Witch Emerging (High Witch Book 2) Read online

  Hallie took a deep breath, filled with nerves. “Are you sure you can train me? I’m useless at using my magic. I don’t have any control of it at all.”

  Ariel smiled at her words. “Don’t you worry about that. You have two amazing teachers. You’ll love your power once you have a hold on it—it will feel amazing. You don’t need to be afraid anymore, Hallie. There’s nothing wrong with who you are, nothing at all. Trust me. You’ll be fine.”

  Ariel smiled at her again, and Hallie looked away, embarrassed. She was so frightened, so worried, so anxious. But, deep down, she felt an excitement, a happiness that she was finally getting some help. Maybe this would work out.

  For the very first time in her life, she felt like she belonged.

  ***

  Nicholas walked into the big house behind his Papa, scared because he hadn’t been there in so long. He saw his Papa close the heavy door, and he looked around nervously. He searched for her—where was she?—then he saw her sitting at the table.

  “Mama! Mama!” he cried, running over to her. He missed her so much. He grabbed hold of her skirt and looked at up at her. She frowned at him, took hold of his hands, and pried them off of her clothes. Nicholas whimpered—she was hurting him—and she pushed him back.

  “What’s he doing here? I said I didn’t want to see him.”

  “Nadia, be kind. He starts school for the first time tomorrow, and I promised him he could see you as a reward. You can talk to him for a few moments.”

  Mama frowned again, turning her head away from him.

  Nicholas didn’t understand. He walked around to the other side of the table, but she only turned away again. He touched her arm. “Mama? Talk to me Mama.”

  “I’m not your Mama!” she yelled. “Get away from me!”

  Nicholas started to cry, not understanding what was happening. He hadn’t seen her in so long—why was she mad at him? His Papa put a hand on his shoulder and steered him away, and they walked out of the house. Nicholas stood there shaking, and his Papa knelt before him.

  “Stop crying. Boys don’t cry.”

  “Why doesn’t Mama love me?” Nicholas asked.

  His Papa shook his head. “You don’t need love. That kind of love doesn’t matter. You’ll see, Nicholas. One day I’ll tell you what real love is. Be a good boy and stop crying, and I’ll visit you soon. Let’s go home now.”

  “I don’t want to live with Nanny. I want to live with you and Mama.”

  “No, son, you can’t. I’ll visit you soon. You’re six now, starting school. No more crying. Come on.”

  Papa stood up and put his hand on his shoulder, leading him towards the carriage. Nicholas broke away, hurried back to the door, and hit it with his fists, yelling for his mother. Papa picked him up, yelling at him, put him in the carriage, and told the driver to leave. Nicholas cried all the way home, not understanding why she didn’t want him. What did he do? What had he done? He loved her.

  He’d do anything for her.

  ***

  Hallie stood at one end of the large front room of her house, the space before her cleared of most of the furniture. A few apples sat on the low table across the room. Ariel stood beside her while Brayden and Sean stood in the hallway. Hallie gulped. She didn’t think she could do this.

  “Concentrate on bringing one of the apples to you,” Ariel said gently. “If something goes wrong, we’ll deal with it. It’ll be alright. Go ahead.”

  Hallie grimaced, then reached out her arm. She held out her hand towards the apples and tried to focus on making one of them float up and reach her. She narrowed her eyes, wiggling her fingers. She was desperately trying to hold back her powers, so much so that nothing was happening. She sighed, deciding to release her magic a little. A little would be alright, wouldn’t it?

  She focused on the apples and sent a wave of power towards them. But it wasn’t small, it wasn’t controlled. Before she knew it, a huge gushing wind was hurtling towards the table, and it was lifted up and smashed against the wall. Hallie yelled, “Well, that was effective!”

  Ariel put a hand on her shoulder. “Oh, Hallie. That was astonishing. I forgot how hard it is to control in the beginning. I wanted to see what you could do, how strong your magic is. Sorry, I should have prepared you better. Brayden?”

