Fallen Elements (31 page)

Leah opened the diary, her hands trembling as
she turned the pages. “Ryan, I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”

Ryan shook her head, and wiped at her eyes
with the back of her hand. “Bullshit! You talked to her before she
died. The two of you hadn’t spoken in years. Then suddenly you hear
from her, and the fact she was going to drown herself never came
up?!”

Leah crossed the room, and sat down at the
dining table. Laying the diary in front of her, she continued to
read through it. “I’ve never actually seen this. I’ve just been
told it existed.”

Ryan snatched the book out from in front of
Leah. “I’m not talking about this damn book! I’m talking about
–”

“I know what you’re asking me, Ryan!” Leah
stood up. Her defenses had finally been triggered. “And I’m telling
you I didn’t know Karen was going to kill herself.”

Ryan hesitated. Leah’s raised voice felt like
a slap in the face. “But she did call you?” Ryan forced her voice
low, and took several deep breaths as the rage from moments ago
began to give way to her need to understand.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Leah let
out a deep sigh. “Yes. And yes, it did seem odd, but we just
talked.”

Ryan sat down in the chair across from Leah.
Both women were looking intently at each other. Ryan spoke first.
“You’re lying.” Leah averted her eyes. Ryan craned her head down,
forcing Leah to make eye contact with her. “I want to know what the
two of you talked about.”

Leah stood up, and walked toward the front
door. “I think I should go.”

Something occurred to Ryan, and she stepped
in front of Leah, the two women practically colliding into one
another. “Wait.” Ryan placed her hand on Leah’s shoulder. “What did
you mean when you said you had never actually seen the diary?”
Ryan’s eyes narrowed. “Why would you?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Leah stepped around
Ryan.

“Jesus, why are you like this? Why all the
unspoken, implied crap?” Ryan hurried around Leah, and stepped in
front of her, effectively blocking her exit.

“Ryan, let me leave.” Leah’s tone was harsh,
but she was unable to make eye contact with Ryan.

“Not until you explain.” Ryan willed her tone
to something more congenial; otherwise, she knew Leah would bolt.
“Can’t we be honest with each other?”

Leah’s eyes shot up, and a look of pure
anguish crossed her face. “You’re not the one that’s been
lying.”

Ryan felt a shot of elation course through
her. She was hopeful this was the beginning of the truth. “Can we
sit and talk?”

Leah hesitated, but finally nodded, and the
two women went into the living room. Sitting down next to Leah on
the sofa, Ryan squelched the myriad of questions that were shooting
through her head. She instinctively knew Leah was going to control
the pace of this portion of the conversation.

“How much of that diary have you read?” Leah
sat facing Ryan, her leg tucked up under her.

Ryan thought that was an odd question to
start the conversation with. “Ah, I skipped some of the more banal
entries about crop rotation and how to not drop a stitch, but
otherwise, all of it.”

Leah took a deep breath, a tremor moving
through her body before she spoke. “Our families have a very long
and sordid history.”

Ryan frowned. “Our families? You mean you and
my mother?”

Leah pursed her lips. “No. I mean our
families. All the way back to what you read in that diary.”

“What are you playing at?” Ryan couldn’t
fathom where Leah was going with this.

“The Allerton and Sebille families. Your
ancestors and mine. I’m a direct descendent of Abigail’s.” Leah
forced the words passed her lips.

Ryan shook her head. “Look, I don’t know what
my mother told you about that diary, or what you know from your own
people, or what the two of you thought was true when you were
seventeen, but clearly my mother was not in her right mind.”

Leah rubbed her face with both hands. “Ryan,
it’s true. All of it.”

Ryan felt the certainty of her world slipping
away, and she was desperately clinging to it. “Karen had spent god
knows how long reading through that diary, and convinced herself
that what is nothing more than the writings of a very naïve twenty
year old girl were true.”

Before Leah could interrupt her, Ryan pushed
on, fueled by the certainty of the material world and the science
that governs it. “Evidently, the idea there are witches somehow
seemed more palatable to her than the truth. My family took
advantage of people for as far back as anyone can remember. That’s
the most human thing there is. You don’t need magic for that level
of greed and mendacity to exist.”

Leah leaned back, resting against the arm of
the sofa. “Jesus, I’m trying to
finally
tell the truth, and
you don’t – or won’t believe me.”

