Page 15 of Sparks Flying

She was a witch for sure and she was drawing me in with whatever her power was.

She stood there staring at me in confusion with a look of disappointment on her face. I hated it. It made me feel terrible, like I was letting her down, only I didn’t understand why.

“Well, I guess I should go. I need to report back to Archie.”

“Yeah. I guess you should.”

I didn’t actually mean that. For some reason, I didn’t want her to go.

“Hey, what were you looking for out here, anyway?”

“Satellite showed a trail. I was making sure it wasn’t a vulnerability or like a human path up this cliff. It’s not though. Just an animal trail.”

“Show me.”

She hesitated, but finally began walking to the edge of the cliff. She seemed to turn an odd shade of green the closer she got.

Peering quickly over the side, she took a giant step back and pointed down. I walked over and looked.

“Definitely animal. You can see the tracks if you look close enough.”

“No thank you,” she muttered.

I grinned. She was cute.

“Don’t tell me you’re scared of heights.”

“Terrified,” she admitted.

I shook my head. Of course she was. It was just another blaring example of how very different we were.

I walked a few steps down the little path she pointed out, impressed that she’d even noticed it.

“How’d you find this? Even I’ve never noticed it before and I spend a lot of time out here.”

“Could you please just get back up here before you fall?”

I snorted. “I’m a raven, Bailey. If I start to fall, I’ll just shift and fly back up.”

“I don’t care. You’re freaking me out.”

Her voice was laced in terror and I hated that I was scaring her. Like really hated it. Even my bird was uneasy about it which was really weird because he rarely stirred for anything.

“Okay,” I said. “I’m coming back up. Really, this is no big deal.”

But as I took the last step back to the top, my foot slipped, and I lunged forward.

Bailey screamed and clutched her chest as I recovered.

Not my smoothest move. That much, I’d admit.

She was furious.

Punching me in the arm, she flipped her hair and stormed off.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” she yelled just before she got her in car and slammed the door. She kicked dust up in her wake as she sped off.

Maybe I should have gone after her and let her know I was really okay, or even make sure she was all right. But I didn’t.I just stood there and watched her leave as an odd emptiness filled my chest.

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