Silverlake

Chapter 13

He spun me around so that he was pressed against my back and we were both facing into the forest.

"Let's start small," he stepped away from me and his glare intensified ever-so-slightly. I followed his gaze watching as a branch a yard away sparked and then caught fire. "Now put it out."

I let instinct take over, allowing my magic to finally branch on its own.

Nothing happened.

Sterling laughed and I felt my face turn red for a split second before my embarrassment turned into fury. I wasn't going to let him have this, this... this was mine.

I turned back to the fire. Magic ran along my veins and sparked the end of my fingertips, but it was no longer separate from me, it had become me.

I looked to the sky and waited. My hands reached out as if to grasp the flames just as the first clouds started to appear. Focusing on the growing flame, I willed the cloud closer and closer, fuller and fuller, until it stopped above the trees and let go rain.

"Woah." I thought I heard him mumble, but I wasn't finished. Once the flames were nothing but soaked ash I turned toward the sky once again and moved my hand in front of me. With a slight swish, the sole cloud grew into a sea of storm clouds that took over the light with a grey hue. Then, just as before I watched them and waited until rain too fell.

"Reese." I heard him but I was preoccupied with the clouds. There was something about the way that I could no longer disconnect from the magic, but instead, it felt as if it sat every present simply waiting for me to call it into action that made me feel powerful.

"Reese." I heard him call my name again but that wasn't what pulled me out of my trance. I snapped out of it because for the first time I thought Tanner might be right. Something bad was coming, and I could be it.

"Reese!" Sterling was beside me now and shaking me.

"I'm sorry, I don't know..."

"You're completely soaked."

"So are you," I laughed. He wasn't upset with me, if anything, judging from the playful gleam in his eye, he was more intrigued than ever.

We stood there in the rain for a moment before he daringly took a step closer to me and grabbed my waist. I didn't move, but instead, I let him pull me until his face was centimeters away from mine. I took a deep breath and felt the butterflies in my stomach flutter faster. Then, there in the rain, he kissed me, and despite everything I'd heard about him, I let him.

~~~~~~

"You're home late."

"I'm sorry, I got caught in the rainstorm," Katherine eyed me curiously. I could tell she was annoyed that I was late and that she wasn't going to let me off the hook that easy by the way she was roughly scooping piles of pasta onto our plates.

"Why were you even outside?" Luckily, my parents weren't at the table yet.

"I was meeting a friend, and it was nice out before the rain came." I could still feel the warmth of him against me. My entire being felt happy, and I knew that my lies were completely see-through.

"You're blushing, Seems like quite the friend," she winked at me before handing me my plate.

"Oh yes, you were with your friend, how is Sky?" My mom asked after overhearing the end of Katherine's comment.

"She's good. It was good. It was really good." My voice sounded musical and extremely girly.

"Hmm... so, what did you guys do?" Katherine innocently asked.

"Just studied," I smiled and tried to think of something that wasn't Sterling, unfortunately for me my thoughts went back to magic.

There was more to it than just what I could do. What I did outside today was nothing compared to what I could do, I could feel it. I could feel the power that came with it. There was a fire inside of me that wasn't innately good but that thrived off of being fed through magic.

"What did you study?" By this time we were all four sitting around the table.

"Katherine, leave your poor sister alone." My mother scolded her, but there was amusement in her voice. There was something about mothers that gave them the ability to read deeper into your lives and to truly know what was going on. That was their own kind of magic.

The rest of dinner went fast and smoothly. I kicked Katherine under the table any time she tried to make a snide comment, and when she wasn't looking I tried little things like twisting my fork through my pasta without moving my hands, and bigger things like switching around items on the table. Of course when my dad reached for his cup at the same time I went to move it causing it to spill all over him, I earned a fierce glare from him and a talking to from my mother. The summary was I was no longer allowed to do magic when Katherine was around.

I believe her exact words were, "for her safety." I couldn't help but laugh and she sent me to my room for the rest of the night.

My first instinct as soon as I closed the door was to call Sky and tell her what happened. I had her number dialed before I sat the phone back down on the charger and thought better of it. As much as she was going to say she was happy for me, she didn't like him. She thought she knew what was best for me. Everyone seems to know what is best for me, except for me, I don't even know me.

''''''''''

I woke up in the middle of the night to my phone ringing. I hated when I forgot to turn the sound off before bed. Groaning, I turned onto my side and pressed the phone to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Come outside?"

That woke me up. I sat up in my bed, "excuse me?"

"Reeeese, meet me outside, yeah?" It was Sterling.

"I'm surprised you didn't just walk in." I teased. I swung my feet off the bed and threw a sweatshirt on over my tank top.

"Your parents spell casted your house."

"Spell casted?"

I opened the door just as he was about to answer.

"It means they have spells guarding your house so other magic can't enter," he mumbled, pulling me against him before kissing me. I pulled back and stepped out of the porch light.

"Not that I'm complaining, but its two in the morning, we have school tomorrow-" he kissed me again. I playfully pushed him back again and finished me sentence, "and what are you doing here?"

"I needed to see you," I could get used to him being sweet.

"What's coming?"

"What?" He sat down on the porch and motioned for me to sit with him.

"What's coming? They said when we left my parents broke the barrier. And that I were...we were, meant to fight it off. I just don't know what it is," I leaned my head against his shoulder. I couldn't help a yawn escape.

"I'm not really sure. I don't have a triangle, I don't get to be on the inside, but what I do know is that they're parents aren't telling them the whole truth."