Witch in Hiding (#1 in the Witches Trilogy) (EDITING)

Sixteen: Premonitions

"I was in the library studying. Esther was there, drawing. She saw me and came up to me. Then she—" Abby hesitates. "Anyway, I told her to go away, I was busy. Then a dragon appeared out of nowhere. She—it—attacked me, and I had to use dust to get away—" she makes the same wrist-wringing action I saw the other day, except this time she's wearing a bracelet made of silvery glass beads. "I—I've seen her before."

She doesn't say anything else, so I offer, "uh, in school?"

She shakes her head. "In my... dreams."

"Dreams."

"Elves have psychic powers, too," Jess supplies.

Abby nods weakly. "I get premonitions. I'm not good at controlling them, but I get them, and... I saw Esther, talking to someone, like she was taking instructions..." She hesitates. "And there was another guy there, he called the other person 'young master'."

Jess frowns. "Who's the other person."

"I don't know. Someone small. Our age, maybe. She was wearing a cloak and a hood. Who does that? She had dark magic—the shadows clung to her. Or maybe that was my imagination. I don't know!"

Mel sits back, troubled. "We should be more worried about Esther."

"She's a fairy," Abby says, "a dark fairy."

"We should go to the fairy realm." De bites her lip. "We're supposed to. Report dark fairies. That's what we all agreed to do."

"Hang on," I say. I feel bad about interrupting, but I feel like it's something I need to understand. "Dark fairies?"

Abby stares at me, like, are you stupid? Jess quickly takes me aside. "Dark magic," she says. "The magical manifestation of evil. Powers that corrupt and destroy. Most magic is neutral—they can be used either way, depending on the intention of the user. Some magic is considered 'light' magic, like healing—powers that only do good. Then there's dark magic, magic that can only harm." Her expression darkens. "Dark creatures... are creatures that deliberately force their magic to develop that way. And in the process, they change, too. They're usually more powerful, but at the cost of... humanity. Using dark magic once in a while—that won't do anything to you. But letting it consume you... that changes you." She shudders. "Most magical communities don't condone it. They'll hunt down creatures who go dark. But it's hard to police—dark creatures have their own alliances. And then there's all the..." she gestures vaguely at me. "People who don't have alliances, who don't abide by specific laws."

Mom said the same thing. There's a lot wrong with magical politics, I assume, but it seems none of them want to cooperate enough to change anything. And now this whole dark magic thing. I suppose I should have expected it. I've read enough books and watched enough movies, and taken a semester of physics—every action has its equal opposite reaction. Or rather, every magic has its equal opposite force.

But Esther?

Wait.

Esther.

"Esther's trying to kill me, too." All of them look up at me. "Last year. She sent me a card... on my birthday. It said one year left, and then in Latin, farewell forever. I asked her about it, but she said it was a commissioned piece, that she didn't know who'd sent it..."

"She sent it." Abby said fiercely. "I don't know why she wanted to kill me—but she'd kill you, too."

"One year left?" De asks, concerned. "That's your thirteenth birthday. That's—"

"Yeah. I know." A heavy unease settles upon us. "So what do we do now?"

Jess shakes her head slightly. "What can we do?"

"Contact the fairy realm." Mel looks around challengingly, daring us to say otherwise. "Right?"

"Right," De says. She exhales with a long, drawn-out breath. She's staring at Abby, staring at Jess. "Right."