Page 25 of Wallflower Witch

Patrick grabs my hands, turning them this way and that, before looking up at me, his eyes shining slightly.

“Morrigan, you healed yourself,” he whispers. “Your second affinity is Earth. You can heal and keep yourself safe!” His voice rises as he continues. He pulls me into himself, trying to spin before giving up. “You will be safe if you can heal yourself. And one day, when you are trained more, you may be able to help heal others.”

He points to the ground around us, “Just look, you healed the grass.”

I gasp as I realize he’s right. The area around us is now filled with lush green grass instead of the dry brown weeds that surrounded us before. My mind flashes back to when we saved Josh, how the surrounding area had been alive for a moment before fading back into the clutches of death.

“Wow!” I whisper, looking around. “This is amazing!” I reach inside to pull more magic to heal more of the ground around us, but I feel empty inside. My magic that just minutes ago was flowing through me hard enough to knock me down is back to being a tiny warm spot that won’t respond to my request.

“Umm, Patrick. I think we have a problem.”

“What would that be?” he asks, looking around us. “You’ve healed yourself and this area. You are super powerful!”

I chew on my lip, trying to find the words. “My magic is back to being a little nugget that’s ignoring me.”

He crinkles his eyebrows. “I can still sense your magic. It seems just as strong as when you were using it.”

“Yeah, it’s still there,” I say. “It’s just not responding to me and feels … smaller. Is this normal?”

Patrick rubs his hands down his face before shaking his head. “I’ve never heard of anything like this. Younger witches sometimes struggle to control their magic and have to work to build up their power, but I’ve never heard of someone not getting their magic to respond after it’s awoken.”

My heart drops at this, and I bite down on my tongue to keep the tears back. I thought I was getting answers and figuring out what made me different from the kids I grew up with, but even in a world of witches, I’m still different. I’m saved from answering as I hear footsteps crunching through the grass.

“Woah! What happened here?” asks Josh.

“Mor healed the land,” Patrick answers, smiling.

“That’s awesome!” Matt says. “Is that part of your magic?”

I smile softly at this man of law and order trying to accept that magic is real.

“Yeah, part of it,” I answer. “We learned I have an affinity for earth and spirit elements. How did your search go?”

Josh plops onto the grass next to me. Matt takes a minute and then follows suit.

“Successful and not,” Matt answers. “We found lots of shale, a few quartz, but no more jewels like you found. Guess you are luckier than me.” He smiles.

“The grimoire says some families only have one powerstone for the family. I’d guess that’s what I found. I was just hoping some others may have been around. If these are as powerful as the book says, more could only help.”

“I’m not giving up that easily,” Matt answers. “We can keep looking around here and inside. Speaking of, can I get a tour?”

Josh pops to his feet, then turns to offer me a hand up. “I’m down for more exploring.” Matt looks confused. “We’ve only explored part of the house so far.”

“Yeah,” Partick answers, “That’s because you missed an angry ghost blocking the stairs, but the first floor was interesting. Who knows what we will find upstairs?”

Pushing open the back door, we enter the kitchen with a few coughs and sneezes from all the dust. I look around, checking to see if the woman who was here last time is back.

Seeing no one, I sigh in relief. “Josh, can you and Patrick open a couple windows to air the place out? Then Quoth can come and go as he pleases too.”

We give Matt a quick tour of the downstairs. He gets distracted in the office space, looking for books we may have missed, and I smile softly at finding something in common with him.

Moving toward the stairs, I fall behind Josh and Patrick. They smirk at me but continue forward.

“You worried the ghost lady is going to appear?” asks Josh.

I smile at him and point forward. “Yep, and I’m letting you two take her on.”

“What are we supposed to do about a ghost?” asks Patrick.

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