“Channie?” Abby's voice woke her up. “Momma and Daddy wanna see you downstairs.”
Channie yawned and opened her eyes. Abby was standing in the doorway, a candle in one hand, her flashlight—a birthday gift from Aunt Wisdom—in the other. How long had she been asleep? “Am I in trouble?”
“I don’t know. They was holed up in their room when me and the trips got back from the park. I ain’t heard no hollering.” Abby tucked her flashlight under her arm to light the candle then squatted down and handed it to Channie. “What’d you do?”
“I didn’t do anything! Except talk to a few boys.”
“Oh.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You want some advice, lil sis?”
Channie nodded.
“Don’t argue or interrupt, no matter what they say. Just let ‘em get it out of their systems. All you can do is pretend to repent, beg their forgiveness and hope they don’t beat you.”
Channie rolled her eyes. “Thanks a lot. That makes me feel so much better.”
Abby smiled and said, “You’re welcome,” without the least bit of sarcasm.
~***~
Momma and Daddy were in the parlor, sitting together on the sofa, holding hands in a rare display of unity.
Daddy said, “We got something to tell you, baby girl, and we want you to stay calm.”
His words were ominous enough, but when Momma and Daddy both raised their shields, Channie’s heart leapt into her throat. “Your momma and me—”
“Momma and I.”
Daddy usually laughed when Channie reflexively corrected his grammar—it was sort of a running joke between them—but this time he just sighed and said, “Your momma and I...we decided...oh, hell, there ain’t no easy way to do this.”
Momma snorted through her nose and took charge. “We’re changing your name.”
“What?” Channie’s mouth popped open. Folks took up to a year deciding on a baby’s name to be sure they found one that matched the child’s personality. Once given, a name wasn’t changed. Not even when it caused severe problems like...say...a gambling addiction that forced you to uproot your entire family and move them halfway across the country to keep ‘em from being murdered.
“You heard me. We’re changing your power name. Enchantment’s magic is too seductive.”
“You want to change my name on account of them boys in the park? That ain’t fair.” When she got upset, Channie had a tendency to forget her schooling and regress to her native dialect. “Ever single one of them Empties come up to me and started talking. I didn’t do a dang thing to encourage ‘em.”
Channie’s heart thundered against her ribs. Enchantment’s magic surged and poured out of her, but with Momma and Daddy already shielded all it did was drain Channie’s energy.
“Look, all I did was talk to a couple of boys. Abby's the one that went and got herself knocked up. If you want to change someone’s power name, change hers. It ain’t fair to punish me for something she did!”
Daddy nodded towards the stairs, where Abby sat shoveling the last of Momma’s homemade cottage cheese into her mouth—straight out of the crock. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “We made the mistake of naming your sister Abundance, and look what happened to her.”
“She got fat. So what?”
“Why do you think she had triplets?”
“I don’t know. Maybe the boys’ daddy has a multiplier power name of some sort.”
The only thing Abby ever said about her babies’ daddy was that he was magically disabled, but no one in their right mind believed Savvy, Courage, and Zeal were sired by an Empty. Those boys were already too powerful to be Halfies. They couldn’t cast spells yet, but the way they instinctively tapped into their power names proved they were gifted.
Daddy shook his head. “It was Abby's magic that took what should’a been one baby and made three. That’s why them boys are identical.”
“I still don’t see what that has to do with—”
Daddy slammed the side of his fist into the threadbare armrest of the sofa, sending a puff of dust into the air. “We are living smack dab in the middle of nothing but magically disabled, immoral parasites.”
It wasn’t at all unusual for Daddy to get riled up when he started talking about the carnal nature of teen-aged boys. But Channie knew she was losing the argument when the vein on his forehead began to pulse and his voice climbed in pitch as well as volume.
“Every young man back home had to raise his shield around you if he didn’t want to fall under your spell. Empty boys don’t have the ability to shield themselves from your magic. Hell, they don’t even believe in magic. They ain’t gonna worry about what sort of curse I’ll slap on ‘em if they don’t keep their nasty hands to themselves!”
Daddy closed his eyes and inhaled through his nose. He lowered his voice and said, “Come here, baby girl,” then reached for Channie’s hands and pulled her closer, until her knees bumped his shins. The old sofa groaned as he shifted his weight from one hip to the other. Most people were considerably less intimidating when they were sitting down. Not Daddy.
He said, “You don’t have complete control over Enchantment’s power and we can’t afford to wait until you do. I know it’s not your fault and it’s not fair, but if we don’t change your name, you’ll draw those sex-crazed Empties to you like flies to honey.”
