‘Sit down,’ he said with a light kiss to my lips. ‘The movie is about to start.’
I did as I was told for once, settling into my chair as some movie studio’s logo appeared on the screen, completely interested in what movie was about to play. My happy ending was sitting beside me, holding my hand and feeding me candy. And I would fight for it until the end.
Chapter Thirty-One
By the time the night of the new moon arrived, I was a mess.
In the mornings, I woke up exhausted and at night, I was so anxious, I couldn’t sleep. At least that was one thing working in my favour as I watched the clock in my room tick closer and closer to midnight.
Sitting cross-legged on my bedroom floor instead of in the roll-out bed Ashley made up for her, Lydia was playing with a smoky quartz point as if she were conducting a single-person game of spin the bottle. I put down the book I was pretending to read and watched as she paused to take a drink, pulling snowflakes from a glass of water.
‘So cool,’ she grinned, heartily smacking her lips.
‘Have you heard from your mom today?’
Her grin disappeared.
‘Alexandra is playing the yes-no game.’
‘Alexandra?’ I repeated. ‘Ouch.’
While Virginia had been promoted back to grandmother, Alex Powell was no longer afforded the privilege of being called ‘mom’. Jackson hadn’t mentioned her absence at all and Lydia only suffered talking about her if forced. When she ran out the morning after Lydia’s magic manifested, I was sure she’d come right back but she hadn’t crossed the state line back into Georgia one time.
‘Tell me again about the different kinds of magic?’ Lydia was a master at changing the subject. She rolled onto her belly, still toying with the smoky quartz point. ‘How many are there?’
‘This is as new to me as it is to you,’ I said. ‘Catherine could harness the elements. She told me about ancestors who could talk to the dead, others who were healers. Most witches specialize in one kind of magic. Yours is manipulating the weather.’
As evidenced again when she accidentally made it hail in the back garden an hour earlier.
‘Lydia Powell, weather witch.’ Snowflakes settled around her on the floor as she tested the sharp end of the grounding crystal against her fingertip. ‘I’m into it. I’m stronger than I was before, faster too.’
‘Do you need anything?’ I asked, checking the clock again. Almost eleven thirty. Almost time. ‘Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat? Do you need the bathroom?’
‘No thanks, mom,’ she replied, laughing. ‘What other abilities will I have?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Will I be able to see ghosts?’
‘No idea.’
‘Will I be able to hex people?’
‘Even if you could, you probably shouldn’t.’
‘Will I be able to fly?’
‘Lydia.’
I looked at her over the top of my book.
‘What?!’ She picked up the quartz and tapped it against the end of her nose. ‘I need to know these things!’
‘Have you ever seen me read someone’s mind?’
‘I haven’t seen you do a lot of things,’ she replied, waggling her eyebrows up and down. ‘Doesn’t mean you’re not doing them.’
‘Believe me, I’m not doing anything you don’t know about.’
