Awakening by Catrina Burgess

something he’d have been able to do prior to
seeing the healer.
    “ The place freaked me
out.”
    “ The place or the
healer?”
    “ A bit of both,” I
admitted.
    “ What did she say to you?
At the door when she gave you that pouch?”
    I still held it tightly against my
chest. “It was nothing.” I looked over at him, and he raised an
eyebrow.
    “ Okay, it was something. A
warning. She said, ‘The awakening is coming upon you, child. It’s
going to try and consume you.’”
    His expression turned grim.
    “ What is the awakening?” I
asked, not quite sure if I wanted to hear the answer.
    “ In gypsy lore it’s
considered a time when you open yourself up to the spirits--when
the dark magics run wild in your blood. That’s when you need to be
especially careful. For the spirits and the magic, they can take
you over, they can overwhelm you. They can change you.”
    “ Swell,” I mumbled under my
breath. Another thing to worry about. I might finally learn the
dark arts--only to be consumed by them?
    We walked the rest of the way to the
corner in silence. A cab headed in our direction. Luke raised a
hand and stepped off the curb to flag it down.
    He opened the cab door for me, and I
scrambled in.
    “ So what now?”
    “ We go back to the
apartment, and we check on Darla.”
    “ And after
that?”
    “ You go home and then come
back in a few weeks when my uncle is back, and he can get you
started on your training.”
    I looked at him in shock. “You said
you could help me.”
    “ Colina, I know what I
said.”
    “ You took my money. You
promised to teach me,” I forced the words out between clenched
teeth.
    “ I did, but it was a
mistake. I should never have promised to teach you. Only the elders
in the guild can do this type of teaching. Men and women that have
been practicing the dark arts for years. For me to teach you, it
wouldn’t be safe. The gypsies aren’t wrong. Dealing with the dark
arts can be dangerous.”
    I shook my head and tried to calm the
panic I felt rising within me. “I can’t wait a couple
weeks.”
    “ Why?” he
demanded.
    I turned and looked out the window of
the cab. I said in a quiet voice, “You said you’d teach
me.”
    “ It’s just a few weeks, and
then my uncle will be back.”
    I didn’t know how to make Luke
understand that I was out of time.
    * * * *
    We made it back to the apartment.
Darla fussed over Luke. Luke looked annoyed, and I tried to stay
out of their way.
    I was still trying to get my head
around what Luke had told me in the cab. If he refused to teach me,
I would have no choice but to go out on my own and try to find
someone else to guide me in the dark arts. But who? If I left this
place, where would I go? Home was no longer an option. I could
demand my money back and head out into the streets. At the thought,
I felt panic in the pit of my stomach.
    You could tell him the
truth. The words whispered across my mind.
If I told him the truth, then he’d understand why I was so
desperate to learn. He might be convinced there was no time to
wait, why it had to be done now. I wanted to tell him the truth, I
really did, but I didn’t know if I could.
    I suddenly felt cold all over. I
hugged my arms around my body and walked over to the row of
windows. It had started raining again. I stood at the window
looking out at the storm. Sheets of water blown by high winds
slammed against the walls of the buildings and the street
below.
    The old woman’s words kept coming back
to me. She wanted me to tell him, but I didn’t know if I had the
courage to speak about what had happened.
    Luke crossed the room. He was moving
without pain now. He stood next to me and asked, “Are you
okay?”
    “ Can you get me a glass of
water?” I knew I was stalling. The last thing I wanted to do was
relive it all.
    He looked surprised at my request.
“Sure.”
    I turned back to watch the storm. A
few minutes later he was at my side again, a tall glass of water
filled with ice