The approaching storm is like a deadly warrior on a path of freezing destruction.
I can hear the cracking sound
of branches fall down with nothing but ice clinging to the broken
and weakened
limbs.
The bottom of my dress suddenly catches on a low hanging branch. Desperately, I pull and tug for it to release my dress, but then the ice hits…first my feet start freezing and then I watch in horror as the ice slowly consumes my shaking body.
I’m unable to move my hands which are frozen beside me and the violent harsh ice forms around me, as it completely engulfs everything. The pain burns from the
bitter
cold, then it becomes so numbing that I can’t feel my legs anymore. The ice clings to my hair, weighing it down. I begin screaming as the pain becomes too much. There is too much pain. All of a sudden, I can hear a
voice.
Someone else is screaming, faintly.
T
hat’s when I wake up to the gut-w
renching sounds of my own
violent
screams. My mom rushes
frantically into my room. Aching badly, I cautiously
sit up in bed and throw the covers back. My feet and legs are blue and I can barely feel them. I try to wiggle my toes and I can’t. Focusing deep inside I call for my fire to come. I concentrate harder with everything I have, but nothing. That’s when I finally break down and start crying. Mom takes her hands and places them on my feet and legs. Her fire swirls around her hands as she moves up and down my legs and then down to my feet. I feel some sensation then.
“Can you make it to the bathroom, Alyss?” she asks
with alarm shadowing her tone
.
“I think so,” I say through chattering teeth.
She draws a
cool
bath and sits me inside the tub. Sitting on a vanity stool, she moves her hands in a circular motion slowly warming up the water. I feel so cold, my whole body is shivering, and my teeth are still clattering. I see the concern in her eyes as she says soothingly, “Everything is going to be
okay
, whatever is going on we can handle it.”
After being in the bathtub for a couple of hours I stand up and dry myself off. I glance be
hind me in the bathroom mirror and
see my witch’s crescent. It is completely crimson. Marc’s blood filled my witch
es
’ mark and we are truly crescent bound. Mom walks back in the bathroom with more towels and drops them to the floor. I know now she sees my mark too.
“Alyssa, when?” Mom says with mild shock and happiness running across her face.
“Last night,
Mom
.”
She hugs me so hard I think I’m going to faint again. “I’m so happy for you, Alyssa, this is so great, now get back in bed,” sh
e insists
as
the healer in her kicks in
.
I stay
in bed for the rest of the day, bored but I am feeling better.
I don’t think it’s
really
necessary to argue the
whole
bed rest orders from
my
mom,
which I know first hand
I won’t win.
Mom
walks in with her cell
in hand
and announces
, “You
r
father is on the phone
.”
“Hey D
ad.”
“Hey Alyssa, how are you? Your mom told me about the cold spell you’re having, no pun intended.”
I laugh and respond back
, “Dad, I’m crescent bound to Marc, it happened last night.”
“I am thrilled for you and I can’t wait to get home and see you. Your mom
also
told me about how you are feeling and I can say that is not normal.”
“I’m fine D
ad,
really, you don’t need to worry,” I affirm,
hoping he will
just
let it drop.
“Nevertheless, until your mom and I look into this
,
I want you home,
meaning
no school
for now
. I’m changing plans as we speak and I will be home tonight. I love you
,
Alyssa.”
“I love you too
,
D
ad,” I say with not only resign in my voice, but a hint of weariness. So
,
I am now home bound. Mom immediately starts planning a healing session. The spell she wants to use takes four days to complete. She is already calling her “
network of healing
” as she refers to them.
Chapter 16
The days pass very
slowly;
my parents are both convinced that I am changing elements from fire to ice. There is no record in the archives of another witch ever changing to their mates born element before.
This also answers the question about Marc; he’s definitely a witch, plain and simple.
“Dad, it’s so wonderful in a strange way. Marc is a true witch and I am so happy to be crescent bound to him, but don’t you find it interesting that just recently his crescent shows up and he has never shown any powers unt
il he came into contact with me?
”
“I trust the universe to know more than me
. A
nd
,
this
my
daughter,
is one of those times.
Embracing this destiny
is yours to do
,
”
Dad
affirms
.
As thoughts shuffle through my mind I remark
,
“Oh, and
Dad
,
he is adopte
d.
I guess we could have figured that one out on our own, but it’s true. He was adopted at two, right after his parents were killed in a car crash. The couple that adopted Marc never knew anything about the Dela Dante’s. They know nothing at all about Marc’s true nature.” So, our conclusion is that he must be one of the Dela Dante coven and his ice element and witch powers lay dormant until he found his lifemate.
“Marc, can you come ov
er after school tomorrow?” I ask when he answers his cell
on the first ring.
“You know I will. Hell, I’ll come anytime you need me,” he says sounding a bit more relaxed after he hears that I’m in good hands.
