Chapter 1
My name is Virginia Matthews, but I’m usually called Ginny. I’d just arrived at a new house on a new island where I’ll be living with my brother and sister from now on.
“Let’s go pick out our rooms,” I said.
Aurora put down her suitcase and walked up the stairs to the second floor.
Leo put down his suitcase and walked up the stairs like a zombie.
I hated seeing him like this.
For the next few days, we barely talked to each other. We hardly socialized with anyone else. Our parents had recently died in a car crash, so we were too sad.
I wanted to be a doctor, but my grief was driving me crazy and I wasn’t emotionally ready, even though I was ready in every other way. Until I was ready I’d decided to spend my time reading and practicing magic. For Leo, Aurora and me reading was our favorite hobby. And I wanted to be as powerful a witch as possible.
I’ve been trying to suppress my feelings about my parents’ deaths and stay on top of everything as we settled in. Still, the whole time there was this bundle of feelings below the surface. No matter how hard I tried to ignore them they still drove me crazy.
Every one hundred years there are twelve witches, whose personalities are affected by their Zodiac signs and I was one of them. I’m an Aries. I didn’t find out that I was one of those witches until years later.
I’m thirty-four years old, Aurora is three years younger and Leo is four years younger than Aurora. We all had black hair and green eyes like our parents. Aurora and I were of medium height, but Leo was taller with broad shoulders.
One time, I was practicing magic in the front yard. I kept moving things around with telekinesis and casting spells. Then, a few people walked by and I heard them say something I wanted to tell Aurora and Leo. I went inside the house and found them watching TV in the living room.
They looked haunted. “Hey, guys,” I began. They turned to me.
“Did you hear that a disease is spreading on the island?” “What are you talking about?” Aurora asked.
“Lots of people are either sick or dead.”
“That’s awful,” Leo said.
“Maybe we could help,” I suggested.
“How?” Aurora asked.
“We could use herbs and spells to heal people.”
“Is that our job?”
“Other witches and wizards are helping people. Besides, could you live with yourself if someone dies because you didn’t help them?” “No.”
“Okay, let’s see what we can do.”
The three of us gathered all the spells, potions and herbs we had and spent the next week helping as many sick people as we could. The doctors were doing their best too. Unfortunately, everyone was unfamiliar with this disease and people kept dying.
As usual, any challenge brought out my passionate side and I worked as hard as I could to help people. Aurora is lazy, but she still did what she could. Leo was still too sad to read or paint or socialize. He didn’t do anything but watch TV and daydream all day. Leo sometimes talked to me about Mom and Dad, but Aurora didn’t. I realized that Aurora needed an outlet for her grief. I was the oldest sibling, so I guess that means I have to take care of Aurora and Leo. The thing is, I wasn’t used to that because Mom and Dad were the ones who took care of us.
