Chapter Seventeen
Roy let her go without chasing her, and for that Aradia was grateful. If he had pressed the point, she would have admitted that she did have feelings for Roy which went beyond friendship.
“That doesn’t matter, Rai,” she muttered to herself as she hurried away from the SilverMoon. She didn’t have much experience in the romantic department, but she knew it wasn’t fair to be with somebody if you were constantly thinking about someone else.
Roy was sweet, kind, good looking, and fun. They had a connection, and he was obviously crazy about her. No matter how long a list of positive attributes she came up with for Roy, though, she could not stop thinking about Dax.
Aradia groaned in frustration.
She’d left the diner far behind. She had hurried past the school, around the Olde Salem Golf Course, and was now at the edge of the Salem woods. She had discovered a great number of trails and paths through the woods, but that wasn’t what she wanted today. She plunged between the trees, making her own way.
Once she was deep inside the forest, completely alone and isolated, she stopped and stood straight up. She took a deep breath, tasting the clean air and its many different fragrances like pollen, White Pine, wildflower, and rich, fertile dirt. As she inhaled and exhaled, she thought over what she said to Roy. She especially remembered the part where she had said she can do what she wants, when she wants.
Her magic behaved like a sort of nervous energy, which if she bottled up, would only make her feel more stressed. More stressed, or explode, Aradia thought to herself with a snicker.
“To hell with it!” Aradia cried out to the forest. The forest’s only response was the fluttering wings of a woodpecker which was startled by her sudden outburst. “I can show you better than that, Woody.”
She searched in all directions to ensure she truly was alone. When her normal senses confirmed it, she closed her eyes and extended herself into the forest. This sensory power only worked away from civilization and structures, and was most powerful when surrounded by life. So far as she could feel, the only organisms in her vicinity were animals. Eventually, she felt satisfied in her isolation.
She set her backpack into a nook formed between two small boulders. It was a snug fit, and she thought the stones would provide good protection for her things. She then fished out her iPod touch and shuffled through her music library.
“If I am going to show off, I must have music,” Aradia spoke as she searched for the perfect song. Finally, she found one that struck her fancy: an Avril Lavigne song entitled “One of Those Girls.” She held her iPod touch to her belt. After holding her hand over it and concentrating for a minute, she managed to fuse it to her belt. She pumped up the volume.
Mouthing along to the words of the song, Aradia danced. She did a back flip and smiled at the crunching of leaves and twigs when she landed. With a mischievous smirk she did another back flip, but this time she intentionally landed on a fallen tree, using her power to shear it clean in two.
As the lyrics progressed, she formed jets of fire from her hands, being careful not to set the woods ablaze. She ran as fast as she could through the foliage, and with each step felt deep into the earth beneath her, sensing every living thing burrowing around in the soft soil. Flame licked from her fingers through the swiftly swirling wind and it seemed as if threads of golden silk were being spun from her fingertips.
She waved her hands in circles to alternately form small voids of darkness or balls of light. When Avril Lavigne mentioned being high, Aradia saw a huge tree and grinned. She ran towards it and jumped as high as she could, grabbing hold of a branch at least fifteen feet off the ground. In just a few seconds she climbed to the tree’s apex. The day was clear, and from that height she could easily make out the smokestacks of the Salem Harbor Power Station, and beyond that, the Atlantic.
When the song got to the word die, Aradia turned and held out her arms. Pushing off with her feet, she fell backwards. As she neared the ground, she actually slowed her descent, flipped, and landed on her feet as swift and satisfied as a cat.
Then she turned and darted off in the direction of Quiet Lake. She ran and launched herself off the ground as if to dive into the lake, fully clothed, in the middle of October. Once she reached the water, however, she somersaulted along its surface and ran atop the softly lapping waves. With every step the water underneath her feet froze into thick, solid ice, creating any icy trail behind her.
Aradia managed to maintain her balance. She even kept her shoes from getting wet. Her iPod was now playing “Fighter” by Christina Aguilera. As the song reached the chorus, Aradia stopped and stood on her ice plank. She still stood on the ice, but waving her arms in a rhythmic motion, she made the water around her rise and swirl. Using not only her hands and arms, but her entire body, she danced, and the water obeyed her every motion.
As the song reached its climax, Aradia raced back towards land dragging a soaring tail of water behind her. The wind ripped ferociously at the living waves, and fire erupted from their crests as she ran faster and faster.
The song was ending, and Aradia truly cut herself loose. When her feet touched solid land, the water and flames crashed about her, intermingling, and she rode a wave of sand, dirt, and stone as a surfer would ride an ocean wave on her board. The earth itself seemed to obey her will in a way it never had before.
She wanted her finale to be as grandiose as possible, and so she shot bolts of light and darkness into the sky like ethereal fireworks.
Invigorated from her workout, Aradia went back to get her stuff. She was feeling energized, exuberant, and cheerful.
She had no idea that only a few dozen feet away stood Dax Dayton, with his wavy blonde hair as perfect as always, a completely mystified look on his face, and an iPhone in his hand.
“Well now,” he murmured to himself as he ended the video recording. He continued following Aradia. He watched as she trotted off happily towards the road and dialed her mother on her cell phone. “This just got a whole lot more interesting.”