Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON ONE (Completed!)

Part 4.3

I flop onto my bed with a deep groan. A peppermint-coloured hummingbird flits between my shoulders, blowing clouds of ice onto my skin. It's my coolness charm, and I'll need it if Addy wants to crank the heat up this high. Witches were not made for the heat.

Addy chews on a butter-yellow curl. Her amber eyes are shadowed with concern. "You need to read this, Lily," she says, handing me a leaf of paper.

It's an essay written in a child's chicken scrawl. Addy taps the top of the page with her finger. Her ring, a turtle made entirely of emeralds, clicks against the paper gently.

"It's Ivy's essay."

My face twists into a cringe. Ivy. That's not the name I want to hear.

Addy's emerald turtle takes a shy peek at my hummingbird. The hummingbird sticks its beak up and flits away with a shimmer of scorn. The turtle whimpers and clambers up Addy's sleeve.

"Now now," Addy says sternly, "you're supposed to be a ring. It's no good hiding up there."

The turtle squeaks.

Addy strokes the emeralds on its chin sympathetically. "Don't be like that. You're just as good as that bird. You're an amazing, eye-poppingly gorgeous ring. That's right, I said it. And I mean it. So come back down and shine."

The turtle nudges Addy's finger. It obliges, this time with a proud swagger to its scramble.

"Addy, you don't need to worry about the ring's feelings," I sigh. "It's just a charm, made of magic. In a couple of hours it'll go poof! and vanish."

Addy pouts. "I know...it's just...your bird was bullying it, and it wasn't very nice."

I lean back on my pillow. "That's what it's like with everyone," I admit. "The spell always turns out that way."

That is because your unfriendly personality taints the magic.

I roll my eyes. It's my cat Onyx, also known as "ugh" and "idiot cat". He leaps onto my bed and settles in between my feet.

"Read the essay, Lil," Addy urges.

"Alright, alright." I sit up and begin.

"Silicon tritetride, also known by the common name fire quartz, is a crystal of unknown origin. It consists of one silicon atom and two tetrogen atoms. Fire quartz was introduced to the planet during an historic meteor shower. It does not form naturally on this planet due to the absence of tetrogen gas in our atmosphere.

Before the advent of synthetic fire quartz, planetary supplies of this crystal were limited. Nowadays fire quartz can either be created in the laboratory, or formed via the dousing of silicon-rich earth with artificially-created tetrogen gas."

I put the essay down, confused. "I'm pretty sure this is all correct, Addy."

At that, Addy dumps a heavy gold-leafed tome in my lap, open to a page on fire quartz.

The exact same page on fire quartz.

Word for word.

"She copied," Addy says glumly. "Her grades are falling, and she won't talk to her friends as much. She's struggling, Lily."

A knot of anxiety flares in my throat. Ivy is struggling because she is grieving. Her older sister had been killed. By me.

I hate that it happened. But what I hate even more is the way I'm handling it. It's not that I'm upset and worrying about it all. In fact, I'm handling it rather well. And that's the thing.

I killed a person. In self defence, sure. But I killed her all the same, and it's like I've just...moved on. Sometimes it feels like I can't even remember the moment. Like the memory is a faraway scent that I can only catch a whiff of if I scrunch up my nose and really try.

It isn't supposed to be like this. I'm supposed to be a mess. I'm supposed to see Bronna's face every time I close my eyes. But I don't . Sometimes I see her in a dream, but she's always alive and doing something ordinary, like stirring a cauldron. As soon as she appears, the dream ends.

Onyx makes his way across the blankets to snuggle next to my chest. He's comfortingly warm, like a heated water bottle covered in night-hued fur. Ivy needs time to grieve, he tells us. But you must not dwell on the past, Lily.

I only wish I was.

Onyx doesn't like to talk about the past. We share a thousand years of it. Despite the folklore, there was only ever one witch on this planet. That witch is me. Reborn and remade and reborn, each time succumbing to the same fate - to turn to darkness.

You know the First Witch, an energy being who crash-landed on our planet a thousand years ago? That was the first me. And the Dark Witch, who struck fear into the hearts of humankind for a full hundred years? Yeah. Also me.

I don't have all of my previous reincarnations' memories yet, but I'm learning. And each time I learn, a little more darkness plants itself in my heart.

"I wish we could help her though," Addy says, still frowning at Ivy's essay. "Bronna's death was kind of our fault."

My fault, she means. If I hadn't been a witch, Bronna would still be alive.

"Maybe your mother could go back home," I grumble, too low for Addy to hear.

Addy's eyebrows shoot up.

Onyx sniggers into my sweater.

"I mean," I say quickly, "just for a visit. Not forever. Your mother's great. I love your mother."

Addy scratches her chin while Onyx continues to snigger.

"No ear rubs for you," I whisper to him. He rolls onto his side and gives me his biggest tuna-stained yawn.

I'm saved by the beeping of my communications monitor. Ruby's face appears on the screen, her amethyst eyes twinkling with mischief. "Lily," she grins. "Your appointments tomorrow morning are all cancelled."

"What?" I peer into the screen to frown at Ruby.

"That's right. You heard me. Cancelled. I'm taking them instead. Big Boss has a...special...assignment for you."

I stifle a groan. Big Boss was going to find himself in my little black book of enemies soon. "What is it this time? More aliens?"

Ruby smirks. "Wait and see."

The communication blinks out.

Another special assignment? Onyx muses. Last time you had a special assignment you ended up dooming the planet. Perhaps this time you can destroy the universe.

I glare at him.

Definitely no ear rubs.