When Nexi turned to Zia, she called, “To the west, we summon you, Water.”
Swirling water surrounded the witches just above the fire, and Nexi shivered from the dampness spreading across her skin. She rubbed her arms warming them, as Zia said, “Connecting it all, we summon you, Spirit.”
A brilliant explosion of light blasted through the meadow, and a glittering blue ribbon moved around the witches, dancing in and out between their bodies. Nexi stared in silent awe, since she hadn’t had the time to mull over her being part witch much considering she was preoccupied with hunting her parents’ killers. Being here, experiencing the ceremonial awesomeness, she couldn’t deny this power intrigued her.
Haven’s smile warmed, no doubt sensing Nexi’s curiosity and the odd sensation rising within her. Her blood tingled as if everything had fallen asleep, yet she also burned with power. Unreachable, but present. As if the Elements were somehow speaking to her, reminding her that she did have a place here within this circle of witches.
“See, your magic is there.” Haven’s eyes twinkled and she poked Nexi’s arm with her elbow. “It’s just hiding.”
Nexi might’ve responded with the glaringly obvious question, Why is it hiding? But Zia cut her off as she said, “Return Elements, we thank you for your presence and the gifts you’ve bestowed upon us.”
A deafening bang echoed through the air and as the magic vanished, and the dark night descended again. The witches hugged each other before they started to leave the meadow. As they walked by her and Haven some gave her odd looks, as if measuring her up, and some completely ignored her as if she weren’t sitting there.
Confused by the circle, she turned to Haven. “Really, you call on the Elements, and then send them away. What in the hell was the point of that?”
Haven smirked. “By calling on the Elements, we unite our sisterhood of witches. Together, with the Elements all around us, we give thanks.” She hesitated, nibbling her lip. “It’s kinda hard to explain with words…it’s just something you have to feel, but it keeps us joined together.”
Wasn’t everything Otherworldly hard to explain with words?
Before Nexi could state as much, Zia approached, her blue eyes twinkling with her gentle smile. “I thought we could chat a little bit.”
Haven jumped up, planted a kiss on Nexi’s cheek, and as she skipped away after the other witches, she called, “Come find me later.”
Taking Haven’s place in front of Nexi, Zia smoothed out her black, long skirt over her legs, and said, “You must have questions.”
Thousands, Nexi thought, but where to start?
After pondering to figure out which questions mattered most, she decided to start with what she’d seen tonight and work backward. “Am I part of the sisterhood now?”
Zia shook her head, settling her beautiful strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder. “Once you come into your witch powers, we’ll have a ceremony welcoming you into the sisterhood.” She patted Nexi’s leg. “Even though you’re without your magic now, you’ll eventually gain it and take your place with us.”
Didn’t that bring up a great next question? “Yes, about that. When exactly will this magic come into me?” Nexi nearly laughed at the thought. The idea of her having magic seemed not only ridiculous, but also dangerous.
“To be honest, I’m unsure.” Zia regarded her with a tilt of her head. “Do you feel any different than before you came into the Otherworld?”
Nexi considered that, then realized a truth stared her dead in the face. “After the block was removed it was all kinda confusing. At first, all I sensed was the guardian power and the increased strength. How invincible it made me feel.”
She waited for Zia to give her a yes-that-was-stupid-of-you look, but the witch’s soft expression remained unchanged, so Nexi added, “But being here tonight I did feel something I haven’t before.”
Zia’s eyebrows rose. “Which was?”
Nexi shook her head, trying to find the correct word to explain. “Rightness.” She rolled her eyes, thinking she’d gotten it all wrong. Yeah, Haven had it right—something’s, like weird magical feelings, were hard to put into words. “Does that make any sense?”
“Perfect sense, actually.” Zia nodded. “You should feel a connection with your fellow witches because your core being is joined to the Elements. Just because you haven’t touched on those powers doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”
Made sense, she supposed.
