“No! Stop.” Bella grabbed my arm and I let go of the house I was creating, my eyes snapping open.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, annoyed that she stopped me from creating the sort of house that we wanted, and not one that Mother would necessarily approve.
Bella’s eyes were wide, stricken.
“You can’t use your magic to build us a house,” she said, her voice shrill.
“Of course, I can,” I said, waving away her concern with a flick of my hand. “It will take precision and concentration, and most of my power, but of course I can do it.”
“You can’t,” she insisted.
“Why not?” I asked.
I furrowed my brow, shooting a look at her. She wasn’t making sense. I was by far the most powerful of the three of us. If anyone was able to conjure something similar to what Mother had given us, it would be me.
Bella rolled her eyes, as though I’d said something monumentally stupid, and sadness filled me. Instead of being annoyed with her as I expected to be, something shot through me, hitting me right in the gut.
God, I’m gonna miss her when I’m gone.
Because I still had every intention of leaving them behind. I had every intention of heading to the magic realm and looking for our father. I had every intention of trying to figure out just who I was.
“Because you’ll be in the magic realm, not here with us,” she said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “If I’m right—and when am I ever wrong? —then you’ll be drained of half your magic if you’re concentrating on keeping our house up for us. And that’s assuming you can do it from that far away. Mother was rarely away from us, so it was easy for her to keep up the façade with minimal effort. You on the other hand...”
She did not need to finish her sentence. I already knew what she was going to say. I was not as powerful as Mother was. I was not as steady or as capable. I knew Bella did not mean it in a rude, hurtful way. She was just stating the facts. As much as I hated to admit it, she was right.
I sat back and stared out at the empty field, disappointment swamping me. I wanted to help my sisters, but Bella made a good point. I didn’t know how far away the realm was, nor how far my magic would stretch if I did create our home. I couldn’t risk it either because I didn’t want my sisters to suddenly have nothing if everything disappeared.
Plus, if Mother’s sickness was linked to the drain on her magic that maintained our home, then I couldn’t possibly do everything. Go to the magic realm, and build my sisters a house.
The last thing I wanted was to put myself at risk. They had already lost Mother. They knew I would be leaving. But I would not die in order to create something. I would not leave them alone in that sense.
“Okay...” I nodded my head, wrapping my finger with a lock of hair. “You’re probably right. And if it’s as dangerous as Mother says in the Magical realm, perhaps I will need every stroke of magic I possess.”
I turned to my two little sisters, the women I loved most in this world. The only family I had left.
“Then it’s up to you two.” I gestured to the field. “Show me what you can do. Make me proud.”
Mother had taught us all magic. And as daughters of the High Warlock, and our powerful mother, our genetics had already destined us to be incredible witches.
However, Mother seemed to push me more than she pushed the others. I did not know if it was because she felt it was my job as oldest to learn everything and be good as quickly as possible. Perhaps she thought she had more time to instruct Bella and Courtney. Whatever the reason, they were both capable but less skilled. I should be the one doing this, but I couldn’t. Not if I was leaving.
Which meant they would be forced to learn the ins and outs of long-standing creation magic quickly. I was sure they knew some, but that might not be enough. And I refused to leave until I was convinced that they would be safe.
The problem was, my younger sisters didn’t exactly have the desire to push themselves if they didn’t have to. Bella was much more of a bookworm that enjoyed the theory of creation magic more than actually putting it into practice, and Courtney was lazy because everyone did everything for her, ever since she was a baby, so she never learned to do anything herself. But that didn’t mean that both of them couldn’t perform incredible spells if they got over themselves and actually tried.
We’d never had to use our powers for anything more than the lessons our mother had taught us. But our time, it seemed, had come.
Courtney and Bella got to their feet with a shared grin and walked behind the couches. I was certain they were excited at the prospect of creating something personal to them. Mother forced me to do the majority of the work. I did not think it was her intention, but it came across as though she did not trust the younger sisters to do anything. They never got the opportunity use their magic, to prove their worth, so to speak. Now, that would change.
“You better get up, Ava. Those couches are gonna disappear and you’ll end up on your ass.” Courtney shot me a smirk that seemed to say she would be fine if I didn’t get up. I was sure she would have no problem watching me fall on my ass. I might have even deserved it.
I jumped to my feet. I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of seeing such a thing
“Yeah, well, let’s see how good you guys are at coordinating this,” I said, rubbing my hands together. I could feel my magic stir in me, as though it wanted to break free, as though it wanted to create the way Mother had. As much as I wanted to let even a little out, just to find some sort of release, I couldn’t. It would put me at risk and it would tell my sisters I didn’t trust them. That was the last thing I wanted to do.
Bella shook her head and Courtney’s blue eyes gleamed with the challenge.
“Let’s do this,” she said.