POV: Violette
"Concentrate Violette", Knox instructed. "If we are going to teach you anything, if you are to learn from us, you must be able to do this".
After my panic attack yesterday I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in solitude. I needed some time to get my head wrapped around everything that had happened and I couldn't do that around them. The knock on my door this morning, informing me that breakfast would be served shortly with my first lesson to follow, was the only interruption to my self-imposed exile. Knox and Varin had been charged with leading me through my first day of lessons and had instructed me to take a single glass of water and make it evaporate. Which I had done multiple times already mind you, but not in the way they wanted. "I don't understand why we can't move on from this. I've been making this water evaporate for the past hour already!".
"Getting frustrated with us will only serve to slow your progress," Varin sighed. "You are not causing the water to evaporate, you are simply making it look like it has. A small distinction but an important one".
I glared at him. "Why?"
"Sun casting at its core is about manipulation. You have only been taught to change things, to create an illusion if you will. Moon casting is about amplifying. It is about growth. And in order to achieve your ultimate goal, you will need to understand both of these magics." It was the first time any of them had mentioned my purpose here. This wasn't just some demon summer camp that I decided to run away to in an act of youthful rebellion. I was here so they could teach me how to resurrect Ismeta.
Varin stepped away from the windowsill that he had been perched on to walk closer to me. It was easier to see his eyes now without the sunlight backing him. "Currently, you are only making that glass of water go from being full to being empty. It is a split-second illusion that while executed flawlessly, is not what we are asking of you. Look at the water, see its chemical makeup and understand its rules. Then encourage it to continue along its process sooner than normal. Push the molecules to heat up and force it to gradually evaporate".
I blew out a breath and rolled my shoulders back. I could do this. I knew I could. My casting usually felt warm, like sun rays beaming down on me. But it was a flashpoint. I'd feel the heat and then when it was gone I'd see the successful result of whatever I had been trying to accomplish. Thinking about what Varin had said, I wanted to try casting differently.
As I closed my eyes I felt the weight of the glass in my hand and instead pictured a cool evening breeze tickling my skin. I let the image of midnight wind whirl around me as I opened my eyes and concentrated once more on making the water evaporate. Before my eyes, the water began to move. I set the glass on the dark oak table before me and let that cool breeze continue to guide me. As steam rose from the clear surface and the level of the water in the glass began to decrease, a smile spread across my face. When there was nothing left I looked back up to Varin and Knox who were beaming at me with twin expressions of pride.
"Now", Knox nodded as he spoke, "We can really begin".
*****
We were all sitting down for dinner and my brain felt like mush. Varin had said he was impressed with my progress for it only being the first day of our lessons, but I didn't feel the same way. I knew that I couldn't expect to master moon casting in only one day but Ismeta kept weighing heavily on my mind. The longer it took me to learn the longer she was lost to this world.
"A penny for your thoughts, little minx?". Cassius was sitting across from me sipping a pint of beer and staring at me with a look of playful intrigue. It awed and annoyed me that they all seemed to be so in tune with my emotions. Most of my coven would likely describe me as being cold and closed off. But being with the four of them made me feel like I wasn't just an open book, but an easy-to-read manual. Cassius in particular seemed to enjoy peering inside my head. He and Desmond had been gone all day. Returning only once my lessons were over and it made me curious as to what the four of them did with their eternity of existing? Being here with them was the farthest I had ever been from home. If I were suddenly faced with immortality I knew that I'd strive to see every inch of the world.
I pinned him with a look, hopefully conveying my annoyance at the nickname, and decided to pry into his life instead. "What exactly is it that you all do? I know you're demons and with that comes the luxury of timelessness but I am curious as to how you choose to fill your days." His answering smirk told me he was either about to flirt with me or give me an answer I wasn't expecting.
"When you've been around as long as we have, there are certain... obligations shall we say that must be fulfilled."
I narrowed my eyes and chewed on the inside of my cheek as I thought over what he said. "What kind of obligations?"
"The kind that may take us away from you sometimes. We are expected to help maintain the realm we come from." I huffed at his incredibly vague response. It frustrated me that we met during one of my most vulnerable moments and yet it was like pulling teeth to get any information out of them.
"Violette you cannot expect us to divulge all of our secrets to you right away. You'd just run along back to your coven if we gave you all of our knowledge in one go." Knox winked at me before taking another bite of the salad that Varin's chef had prepared. Despite the lighthearted tone, his words landed like a challenge. I looked around the table and for once the rest of them didn't have their eyes rested on me. They looked into their glasses, took bites of food, or stared anywhere except in my general direction. It dawned on me that Knox's question was one they had all been wondering about.
"Don't tell me you're worried I'm just using you, Knox. I'd have to start caring about your feelings if that were the case." I popped a grape in my mouth, the slightly sour taste enabling me to keep my facade of neutrality in place.
"You wound me, Vi. I know you have a soft spot for me somewhere in that gorgeous body of yours. Would you like me to check for you? I'm sure there are plenty of soft spots that you'd love me to examine anyways."