  Brayden retrieved more apples from the kitchen and placed them on the floor where the table had stood. The remains of the table were cluttered all over. Hallie almost laughed at how ridiculous it looked.

  “Alright. I’ll tell you what Brayden told me during my training. You need to divide your magic up when you use it. You use part of your power to protect what you’re using your magic on. For example, if I want to bring one of those apples to me, I’ll imagine giving out a layer of protection, so part of my magic is released to lift one of the apples, but the rest of my magic is protecting everything I’m directing my magic on. So you’re releasing your power, letting it out, but using your own power to hold yourself back. Oh, I explained that terribly—I don’t know if that made any sense.”

  “No, I sort of see,” Hallie said. “I release my power but use part of it to shield what I’m directing it at? Could you show me first?”

  “Of course!” Ariel said. She held out her arm, wiggled her fingers, and one of the apples floated up in the air towards her. It landed in her palm and then Ariel made it float back to the others. She smiled at Hallie. “Your turn.”

  Hallie took a deep breath, prepared to blow something up again, but she was eager to try. She held out her arm again, focusing once more. Use your own power to hold yourself back.

  Hallie let out her power in two waves at once—one directed at the apples and the other holding back the first wave. It was a little different than how Ariel described it. She wasn’t trying to protect everything around the apples, but instead using her power to try and control the force. She strained, her body rigid as she tried to let out her magic in two different ways, and almost felt like she needed to be two different people to do this properly. She struggled and felt like the part of her power she was using to lift the piece of fruit was going to take over and send the chairs flying.

  She started to shake a little but kept the battle going. Hallie concentrated on raising one of the apples in the air. She surrounded the magical force with her own power. One of the apples hovered in the air, and then the other two flew up, and the chairs on either side began to hurtle towards the ceiling. Hallie cursed, her palms sweating, her entire body quivering. She became angry, made the wave of power controlling her magic stronger, and the chairs slammed down on the ground.

  She narrowed her eyes and told herself she was going to make one of those damn apples come to her.

  “Breathe, Hallie,” Ariel said quietly. “You can do it.”

  She blew her hair out of her eyes and focused. One of the apples hovered in the air again, then slowly floated towards her. She still struggled, still had to concentrate so hard to stop from making half the furniture come forward. But finally, the apple landed in her palm. Hallie collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.

  “I never want to see an apple again,” she said, breathing heavily. Sean knelt beside her, drawing her into his arms, whispering how proud he was in her ear. Hallie rested against him, spent. She just wanted to sit in his arms for the rest of the day.

  “You did so well, Hallie. That was wonderful. Now you just have to do it again,” Ariel said, walking over to stand beside Brayden.

  Hallie looked at Sean, and he gazed at her fondly.

  “I knew you could do it. Soon you’ll be able to control it perfectly. I love you so much.” He kissed her, only briefly, before holding her again.

  She sighed against him, resting her face on his neck. She truly was exhausted. But so, so happy.

  ***

  Nicholas watched as the men he’d hired brought piles of wood and metal into the garden behind his home. Others carried ropes and tools. He’d had to revise his plans. Hallie was stronger than he thou
ght; he couldn’t use her easily like he’d hoped. He had to face the fact that to confront a High Witch—two, in fact—he’d have to be prepared. Have to be ready. Had to have everything in place.

  He’d send the men on their way once they’d delivered everything. He could build the contraption himself.

  Papa had taught him a thing or two about torture…

  Chapter 17

  Hallie sat with Sean on the settee after Brayden and Ariel had left them. It was late evening, and Hallie was extremely tired. Ariel had trained her for the rest of the day, working on trying to bring something to herself. By the end of the day, she was able to do it a great deal easier. Brayden and Sean had cleared the mess the broken table had made, and the group had shared lunch and dinner together. Ariel said they would come back the next morning, and now Hallie could finally rest. She snuggled up to Sean, his arms around her, and sighed deeply, feeling contented.