Channie couldn’t help feeling a bit of pleasure as she remembered how she’d charmed that entire crowd of boys. She bit the inside of her cheeks in an effort to keep from smiling, but that didn’t fool Daddy. Not one bit. He tightened his grip on Channie’s hands, squeezing the blood out of her fingers.
“That is not a good thing! I don’t want you to attract their attention. I don’t want you to enchant them. And I sure as hell don’t want you to wind up like your sister!”
Channie jerked her hands free and stumbled backwards, out of Daddy’s reach. “My power name is not going to get me pregnant!”
Sometime during the argument, Abby had gotten up off the stairs. She was leaning against the arched opening that divided the entryway from the parlor with the crock of cottage cheese cradled in one arm like a baby. She licked both sides of her spoon then said, “Channie’s right. Her power name ain’t the problem...”
Abby wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but Channie was desperate. She’d take all the help she could get.
“…It’s her firm, perky breasts, tiny waist and soft round hips you need to worry about. Y’all should try to find a way to fatten her up. I ain’t had so much as one fella pinch my fannie since I put on so much weight.”
Channie glared at Abby, then shifted her gaze to Daddy. He stared right back at her—calm, focused and unblinking—like a bobcat stalking a robin. Channie trembled, but refused to break eye-contact. “I have a brain. I’m not going to let some pretty-boy sweet-talk his way into my pants!”
Abby scraped the bottom of the ceramic crock with her spoon, setting Channie’s teeth on edge. “Oh, believe me, ‘lil sis. They don’t do it by talking. It’s their hands you need to watch out for. Well, that and their—”
Abby's mouth slammed shut, her face turned purple and her eyes looked like they were about to pop clean out of her head. Momma’s no-speak spell wouldn’t last much longer, but it might be Channie’s only opportunity to get out of this mess. She took advantage of the distraction and used every bit of energy in her power-well in a desperate attempt to enchant Momma while her shield was down.
Daddy repelled Channie’s magic with so much force it knocked her on her butt. He patted Momma’s knee then spoke as if Channie were no longer in the room. “That girl’s too smart for her own good. If we’re not careful, she’ll twist our good intentions into something else entirely. Her new name has to be specific so it’ll work exactly the way we want it to. We need to think of something better than Purity.”
Purity? That’s what they’d planned to name her? Purit
y? Losing Enchantment was bad enough, but if they saddled her with a name like Purity and sent her off to public school with a bunch of Empties that didn’t understand the purpose of a power name, they might as well just put a bullet through her brain right now and end her misery.
Momma said, “If you have any better ideas, let’s hear ‘em.”
“Well...how about Ugly. Or Repulsive?”
Momma brushed Daddy’s hand off her knee. “Do you want her to be an outcast?”
Daddy leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. “Better an outcast than an unwed mother.”
“We agreed on Purity. There’s no better name to keep her chaste.”
“What about Chastity?”
Channie cringed, waiting for Momma to curse Daddy for cracking a dirty joke.
But Momma just nodded her head and said, “Perfect.”
“What? No! You can’t name me Chastity—not when our last name is Belks!”
~***~
Daddy stood up and wrapped his arms around Channie. “We know this is hard for you, baby girl. But you’ll thank us someday when you’re happily married to a powerful mage.”
With no warning at all, Daddy trapped Channie inside his circle of power. Tears spilled out of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “Please, Daddy. I’ll be good. I promise. I won’t flirt with boys no more. I won’t even talk to ‘em. Just...please...don’t do this. Don't change my name.”
Momma added her energy to the spell, put her hands on Channie’s shoulders and began to chant...
“Child of power, child of light,
We now assert a parent’s right.
The name of power once bestowed,
We now revoke ‘till you’re betrothed.”
Adding the power of words to a spell’s energy was serious business, especially words that rhymed. It was ancient magic reserved for bindings like marriages, treaties between clans, death pledges and...namings. An intense buzz assaulted Channie’s ears as power sparked and crackled all around her. This was no ordinary magic.
The stench of burnt onions filled Channie’s nose and throat. Momma and Daddy weren’t just changing her name—they were cursing her.
Channie squeezed her eyes shut and whispered, “My name is Enchantment. My name is Enchantment.” She didn’t know what good it would do against the dark magic Momma and Daddy were wielding—especially since she couldn’t think of an appropriate word that rhymed with Enchantment to empower the counter-spell—but she had to try.
Channie sobbed as Chastity’s raw, ugly power forced its way into her soul—digging, tearing and ripping apart everything that resisted. It shoved what remained of Enchantment’s magic out of Channie’s power-well and took control.
Beneath the grief and the pain, a new emotion emerged. Channie had been upset before, annoyed, hurt, irritated...even angry—but she’d never felt rage. Not until this moment. Her blood boiled and scorched her veins as it purged the illusions of happiness from her mind. All her life Channie had been drifting...floating in a dream of quiet contentment...sedated and seduced by Enchantment’s gentle magic. But she was awake now. With each beat of her pounding heart, she became more enraged, more determined and more aware of her own free will.
