I blinked again. “I’m going to need you to elaborate on that,” I said.
“An elemental witch is very much what it sounds like. Your magic works directly with the elements—that is to say, earth, air, water, and fire. Typically, an elemental witch would find herself drawn much more deeply to one of those elements than the others. A fire witch, for example, would find that she is drawn to that element and that it manifests her power the easiest of the four.”
“Are there any other elemental witches in our family?” I asked.
“Yes. Asteria was a green witch, which meant that she was deeply connected to the element of Earth. All you need to do is look at our gardens here at Lightkeep to see how her affinity to that element manifested itself,” Rhi said.
Automatically, my eye was drawn through the French doors to the gardens beyond, where the flowerbeds exploded in riots of color, and the trees hung heavy and ripe with clusters ofblossoms and fruit. I’d accepted the garden as the wonderland it was at first sight. It felt like such a natural part of Lightkeep Cottage that I had never stopped to consider that it might be magic that made it so lush and enchanting. I allowed one of my vivid memories of Asteria to float to the surface of my mind, and all at once, I felt it: that same energy she always had, that joyous spark, that twinkle in her eyes, it lived in that garden. I looked at Rhi, and I knew she could read the sudden wonder on my face as her smile bloomed as slowly and brightly as one of Asteria’s flowers.
“Asteria could make a rose blossom in a snowstorm if she chose,” Rhi said, still smiling. “Her salves and teas and potions were always particularly potent because her herbs and flowers and seeds had been tended by her hands, and nurtured by her magic. It enhanced all of their properties, and the resulting spells were always the more powerful for it.”
“Who else?” I asked.
Rhi hesitated oddly, then said, “Ostara is an elemental witch. She has an affinity for fire.”
“That tracks,” I said, and Rhi laughed.
“Yes, she is a bit… well, fiery, isn’t she?”
“How do I find out what kind of elemental witch I am?” I asked.
“Well, we’ll need to start experimenting, but I… I think… well…” Rhi bit her lip like she was steeling herself to say something.
I felt my heart begin to beat a little harder against my ribs. “What is it?”
“I’ve been thinking about this since the night on the beach. The fact is that a witch can produce extraordinary magic when her life is in danger —our magic is meant to come to our aid, if only to save the vessel in which it is contained. But what you managed to do on the beach—the calling of four elementsand the wielding of them in such profound and powerful ways—I think it might mean that you are more than the average elemental witch.”
Rhi paused, almost as though to see how these words had affected me, but I couldn’t respond. I was still trying to absorb what she was saying to me.
“Wren?”
“Yeah, I… can you please explain?”
“There is a reason the Darkness has been drawn to you. From the time you were a small child, the Darkness saw something in you that piqued its interest. Its determination has never waned. Asteria never knew exactly why, but she knew it was dangerous. That was why she put that protective spell on you, and as long as she lived, it protected you. But even Asteria knew she couldn’t protect you forever. I think she was buying you time, Wren, until your powers were strong enough so that you could protect yourself. And that night on the beach, you did.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t actually know what I was doing!” I said. The panic was mounting inside me, and I did my best to beat it back, to maintain control over my breathing. “I just… called for help, and the elements answered. It was their power, not mine!”
But Rhi was shaking her head. “It was the call that held the power, not the answer. Not to say that the elements aren’t powerful—they have a power we can only dream of as witches. But to summon them like that, and for each of them to respond with such force… I’ve never seen anything like it.”
She was speaking softly, gently, but each word felt like a blow to my body, like being battered by ocean waves relentlessly, each one crashing over me before I’d even picked myself up from the last.
“I think we can conclude, then, that your connection to all four physical elements is powerful. We should test them each individually, to compare them; but I expect we will find yourpower to be formidable with each one. But even then, our affinity study would not be complete. When non-witches think of the elements, they think only of four: earth, water, air, and fire. But there is a fifth element, Wren, powerful in its own way, and far more ephemeral and rare to connect with. That element is called spirit.”
I swallowed in my haste to answer, and felt the hot tea scald my throat all the way down. “Spirit like… like ghosts?” I choked.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s how it often manifests, yes. Bernadette, for example, is an elemental witch who connects deeply with spirit. It’s why she was able to communicate with Sarah Claire, the reason she was able, essentially, to pull Sarah across the transom and maintain a connection with her, even after she had closed her circle. It is also the reason behind her remarkable abilities as an oracle. Glimpses into the future and the past can only come from a deep connection to spirit.”
I frowned. “Okay. But what does that have to do with me?”
“We all know that the Darkness is interested in you,” Rhi began carefully, and then sighed. “Oh, why are we dancing around this. We all know how serious it is. The Darkness went to extraordinary lengths to capture you, and that means you must have powers far beyond the ordinary. It has to be something incredibly rare. I was thinking about your control of the first four elements, and then I wondered: was it possible you could also have a connection to the element of spirit? And if that’s the case, you are not just an elemental witch. You are apentamaleficus… a witch of the five.”
“I… but no spirits came to help me,” I pointed out, trying to keep the hysteria out of my voice. “The other elements did, but it’s not like an avenging horde of ghosts showed up.”
“Ah, but the other elements showed up because you called them. You weren’t aware spirit was one of the elements, soyou didn’t think to call on it. But if you had… would it have answered?”
I couldn’t answer that question. No one could.
Rhi smiled a little at my non-answer. “This is what we must discover. A pentamaleficus is a rare thing—perhaps a once-in-a-century gift. And given the Darkness’ interest in you, I think it’s a very real possibility.” She was keeping her voice deliberately calm and soothing, speaking the words that were shaking me to the core as though they were a lullaby.
