Bitter Demons

25. Butterfly

Zara and I walked behind the house and into the woods. I recognized the path toward the ritual area.

"Why are we going this way?" I asked. I tripped on every stray root, but Zara seemed to almost float above it all. Her long white skirt hid her feet, so, for all I knew, she might actually have been floating.

"If we're to test your power, it's only fair we go to the source of your power."

I didn't like the sound of that. The last time I'd pushed myself to the limit of my own power, I'd ended up seriously ill. Even with the new power I'd gotten from the confirmation, I knew I wasn't any match for the daughter of a powerful priestess.

"Can you feel it yet?"

"What?" I asked.

"Your demon," she said.

We weren't quite to the clearing yet, but now that she mentioned it, I could feel it. Or at least, I felt something. When I closed my eyes, my body felt all shivery and alive. It was a subtle change, but now that I concentrated on it, I could definitely feel my power increasing the closer we got to the clearing.

"Is my demon here?" I asked. I touched the necklace at my throat, wondering how all this worked.

"When a Prima dies, and her heir is too young to be initiated, the demon is confined to a statue of solid white marble," she said. She paused and placed the palm of her hand against my chest. "Your demon is always connected to you here, but it's nothing like what it will be later."

Yeah, once he's inside of me. I shivered at the thought. I couldn't let that happen. Ever.

"The statue is close." Zara closed her eyes and lifted her face toward the sky. "Even I can feel the presence of the demon. It's interesting. I never would have imagined Peachville's demon to be so strong. Maybe his long rest has made him more powerful than ever."

The statue. There were two matching statues. One was here in the clearing, near the steps down to the ritual room, but the other was all the way downtown at the high school. I wanted to ask her about why there was a need for two when there was only one demon, but I didn't get the chance.

Zara turned to me and smiled. "Let's try something relatively basic," she said. "As a warm-up."

I took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay, show me."

With a giggle, Zara lifted her hands and rose at least five feet off the ground. My original thought that she looked like a fairy seemed extremely appropriate now.

"Levitation is a basic spell," she said. "All you do is imagine yourself as light as a feather."

I winced at the word. Feather. I should have been out there searching for Caroline, not playing in the woods with Zara. But I knew I didn't have a choice. The Order had assigned her to me as a guardian, and making her angry would just make everything worse for me. So, I imagined I was light and feathery.

Nothing happened.

"You're not even trying," she said. She floated back down to the ground.

"I'm imagining it, but it's not working."

"You've got to connect to the power first," she said. "Your mind has to be extremely focused. Your magic comes from your soul, but it's your mind that must focus the energy into a single purpose. When you've got other thoughts running through you, the spell will be weak. That's fine for small things like orbs of light and such, but for these tougher spells, you must focus."

"How?" I asked. "I feel like my mind is always racing in a hundred different directions."

Zara put her hand on my forehead and slid it down over my eyes. My eyelids closed in obedience.