  “She’s wonderful,” Hallie breathed. “I like Ariel so much. To think, they traveled all that way just to find me. And she’s pregnant. That must have been so difficult for her. I like Brayden too. He’s so kind to her.”

  “They are good people,” Sean murmured, kissing her hair. “We didn’t tell them about your vision, though. Do you think you could tell them tomorrow?”

  Hallie paused. “Yes, it’s just that I don’t even know what I saw. I will tell her, though.”

  “Alright,” Sean said. He didn’t say anything for a while, then spoke up again. “It’s weird how Brayden is related to Julius. And Nicholas, too, really. Which means their child is related to Nicholas as well.”

  Hallie frowned, the fact not having occurred to her. It really was odd, how connected everything was. To think, Julius was related to Ariel’s husband. If there had been no Julius, then Brayden wouldn’t exist. But Hallie couldn’t imagine a worse person. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she finally said. “It’s strange. Ariel’s so lucky she found Brayden, though. She must love him so much… to think what she did for him. What she went through. She’s astonishing.” Hallie felt Sean tense, his arms rigid. She looked up at him. “What is it?”

  He gazed at her with an intense look in his eyes that took her breath away. He kissed her briefly, holding her to him again. “I don’t want anyone to ever do that to you,” he whispered, pain in his voice. “It’s disgusting. It’s barbaric. I don’t want you to suffer like that, Hallie. The thought kills me.”

  “But Nicholas doesn’t want to turn me. I don’t think we need to worry about that.”

  “I don’t trust the word of a madman,” Sean said. “Even if he doesn’t want to turn you, he’ll still have something horrible in mind. The sooner Ariel trains you, the sooner we can confront him, and I want this to be over. None of us are safe while he’s alive. I know you and Ariel are both strong, but Julius managed to capture Ariel because of her love for others. I don’t want Nicholas to do the same. I hate him so much. I hate him, Hallie.”

  She couldn’t stand how sad he sounded. Hallie kissed him deeply, wanting to wipe out the pain he was feeling. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kept kissing him, feeling him respond and clutch her tightly. They moaned in each other’s arms, the tension of the day releasing as they touched and tasted each other, and Sean kissed her neck. Hallie gasped, her tiredness forgotten. She just wanted to feel for a while, not think, not concentrate, not focus. Just be overcome with sensation.

  They kept kissing, Sean slipping his hands beneath her blouse and touching her hot skin. Hallie wanted to feel him against her, her skin against his, and before she knew it, he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bedroom.

  He laid her down and looked at her with such fire in his eyes she nearly couldn’t breathe. “Tonight’s about you,” he whispered, his mouth on hers again. His tongue moved in her mouth, his hands roaming over her body.

  She clutched his shirt, so aroused she couldn’t keep still. She moved against him, gasping as they kissed, desperately wanting him.

  But then Sean stopped, gazed at her fiercely, and moved down her body.

  Hallie quivered with anticipation as he pushed aside her skirt and started to kiss, suck, and lick. She arched her back as his tongue went inside of her, almost crying out from how good it felt. She clutched the sheets, barely able to stop from screaming, writhing before him. Finally, she hit her peak, glorious waves flowing through her as his mouth sucked on the sensitive bud, driving her wild. She did scream his name then, the pleasure rippling within her, making her lose her breath. She couldn’t believe how wonderful it felt.

  But he wasn’t done with her yet.

  It was the most amazing night of her life.

  ***

  The next morning, Ariel and Brayden arrived at Hallie’s house quite early, ready to train her again. Hallie worked on calling things to herself, making an object appear instantly in her hand from somewhere else, as well as trying to create fire and water. She stood in her back garden to cast those spells, not wanting to damage anything inside. She was able to create balls of fire above her hand but struggled with what to do with the fire after that. Ariel taught her to steer the ball away from her and throw water at it. It was tricky and it took her several tries to do it properly, and Ariel had to step in sometimes to stop Hallie from setting things on fire. The main thing she was focusing on was control—she could always perform magic but had no control. But she was learning very quickly.

