“You also have a certain gift, Bayla.”
I tried not to laugh. This whole situation was getting more and more absurd.
While I was trying to convince myself that I had only dreamed all this crap, she was telling me werewolf tales. All that was missing was coffee and cookies.
“Don’t get me wrong, but I’m not able to follow your words right now,” I sighed.
“That’s normal. You just found out things you should have been let in on a long time ago.”
I looked at Mum, who was still looking at me worriedly.
“Bayla...” I glanced at Amara again. “You are one of us, a Quatura.”
Before I could have asked, Amara moved her hand and pointed with it to a flower pot that was on the kitchen counter.
My eyes widened as, where so recently there had been nothing but black earth, a green tendril suddenly shot up and meandered its way to the top before buds could be seen popping open and presenting an elegant purple flower.
I wanted to jump up, but I was stunned. I tried to blink, but no matter how many times I opened them, that damn plant had really just appeared out of nowhere in three seconds.
“Our powers are a gift, and we are tasked with protecting humanity from other creatures like the one you saw.”
I looked at Amara, then at Mum.
“Mum, do you see this, too?”
Mum stared at the plant, but she didn’t seem startled or surprised at all. She looked blank.
“Your mother sees it, and besides, she knows what I just did there because she also has a gift.”
Completely confused, I tried to catch Mum’s gaze, but she just looked at the plant.
Whatever this was, I wanted to wake up.
I squinted my eyes and bit my tongue. Then I blinked.
“You’re not dreaming.”
Amanda still sounded calm, like it was normal to grow flowers. Out of nowhere. Just like that.
I looked at her, focused and slightly scared.
Couldn’t I please just wake up in our apartment in Sacramento and find Mum in the kitchen with pancakes and her relaxed smile? I’d even settle for the bed here if this was all just a bad dream. But it felt so real.
“Have unexplainable things ever happened to you?”
I blinked at Amara, confused.
Hadn’t that been enough inexplicable things today?
“Something like floating objects or wounds healing quickly?”
I immediately thought of my injuries, which had always healed unnaturally slowly. Mum had almost stopped letting me go to the playground when I was eight because I had come home with wounds all the time. It had always been like that, except that I had become more careful. Objects had fallen out of my hand many times, but they had also hit the ground.
I shook my head, still speechless.
Amara turned around to Mum. “Had she really not experienced any incidents yet?”
That word reminded me of my panic attacks and the pain that followed, on my arms. But it had nothing to do with this. I didn’t want to have anything to do with this. And I was not a wolf, nor did I have any supernatural connection to plants.
Again, I looked at the vase.
“No, there’s nothing there. She didn’t inherit any gifts,” Mum said tonelessly.
What did she mean by that? No gifts inherited?
“It’s extremely rare, and you can’t assume that...” Amara looked thoughtful. “Who destroyed the glass earlier?”
The glass that had just...shattered.
“That was me,” Mum said quickly, and I looked up in surprise.
She hadn’t even touched the glass.
Again, I tried to catch her gaze, to somehow reach out to her, but I couldn’t. Mum refused to look at me.
“You should wear your necklace, Diana,” Amara just sighed.
“I don’t understand what’s going on here at all. Could someone please explain it to me?”