Mom has taken the week off from the hospital to stay home with me. I feel like I’m six all over again, except, I have never been sick before. This is
all
new to me. I am trying to learn to accept the ice element that is now residing in me. I have to say it’s not easy for a girl to appreciate and embrace freezing cold ice when she was born with fire. I have to learn how to control it, the same way I did with my fire element.
Mom burns blue healing candles all around our house for her healing spell. We burn rosemary incenses in my room and everyday I have to take a bath in rosemary and cinnamon. Mom anoints my feet, legs, and hands with oils an hour after sunset each night.
“
May the goddess and god who breathes into all life bring their magick to mend this souls strife. As the candles flame surely burns, may this body’s health fully return. With harm to none and love to the. So mote it be
.”
Three times the chant rings out. The pain isn’t as bad as it was in the beginning.
Marc comes over and stays with me every evening. “I feel a big difference in me, but I didn’t hurt like you did. I wish it was my pain, not yours, Alyss.”
My father advises,
“Marc, it’s because your true element is ice and with Alyssa, for some mysterious reason, she will not only have to get use to the physical nature of ice, but her mind and spirit also require adjustment to this element as well,”
my father
finishes with an air of awe
.
In time it will be like second nature to me. Marc is able to touch objects with just his fingertip and it
transforms
it to pure ice. My father is teaching him how to touch a glass of water and just chill it, but not freeze it.
“When using your element, think of it as if you are pressing down on an accelerator of a car
. G
iving it the force you need
to achieve your purpose
,”
D
ad carefully explains
as he watches Marc frost over the glass of water. Marc is an extremely fast learner and in no time he quickly gets the hang of it.
As for me, it is entirely another process, when I concentrate pulling the ice element to me, pain radiates throughout. I can feel the ice quake up my spine and every nerve in my body splinters within me.
When Marc and I are together though, I feel better, the pain diminishes away. I can stay in his arms, and never leave his embrace. When he can’t be here with me, he calls me from school or from his house. He wants to make sure everything is
fine
and that I am
okay
.
I finally get Lisa and Megan on a three way call. “Okay, this is so unfair, Alyssa. We are stuck in school and you are home painting your nails blue every day while your mom waits on your frozen ass.” Megan jokes.
“I just want to know if you’re getting better,” Lisa chimes in.
“Well you’re not dying so get over this and come back to school already,” Megan demands.
“No,
and
you
’re a
pain in the butt, I’m not dying, but I am going through a change.”
“Menopause, are you kidding me, you are like, nineteen,” Megan laugh
ingly says
.
“Do you two want to know what’s happening or what?”
“You know we do, Megan shut up, okay.”
“Alright, but this better be good for ditc
hing us for days,” Megan groans out pathetically.
Lisa’s bubbling voice professes
, “You know being crescent bound to
Dawson
, I tried to tell you
that y
ou can literally sense your lifemate if they are close. Your skin will tingle. Sometimes I can even feel
Dawson
’s emotions. So if he is upset about something I feel it too and vi
c
e versa.”
Megan follows with, “I had a feeling
that day I gave Marc your cell
number, but I didn’t realize it would lead to this. So, Marc really is a witch the
n? What’
s his element?”
“Well that’s where my change comes into play, see his element is ice and when we became crescent bound, somehow I started converting to his element. I lost my fire and absorbed his ice. Since
Mom
and
Dad
can’t find any record of this ever happening, they are being cautious. That’s why I’m bed bound and you guys haven’t been able to come by.”
“Awesome,
s
o you’re morphing to a butterfly and before you were just a
worm,” Megan replies with laughter
.
“It’s not a worm, it’s a caterpillar and I’m just glad you are doing better,” Lisa corrects her.
“I’m almost done with my mother’s four day ritual spell of healing and after that I’ll be back among
st
the living and you two,”
I
snicker
and
hang up.
Marc is initiated into the coven and becomes a part of my family as well. Dad and
Mom
try to help him understand his abilities. Since the Dela Dante coven is no more, my father researches as far back as he can about the ice e
lements and their attributes.
So far, we find Marc’s abilities are remarkable. He is physically stronger and much faster than others of our kind. Dad believes that may have been why he has always been so good in football and other sports.
Father wants Marc to attend the Arcane along with the rest of us and he has given me the most wonderful task of helping him prepare for attending. We are planning for me to meet his adopted parents when they come back to town.
Dad thinks it is now okay for me to go back to my classes. So, once more I am back at Hutchington High. Lisa and Megan stay close just in case I decide to freeze something
,
or someone. Marc is close too, but he has a couple of classes away from us.
As we stroll down the halls, Megan begins rambling like she’s from the show TMZ, “So, let’s catch you up on some of the main highlights since you’ve been gone. Okay, Kelly, little miss nobody cheerleader, tried very hard to get Marc to talk to her. Your man, though, paid her no mind at all. It was beautiful to watch.”