“Believe what, that there are witches? That
my family has hunted and killed, or financially ruined them for
generations? Oh, and I don’t want to forget – you’re a witch.” Ryan
had said the words with the most sarcasm she could muster.

“Yes.” Leah spoke with such certainty Ryan
almost believed her.

“Leah, please.” Ryan reached for the woman’s
hand, and was met halfway when Leah grabbed Ryan’s. A shot of heat
went up Ryan’s arm and spread through her chest.

“It’s warm, isn’t it?” Leah whispered.

Ryan looked down at their hands, her eyes
wide. “Yes, but I told you already –”

“I know. You told me how warm you feel when
you’re around me.” Leah looked down at their hands as she chewed
nervously on her lower lip. “Karen had the same reaction. Your
aunt’s nose bleeds, your cousin gets something akin to an allergy
attack.” Leah took a deep breath. “The child your ancestor carried
– your great grandmother seven times back – she got terrible
stomach cramps when she was around us.”

Ryan swallowed hard. She felt as if she and
Leah were having the conversation underwater. Everything was
slowing down, the air felt stifling, and Leah seemed blurry.
“Us?”

Leah released Ryan’s hand. “Over the
millennia most cultures have referred to us as witches or some
variation of that, but we – I – am descended from a race of
elementals.”

Ryan was shocked when instead of fainting
dead away, she had a pertinent question pop into her head. “Which
element are you?”

The corner of Leah’s mouth turned up. “Well,
I’m – I guess you could say I’m water.”

Ryan stood up, and began pacing back and
forth in front of the sofa. “I can’t believe I’m actually listening
to this.” She stopped and looked at Leah. “Don’t take this the
wrong way, but I’ve always felt like there were things you weren’t
telling me, and – I’m sorry to just come out and say this – but are
you mental?”

Leah’s face flushed, and her jaw set. “Are
you asking me if I’m crazy?”

Ryan held her hands up in front of her. “No,
no, I – well, sort of.”

Leah, exasperated, stood and began scanning
the room. Spotting a half full bottled water on the end table, she
picked it up.

Ryan cocked her head to the side, a doubtful
expression on her face. “What are you doing?”

Leah placed the base of the water bottle in
the palm of her hand. “Just watch.”

Ryan turned her attention to the bottle, and
stared in amazement as small ice crystals began to form around its
edges and the water began to expand inside the bottle until it was
a solid cylinder of ice.

“Holy shit!” Ryan reached for the bottle, but
then stopped. “Can I touch it?”

Leah smiled. “Of course. It’s no different
than if you had left it in the freezer.”

Ryan took the bottle from Leah, mesmerized by
how cold and solid it was. “Ah, I think this is a little different
than my freezer.” Grasping the lid, she rotated the bottle. “What
else can you do?”

Leah took the bottle back from Ryan, and
wrapped her hand around it. “You know I usually only do kids’
birthday parties.”

Ryan couldn’t help but smile. “You’re making
a joke?”

Leah shrugged. “I’m just relieved you didn’t
run screaming – or worse.”

Ryan’s brow arched. “What’s worse?”

Leah shook her head. “Never mind. Just
watch.” As quickly as the water had frozen, it thawed and was
liquid again.

Ryan gasped. “How do you do that?”

“I have no idea.” Leah said plainly.

“Oh, come on. You must know.” Ryan insisted
as she continued to study the bottle.

“I really don’t, and I haven’t always been
able to control it.” A sadness settled over Leah.

Ryan studied Leah for a second. She seemed
distant suddenly. “What happened?”

Leah’s eyes shot up, a startled expression on
her face. “What?”

Ryan grinned. “The look on your face – it was
like you had gone a million miles away.”

Leah sighed as she rubbed the back of her
neck nervously. “Until I finished puberty, the powers were all over
the place. One winter we had gone to visit family in Altona, New
York.” Leah frowned. “I was ice skating with a boy I had met from
town when he fell through a patch of thin ice. I – I thought it
would be easy enough to heat the pond up.”

Leah looked up at Ryan. “You know, so he
could just swim to shore.” She stopped talking, her breaths coming
in short spurts. “But I got it too hot, and he nearly died from
third degree burns.”

