Star

Bird of Prey

It took her a while to find whatever was whispering her name.  She searched quickly, her curiosity gnawing at her. She trailed through the many rows of books, peeked between hundreds of shelves, but none of those places contained the source of the whispering.

Astara, Astara, Astara...

"Where are you?" She muttered, frustrated.

"You okay down there?" Breanna called down.

"All good!"

Astara sighed. She knew she should just leave it be and keep looking for the information Breanna, and she herself, wanted. But something in her just couldn't move past the voice. It almost seemed familiar...And besides, she wasn't one to just "let go" of things.

Come find me Astara...

Creepy. She definitely had to find it now.

"Come on..." She whispered, going deeper into the massive library.

Astara, Astara, Astara...

She stopped; it was definitely louder now.

So she kept going deeper and deeper into the vast sea of books. The farther she went, the clearer the voice got. So she kept going.

It wasn't until she got to the very back of the library that the whispering become less of a whisper and more of a loud calling. It's voice seemed to reach out to her, pulling her towards it, guiding her to exactly where it wanted her to be. She found herself in the farthest corner. And there it was, right in front of her.

A book.

A huge, old, almost falling apart, book.

Open me...

Open me...

Almost as if obeying, she got to her knees and carefully pulled out the book. She nearly choked on the cloud of dust that flew out. She stared at the purple cover of the book and read the strange title.

Sceleratus Ales and Voltur

What the heck does that mean, She thought to herself.

Might as well find out. She opened the book.

The pages were worn and yellow; some of them even almost fell out. She had no idea what she was looking for, or why this book had called out to her(a book calling out her name didn't even seem to faze her anymore), but she did know one thing: This was a spellbook.

And not the kind fairy godmothers use.

These were twisted spells that made ones stomach churn. Horrible incantations that sounded like the words would leave a foul taste in your mouth. No, these were not the kind of spells good, decent people do.

Which is why Astara's gut twisted when she realized how drawn she was to them.

Holding the book in her hands made her feel...powerful. Like she could do anything, like she could never be angry again. Because all the things that made her angry—like school, her parents, and the freezing cold—didn't feel so...big with this book in her hands. No, it made her feel bigger. Like she could squash those things down to the ground and smile all the while.

And she loved feeling that way, and that chilled her to the bone.

Her fingers traced the words, savoring them almost. They were horrible, yes, but yet she felt like she had the power to do them. With this book she could prove Leo wrong, that you don't need some stupid mark to be capable of magic. Because she could do these spells, she just knew she could.