Sisters of the Sacred Flame

“What have we done? I don’t think we can fix this,” I slowly twisted my head to look at Rachel, horror splattered over my face.

“Don’t be so negative. It just needs more dark magic,” Rachel countered, holding her hand out toward the fire roaring in front of us.

“We just tried!” I threw my hands up, exasperated, “I don’t know what else we can do.”

Rachel peered at me and then angled her head to look around me. I heard steps on the leaves in the brush next to us, and I knew exactly who was approaching, but I was so annoyed by the fact that Rachel had invited her here that I didn’t want to give her any satisfaction of having my attention. So, I waited until Rachel’s sister stopped right next to me, to glance in her direction.

“Seriously?” I questioned Rachel.

“I don’t understand what your problem is with me,” Beca retorted, in her usual condescending tone.

Beca, the she-devil, if you will, has done several things for her to get permanently placed on my ‘I despise you’ list. Thinking she’s entitled to everything just because she is a little stronger than we are, for now, is just the beginning. Although I wonder if it occurs to her that’s only because she has accessed her full power, whereas Rachel and I have not. We still have a year left to discover what we can truly do; well, I only have eight months until my eighteenth birthday, and Rachel has ten. Beca is now twenty and a part of me imagines she knows that I will become more powerful than her when my birthday rolls around, which makes her apprehensive because she has animosities being outshined by anyone.

Our coven, Sisters of the Sacred Flame, or SSF for short, has been around for nearly 2,000 years and no one has established as much power as I have before their birthday. It gives me anxiety because nobody knows how my body will alter after the complete evolution. Sometimes I’m even scared of what I could potentially do with my powers now, let alone when I turn 18.

My dad, Adonis, always said that he believed in me to use my magic for noble causes, so using dark magic tonight felt like I was going against everything he stood for, but this was something that had to be done.

“Let’s just get this over with guys,” I nodded towards the fire ready to commence our spell again. “My parents are keeping something big from me, and I need to know what it is.”

We moved to hold hands around the fire and in unison began, “Clarification I now require so that truth is shown before me. Let what is hidden be brought out in the open…” we glimpsed at each other and ended, “…as the truth is shown, may I not be misled.”

As the fire roared hotter we had to take a step back to see what it was trying to display before us. As the light of it died down some for us to see within it better, that’s when I saw a face I’d never seen before standing next to my mother, just after she had given birth to me. I looked over to Rachel and Beca, eyes wide and horror on their face as they watch the fire convey the story of the truth that I had been seeking. Though it was never what I expected, not even close…