Shadow's Edge (Shadows Saga bk1)

Chapter 15- Elegance

Mara woke up shivering with her sheets kicked off to the bottom of her bed. She lay there for a moment before reaching for them, pulling them up to her shoulders, rolling onto her side, and clutching them tightly to her.

Her hair was sticking out in all directions from the tossing and turning, and she felt as if she hadn’t even slept. There was a ringing in her ears, and the light filtering in through the window made her squint from the harsh attack on her dilated pupils, creases etched into her forehead from frowning at the harsh morning sun.

“There you are!” She heard Trixle’s exasperated voice ring out from inside her closet. Mara heard a loud bang followed by a yelp before her roommate stumbled out of the closet with something tangled around her right foot, and a garment bag held up in the air triumphantly.

Trixle looked over, seeing Mara awake and frowning. “What’s up, Mrs. Grumpy Pants?” Trixle asked cocking her head slightly.

Mara groaned. “Not amused, Trixle.” She pulled the blanket up further, covering her face completely. Mara’s muscles began to ache as her body started to wake up.

Trixle walked over to the witch-sized lump under the covers and squatted down next to the bed. “Mara, what’s wrong? Do you feel okay?”

She heard a muffled, slightly irritated response, “I’m tired, I ache, and I don’t feel right.”

“What do you mean you don’t feel right?” Trixle asked, worry creeping into her voice.

Mara pulled the blanket down, looking her friend in the eye. “I mean I don’t feel right. I feel like something is missing – like I’m not whole.”

“It’s probably because of the block.”

“Why would that be bothering me? I lived seventeen years without any magic; I’ve only had my powers for a couple months! Why would it bother me now?” Mara asked with annoyance.

“It actually sounds like you’ve had your magic a lot longer than you think. You just never realized it was there before, you didn’t know that’s what it was.”

“Still, I don’t see why I would feel like this now.” Feeling her anger rising, Mara closed her eyes and gritted her teeth in an attempt to keep control. As the anger slowly ebbed away, she opened her eyes again.

“Well,” Trixle started to explain. “Ever since you came here, you’ve been working and improving your magic. As it grows, it becomes a bigger part of you. Instead of your magic just being something that you have, it essentially becomes you. When that part is taken away, like with the block you have, you no longer feel whole because there is a part of you missing.”

Mara pulled the blankets back over her head again, hiding away from the world, her voice so small that it barely made it through the barrier between her and Trixle. “What can I do to get it back?”

“The only thing you can do is wait it out.”

“What if the woman never gives it back?” Mara asked, tears in her voice.

“What woman?”

“The woman from my dream. The one who said she put the block up.”

“Who was the woman, Mara? What dream?”

“My dream the other night,” Mara said uncovering her face. “The woman came into it and told me she was the one who put the block around my powers.”

“Did she say why? What did this woman look like?” Trixle tried to hide the panic in her voice.

“She was shorter, probably not much taller than me, long black hair, pale skin. Her eyes – they were so blue, a bright blue I’ve never seen before,” Mara said, staring off into the distance as if she were seeing beyond the room.