Zia picked off a piece of lint on her skirt before she flicked it onto the grass, and added, “I also don’t know what will happen once your witch powers are released, or what will trigger it. I’ve never seen a witch come into her magic so late in life.”
Nexi frowned. “Are you trying to scare me?” Her panic rose to near lethal levels, heart skipping a beat. “If so, it’s working.”
“No, I’m not trying to scare you, but trying to prepare you.” Zia took Nexi’s hand, giving it a firm squeeze. “Please don’t worry. If you cannot control your magic on your own, I can help you.”
Big relief.
She stared at Zia’s hand over top of hers and noted how comfortable she felt with Zia. How much it wasn’t weird having Zia holding her hand, which hit her as strange. She didn’t have a soul-sister bond with Zia, and she knew very little of the Mistress of Witches, but there was something there—a glaringly obvious deep connection.
“We were soul sisters,” Zia whispered.
Nexi lifted her head. “Pardon?”
“Your birth mother, Tillie, and I were soul sisters.” Zia released Nexi’s hand and her voice thickened. “Did you know that?”
“No, I’m sorry, no one told me.”
In all actuality, she knew little about her birth mother, except two things: she was dead and her death had driven Drake to send Nexi into the Earthworld. He’d lost his love due to the violence. He wouldn’t lose a daughter as well, or so he had told her. Not that she wasn’t curious about Tillie, but the heartbreak Drake suffered when he talked of her birth mother made her hesitate.
“You’d like to know more about Tillie?” Zia asked.
Nexi eyed Zia, full of suspicion. “You know at first I thought you were intuitive, but there’s no way you can only be that, so spill. Can you read my mind? Is that one of your magical powers?”
Zia nodded. “I can always read into the minds of others through touch. With you, however, it’s different.” She hesitated, seeming to choose her words carefully. “You have vivid thoughts, and you send me messages telepathically.”
“I do not.” Nexi gasped.
Zia grinned. “You do.”
“That’s bizarre, and I’m not sure I like that.” Suffering a serious case of heebeejeebies, Nexi shook out her hands, ridding herself of the creepiness crawling through her veins. “Why am I doing that, and how do I make it stop?”
Zia’s eyebrows creased with her frown. “I’m afraid to say I can’t stop it, not until I understand why it’s happening, and right now, I don’t.” She hesitated, giving Nexi a long look, then added, “On some level, I suspect it could be that your mother and I were soul sisters, and that bond has developed in another way in her daughter.”
That made sense. Kind of.
“The other part of me wonders if it’s your magical abilities coming through. I’ve never had a connection like this before. So, it is odd, and I can only make assumptions as to why I can read you without touch.”
Nexi pondered that exact thought herself, glancing out at the meadow and watching the leaves of a willow tree sway in the wind. She turned to Zia. “Do you mean that it’s one of my gifts, so to speak? That I have the power to send telepathic messages?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Zia admitted. “I had wondered that myself, but if it was one of your gifts, then you should do it with every witch, not only me.”
Nexi rubbed her eyes. Why couldn’t any of this be simple?
“Don’t stress about this.” Zia patted her leg in her reassuring way. “Right now, we’re only taking guesses on who you are as a witch. Once you come into your magic, things will make more sense.”
“Yeah, right,” she muttered.
As much as she figured nothing would ever make sense again, and regardless of the old pain that sank its fangs into her, or of the uncertainty of the future ahead of her, she knew she needed to hone every skill she had as a supernatural. For all that she’d lost. For the sacrifices so many had made. For the revenge she hungered.
She lifted her head. “All right, give me the lowdown on my witchy mom.”
Chapter Eight
Three weeks of training had passed, and Hell would’ve been more enjoyable, or so Nexi assumed. Her fighting skills had improved, but they were nowhere near Kyden’s level, and she would’ve given her left pinky finger to kick his ass.
In their training sessions, Kyden no longer took it easy on her. He had increased his force with harder pushes, grabbing limbs and even some light smacks to her thighs, and she damn well tried to keep up.