know that to any outside observer, my eyes will appear an eerie combination of blue and purple as raw power emanates from my very pores. My voice reaches a crescendo until I’m practically screaming, my throat feeling raw and brittle, like someone has just rubbed it down with sandpaper.
The power dissipates with the final word of the spell, leaving behind three piles of ash and one normal-looking necklace.
My hands shake as I reach for the silver chain and clasp it around my neck. It feels warm to the touch, stealing the remaining cold of the rainwater from my body.
“It’s done,” I tell Nana, and she breathes out a sigh of relief.
Silence once more engulfs us for a few, tense minutes.
“Where are you going?” Nana interjects at last.
“I don’t know,” I whisper, and I’m not just talking about now. Do I stay here? Do I go back to California?
I’ve been letting the tides carry me away, but now I want to swim and resist the current. To adhere to a greater purpose beyond revenge.
“Stay safe, Peony,” Nana whispers.
“You, too.”
As I end the call, I allow my mind to wander to that night. There’s always that one moment in someone’s life when everything changes. It’s a tiny, barely decipherable dot on the blueprint of your life, standing out starkly like black ink on a white sheet of paper. For me, that moment was the night of my eighth grade dance. The night where my very world crumbled around me like after a tornado wreaks havoc.
I stood in the center of the stage, the spotlight blistering hot where it glared down on me. Sweat beaded on my forehead as my eyes drifted first to Lucas, looking every inch the unattainable prince with his slicked back red hair, and then to Cassian beside him, his smile malicious. On the opposite side of the stage, Elias stood with Karsyn, both of them exchanging wary, and weary, glances, before the latter replaces his frown with a shit-eating grin.
Lucas smiled widely and stepped back up to the microphone. I couldn’t help but think how dashing he looked in his three-piece gray suit.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” he began, his butterscotch voice making my blood sizzle. Cassian began to snicker, and even Karsyn joined in, using his fist to hide his laughter. And that was when I knew. The revelation was swift and brutal, a blade on a guillotine cutting off my head. All I could do was stand there frozen as my eyes slid to Elias.
He couldn’t, or wouldn’t, meet my eyes.
Trap! my mind screamed at me, begging me to run. But for some reason, my feet remained cemented to the ground, watching this horror show unveil before me. I couldn’t breathe through the sudden, agonizing tightness in my throat. I felt light-headed, like I was thousands of meters below the ocean’s surface, struggling to resist the currents. But they continually pulled at me, dragging me deeper and deeper into an abyss of endless darkness.
“We decided that we’re going to start a new tradition,” Lucas continued. “The crowning of High Groves Middle School’s queen!” The crowd broke into raucous cheering, a few of them already giggling like they knew what was about to happen.
My eyes latched on to the teachers standing around the perimeter of the gym. How could they let this happen? Why weren’t they stopping it? A few of them met my eyes before quickly looking away. But more than one of them refused to even make eye contact, staring very purposefully at the ground. And I realized…they had no intentions of stopping this, of putting an end to the Devils reign of terror. Their parents paid their paychecks, and that was all that mattered to them in this small community, where wealth and power spoke louder than words.
I wished the secretary, Patricia Brooks, was there. She would’ve stopped this.
Mr. Gurrel was the only teacher who met my gaze and held it, winking slyly. I felt sick to my stomach when he lowered his hands down his toned stomach and cupped himself through his pants. Before any of the other teachers could see, he quickly dropped both of his arms to his sides and adopted a nonchalant pose.
I was alone.
Truly alone.
The thought should’ve terrified me. It should’ve made icy, insidious fear skate down my spine. It should’ve made my hands sweat and my heart pound and my eyes water.
Instead, I felt empty.
I couldn’t muster up a single emotion besides loneliness.
Elias used me. I had no