I or your family are in danger?”

I smile at him and put my hand on his cheek. “This is why I know you are all in danger.” I skate back and take his hand, nudging him to skate along with me. Hoping that it will make it that much easier to explain. We take turns skating backwards so that we are always facing each other, the first few times in silence as I try to figure out how to explain it all. I begin by telling the stories of the ‘incidents’ I have had and finish with the most recent at school and on the yacht. I explain to him about Gamaliel and who he is and what he has explained to me. I leave out the part about the portal because I’m not sure how much I should give away regarding the Keeper.

We make our way to the door of the rink and begin to take off our skates.

“Why don’t we go to the coffee shop and keep talking.” Logan looks at me, with his sweet smile, his blue eyes eager for my response.

I look at my watch. Twelve o’clock. “Sounds good.”

We drive over and make our way to our favorite sofa which luckily was clearing out as soon as we began placing our order.

“Everything ok with the chai’s earlier? I saw that you guys didn’t even take a sip.” Michelle pouts behind the counter.

“Sorry about that Michelle, we had an…” I look at Logan quickly.

“An emergency.” He finishes.

“Oh, wow, I hope everything is alright.” She tries to give Logan back his change but he refuses and she drops it in the tip jar.

“Better than ever.” Logan responds as he takes my hand.

I scan the parking lot and see the gunmetal grey SUV drive by. I look back at Logan, “Earlier when we were together, there was a gunmetal grey SUV that followed us.”

He nods his head in agreement. “I saw it too.”

“It’s here again. I just saw it cross the parking lot.”

Logan whips his head around, searching, but neither of us spot it now. “Are you going to tell your parents?” Logan says before he looks back at me.

My parents? I never thought about telling them the extent of the truth about me. They were so alright with loving me anyway, despite these strange things, that I never thought in the last week that I would have to possibly crush their view of me.

“I… I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far yet. I don’t want them to worry about me.” I look at Michelle as she comes with the same mugs she did earlier and places them in front of us.

“For the lovebirds.” She says sweetly and walks away.

“You are also afraid of what they will think of you.”

I sigh, still staring at the mugs. “Yes.”

“They will not think any differently of you. I promise.” He takes my hand and we both lean back, Logan on the sofa and me on him. “And if you want me there when you tell them, so that they can see that you are not the only one, then I will show them who I am too.”

I lift my head quickly, looking into his pools of blue. “You would do that for me? You said you haven’t really told anyone.”

He lifts a hand to my cheek. “But I would for you.”

I kiss him softly and lean against him, nestling my nose onto his neck. “What am I going to do, Logan? What if they come after me?”

Logan leans away so he can look in my eyes and drops his brow just a bit with just a shadow of a smile on his face. “We fight, of course.” He shakes his head as if the answer were obvious and I should have known.
I suppose I should by now.

In the morning I tell my dad that I have asked Logan to go with me to Boston for the day. The news greatly relieves his anxiety about me driving over two hours on my own to a place I have only been to a handful of times. Logan pulls up just as my dad and Liz are leaving to the rink. I can see the exhaustion on their faces and can only imagine how they are looking forward to the end of the day.

My dad gives Logan a speech about driving carefully and his only daughter, blah, blah, blah. Logan takes it in stride, agreeing with my father and even making him feel better about me going.

“You do pretty well with dads. Got a lot of experience?”

“Hardly. I was always afraid that I would freak someone out if they knew. It wasn’t hard to keep from friends and such, but keeping it from a girlfriend would be much harder because of the intimacy. As it is, I have to control myself around you because I still don’t know if I can transfer other emotions beside the calm. Especially to someone who’s powers are as strong as yours.”

“And what emotions have you been keeping from me, Mr. Blackwell?” I raise my eyebrow at him.

“Oh, no, you’re not getting that information that easily.”

I cross my arms in front of me and pout as he lets out a chuckle.

The rest of the drive is spent in random conversation and debates about which hockey teams should have won the Stanley cup. It’s not until we get within a few miles of Evangeline’s home that the tension and anxiety begin to build.

“Do you want me to go with you to see her?”

I nod my head as I look around the neighborhood. All old brick homes, one story, built closely together.

You have arrived at your destination
. The kind voice on the GPS breaks the silence that had taken over.

The GPS on my phone indicates a brick house, not unlike the others in style, save for a covered porch that houses two rocking chairs. Logan parks the car along the street.

I look at Logan and he doesn’t say a word. He simply leans forward, giving me a soft kiss and a nod.

We both slide out of the car at the same time, but I wait for Logan to round the car and take my hand. I walk up to the white wooden fence with the fading paint and unlatch it, letting us onto the walkway. We close the gate behind us and walk along a well kept stone path lined with small and colorful flowers. We arrive at the first of three brick steps that lead up to the covered porch. We take each step at the same time and I glance at the rocking chairs before knocking on the door. They are classic wooden rocking chairs, varnished with some wear along the edges of the wood, between them, a small wooden table.