She placed her hand in mine. "I'm Sarah, but you can call me Brown. I prefer that name. I feel like I'm part of the earth and that's the natural color of the earth. Brown."
"It's blue. The oceans cover most of the planet."
Something sparked in her and shot through me. "I know, but my connection is to the land, not the water. Maybe Tabitha has that connection."
I heard her voice, but it came from a distance. When that something sparked through her, I was bombarded with images. One was the ocean as if someone was riding over it to us. The other was of a girl in a field. She was watching me. Slim. Long brown hair. Blue eyes. Another image was at night. Brown was standing in front of me and she held her hand out to me. She was trying to warn me about something.
"Davy?"
Brown stared at me. "Are you okay? Wait! Are you a witch too?"
"No." My voice came out hoarse. "How long have you been one?"
She sighed in disgust. "I've felt like I've been one all my life, but I didn't start doing spells until now. I was forbidden to talk about it or do anything with magic in high school. Tabitha's the chosen one in my family and that's only if she chooses to become a witch. All the family powers will go to her. Not me."
"Is your mom a witch?"
"No. She chose to pass on her powers. You can do that in my family. You can get all the powers from our ancestors."
"And if you don't? What then?"
She shrugged. "You just live a normal life."
"And if you choose the powers?"
Her voice trembled. "Then you have the responsibilities of all the other witches in my family."
"What are those?"
"I don't know. You don't know until the powers pass onto you."
"What if your sister decides she wants to be normal?" I flushed as I realized I was jealous. The girl had a choice.
"Then the powers will go to the next oldest daughter, hers or mine, or Kendra's. Not me."
Her eyes looked like she was seeing something far away, remembering something painful. She bit her lip for a moment and more tears welled up in her eyes. When she brushed one away, I realized that she'd forgotten about my existence.
I felt magic in her and she was just beginning, but the power in her was enormous. I felt it. It reached me. It was why she told me any of this. And I knew her magic would grow the more she trained and reached for it.
A wave of sadness swept over me and I knew it was hers. My empathic abilities had gone inside of her. I wanted to heal her. When she didn't react, I knew she couldn't sense my powers. I decided to push a little further inside of her.
When I found the thread of her magic, I followed it deeper inside. It stopped and I felt it was boxed in. That's when I realized that though she was blocked from her own magic, it still seeped out slowly. She was pulling it out the more she learned and she was determined to get it all.
"You really want your powers, don't you?"
Brown jerked her eyes to mine. "What? Oh, yeah. Is it that obvious?"
"I can feel it from you." I frowned. "What happens if your sister gets the powers and you do too? Can there be two?"
"There never has been before so I'm not sure. Why?" Then her eyes popped open again. "I can't believe I've told you all this. I'm usually—I never talk to people. What is it about you? Do you have a special power over me? That's the only thing that would make sense. I feel like a fool." As she spoke, she shot to her feet and started stuffing papers in her bag. When she shoved the book in too, I opened my mouth to remind her it wasn't supposed to be taken home, but she rushed away before I could say anything. It wasn't long before I heard the door alarms sound.
Then I sat back down and wondered about this girl. I knew I should've been curious about her powers as a witch, but anything magical or supernatural didn't surprise me anymore.
"Your thoughts are transmitting so loud, I could've heard them on a radio."
Roane glided out from one of the book shelves and sat where Brown had left.
"I thought we weren't supposed to see each other?" I frowned when my voice came out raspy, but I couldn't help it. There was something about Brown that made me sad. I didn't think it came from her anymore because I still felt it and then Roane showed up.