The Prophecy

Chapter Eight

First I was depressed because I couldn’t do magic, then I was depressed because I was overwhelmed with having too much magic and I’ve only had it for ten minutes, I needed to toughen up. I’m not going to let this take me down, I am strong. I walked out onto the porch, down the steps and stood in the middle of the driveway, raised my arms to my sides palms up and closed my eyes and concentrated… I did what my mother always told me to do and I focused on the elements around me, I felt the earth under my feet, I felt the wind blowing my hair across my face, I listened to the sound of the creek on the side of the property and I felt the heat of the sun beating down on my shoulders. I may not have my full range of powers but I was going to see if I could tell which element was my true path. I felt something rising from my belly, I held onto that feeling, I pulled from it and focused it outward eyes still shut allowing only what I could feel around me into my mind and asked the Goddess to guide me. 

Suddenly the light from the sun beneath my eyelids faded, I opened them to see grey clouds moving in from the north, I continued to push my powers outward beckoning to the elements, asking them to come forward. This was what my mother told me to do after I turned 16 when we tried to see which element I would specialize in and study the most for my devotion ceremony after I reached my 18th birthday. I did exactly what I had a year before, I ignored the looming clouds, I looked past the drizzle of rain that began to fall on my face and I felt my aura emanating from my very being, I could see it glowing bright and on instinct raised my arms above my head and closed my eyes again. I felt the wind pick up and start to blow my loose strands of hair back and forth on my face. Then thunder clapped through the sky, eyes open I saw the clouds now swirling above me, then the lightening came. I jumped back as it struck the ground 20 feet in front of me. “Whats going on out here?” I turned and saw Loretta and Waylon running from inside the house to stand beside me. Waylon took me in his arms as if to shield me. “Oh god child,” Loretta said, “Are you doing this?” I saw the fear clearly on her face, her hand on her forehead shielding her eyes from the rain. “STOP Echo! Stop this now! You don’t know anything about this stop it before it gets out of control!” She yelled above the wind that continued to blow harder than it had a minute before. 

“I DON’T KNOW HOW!” I yelled back. “AHHHH!” I Screamed as lightening hit the ground again too close for comfort. This time it hit the tree I had shook by throwing Waylon at it earlier and some of the branches sparked fire. “What do I do!!!!!” I yelled again, “Help me fix this!” I begged. Waylon bent down to speak directly into my ear.

“Look at the flames, feel them inside of you. Now become one, do you feel it?” I shook my head yes. “Imagine it’s in your hand, look directly into it and imagine yourself closing your hand and snuffing it out. Do it for real if you have to, hold out your hand.” I did as he instructed, I reached my hand out towards the tree palm up and focused on the flames before me, I felt the heat in my blood and bones and I slowly closed my fingers into a fist and watched as they died out until they were nothing but smoke rising into the air from the charred branches.

Just then we saw a truck pulling up the long driveway, Athen pulled up and jumped out, “What the hell was that? Are you guys ok?” He looked from Ms. Loretta over to me and Waylon realizing I was wrapped in his brothers arms for an instant I was his blue eyes flash dark. 

“Come here sweetness we will explain everything.” Ms Loretta grabbed his hand and pulled him into the house. I continued to breathe in heavy rough boughs until finally Waylon spoke. 

“You need to make sure you don’t try anything like that until my Mom and Dad get back Peaches, till then I’’ll make sure to keep a close eye on you.” Instinctually I pulled myself closer to him and buried my head in his chest. 

“I promise I won’t do any magic until Marg and Arthur get back.” He placed his hand under my chin and pulled me to look up into his eyes. He bent down and gently kissed me gently. For a moment my stress and fear melted away into his lips.

‘I think you could do with a rest girl, let’s get you inside.” He dropped my face and instead grabbed my face and lead me away from the mess I had created. 

We entered the kitchen and Loretta was just finishing up telling Athen everything he had missed in the few short hours he had been away from the house.”Well christ ya’ll couldn’t wait till I got back for all the action?” His eyes sparkled playfully with mischief. “Why don’t I whip us all something for lunch? Echo you go sit down and relax you’ve already had enough excitement for today I think.” 

“That sounds great, thank you.” I sighed and went to sit at the center island, Waylon went to the fridge and poured me some sweet tea and sat it in front of me. I must have gotten lost in my own thoughts there for a while because before I knew it Loretta had come and softly grabbed my shoulders. 

“Come on now, lunch is ready in the other room lets go get a bite.” We all ate quietly, I figured everyone would want to sit and scold me for not listening to my uncle but no. Finally it was Waylon who broke the silence.

“I know we are all thinking it, but what exactly were you doing Echo?” Everyone turned to look at me and I felt my face flush with embarrassment for being put on the spot. I tried to collect my thoughts, and finally just told the truth.

“I was trying to do what my mother had me do a year ago when I was supposed to receive access to my full range of powers. I tried to concentrate and call forth my dominant element…” I searched their faces one at a time and waited for a response but no one said anything. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, “I didn’t try and do what I did, I’m sorry for scaring you guys I scared myself too. I don’t quit understand exactly what happened.”

Finally Loretta spoke up, “Echo my love you don’t see what you did?” Her voice barely above a whisper. I c****d my head confused.

“Yeah, I screwed up and lit a tree on fire. I freaked everyone out, not even a full day of having my magic partially restored and I still suck at this.”

“Honey…” She continued. “You don’t suck at this, quite the opposite, what you did out there demonstrated more power than I’d ever seen. I’ve never even seen one of the Elders summon a storm like that, but what I mean is do you realize what happened when you tried to draw out your element?” I shook my head no, “Sweet heart, all four of them answered your call. You didn’t have a single element come to you, you drew out air, fire, water and even the earth when you did what you did. I’ve never seen a witch in this age do this.” Slowly realizing what she was saying I felt my breath come in faster shorter spurts until I was having a full on panic attack. Athen and Waylon jumped from the table to be by my side. 

“Echo calm down it’s ok.”

“We are going to help you it’s going to be fine.”

“s**t what do we do?”

“Go get her some cold water.”

“I.. was… I can’t… this isn’t…” I could coherently finish my thoughts. Athen came back with a glass of ice water and I gulped it down while Waylon and Ms. Loretta rubbed my arm and back to try and settle me. After a bit I was able to take control again and tried to speak again. “What does this mean? I’m not even fully unbound what does this MEAN?” 

“We don’t know. But we will help you find out.” Said Athen. 

After my episode I went back to my room, talked to Bianca about everything that was weighing on me and she comforted me and calmed me more. I laid down and must have fallen asleep because I awoke to the sound of loud voices downstairs. I ran down to investigate and saw Aunt Marg and Uncle Arthur were back with Callen. I realized I had fallen asleep yesterday afternoon and awoke the next morning. As I came down the stairs to meet them everyone stopped and turned to look in my direction. As I surveyed everyones faces I stopped at the landing because we had a guest,  he was tall and had long arms and legs, salt and pepper hair cut into a blunt bob style that stopped at his chin his eyes were such a dark brown they almost looked black and it accented his caramel colored skin. I didn’t even have a chance to speak before the man stepped forward and grabbed my hand. “Hello Echo, My name is Mikhail. I’m the elder that helped your mother cast the spell that bound you when you were a child. I think it’s time we had a little chat.”