Descending Darkness(114)

“I was so mad at him. I imagined the beer bottle in his hand bursting into flames. To my surprise, it did. He screamed and threw the flaming bottle at me, but I ducked, and it hit the curtains behind me, catching them on fire. Pretty soon the whole house was up in flames. He accused me of burning it down and kicked me out. Since I was eighteen, there was nothing I could do about it.

“So, I lived on the streets for a little bit. Sleeping on park benches, hiding in the slides on playgrounds, sleeping on doorsteps, you name it. It’s a little scary when you’re an eighteen year old girl, but no one bothered me. I stayed at a homeless shelter a couple times, but there were people that needed that more than me, so I moved on.

“After leaving a place in Delaware, I wasn’t sure where to go. I was getting tired of walking and always being on the move. I sat down at a bus stop and waited. The bus would come around, but I couldn’t get on because I didn’t have any money, so I watched. I watched everyone get on and off, all with a destination in mind. All with places to go to and people to see. A man in his mid-forties came up to me and sat down, asking me what I was doing just sitting on the bench. At first I was a little wary of him because no one ever approached me before that wasn’t completely drunk or trying to mug me. Who mugs a homeless person? Really?

“After a while, I started to get the feeling that he genuinely cared about what I was going through. Another bus rolled through the station and a younger man got off and came toward us. They introduced themselves to me as Mr. Thomas and Alex, his son. Mr. Thomas reached out and took my hands. I tried pulling them back, but he had a strong grip. Alex kept smiling at me like something amazing was going to happen.

“When Mr. Thomas let go, he told me that I had a lot of magic inside me. He taught himself to recognize the magic inside of people. He’s the one who explained to me what a mage was. I had no idea that magic existed until that point. I’d never met another mage or if I had, they never revealed their powers to me. He asked me if I wanted to learn how to control my magic, since I’d literally had no training at all. At first, I said no because I thought they were being crazy, but then I got to thinking about Mr. Garrowen. Sure, he was a jerk, but I didn’t want him to lose his house. I didn’t want that to happen to anyone else either. I needed to learn to control it because fire is not something you mess with. It’s dangerous, so I agreed. That’s how I ended up in Maine.

“They ended up taking me under their wings. Mr. Thomas taught me how to control my magic and Alex taught me how to train. They helped me look into my background, and we were able to determine who my parents were. I don’t know how they knew that I was a fire affinity though. Mr. Thomas kept talking about how a prophecy would be fulfilled during my lifetime—that I would be around when the Gadramicks were ended.

“He helped train other mages when they didn’t have anywhere else to go. He’d let them stay at his house. He often traveled to different states and stayed there for an extended period of time, just training people. That’s how I got to know those mages in the woods tonight,” she says while looking in my direction.

“Lucas always made fun of me because of how bright my hair was, but that kid is hilarious, so I never torched him.” Everyone turns and looks at me when she says that. My power is slightly less dangerous, so I’m allowed to do it. “We started training together. One day, during a training session, a bunch of Gadramicks stormed into our facility. I was working with Alex that day, and he pushed me behind him and took on all the Gadramicks himself. I tried to help him, but he kept yelling at me to go—telling me that my time was coming, but this wasn’t it. I wouldn’t have left, but Lucas grabbed me and pulled me out of the building.

I can hear the sadness in Incendia’s words. She’s trying not to let her pain be obvious to everyone, but Natalie can read her emotions, so it’s already known. Natalie scoots away from Liam and touches Incendia’s forearm. Her eyes widen, and her mouth falls open.

“How did you do that?” Natalie just smiles and scoots back. Liam reaches out and pulls her to him when she’s close enough. “Okay, well, Mr. Thomas ran into the facility to help Alex fight. I kept struggling to get away from Lucas, but he wouldn’t let me go. I needed to help them. They were the only family I’d ever had, but Lucas kept pulling me backward, farther and farther away from them. Once I could no longer see the building, I stopped. It was over now anyway. Lucas guided me into a smaller shack that Mr. Thomas had built in the woods as our emergency meeting area. He always said that if we ever got separated that we’d meet here. I knew that we’d never meet up with Alex them again. They were gone—killed by Gadramicks.