Aeipathy • Paul Lahote

Revealed

Estrella laughed lightly. "Sorry, Esme," she grinned. "I've just learned a lot about Carlisle, and your family, in school over the years. Of course, you being a very big clan in general calls for attention, but your lifestyle is discussed slightly more. It's very rare to find any of your kind to be like you, so we learn about you very often." The girl could tell the others were getting slightly tense, the two blondes a bit more so than others. 

"Carlisle," Rosalie hissed. "What's going on? There's another one?"

"I'll request you check your tone," Estrella snapped, glaring at the girl. "Whether you're talking about me, or my sister."

Rosalie began to march towards the girl, but was stopped a few feet away. Instantly, her face clouded with confusion and she tried to take another step, only to feel like she was running into a wall. Her eyes snapped up to the ginger who was staring her down. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Rosalie, I'll need you to calm down or leave," Carlisle commented, his voice soothing yet demanding. Rosalie simply huffed, returning to Emmett's side with her arms crossed.

"By the way, it's called witchcraft," Estrella laughed, looking at Rosalie. "It's a bit magical." Emmett laughed at her poor excuse at a joke, making most of the others crack a smile as well. "And it's something that doesn't get discussed with Bella."

"She doesn't know?"

Estrella turned to Carlisle and shook her head. "Other supernaturals are fine, but if the secret gets out to any sort of human, I face dire consequences, especially if I was the one who exposed it to her. I'd never be able to go back to the school again, and if it's a bad enough exposure that gets out to more than just family, people's memories get wiped and I get banned from practicing. It happened once to one of the upperclassmen when I was young. He decided to screw around at a local park and everything was moving with nothing there to be moving it and the entire neighbourhood saw. Everyone's memories had to be wiped, of course, which was a whole big ordeal. He was publicly shamed, his supplies were all taken away from him in front of the school, and he was put under watch to make sure he never practices magic again. If he does, he gets locked up."

"Damn," Emmett let out a long low whistle. "But like, do you have a wand?"

Estrella let out a snort. "I could wave around a stick, if you'd like," she offered with a grin. "We don't normally use wands or anything like that. Some people feel more comfortable using an item to reign in their powers and to help them focus, but it doesn't have to be a stick. One of my old roommates used her favourite pen, it was hilarious seeing her point a pen at people because they would duck or throw themselves to the side since no one could seem to remember what her favourite pen looked like."

"So, how do your powers work?" Jasper questioned. Everyone stared at her, hoping for an answer.

"Maybe you'll learn eventually," she laughed. "But right now, I expect I'm needed to save my sister, and I'm tired of talking about myself."

With that, she turned to climb the stairs, set on finding Bella and the pixie who had dragged her off.