Chapter 2 First Flame

As the creature lunged I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for whatever was about to hit me. A sharp beam-like sound cut through the air, bright and sudden, and then everything went quiet. When I forced my eyes open again the creature was gone. Just gone. In its place, standing a little to my left, was a girl.

She was the prettiest girl I had ever seen. Her dark hair fell around her shoulders with a single purple strand running through it, and she wore a really pretty dress that looked soft and flowing, the kind of thing that somehow still looked perfect even after what had just happened. She held a wooden stick in one hand and her eyes were fixed on the spot where the creature had been.

Before I could even open my mouth to ask who she was, the air around us tore open. Portals—actual glowing portals—ripped into existence on every side. More of those wrong-looking creatures poured out, snarling and moving faster than anything that size should move. They went straight for her. She didn’t run. She swung the wooden stick and shouted words I had never heard before, strange and sharp, and every time the stick connected a creature dropped and stayed down. I could only stand there with Puffy pressed against my legs, watching her fight like she had done this a hundred times.

Then a bigger one crashed through the largest portal. It was taller, bigger, and it charged straight at her without slowing down. She tried to dodge but it slammed into her hard enough to knock her off her feet. She hit the ground and didn’t get back up. The creature raised one of its arms, ready to finish her, and something in me just snapped. I didn’t think so I grabbed the nearest rock and threw it as hard as I could. The rock bounced off its side. The creature’s glowing eyes locked onto me instead.

It rushed forward. I threw my hands up without even meaning to, and red fire burst out of my right palm. The blast hit the creature square in the chest and the whole thing vanished in a flash of heat and light. The shock of it, the sudden empty feeling in my arms, dropped me to my knees. Everything went black.

When I opened my eyes again I was lying on my own bed. The ceiling looked the same as always. The girl from the bushes was leaning over me, worry clear on her face.

“Are you okay? Are you fine? Everything okay?” she asked, her voice soft but urgent.

I blinked a few times and tried to sit up. My head felt heavy. “Yeah… yeah, I think so,” I managed, still trying to catch my breath. She looked so calm and confident up close, almost majestic, and that purple strand in her hair only made her prettier. The dress she wore caught the light from my window and somehow still looked perfect even after everything outside.

“Hi,” she said, offering a small smile.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m Gianna. G-I-A-N-N-A. Nice to meet you. You seem to be a powered one.”

I stared at her. “Powered? Who are you? Where are you from? How did you do that back there? And what’s with the stick?”

She twirled the wooden stick between her fingers like it was the most normal thing in the world. “Oh, this? It’s a wand. My wand.”

“A wand? What are you, a witch or something?”

“Exactly,” she said, still smiling. “I’m a witch.”

“And it looks like you're a fan of wolves, I mean look at your room, there's a whole collection.” She said rather excitedly. “The guys would love them, there's a whole history about them.”

I shook my head hard and pressed both hands against my temples. “No. This has to be a dream. Wake up, Nimona. Wake up. Wake up. Where’s my cat? Where’s Puffy?”

Gianna glanced toward the corner of the room. “You mean Puffy? She’s right over there. She hasn’t stopped moving since you blacked out the whole day. Kept pacing and meowing.”

I looked and sure enough Puffy was sitting near the foot of the bed, white fur still a little puffed up, watching us both. I let out a shaky breath. “The whole day…?”

Gianna nodded. “Yep.You were out cold, but it's still your birthday. Happy birthday, by the way.”

“How did you even know it was my birthday?”

“Oh, Puffy told me.”

I stared at her. “How did she—just how? Cats don’t talk.”

She gave a small shrug like it wasn’t the strangest thing anyone had ever said. “They do if you know how to listen. Anyway, you should probably sit up a little more. You used a lot of energy earlier.”

I pushed myself up against the pillows, still watching her carefully. “Who are you, really? Because none of this makes sense.”

She glanced toward my closed bedroom door and then back at me. “I’m the girl you just saved out there. That bigger creature would have finished me if you hadn’t thrown that rock and then… well, done what you did.”

“Saved? I don’t even know what I did. Where are my parents? Where’s my mum?”

“They’re downstairs in the living room,” Gianna said calmly. “I put a sleeping spell on them so they wouldn’t come up and find all this. It seemed easier than trying to explain everything while you were still out cold.”

I rubbed my temples harder. “A sleeping spell. You put a sleeping spell on my parents. This is insane. This whole day is insane.”

Gianna’s eyes sparkled a little, like she was trying not to laugh at how overwhelmed I sounded. “Before we get too far into the insane part, you should know you’re really strong. For a first blast to knock something that size out completely…girllll, you're littttt.”

I blinked at her. “What blast? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She grinned, leaning back a little on the edge of the bed. “Oh, you didn’t know? The fire that came out of your hand. The one that turned that last monster into nothing.”

“What monster? What fire?” My voice came out higher than I meant it to. “I threw a rock. That’s all I did.”

“Girl, please.” Gianna pointed gently at the side of my head. “Your hair already gives you away. That red strand didn’t just show up for fun. You’re not ordinary at all.”

The word hit me like cold water. I stared at her, mouth open

, every thought in my head scrambling at once.

“I’m… I’m not what……?”