She laughed. “Kids can be cruel. I was bullied. One girl liked to put paint in my hair, and she would whisper in my ear that her mother had told hermymother was a witch, and I was going to hell. It didn’t take long before I was going home crying each day, begging my parents to let me homeschool. Unfortunately, they both agreed that I needed to learn to solve my problems and not run from them. One day, this little girl decided to get physical. She pushed me off the swing and called me a filthy word. I snapped.”
Selina sighed, pushing her plate away.
I leaned one elbow on the counter. “Did you kill her?”
“No. But almost. My power was uncontrollable. My mother was called, and she arrived to find that I’d wrapped the swing around the little girl and was hoisting it higher and higher in the air as it tightened. I had created a ward, and none of the human teachers could get through to stop me. By the time my mother managed to pull me from my frenzy, I’d broken several of the girl’s bones.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I. That was the end of human school for me, for which I was grateful. But my mother realized I needed to be trained. By then, she was so used to suppressing her own magic that she needed her coven’s help. My father threatened to leave. She took me anyway. They divorced a few months later.”
“She should’ve taught you how to use your power.”
“Yes. And you need to be taught the same. I was a child with witch power. You are somethingmore. But without training, the result is the same. You can’t expect to be able to control something that has been suppressed all these years. The only differences between you and the seven-year-old me are your age and the amount of power you wield.”
I picked at my cuticle while I thought it through. Attempting to ignore my power hadn’t worked. “You think you can teach me how to avoid scaring the crap out of people unintentionally?”
“I can teach you what I was taught. Your power is different, but the underlying rules should be the same.”
I took a sip of my iced tea and squared my shoulders. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
8
Danica
Iwas so tired I was almost shaking when I left Selina’s an hour later. We’d started simple, and she’d had me raise and lower my shields over and over again. When I’d asked why we were doing something she’d specifically warned me not to do, she’d told me she was hoping I would learn exactly how exhausting it was to do something so unnatural.
“Your shields should rarely be lowered. You need to learn how to make them almost translucent. Your power should be able to flow through your shields when necessary.”
I’d shrugged and complied, raising and lowering my shields what felt like a thousand times. Finally, Selina had made me reach for my power while raising and lowering my shields. By the end of our lesson, I’d felt the tiniest spark of power while my shield was still up.
My phone vibrated in my back pocket, and I pulled it out as I got into my car. I kept the door open and turned the key in the hope that the air conditioning would get to work. A trickle of sweat ran down my back, beneath my t-shirt.
“Danica Amana,” a voice said.
I frowned. The voice was familiar. “Who is this?”
“Mariam. We met a few weeks ago when you were looking into the demon murders.”
Mariam. The light fae representative. “How can I help you?”
“You may be able to help us,” her tone was wry. “I saw the video.”
I was so tired that it took me a moment to understand what video she meant. When I did, I clenched my teeth. “You and the rest of the world.”
She laughed. It sounded like tinkling bells. Tinkling bells I wanted to punch.
“It seems that you are currently unemployed.”
There was no point lying. “Yup.” I popped the p and she chuckled. Glad my current circumstances were so amusing to her.
“We may have an opportunity for you.”
“An opportunity?”
“Yes. Can you meet with me to discuss it?”
“When?”