  Everyone sat at the table in the front room at lunchtime, ready to eat the hot meal Brayden had prepared. Hallie was very hungry from all the training and devoured the lamb and vegetables at a rapid pace. She felt so comfortable around Ariel and Brayden—they didn’t seem like strangers at all. She dreaded telling Ariel about her vision, but Sean said she shouldn’t delay it very long.

  When everyone had finished, she took a deep breath and looked at Ariel. “Ariel there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” she said, her voice slightly shaky. “Do you remember how when you came to the door yesterday, I knew who you were? You asked me how I knew but I never told you. I-I want to tell you now. It’s awful, though.”

  Ariel looked at her with concern, then gazed at her plate. “What is it, Hallie? Tell me.”

  Hallie turned to Sean, dreading saying anymore. He squeezed her hand, and she finally started. “I had a dream of you the night before you arrived here. I don’t know if it was a vision or if somehow I was just able to dream about you… I don’t know anything. I hope it was just a dream. It was you. Oh, Ariel, I don’t want to tell you this. It was you being stabbed. I saw a knife and you were wounded, and Brayden was screaming your name. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Hallie put her hand over her mouth, horrified that she’d said it. Ariel kept looking down, not speaking. A few tears slipped from Hallie’s eyes, the thought that she could lose someone she cared about so much breaking her heart.

  Ariel looked at Brayden, and he gazed back, then stood up and cuddled her from behind. He kissed her hair, whispering to her. Ariel furrowed her brow, and Hallie was concerned she might cry. But she shut her eyes, breathed deeply, and asked Brayden to sit back down.

  “It’ll be alright,” Ariel finally said. “I don’t think I’m going to die. I had a vision where I saw myself with my daughter when she was six years old. I’m not pretending I’m not terrified, but I believe I’ll live. I believe it. I don’t know what your vision means, Hallie, and there must be some meaning to it. But I don’t think I’ll lose my life. I’m glad you told me. I need to be prepared.”

  Everyone was silent for a while, sadness surrounding them. “Did you see Nicholas stabbing her?” Brayden asked. “Did you see him?”

  “No,” Hallie said. “I only saw the knife. I’m sorry I don’t know more.”

  “It’s alright, Hallie,” Ariel said. “I’m glad you told us. You shouldn’t feel bad.”

  But she did feel bad, terrible, awful, and couldn’t shake her fears that Ariel would get hurt. But she had to just keep working on her magic. Hopef
ully everyone would be alright. Hopefully they would win.

  ***

  Over the next few days, Ariel trained Hallie further, helping her control her magic and learn to let it out without causing destruction. On the third day, they went to a field nearby so Hallie could work on casting larger spells. Ariel and Hallie stood in the middle of the field while Sean and Brayden sat on the edge.

  Ariel squeezed Hallie’s hands as she looked at her. “Alright, I want you to focus on controlling waves of light. You have the ability to release light, but I want you to be able to manage it. Focus on everything you’ve learned and give it a try.”

  Hallie took a few steps away and looked across the empty field, frightened about doing this. Gradually she hadn’t needed to concentrate so hard when using her magic; it was slow, but using her powers had started to become more natural, so the intense focus she needed initially gave way to instinct. She still used the same principles, but it was becoming more like second nature instead of a huge chore. But waves of light… She’d created a wave of light the day she’d hurt the other children. It wasn’t something she imagined she’d want to do on purpose.

  “Hallie?” Ariel said.

  “I’m going to do it, just give me another moment,” she said. She sighed, took a few more steps away, and then held out her arms. She quivered slightly, memories of all the times light had poured out of her haunting her. She didn’t want to do this. She really didn’t, but she gritted her teeth, focused on letting her power out but controlling it at the same time, and released a silver wave of light. It didn’t storm out of her, didn’t completely take over, but instead was a calm glow going across the field before disappearing. Hallie looked at Ariel sadly, pleased she’d done it but upset it had taken her this long.

  “That was very good,” Ariel said. “Now I want you to try something else. Please consider it before you say no. I want you to try to control the weather.”