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“I’m literally only three minutes older than you,” I mumble, annoyed that she keeps bringing it up.
“Oh, hush. I’m older, so I’m smarter. I also know when my brother is upset about something. So, tell me why you’re acting even more sad than usual.”
I stop writing phrases in my worn-out notebook and let it fall onto my lap. She looks at me like she knows everything, like she already knows the answers. That doesn’t surprise me because she thinks she knows everything. But this time, she doesn’t know what’s bothering me. I usually talk to her about everything, but I’ve been shutting her out while I feel more guilty than ever.
“I don’t feel sad,” I say quietly, not looking them in the eye.
“Okay, that makes sense. You’re writing sad poetry because you’re not sad.”
I yell at her, “You know what?” “You don’t know anything! I don’t have to tell you everything. I’m dealing with a lot right now, and I don’t need you to sit here and act like you understand everything!” By the time I’m done with my mini-rant, my chest is rising and falling quickly with each breath.
“Hey,” she says softly and takes my hand. “You’re right. I don’t get it. Please help me get it.”
I did. I told her about my friendship with Calla and how bad I felt about her dying soon. At that point, she came up with a plan. This is a dumb plan that will probably get us killed, but it’s the only one that might save Calla and me from losing someone I care about. I stopped worrying about how it will affect me. The coven will be angry, but I don’t care. In any case, I’m stronger than most of them.
That night, Jaxon and his pack members decide to attack the coven headquarters and demand that we undo the spell. Elise and I portal out of my bedroom and into the lion’s den or wolf’s den.
Our magic is stronger when we work together as twins. I’m scared of getting my face clawed off, but I’d do anything for Calla. I don’t want to say how much she means to me.
Elise grabs my hand and squeezes it hard. “Are you ready?” she asks. I look into her brown eyes, which are just like mine, and I suddenly feel very thankful for her. She doesn’t care if Calla lives or dies, but she’s willing to put her own life on the line to make me feel better.
Our family didn’t show us love when we were growing up. Our mom is tough and won’t forgive us. She taught us from a young age that we are above all other creatures and that we should always let them know this. There aren’t many witches and warlocks left because a lot of us are born with little or no power. There aren’t many people with strong magic anymore because the bloodlines have been so mixed up. Elise and I are one of a kind.
“I’m ready.”
I close my eyes and we start to chant.
“Videtur. Inveniet Calla. Videtur. Inveniet Calla.”
I can feel the magic coming to life under my fingers after saying the words a few more times. The usual blue color or energy spreads out from us and starts to shimmer as it works. I feel the usual nausea that comes with going through a portal, but after doing this kind of interdimensional travel enough times, I’ve learned how to hold in my vomit.
As I thought, Elise and I portal to the pack house. You can portal to a place or to a person. I wasn’t sure where we would end up since we ported to Calla. It’s easy to tell we’re in the pack house, and more specifically, in the Alpha’s bedroom, just by looking around the masculine bedroom.
As soon as the magic stopped, a deep growl filled the room. Elise casts a spell to silence everyone before the noise gets too loud, just like we practiced.
“Silence!”
This spell makes the room look like it’s wrapped in bubble wrap. No one outside the room can hear anything going on inside, so if there are more guards outside, they won’t know anything is wrong. Wolves have that dumb mindlink, so we do another spell to stop it.
“Somnum,” I say quietly, and with a quick movement of my wrist, a light blue magic covers the werewolf I was supposed to befriend. I’m glad I never had to talk to him. He seems WAY too hyper, and it would have been hard to be friends with him.
Skyler falls to the ground like a bag of bricks, and his head hits the floor on the way down.
“Oof, that’s going to hurt when he wakes up later,” Elise says with a laugh as she cracks her knuckles and looks at Calla. Calla looks scared, but when she sees me, she gets mad. She kneels down in front of the werewolf and starts to listen for his breathing. She stands up and storms over to me when she realizes he’s still alive.
She screams, “What did you do to him?!” I think she thinks she’s scaring me, but she’s not at all scary. But if she needs to scream at me to calm down, I let her do it. She pushes me hard right away. I’m stronger than a person, but the action caught me off guard and I fell back a few steps before getting my balance back.
People don’t usually stand up to me. I can easily hurt almost any kind of supernatural being, and because I have this power, others can feel it and won’t attack me. A weak person in front of me thinks she can hurt me. It’s almost funny. I don’t listen to everything she’s yelling at me, but I do hear words and phrases like “how dare you,” “nightmares,” and “stupid warlock.” I’m glad she found out I’m a warlock. I don’t have to keep anything from her anymore.
She tries to push me again, but Elise’s magic stops her.
