Rebirth: The Awakening Of A Witch (21 page)

“Your room’s beautiful, by the way,” I
said as I glanced at the entire room again.

“Thanks. You should see Adrien’s room. It’s exquisite!” she said animatedly.

“Really? Are there more sunflower paintings?” I asked, suddenly excited to see more of his works. He is talented. I have to admit that much.

She shook her head. “No. H
is room is fil
le
d with paintings of a weird-
looking tree. It’s beautiful, actually, because it’s very unique
, and it somehow looks like it
glows.
The entire tree is made of a mixture of blues and greens, even the branches and the trunks,
”
she continued on explaining every detail of that tree, which I was
so certain
was the same tree on my vision.
My
marble tree.
I totally forgot to ask Adrien about that.
I made a mental note to ask him again.

“Have you seen that tree somewhere before?” I inquire
d. I could start asking El
ise now
, and
then ask him again about it.

She shook her head. “No, I haven’t.
He wouldn’t
even
say where you can find it in Propheria
,”
she said softly
and frowned. She looked like she was
trying to piece u
p
something.

“What is it?” I asked.

“
Adrien’s been obsessed with that tree ever since he got interested
in painting,
”
she shrugged.

I frowned. Now I know that I
have
to ask him about that.
But for now I need to ask Elise something else that I couldn’t ask in front of him.

“Elise, the connection that Cole was saying earlier…
was that the same c
onnection my parents shared?”

She nodded. “Yes. It’s also the same reason why losing all her powers didn’t mean much to her because she had your father…and you, of course.”
She smiled
affectionately
at me, taking both
my hands.

I smiled back and immediately went to my next question,
thoroughly
satisfied with what she
just
said to me.
“Why don’t I always get to feel yours and Cole’s aura?”

“That’s because you’re always bothered with my brother that you don’t get to relax and
sense
anything else
but
him,” she replied, laughi
ng while giving out her answer
.

“Oh crap,” I
muttered, making her laugh
even
more while I was busy turning my face more
flushed
than it already was
.
This means that I was never really alone since that awful nightmare happened. They’ve been keeping a close eye on me… all of them. And all this time I was
too disturbed
with
Adrien’
s presence
that I wasn’t able to feel their auras as well.
God
,
I felt horrible about myself right now.

“If you learn to relax, you get to feel the aura of every witch around you. That’s one of the privileges of
being an
Imperial
. Don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it.
You
just need practice,
”
she happily
explained to me.

I nodded, still not getting why she gets so excited about all th
i
s stuff about my powers.
“Earlier tonight, did you already know that Rhiannon was planning something when I told you about Nana’s text?”

She shook her head. “
No. I did feel that
something was off. That’s why I told you to call her,
”
she replied, pondering on it a bit
.

I immediately stiffened when I recalled that awful feeling earlier.
Her
grip on my hand tightened when
she noticed. “I felt something before, Elle. I wasn’t feeling well because my breath constantly
kept
cut
ting
off at that time. I felt this heavy feeling and I couldn’t explain it.” I felt myself shudder
a
s I remembered
that horrible feeling.
It seemed so harmless at that time, but now I know better.
My
body was warning me
tha
t
some
thing w
as going to
happen.

I was shocked when Elise suddenly hugged me. I must’ve been in a daze.
“Shh… Sky, that’s
just
your psychic ability. It’s the first power you’ve developed
since you turned eighteen
.
It means that your power
is already
maturing
.
”
She cooed, trying to soothe me.
“
It means that you’ve been so good at
reading people’s emotions
and
expression
s
,
or you’ve been
great
at reading people’s feelings
before your powers were a
waken
ed.
You’ll get used to it
soon.
I promise.
”

What she actually said was probably true.
All those times I thought I was just being paranoid, but I guess there was always a reason for everything.
I t
ook deep breaths
, slowly trying to
calm myself when I
suddenly
felt Adrien’s presence
lurking outside her bedroom.

“
Adrien’s here,
”
I said softly, taking
deeper
breaths.

She nodded. “He probably felt your
distress
. That’s why he’s outside. Stay here, okay? I’ll be right back
.
”
She went
out
of her
bedroom and was back at
my side after
just a
few
moments.

“Yep, he was worried.” She
chuckled
, obviously entertained at what
was happening
.
“You know what, this reminds me how he stormed out of the house in that horrid weather after that nightmare you had of being in Alastor’
s head,
”
she stopped when she looked at my expression. Her face immediately
displayed
her remorse.
“You know he spent the night
watching over you.
”
She winked at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

I gasped. He was watching me? “How?” I asked her as I desperately
searched through
my brain,
tr
ying
to remember
the events that happened right after that
nightmare.

She shrugged.
“
I don’
t really know how, but he sent Cole a message a few hours after that
, saying that he should watch you
,
because you were actually planning
to walk
all the way to school.
”
She said, shaking her head
disapprovingly
, clearly not happy t
hat I walked
all th
at
way.
“He just went home
to
change then
go
t back to school
right
afterwards,” she shrugged
and looked at me with a
meaningful
smile on her face
.

I was
bewildered
at what I heard.
That’s why he looked so
exhaust
ed that day.
I can’t believe h
e actually
stayed somewhere near the house and just made sure I was safe
.
That
explains
why I felt
like
that
familiar
aura
was in the same room with me
at that time
, because he was
practic
ally
that close.

I groaned.
Now I really needed to apologize to him for all the
horrible
things I did.
He was totally not the guy I
pinned
him
down
to be.
I sighed.

After a few moments, I allowed my mind to go back to everything that happened
since the
first
time I
met him.
I felt my brows slightly wrinkling as I realized som
e
thing.
I only did those things because he al
ways annoyed the hell out of me
. I
automatically
transform
ed
into
my
defensive mode
, try
ing to clea
r
my conscience even for just a bit
.
But it didn’
t work. I still felt guilty
even though
he acted
that way
towards me.

“
Why is Adrien so mad at me, anyway?
”
I
breathed out, blowing my bangs
out of their
previously neat position
i
n my forehead
.
I finally gave up.
I know I needed to ask him this question personally, but I don’t think I could
rein in
t
he curiosity
any longer
.

“
He doesn’
t like the prophe
c
y. For him, it’s like
being forced to fall in love with a witch that he
’
s supposed to protect.
He wants to defy fate. I think he actually tried doing that
by acting like an ass in front of you
,
”
she laughed. “
Back when you were
kids
, he didn’t
re
ally mind what
his
prophe
c
y said because he wa
s too busy following you around,” she said with
a
faraway look on her face. “
Right now I think he’s already changed his mind about everything. But that’s just my guess. I haven’t talked to him about
that
recently
,
”
she shrugged
.

I don’t really have a strong opinion
if he’s already made up his mind
on
that
subject.
I
actually
share
his
view
, though.
Everything’s just too complicated as it
already
is
. I couldn’t even fully wake myself up to the reality that I’m a witch
. That alone
has taken up all
the available space in my brain, and
I couldn’t possibly entertain anything else as of the moment.

What Cole said about me being
unable to ignore
Adrien’s
presence
,
and the fact that I was drawn to him
…
well,
those were
true.
I
felt myself
blush as I admitted those to myself.
But
I don’t actually know if that prophe
c
y was totally to be blamed for
those things.
Besides, I
completely
don’t understand him and his mood swings.