Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
“Be careful what you wish for, baby witch,” Aunt Lyrica warned. “Sometimes when your wishes come true, you realize they weren’t what you expected.”
***
We’d been sitting here under the tree for a while, and I was getting impatient about what today’s lesson was going to be, but I tried not to show it because I knew she’d make me wait even longer.
But then she pulled out a frosted glass bottle and squeezed its sparkled pink atomizer and a pungent loam-like scent hit my nose as a dusty haze swirled around me.
“What are you-” I started to ask.
“Hush,” she commanded in a sharp whisper. “They’ll be unable to see you, but this won’t mask our voices.” She spritzed again in front of her own face, and I watched as the dusty vapor wrapped around her before shimmering and then disappearing, taking her with it.
She instantly blanked out of my view.
I clamped my mouth shut and held my breath, unsure of what was about to happen. And then I lifted my hand in front of my face and saw nothing, so I stretched to grab a blossom from about two feet away and could only see a blossom, not my own hand, so dropped it and swallowed a gasp. I couldn’t see the blossoms on my lap but felt for them and they were still there. Whoa.
It was day three with her and I was thinking yes, we were finally getting somewhere. Up until this point it had been a lot of her talking and me listening. Talking about how I can harness energy from the earth, the sky, from water, and trees. Telling me about how energy begets more energy, so I’ll have to think about where energy comes from and learn how to wield it. She told me intention counted for a lot, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t screw something up royally even if you had the right intention going into it. You could gather energy and spend it in the wrong place, finding yourself tapped out when you most needed it. She told me I’d learn to communicate with my surroundings to see where energy might be available, where there might be a deficit and talked about practicing as part of my daily regimen so that I could bank energy and goodwill. I’d learn to read signs in the sky, the stars, the sun, the surroundings. I’d work with my sisters, particularly Vivi who would get new assignments for us outside the scope of the already active roster in the coven’s ledgers. There were rules and guidelines for us on how to conduct our work. I’d learn about directing energy, using ingredients, and crafting safe spells and potions to help with our work.
And I couldn’t wait for all of it, which was a problem, because Aunt Lyrica told me patience was an essential ingredient. I had to meditate on what needed to be done and the best way to go about doing it. And then I’d need to be careful, meticulous, because lives, love, and futures could depend on me.
My sisters’ birthday gifts to me had been a mortar and pestle, a set of glass jars that I’d be able to fill from Aunt Lyrica’s greenhouse, a ledger and grimoire set with an assortment of quills and inks, some pretty crystals, candles, a small cast iron cauldron, a deck of tarot cards, and a stack of botanical reference materials. And Aunt Lyrica told me I’d learn things that couldn’t be written down, that could never be shared with anyone outside a select few, but said I’d have to be religious about notations in my ledgers. Where I cast spells, where I interfere. I had to secure my ledgers and grimoires as well. I was responsible for the contents.
She had all sorts of crystals, potions, and herbs in her back room at the drycleaning shop. She was also well-stocked upstairs in her apartment, along with her van. She drove it home that you had to be prepared.
She had a greenhouse on the roof terrace, and it was a beautiful jungle of plants that were essential to the coven, and I couldn’t wait to take my fill. I’d spent a lot of time touching things, explaining how things made me feel. Asking and answering questions. No, I couldn’t have a broom yet and though I couldn’t ride it through the sky, but I could use it to sweep away bad energy and old spells. Yes, I’d need a wand but not yet. I had a lot to learn first.
When she finally told me yesterday that she believed I’d be a spell-writer at minimum and that she suspected I had further gifts, too, that she’s believed this all my life, I was practically busting to try it out. It felt like the truth to me, like I’d always known it, too, which was strange, but that’s how I felt. I felt like my life was finally beginning.