Chapter Three
Kiara knocked on the door to Erica’s house and heard her mom call out, “Come in!”
Kiara opened the door and called back, “Hi, Mrs. Graham!” as she walked up the stairs to Erica’s room.
“Oh, my goodness, Kiara, you are not going to believe this.” Erica pulled her into the room and closed the door. Then she dropped her voice to a whisper. “There is something crazy happening in the woods.”
Instantly, Kiara was on alert. Her pulse doubled in speed. Had she seen something? “What do you mean?”
“Have you heard rumors that there are witches at school?”
“Yeah, so? Everyone knows it’s crap.”
“Right? But I think it might actually be true. So, I was in the woods today with my dad. He wanted to take me along for some kind of nature experience, I don’t know.” She rolled her eyes. “It was totally lame. But there is this huge patch of forest where all the grass and plants and even, like, small trees and stuff are totally smashed. My dad said something has been damaging vegetation and eating a bunch of small animals recently.”
Kiara tried not to react. But Erica was talking about her in dragon form. And Erica’s father, the forest ranger, was on to her.
“So we were in there walking around, and I took off on my own. You’re never going to believe what I saw. I can’t even believe what I saw. Some kind of magic thing. Like, someone was there in the woods, and I swear they were casting spells. It was like Harry Potter with colors flying all over. I tried to watch, but then whoever it was stopped.”
“You know you sound crazy right now?” Maybe Kiara could convince Erica that she hadn’t seen what she thought she saw.
“I know, right! Totally. I thought I was going nuts. But I saw it. I’m gonna go back and see if I can find the person again. Or see what was there or something.”
“Don’t do that. Think, Erica. If someone is casting magic, they could like, turn you into a toad or something.” Maybe she should work on that, actually. Just in case.
“No, this is the perfect thing! My dad said he would pay me to sit in the woods and try to find out whatever animal is destroying everything. So I can look for this animal and the sorcerer at the same time. And the best part is I can take Spencer with me!”
“You’re going to sit in the woods waiting for a giant animal that can knock down trees? And you’re going to stop it from crushing you how, exactly?”
“Oh, my dad gave me his tranq gun. I’m not going to get close to it or anything. Something that big will make a lot of noise, so I’d know it was coming way before it saw me. I do have some forest training, you know. My dad has taught me this stuff since I was a kid.”
Kiara shook her head. “Don’t be an idiot. Is he going to track where you go? No. Take the money and just sit at the stream skipping rocks. You do not want to mess with some huge animal or someone casting magic. That’s insane.”
Erica sighed. “But Spencer… It’s the perfect plan!”
“You’re an idiot.”
“Hey.” Erica put her hands on her hips. “I’m starting to get offended, here.”
“Well, you should. It’s freaking stupid. You can find some other way to get Spencer to pay attention to you.”
Kiara could sense that Erica was getting mad. She wanted to stop and fix it. They’d been best friends for five years now and she didn’t want to mess that up. But she had to keep Erica out of the woods. If she saw something by accident, she was in huge danger. Better she get mad at her and not go into the woods than get herself killed.
“Well, I already told my dad I would, and Spencer is meeting me tomorrow, so sorry if you think it’s stupid. I’m doing it.”
They sat in silence, giving each other half glares, brooding in the quiet.
“I’m just gonna go,” Kiara said.
“Fine.”
Kiara walked out and ran as fast as she could back to her clearing. She had to nail this cloaking spell and fast. She worked for hours, switching from dragon form to human, trying different methods and practicing again and again. She’d gotten up to a half hour of cloaking in dragon form and she held it while she practiced other spells that would increase her overall magic ability.
When she was getting too tired to continue she changed back into human form, let the cloak fall and cast a few final spells for her week ahead. She started packing up her things and turned around, then saw that the circle of magic around her, the one she used to detect a presence, had a spot of bright yellow. It had been behind her this whole time and she had been too focused to notice.
She panicked. What had they seen? Who was it? Well, she had checked around her before becoming a dragon and there had been no one, and while she was in dragon form she’d stayed cloaked. The more she thought about it, the more she decided whoever it was—and maybe it was even Erica—likely did not see her dragon shift. But they had to have seen her casting spells.
She packed up her things and marched towards the place where the presence was indicated. She couldn’t see who it was past the yellow glow and the large bush they sat behind. “I know you’re there,” she said.
She heard hushed whispers and then feet pounding as they ran. She chased after them, using her magic to run much faster than normal. But when she caught up enough to see who it was, she stopped. Erica and Spencer were running fast, glancing back every few feet to see if she was coming after them.
With a resigned sigh, she stopped chasing them and went instead to Erica’s house. She used her cloaking spell to make herself invisible, then levitated up to Erica’s window. She climbed in through the window and waited for her to return.
***
Erica must’ve spent a lot of time with Spencer, because Kiara had to wait for hours. When she finally came into her room, kicked off her shoes and lay down on her bed, Kiara cast a silencing charm then stepped out of her cloaked state.
Erica screamed, but no sound came out of her mouth.
“I’m going to take off the silence charm, but you can’t scream, okay?” Kiara said.
Erica nodded and Kiara spoke another spell to release the silence charm.
“It was you!” Erica exclaimed in a hushed whisper. “We saw you in the woods. You’re a witch!”
Kiara nodded. “Yes. I am.”
Erica blinked at her. Maybe she’d thought Kiara would deny it. Then she shoved Kiara’s shoulder playfully. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t. Think about it. We have to keep it a secret or we’d be hunted. Like we were back in the 1800s.”
Erica considered this, scrunching her mouth to the side and nodding slowly. “But you could have told me. I wouldn’t have told anyone.”
“I’m counting on that. You can’t tell a single person; you have to promise.”
“Well, you know Spencer was with me.”
“Yeah, and you have to make him promise, too. Erica, people would either kill me or use me if they knew what I was.”
Erica reached out and gripped her hand. “I promise. Hey, wait, were you the one destroying stuff in the woods and killing animals?”
“I don’t do animal sacrifice.” It was true enough.
“Okay, good. Wait, so how long have you been a witch?”
Kiara shrugged. “I guess my whole life. I started being able to do little things when I was a kid. Move stuff without touching it, make flames go out, that sort of thing. Then I just started doing more and more.”
“Wow,” Erica said, her voice dripping with awe. “I want to be a witch! Is there a way I can get powers?”
“Not that I know of.”
“But then, is your mom a witch, too? Or your grandma? Is it like a bloodline thing passed on from generation to generation?”
“Umm, I don’t know, actually. I’ve never seen my mom do any magic, and I would have thought she’d have mentioned it by now.”
“Then how did you get the ability to do magic?” Erica made a pouty face.
“No idea. Sorry.”
Erica let out a huff. “Well, whatever. I guess it’s still cool that my best friend has powers even if I don’t.”
“Right. So, let’s keep your best friend alive and don’t ever tell anyone.”
“I won’t.” She held up her pinky and swore her secrecy.