Seduced by Innocencey(29)

It was a winter much like this one that killed that play and replaced it with wary jealousy.



Jasmine had been five that year, and Ocean and I thought we knew everything at the mature age of eight. We'd been snowed in for two days, forced to stay indoors as Mother Nature played without us. Mother would not budge on this, insisting that we keep warm. In retrospect, I think she just didn't want to deal with the hassle of feeding, warming and bathing three girls, cold and wet from playing in the snow, so she banned play altogether.



One morning, while Mother checked on the puppies, we decided to sneak out and make our own fun. We hadn't had a chance to build a snowman yet, and with Jasmine's and Ocean's magic, we were sure we could build the best one ever!



I wish I had a picture of us from that day, hair wet from snow, eyelashes sparkling with ice crystals, as we did indeed create the best snowman ever. If we'd had a few more minutes to ourselves, I feel certain we could have brought to life Frosty the Snowman in all his glory.



But our magic was cut short by an irate mother who stormed out of the house hollering our names.



We ran back as fast as we could through a foot of snow, fear chilling us more than the snow ever could.



She stared down at the three of us with fierce, unreadable eyes.



We waited for our punishment in silence, but I couldn't let my best friend and little sister get in trouble.



I stepped forward. "It wasn't their fault. They tried to stop me, but I went out anyways. They were coming to bring me back."



Mother pulled me into the kennel and instructed me to drop my pants and bend over a crate as she pulled out a paddle.



With Ocean and Jasmine forced to watch, she paddled my bare bottom, waiting for me to break.



By the third hit, I cried out in pain as fire shot through my skin, burning me raw.



Jasmine ran forward to stop her, slipping from Ocean's grasp.



Mother threw her aside like a bag of rice, and she fell to the floor, twisting her wrist when she landed on it. She crawled to the corner and cried while Mother counted off to ten, a sadistic gleam in her eyes as she beat me.



I couldn't sit for a week, but it was Jasmine who bore the scars of that day.



While none of us made a habit of disobeying after that, Jasmine withdrew into herself and coveted from afar the friendship Ocean and I still nurtured.



Every winter I beg Jasmine to come build a snowman with Ocean and me, but every winter she says no.



Frosty will never come to life, as long as the joy that once lived in my sister stays dead.



"WHAT IF YOU learned to control your power, then you could be with him without fear, right?"

Mother glared at Ocean for whispering to me, and I elbowed her in the ribs and hissed under my breath, "Hush. We'll talk later."

She was right, though. If I could control my powers, we wouldn't have a problem, but that was a big if. I didn't think it was possible. Mother made it clear that it would never happen, that I'd always live under this curse. But then, Mother had kept some pretty big secrets from everyone, and I had no idea what to do with that information, or with the unerring trust I'd always placed in her.

Ocean and I had stayed up all night talking about our options. I wanted to show Mother the picture and ask her about it, but Ocean said she'd just come up with some lie and we'd never learn the truth. She argued that we should hold onto it and try to find out more.

So I promised not to say anything, but carrying around this secret felt like lying with every breath. A lie of omission was still a lie, and though I had no moral imperative to tell anyone about this, my conscious wouldn't let me rest.

My mouth dropped in a wide yawn that I tried unsuccessfully to stifle. Between my late date with Derek, the attack, finding the puppies—I could barely think of them—and staying up late with Ocean, I hadn't gotten a single minute of sleep last night.

I debated whether I would go to my martial arts training today. I needed rest, and Mother would be pissed if I left the property, but I needed to learn to defend myself, especially after everything that had happened. Maybe I could say I was sick and needed to sleep and Ocean could cover for me.

What was I thinking? I needed to stay away from Derek. So I would have to find another way to train.

With that decided I focused on the meeting.

Mother was still talking, naturally. "Our magic successfully protected Blake during his mission, and we now know for a fact that their power source is real. It's being guarded in a secret garden, and we believe it's a rose bush."

Roses. How ironic.

"We need to steal the rose bush and claim its power. This will strengthen us and weaken them, and allow us to defeat them once and for all." Mother draped a purple scarf around her neck in a flourish of the dramatic. "Rose, I will need you by my side for this, to use your powers against the Druids should they get too close."