All I had was my fire. If I could I would be setting fire to the sky, just to see it burn and watch the ashes twirl down to the ground, covering everything with a layer of white like others watched the snow fall. Silently and so beautifully.
I would tilt my face up, open my mouth to try and catch the flakes on my tongue, and taste the smoke and destruction.
When I’d been a child the magic had exploded out of me at times. I’d accidentally torched my classroom at eight, thankfully nobody had died. Not even John Parker, an unusually pretty boy with black curls and wide, watery eyes. My first love and my greatest bully. That one had been the first in a series of unfortunate events in my life.
My brother, Ari, had been blessed with animal magic. He now had a massive wolf boyfriend, Ezra, to keep him company, not to mention Glo, whatever she was to him. Fire magic doomed you to solitude. I for one didn’t want to risk the life of someone I loved just so I wouldn’t be alone. I might be an asshole, but I wasn’t that selfish.
With a sigh, I got up from the bench and made my way out of the park. I came here every day, it calmed me to walk along the same paths, see the same ducks on the same pond, the same elderly gentlemen playing chess in the shade of bright blue wisteria, its branches snaking over and around the pavilion’s beams.
One or two of them always looked up when I passed and raised their gnarly hands at me. We knew each other by now, this place here tied our lives together.
I wasn’t quite ready to go home, so I trudged across the street, down a narrow alleyway, and the large square beyond to a small café I liked. The coffee wasn’t mind-blowing, but I liked the location, the staff and the clientele. Most of them were stage actors and actresses working at the theatre opposite the place.