The Daughter of the Woods

Chapter 12

"Where have you been?" she paces the kitchen as I sit on a metal foldout chair sitting in the living room.

"I told you, I went to a coffee shop!" I throw my hands in the air, fed up with this conversation.

"You were not at a coffee shop for six hours." She stops her walking back and forth and crosses her arms over her chest.

"I did this cool thing called 'making friends'! You should try it sometime." The minute I say that, I know she isn't going to take it well, but I'm so heated I can't hold back. Maybe I should have waited until I was calmer before I came back.

"I know you were in Central Park, and then you just weren't. You didn't even exit the park; you were just gone. Where did you go?"

My heart sinks, and my pulse rate increase dramatically. Shit, I think. The fear triggers my powers, which have been almost uncontrollable since the fight. What excuse can I come up with? Where did I go? "Hold on, are you tracking me?"

"That's not the point. Answer my question."

"Christine!" She hates when I use her real name. "You can't track me! That is an enormous violation of my privacy! And you wonder why I run away all the time? You expect me to stay when you're always doing things like this?"

"Tell me where you were."

"I wasn't anywhere! I was in the park! Your tracker must be defective," I spit. Again, my hands are shoved into my pockets, and I press them against my legs so she doesn't see that they're lit. I can feel my eyes are glowing, so I try to avert my glance from her. I think I notice the corners of her mouth curling into a hint of a smile, but I'm probably imagining it.

"I knew it." This time, I know she's smiling.

"Knew what?"

"Show me your hands." She holds hers out, waiting for me to put mine in them.

Fear rises up from my stomach, and I can start to see the light radiating off of my legs. "No." I start making my way to my room to calm down before she sees anything. I've kept this hidden for 15 years, I can't lose all of that now.

Right before I can make it into my room and lock the door, she grabs my arm and pulls my hand out of my pocket. I try to rip it away before she sees.

But no matter how fast I could rip it away, there was no hiding it now. That realization sets in as the expression on her face changes. I'm not sure what the expression is, and I don't give it a chance to fully change because my reflexes take over and I whip vine around her neck. She's shoved against the wall, and held up above the ground by her neck. She's wheezing a small bit but doesn't seem surprised. She seems... impressed.

"No need to show off, you can let me down now," she chokes out.

I don't know what to think. I slowly ease her to the ground. "You're... you're not the slightest bit surprised?"

"Quite the contrary, I'm impressed. You're strong, especially for being in the city."

"Wait, how long have you known?"

"That you're a Haphior? Don't be silly. I always knew. I wanted to test your strength by moving to the city, away from nature. Only the strongest of the Haphiors will survive away from their elements. I guess you've had help though, finding Magwood and all."

I'm speechless, but she isn't done.

"I was hoping it would have worked, and you would be one of the strongest. And judging by your inability to control your strength, you are!" She steps up to me and wraps me in an enthusiastic embrace. "I'm so proud of you, Abby. Obviously, you need some help with control, but I can help you with that. The trainers at Magwood are useless. They only teach you to suppress your powers, but you-" she rests her hands on my shoulders. "You are going to help us with your strength." She sees the confusion on my face. "You'll find out what I mean soon. But you need to know I love you. I didn't want to move you out here, I needed to be with the rest of my family, and I needed to test your strength."

"Who is the rest of your family?" is the only question out of hundreds I can form into words.

"You'll meet them in a few months, probably sooner. I'm sorry if I ever made you think I didn't care about you. I didn't have much of a choice." She hugs me again, and I cautiously hug back. Things are finally starting to make sense, for the first time in a while. Maybe ever.

I lay awake on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I'm running through all of the things that made me resent my Mom that I now realize were part of her "plan", whatever that is. I don't know how I'm going to face going back to Magwood, but I know I don't really have a choice.

To try and shut my mind up, I put in my headphones and turn on whatever music I was already listening to earlier. I've been sitting in my room on my phone for seven hours, but the night is still fairly young and I don't think I'll manage to get much sleep tonight. Though, I guess I haven't really gotten much since the move in general.