Ryan put the bottle back on the table, and
pulled Leah to her. Holding her tightly, Ryan tried to reassure
Leah. “It wasn’t your fault.” She leaned back so she could see
Leah. “Impulse control is for shit with every adolescent.” Ryan
smiled. “And most adults for that matter.”

Leah managed a small smile. “Thank you, but
it was terrible. I swore I would never use my powers to harm
anyone.” Shaking her head, Leah shuddered. “I don’t think I could
live with myself.”

Ryan wanted to help Leah past her melancholy,
and back into the present. “I couldn’t imagine you hurting
anyone.”

The corner of Leah’s mouth turned up. “Who
can say? To your point, I don’t even know why or how I can do what
I do. I suppose there’s some science behind it. Genetics or
something, but who would I ever trust enough to test that?” Leah
said the last part with obvious sadness in her voice.

“You’re trusting me, though?” Ryan took
Leah’s hands in hers. “Me of all people, considering who my family
is?”

Leah shook her head. “No. I’m trusting you
because of who
you
are.”

As much reassurance and affection as Leah’s
words triggered in Ryan, her curiosity was nowhere near abated.
“What else can you do?”

Leah tapped her index finger against her lips
as she scanned the room before her eyes settled on Ryan. “Give me
your arm.”

Ryan frowned. “My arm?”

Leah nodded, a mischievous smirk on her face.
“Yeah, your arm.”

Ryan hesitated, but ultimately she trusted
Leah, and stretched her arm out between them. “Be gentle.”

A quick smile flashed across Leah’s lips
before she forced a more serious expression, setting her mouth in a
thin, pursed line. The first touch of Leah’s hand on the underside
of Ryan’s forearm sent a skittering of heat up into Ryan’s chest,
but then the touch became cool, almost cold.

Ryan’s eyes widened as she stared at where
Leah’s hand lay on her skin. “What’s happening?”

Leah’s gaze wandered from where her hand was,
up the bare skin of Ryan’s arm, pausing at her shoulder. “Do you
feel that?”

Ryan shuddered. “It’s all the way up my arm!”
She looked back and forth between Leah’s hand and the light green
of her eyes.

“The human body is roughly sixty five percent
water.” Leah slid her hand down to Ryan’s wrist, and wrapped her
slender fingers around it. “It’s contained in the tissues – blood,
even bone.”

As Leah spoke, the coolness from before
disappeared. Ryan felt a warmth growing deep in the joint of her
wrist. It spread outward, and wound itself up her arm, wrapping
around her forearm and settling deep in her elbow.

Something occurred to Ryan, but she hesitated
before putting a voice to it. “Can you make it hotter?”

Leah’s eyes shot up to Ryan’s, a worried
expression on her face. “Yes.”

Ryan nodded. “And colder too, I assume?”

Leah nodded, and removed her hand from Ryan’s
wrist. “Yes.” Extending her arm to her side, and without looking
away from Ryan, Leah turned her palm upward. A split second later,
fine crystals of ice were appearing in the air around Leah’s hand,
gently floating to the floor.

“Jesus.” Ryan stuck her hand out, catching
the fine grains of ice in her hand. “That’s amazing.”

Leah suddenly pulled her hand away. “It’s not
difficult. Water is everywhere - short of living in a desert, and
or in some buildings where the air is particularly dry because of
climate control systems.”

Ryan could hear the strain in Leah’s voice,
and put aside her heightened curiosity. She took Leah’s hand in
hers, and sat down on the sofa. “Please sit with me.” Ryan patted
her hand on the cushion next to her. “All of this is good. No more
lies and half-truths.”

Leah bit her lower lip between her teeth as
she considered the space next to Ryan. After several seconds, she
sat down, still holding Ryan’s hand. “I should have told you
before. Especially about Karen.” She ran her hand up the smooth
skin of Ryan’s forearm. “I’m very sorry for that.”

Ryan fought back the urge to pull Leah to
her. There was still so much she didn’t know in spite of the recent
windfall of information Leah was willing to part with. Ryan still
felt tense and unsure of what lay ahead for them.

“Tell me now, please.” Ryan placed her hand
on Leah’s knee, and squeezed gently.

Leah took a deep breath. “Right.” Smiling she
placed her hand over Ryan’s. “Karen called to say she was sorry for
everything. I was shocked to hear her voice after so many
years.”