The Hunt of the Grimalkin (Erresuma Book 1) by Dani Swanson (read aloud books txt) 📕

you waste your time with little things like arrowroot dust? You should be making cures for people’s ailments, not just quick pain relievers.” Sorgin then turned and looked at Thea. “But you! You have power like I have never seen. Thea, you might have the power of the fifth element.” The girls gave her an inquisitive look.

“I’m sorry, what would that be?” Robin wondered. “There are water, fire, earth, and wind. I’m pretty sure that there aren’t any more to be had.”

Sorgin pushed one arm out from her cane and sent Robin flying backwards, landing on her butt. “The Ether” Sorgin stated, as she calmly put her hand back onto the skull. “Everything and anything that is between those elements can be used as a spell too. She has it.” As Sorgin was pointing a perfectly manicured finger at Thea.

“How would you know that?” Thea asked nervously as she helped Robin to her feet.

“I can sense it in you. Now we need to get you to sense it too.”

They spent the better part of the day conjuring baby dirt trolls, fireballs, thunderbolts, and water spheres.  It was not going well. The girls were failing miserably. and Sorgin was losing patience.

 “I think you need some better motivation.” Sorgin eventually said as she looked at them over the brim of her glasses. She circled around the girls and lifted up her cane. Robin went flying up into a blue bubble, high above Thea’s head. “You better focus on that thunderbolt before Robin loses all her air,” Sorgin said without a trace of emotion. Robin was banging on the bubble as if she was enclosed in glass.  Thea could tell she was screaming but couldn’t hear a sound.

“What are you doing to her?!” Thea was panicked.

“That is what I call motivation, Thea. Your friend is running out of time, you’d better hurry up.” Again, there was a concerning lack of emotion from the old witch.

Thea raised her arm up in the air and brought forth a fireball. Sorgin waved her hand at Thea and knocked her over with an unseen force. “I SAID…. THUNDERBOLT! Listen to me, Child, or your friend dies!”

Thea jumped up, raised her hand to the sky, and started to tremble with the force of the wind. Robin was holding her chest and gasping for air, her face was visibly turning blue.  The sky turned grey as a small thunderbolt formed in Thea’s hand. She hurled it into the air at the blue bubble; shattering it into tiny shards as Robin fell from the sky. Sorgin tilt her head back and cackled. “See Child? You just needed motivation.”

This torturous training continued for weeks. They would wake in the morning, put on clothes that were laid out for them, practice all day, then return to their confines with a lock of the door.  It got to the point where the girls stopped checking the door in the middle of the night to see if they could get out.  They accepted that this was where they were right now.

Their practice was going so well that Robin was now able to conjure both water and earth with great ease; her eyes rarely turned colors anymore when she was casting a spell. She even worked on her potions with Sorgin. She was now able to turn Fig into a frog with one of her elixirs.

Thea was on her way to mastering all five elements. She could fling objects just by moving her hand, and was able to conjure up mud trolls and make trees start walking; she could even control the water. The problem for Thea was that it took a lot out of her body; her stamina was not where it needed to be to handle conjuring for long periods of time. Sorgin had informed her that was a common problem amongst witches.  Thea and Robin also continued to work with their staffs in study of self-defense because they still didn’t feel confident in their powers.

After a day of extreme training, the girls retired to their rooms as normal. Charles had laid out a fresh set of pajamas and their dinner for them. He was still in the room when the girls walked in. “Oh, thank you, Charles.” Robin chimed at him. He did his normal head nod before leaving the room. Thea noticed a dark bracelet on his wrist that looked like it was cutting into his skin.

“Do you need help loosening that?” Thea reached for his wrist, but when she touched it she got a painful shock and pulled her arm back. Charles just sadly nodded his head and then left the room. The lock clicked behind him. “Did you see that?” Thea was shaking her hand. She had a red burn on her fingers. Robin held Thea’s hand and applied a tingly potion to her burn and it quickly healed.

“That was strange. Almost as strange as Charles is,” Robin mumbled dismissively.

The girls had their dinner, then went to sleep. It was around three in the morning when Thea awoke to the lock on the door clicking. She laid there for a moment behind the curtains of the bed, listening for footsteps that never came. Thea poked her head out of the curtain, and only a dim light coming in from under the door.

“Did you hear that?” Robin whispered to Thea. She had crept into Thea’s room and was standing next to her bed. Thea jumped and almost fell out of the bed.

“Don’t do that!” Thea hissed as she smacked Robin in the arm.

“Sorry… I think the door is unlocked!” she whispered back to her.

They put their shoes on and crept to the door. Thea held her breath as she slowly turned the handle. The door opened. The girls looked at each other for a moment before Thea opened the door the rest of the way. They stuck their