The Power of Witches ✓

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Noa waited patiently as Cyrus called for an Uber to take them back to Thornheardt. School seemed pointless. Noa almost killed a person with her... magic. She wouldn't even be allowed back.

"Why do you have to say words? Spells?" she asked. "But mine just happen?"

"You're one of the most powerful witches in the world right now," Cyrus shrugged. "You're untrained, you're an emotional teenager..."

"We're the same age."

"Doesn't matter. My parents trained me in witchcraft before they died. I don't let my emotions get the best of me."

Noa took that into consideration. She thought of the past few days, where her experiences with magical phenomenon were plentiful--times when she was her most emotional. Her experiences had been fueled by anger, embarrassment, sadness. She thought of her first ever experience with magic, where eight year old Noa was upset about some stupid toy her foster brother broke.

She had been so upset that she threw a whole temper tantrum. That was the day every window in the Henry household had been broken. No one knew why. Some freak accident. But now it all made sense. She had been using magic.

"So how do I control it?" she asked.

"We'll teach you, Lily and me."

"And how did you know? About me?"

The car that was supposed to be bringing them home seemed to materialise out of nowhere. After double checking license plate with the app and verifying the driver's name, they slid into the backseat together. Noa was hungry for more information, but figured maybe the backseat of an Uber was not the best time to ask.

It took twenty four minutes to reach the gates of Thornbrandt. "We'll walk from here," Cyrus said, reaching for the handle of the car.

"Are you sure, sir?"

"I'm sure, thanks."

They both exited the vehicle and went through the gate, beginning the quarter mile trek down the road to the house. Noa pondered her next question, until she realised Cyrus never answered her last.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"Lily suspected."

"She doesn't even know me."

Cyrus stifled a laugh. "Look, Lily's not the most rule friendly person in the world. She stole your file."

"My foster record?" Noa grew irritated. "That's personal."

"You hid it under your pillow."

"Yeah, why was she near my pillow?" The leaves begin to rustle with a slight breeze. Noa felt burning in her hands, her wrists.

"Look," Cyrus spoke softly, staring pointedly at Noa's hands. She glanced down. They were red hot, like she'd been a fire poker too long in a fireplace.

"What's happening?"

"You're emotional. Angry." Cyrus smiled a big toothy grin. "You're fiery."

Noa laughed, and her irritation dissipated with the heat. "I hate you!"

"She brought your record to me. She was insistent that you were the Redford baby."

"Redford?" Noa stopped walking, tugging on Cyrus's sweater arm to tell her more.

"Your mom. She was Amelia Redford. She was a good witch. A friend of the family. I wasn't born yet when the sacrifice happened, and I was really young when her trial occurred."

"Her trial? Why?"

"She broke witch law. When the Council decrees something, you don't hide from it or run. They're doing it for the greater good."

"They were going to kill me." Noa was desperate to protect her life. And if someone wanted her dead sixteen years ago, what did they want now?

"And that's why the war broke out. After the trial, there was a huge disagreement on how this issue should've been handled. Some say you should've been a child of the Council. Raised by them, taught by them. Some say they should've let Amelia handle it. Some said the baby should've died."

"And that's how your parents died."

"In a fire lit by the Council, yeah. Most of the rebels from the war were in the fire. Kind of put an end to the war."

Noa felt her chest begin to burn with anxiety. She continued to walk. There was an explanation--sure. A reason why her whole life up to this moment had just been disappointment and discontent. But now there was a new reason for her to feel sadness and anxiety: she caused people to die. She caused kids just like her to be orphaned. Her own mother was still out there, and she hadn't come back. Too busy fighting a war over... what? What now was she fighting for?

Thornheardt came into view through the trees, and eventually they stood outside the steps. "I'd rather never known," Noa whispered. "About any of this."

"What do you mean?"

Noa shrugged. "I've gone my whole life accepting that something was wrong with me. That it was best to keep to myself and nobody would care. But now there's this whole war that went on because of me. You lost your parents because of me. My mom went on some trial because of me."

"We would've fought a war even if you didn't exist, Noa."

"Why?"

"Because the Council is old school psychotic. Their rules don't apply anymore. Their rituals are outdated. No one's agreed with them for forever, but it was the murder of a baby that really just set them over the edge."

Noa felt tears brim into her eyes. "I have to go."

She went inside, ignoring the stares of the house staff as they outwardly wondered why a teenager was home from school already. She stormed past them up the stairs and into her room. Her chest burned with anxiety and fear of the unknown. Her head pounded. She was the reason for a war. The reason people died. Where was her mother?

She cursed at herself. Why didn't she ask Cyrus what came of her mother? Tears brimmed her eyes. Her mother. She had one. One that only gave her up because she had to, not because she wanted to.

Noa slid onto the ground. Her mother would've just let her die if she didn't want her. That would've been easier, right? So Noa had been wanted.

She stood up abruptly, going to Lily's desk to search for the book she had been reading out of earlier. With the story of Noa's birth. She searched around, but didn't find it. She cursed.

There was a candle on Lily's desk, a brand new one that had never been lit. Noa stared at the wick intently, willing it to light. Cyrus had spoken a word for his magic, but Noa had been doing magic her whole life without ever knowing a spell. She wanted to control her own power, versus letting it control her.

She was done being the outcast. The trouble maker. She was going to harness her magic. Find her mother. Have a family.

The wick ignited, and Noa broke out into happy tears.