I spent Saturday morning out in the woods to learn about my curse. There weren't birds, a bit too cold for them up here and the sprites had probably scared most of them away. There was the sound of faint buzzing from bees and beetles.

This late in the year snow was starting to fall, not enough to truly start to pile. Just enough to make the ground white and me miss home a little.

"How are you not cold?" I asked Vivian. She was wearing a purple coat that looked light and couldn't possibly be that warm.

"Hearths don't get cold." She said it with certainty and a hint of confusion. Like if I had asked why the sky was the same color here as at home.

I glanced down at the footprints she was leaving behind her. They were deeper in the snow than mine.

Right. Fire magic. But if it was some spell why wasn't it glowing? The coat was a different shade than her purple.

That's when I remembered Red's and my mother's comments about magic.

There was a moment of silence between us. "Hearth magic runs warm. My father had mixed feelings about me raising Ruby and Lucinda as sisters until he saw that Ruby's magic ran just as warm."

"One more thing the curse is stopping me from doing."

"So it would seem. But we will rid you of it. I have no intention of giving up."

I hadn't told Vivian about my session with Angelina. I wondered if I should. Or if it was anything even worth worrying about.

"Neither do I."

"You wouldn't be Lucinda's daughter if you gave up so easily."

"Nor my father's."

She tilted her head before asking, "Is Victor the stubborn kind?"

I laughed, "When Mom's here, ask her how her and Dad got engaged."

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I could tell from the look on her face that she hadn't heard the story. Though I wondered how she didn't know it. But maybe they just hadn't talked about those kinds of things yet. However, if Vivian was serious about me being in the coven then she was going to need to learn where I came from.

Vivian frowned but then nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

I smiled. I wasn't sure what the outcome of it was, but gods I wanted to try. I wanted to know what having Vivian as a grandmother and Jarec has a cousin was like. What having an aunt was like.

I took a deep breath then knelt down to pick up some snow. It wasn't anything close to a snowball, just enough to hold some in my left hand.

Making my hand warm enough to melt some snow should be child's play. To anyone who wasn't cursed. I wondered how much control I would have if it weren't for this stupid curse. I wondered how different my life would have been if I had glowing hands at the age of five.

I wouldn't have nearly been eaten by spiders, for one. Wouldn't have nearly lost my left hand and be permanently stuck with a mangled wrist. Would already be part of a coven. Wouldn't have wasted all those years in a place that I was never going to be happy in.

The thoughts worked, my wrist started to itch and burn and there was a hint of a faint dark green glow.

I let my mind continue.

I thought about Anubis and Horus. About Thoth. And every time the curse flared up when I was just trying to live my life. When it zapped me in the face and blinded me for a day.

The burn was becoming painful.

A single drop of water fell from the bundle of snow.

A wave of exhaustion washed over me. The snow fell from my hand and the cold lingered as I began to shiver.

"Why don't you take a break for today and we can pick this up next week?"

"Okay."

(*********)

In a mostly useless attempt to warm myself afterwards I was having ginger and cinnamon flavored green tea. My left arm was sore but at least it wasn't leaking. Perhaps that was a sign of progress?

But Dragon Tower wasn't willing to let me sit and brood in silence.

The sound of knocking came from the table in front of me. One, pause, three, long pause, two.

Then the Echo of a boy who looked about my age with his arms crossed and leaning back in his chair was glaring ahead of him.

"Everyone else can do this, why can't I?"

A familiar voice laughed nearby, then Serafina Hearth stood next to him and ruffled his hair.

"Fae Fire is one of the hardest fire spells to learn. I don't have full control of it either."

"But you can cast it consistently, I can't even do that much."

"Perks of being older, I have more experience than you. I couldn't cast it at your age."

"That didn't stop you from trying."

"We're Hearths, we try ill-advised things."

So was this her younger brother or maybe a cousin?

He continued to pout.

She sighed, "Just remember that it's a more dangerous spell. Remember what happened to Aunt Aurora?"

And then they were both gone.

"Is that your way of telling me to be careful?" I asked the Tower.

It didn't respond in any way that I could hear. But I felt a warmth in my chest that wasn't from the spiced tea.

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