I slid my eyes to him over the rim of my wine glass. My cheeks flushed as I thought about how annoyingly correct he was and I prayed that they all thought it was simply due to the wine I had been nursing all night. Not because of the way my thighs clenched at the thought of what he had just said. "I'm sure you say that to all the girls," I quipped.
The smile he had been easily wearing slipped and a seriousness that I hadn't seen since we were at the Tree of Whispers entered his gaze. "No. It's not". His eyes pinned me as he raised his own glass to his lips. The attraction I felt to all of them seemed to surge, creating a live wire that almost seemed to physically wrap around the five of us as we sat around the dinner table. It was unnerving and shockingly easy to flirt with him. With all of them really.
I had always thought I was broken and that sexual or romantic attraction was never going to be in the cards for me. But the lingering stares and bold nature of the demons that surrounded me called to the wildness I had always felt inside. It felt like waking up and I craved more of it.
"How was your first lesson?" Desmond's elbows rested on the table, his hands holding up his head. He looked like a painting come to life and I did my best to answer him without blushing again.
"It was interesting. But I would expect nothing less from any of you." It was easier for me to keep our conversations light-hearted. They seemed to pull everything from me so effortlessly. My emotions, my magic, my attraction...my entire being came alive when I was near them and I needed to keep reminding myself that they were strangers. I knew in my heart they'd never hurt me and I knew, somehow, that they cared for me. None of those things took away the deep-seated fear that they would send me away if they did get to know me. The distance that cleaved my relationship with my family as I got older seemed to expand the more I let them in. The more they learned about who I was becoming the less it seemed they wanted to know. I couldn't risk that happening now. Not when someone was relying on me to learn and bring her back.
"Please," Knox laughed. "If looks could kill both Varin and me would be lying on the parlor floor right now."
"Not Varin. I'd let him live." The small smile that appeared on the quiet demon's face made my heart feel lighter. I enjoyed goading these smiles out of him. Every time it happened he seemed surprised that his mouth was capable of such action.
"Oh come now. You cannot possibly tell me that between the two of us you'd spare Varin!" His arms were spread wide as his teasing disbelief encouraged laughter from the other three.
"You are vexing, Knox." Varin's deep voice rolled around my body and I made a mental note to ask more questions of him at my next lesson. His voice was something to awe over.
"Here, here." Cassius raised his glass, toasting Varin's assessment of their friend's behavior.
Desmond didn't join the conversation. His eyes had stayed glued on me. Watching me as my body relaxed once the conversation was steered away from me and my feelings regarding today's teachings. The truth is that it was frustrating and I felt inadequate. "Interesting how?"
"Moon casting feels different. It was an adjustment at first to tap into it."
"You are too hard on yourself," Varin said softly. "You made a lot of progress today."
"Not enough," I mumbled under my breath.
"Did you think after one day of lessons you'd have the skills necessary for resurrection? That kind of magic takes time, Violette." Desmond leaned back in his chair as he reminded me of that ever-present clock. I knew what I had to learn would likely take me weeks if not months. It didn't stop the disappointment that raged through me at being separated from Ismeta for one more day.
"Of course not," I said hastily. "Just because I want to know everything now doesn't mean I think that's how the world works."
Varin nodded at my words, but his eyes narrowed as he took in what I said. "You are young and therefore ache to experience everything with haste. I have walked three realms for over a millennia and have learned that true pleasure comes from patience. True knowledge comes from practice. True power comes with time."
"Spoken like someone who has nothing but time. I'm mortal. Each day that I get up is another day closer to my inevitable end. So yes, I'm hasty. I can't bear the thought of wasting the precious years I am given."
Cassius was lounging in his chair, one arm thrown over the back of Knox's who was resting his forearms on the table in front of him. "It sounds as if you've had this discussion before." Cass cocked his head to the side as he spoke. It was odd to see body language I was familiar with being at such odds with his temperament. Even as he asked questions and shifted his body minutely to convey intrigue or confusion, there was a confidence that overtook every movement.
"I've had similar conversations with my friend Gilly. She and I are as different as two people can be but I love her as if she were a sister. She doesn't understand my restlessness. Why I'm not content with my life in the coven."
"Sometimes the best people for us are those whose perspective is massively different." Cass smiled at me. One I was beginning to think was reserved for just me as it never appeared on his face when he was conversing with the others. Each one of them was so different yet they all shared wisdom that made me want to learn and make their efforts worthwhile. A laugh started bubbling up in my throat as I thought about the clashing view of demons that I had been brought up with, to the one I was forming now, surrounded and cared for by them.
"What pray tell is so funny, Dove?" Desmond's eyes crinkled with delight as he awaited my answer.
"I can't believe I ever thought you were scary," I forced out between hiccups of laughter.
"Believe me," Desmond stated, "We are scary. To everyone except you. Our ambitious and beautiful runaway caster."
Later that night after the table had been cleared and I had slid underneath the cool, soft covers of my bed, I replayed his words over and over in my mind. 'Our ambitious and beautiful runaway caster'. To be theirs excited me more than I was ready to admit.