Elise’s magic sends Calla flying across the room and into a wall, where she stays floating. Elise slowly walks over to her, as if she’s stalking her prey.
“Don’t ever touch my brother like that.” She keeps moving slowly across the room until she reaches Calla, who is shaking. I can see that Calla is trying to be brave, but she is clearly scared. I don’t want to see this any more. We’re here to help Calla, not scare her more.
“Elise, put her d-”
“Are you tired?” Elise asks, putting her face right in front of Calla’s. “Do you want to take a nap?” Calla’s eyes get big as she slowly shakes her head.
Elise laughs in her face without holding back. She backs up to bring magic to the surface and show off the blue color at her fingertips. “I can do the same thing to Sleepy over there,” she says, pointing to the werewolf’s body. “One word, and you’ll be asleep.”
“Let me go, you evil witch!” Calla screams as she tries to break free from the spell. She is kicking her legs in the open air as she tries to get free. As she keeps moving, tears of anger fill her eyes.
“Okay, fine. Do it your way.”
“Elise, don’t you dare—” I try to stop her from letting Calla go, but she lets her go anyway. Calla falls to the ground and lands hard on her knees, which already looked like they were scraped up. The cuts open up again, and I can’t help but want to help her. I hate it when she hurts. When Elise goes up to Calla again, I lose it.
“Rigescunt indutae!” Elise stops in her tracks and can’t move. This spell I cast makes the person who gets it stop moving. Elise gives me a nasty look. She is clearly upset, but she will get over it. She was going to hurt Calla even more, and I didn’t come here to do that.
I feel guilty and sad when I see Calla hurt. The bags under her eyes look like the bright stuff girls put on their faces when you look at her now. She looks tired all over, and her eyes are red around the edges.
“Before you say anything else, I just want you to know that I’m sorry for everything. I didn’t want to cast that spell on you. My coven made me do it, and I know that doesn’t make up for anything. We came here to undo it. I care about you, Calla.”
I thought Calla would do something, but it wasn’t what she actually did. She came right up to me and slapped me in the face. Tough. I quickly put my hand on my face as I held it. That hurts! I guess I deserved that. Next, this girl gives me a hug. I’m really confused now. She hits me and then hugs me? What’s going on?
I hug her back instead of asking her what’s wrong. I’m just glad she forgave me. I feel better already, and a small smile spreads across my face. Her hug makes me feel warm in a new way, and she’s so small and cute. She lets go of me and looks me in the eye.
“You promise you didn’t want to?” she asks in a small, hopeful voice. I want nothing more than to stop her tears. Her eyes are shiny.
“I promise. I’ll tell you everything, but first I need to break the spell so you won’t be in danger anymore.”
She nods her head in thanks and bites her lip in excitement. I have to make myself stop thinking about the movement. She has a werewolf partner! And she’s a person! I can’t think these things about her.
I slowly turn to Elise as I get rid of the bad thoughts.
“I’m going to unfreeze you now. You won’t hurt Calla in any way, or I’ll hurt you worse. Do you understand?”
Elise rolls her eyes, which is all she can do because she’s frozen. I take that as a yes, so I unfreeze her. She trips and falls back, but she doesn’t fall to the ground.
“You shithead!” she yells, and then she rolls her neck and cracks her joints. “I’ll never understand why you love this mortal so much.” She moves closer to Calla to cast the spell, which we need to do by touching her, but Calla backs up as far as she can and looks to me for help.
“It’s okay. She won’t hurt you. We’re both a little tired from the portal, the sleep spell, and the silencing spell. I need her help to undo it.”
She nods slowly and then looks at the werewolf sleeping on the floor. “Can you wake him up, though? What if he’s hurt?” I don’t like how caring she is, but I calmly explain that if I wake Skyler up, he’ll tell the guards through mindlink that other supernaturals are attacking her. She does what she is told.
We put our hands on each of her shoulders and close our eyes as we bring our magic to the surface. It’s harder to do because we’ve both cast a lot of spells and are tired. Just when I think my magic is working, the door flies off its hinges.
Great.
Calla’s point of view
My head is spinning when Felix and Elise suddenly appear in the middle of the room. I didn’t expect people to just show up in Jaxon’s bedroom out of nowhere. I guess a witch and a warlock can make portals. Check that box for supernatural powers.
Felix showing up now, after not talking to me all week, made me mad. I would have hoped he would have said something, even if it was just to apologize, since he knew he was the cause.
Nothing. He didn’t give me anything. Then he and his twin show up, and the first thing they do is They cast a spell on my best friend! Before I could think about anything, Skyler was asleep on the floor. How could he?!