Black Wings

5. Tick Tock Goes the Clock

In the movies, teleportation always looked easy. And instantaneous. I was probably in that blue vortex of death for a solid fifteen minutes, falling sideways and screaming my butt off at the thunderous booms of black lightning. Kate was somehow nonplussed, staying upright with her arms crossed. Every time the lightning flashed too close for comfort, her left eyebrow would rise even higher. I had a feeling that it had more to do with the explicit nature of my screaming than the fact that her hair was singed in some places. I was not proud of what I shouted in that teleporting lighting void of death, but I felt like I should get a free pass for cursing considering the crappy day I had.

Finally, a pinprick of light appeared in the distance. Was I finally getting out of this hellhole? I suddenly felt an odd sucking sensation all over my body, as if I was being squeezed out of a balloon, and in a split second I was flailing and screaming on a wooden floor instead of the death vortex.

"You done?" Kate's harsh voice snapped me out of my panic.

I slowly raised my head and looked around her bedroom with a newer appreciation for her witchy decor. The dream catchers, mandala tapestries, and heaps of tarot cards were no longer just quirky decorations now.

"You..." I cleared my throat to get rid of the post scream voice. "You're a witch. You teleported us. Oh my god. I'm not crazy." It was one thing to deny the voice in my head and the stranger with wings. I couldn't possibly deny the fact that my best friend since eighth grade just used magic.

Kate gave me a 'what the hell' kind of look, with her arms still crossed. "I told you to quit the charade. It was okay before, but it's really fuc- freaking stupid now. Especially since I know you're a Caster, and you bloody well know I'm no witch."

"Huh? You just stuck me in a portal. It popped me out."

She whipped her hands out and kind of clenched her hands, like she wanted to choke me. "Are you bloody listening? Do you know that you put all of us in danger with the stunt you just pulled? The Council will be up our asses now. Oh, and the fuc- damn humans will be after us too. It'll be the damned Salem witch trials all over again."

Blood rushed to my ears. All I heard was Council. The cult that sent a man to kill me. How did Kate know about the Council? Was she part of their cult? If Kate was magic, was the cult magic too? Was she going to kill me with magic? I eyed her angry hazel eyes and clenchy hands. She looked like she wanted to kill me. I crab walked backwards into the wall behind me- thankfully the death vortex was gone- and curled into a ball.

"The- the Council?" I hated how weak my voice sounded. My best friend of five years absolutely could not be a murderous not-witch in a religious cult.

"Yes, the Council! Do you know what my parents went through to get us clearance for Earth? The stupid Council will force us back to Saelantra! Look! You made the frickin' news!"

She grabbed the remote on her nightstand and turned her mid-2000s box TV on to the local news channel, where Sharon the reporter was talking with her bright blue suit and coiffed blond hair.

"-are coming in that give credible evidence a high school student is responsible for this heinous crime. The CCTV footage that previously led us to believe Michael Gerand was the prime suspect failed to show the whole scenario." A grainy picture popped up of the pervy guy who shot me.

"Eyewitnesses now reveal that one young Lilian Donahue, a senior at Randon High School, may have been the bomber responsible for the deaths of at least three citizens at our local McDonald's. Melissa is on the scene now with a key witness." Three people dead? I absolutely, one hundred percent, did not kill three people. I didn't even remember what happened!