A part of Enchantment’s power survived and fled into Channie’s heart-of-hearts where even she couldn’t find it.
The ancient magic released Channie the moment Momma stopped chanting. Her fury dissipated, leaving her drained and weak. Chastity was now centered behind her navel in her power-well, quiet, dormant and waiting.
Without the distraction of rage, the pain of Enchantment’s loss overwhelmed Channie, leaving her bereft...as if someone she dearly loved had just died.
~***~
As soon as everyone else was asleep, Channie crawled out from under her quilt and opened her window. A blast of cold air made her eyes water. She tried to cast a warmth spell on herself, but her new power name was still dormant. What kind of parents destroyed a perfectly good power name like Enchantment and replaced it with Chastity?
She removed the window screen and shoved it in her closet then crawled onto the roof.
The sound of male voices drew her attention to the park next door. She couldn’t understand what they were saying, but they sounded friendly enough. Hmm… Her new power name, her curse, was designed with one purpose in mind, so to activate it—she needed a dirty-minded boy.
Channie tossed her blanket back in her room then scampered down the fake, but convenient, rocks on the front of the house. She followed the crushed gravel path that led from her front yard into Heritage Park.
The three-quarter moon peeked out from behind a cloud and revealed two masculine silhouettes. The boys were inside the pavilion, sitting on top of a picnic table. One of them was smoking a cigarette. When Channie stepped out of the shadows, he elbowed the other boy. They both stopped talking and stared at her.
She froze, unsure of how to proceed without Enchantment’s natural charm.
A prickly sensation, like cockleburs, ran under Channie’s skin. She didn’t need magic to read the boy’s energy fields—curiosity mixed with a fair amount of lust—nothing unusual about that.
Channie had assumed that her new power name would repel boys, or make them repulsive to her. Instead, Chastity’s magic was attracted to their lustful energy and grew stronger as it fed off their carnal desires. Momma and Daddy must have messed up the spell when they changed her name.
Channie coughed and fanned the air, frowning at Cigarette Boy. He tossed the nasty thing onto the ground and snuffed it out with the toe of his canvas shoe.
The skinny, non-smoking boy leaned forward and smiled at her. “I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new?”
Channie licked her dry lips and nodded. What was wrong with her? She wasn’t shy. Or was she? She didn’t know who she was without Enchantment’s magic.
Cigarette Boy ran his gaze up and down her body. The level of lust in the air doubled and flowed into Chastity’s power-well, awakening its potential.
He smirked at her. “What’s the matter, can’t you talk?”
Channie started to take a step back, but didn’t want him to think she was easily intimidated. She straightened her spine and held her ground. “I can talk just fine. When I have something to say.”
Cigarette Boy elbowed his friend in the ribs. “Dude, did you hear that accent?” He hugged his chest, copying Channie, and pitched his voice up high to mock her. “Aw kin tawk juz fiiiine whin ah have sumthin’ to say.”
“Jeeze, Eric. You’re such an ass.” The skinny boy shoved Eric’s shoulder then looked at Channie and smiled. “I apologize for this idiot. He has no social skills whatsoever. That’s why we only let him out at night.”
“It’s okay. I can handle it. But thanks.” Channie pulled a small amount of Chastity’s power to the surface and tried to send the obnoxious Eric away using persuasive magic instead of an actual spell. Nothing happened.
She narrowed her eyes and pushed a little more magic at him. Instead of flowing out of her power-well in a gentle stream the way Enchantment’s energy would have, it shot out of her with a sudden burst of power.
Folks rarely noticed when Channie used persuasive magic on them, and even when they did, they didn’t usually care. Enchantment’s energy was positive and soothing. Chastity’s was not.
Eric yelped and hopped off the metal table. He looked at his friend and said, “Did you feel that?”
“Feel what?”
“Something shocked me. There must be a short in the wiring.”
“What wiring? The table’s not wired.”
“Well, something sure as hell zapped me.”
Channie stepped into the shadows to hide her grin. This was fun. She zapped him again.
Eric twitched and swore. “Come on! You had to feel it that time.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What the hell have you been smoking?”
Eric suggested his fri
end do some inappropriate things to himself then trotted down the path towards the parking lot. Channie waited for him to drive away then took a small step towards the skinny boy on the picnic table. He watched her but didn’t say a word. She read his energy field again and was surprised to find anxiety.
She could try to encourage him by flirting, but that could take all night. Come-hither spells were illegal, but this boy was an Empty and didn’t know that. Besides, who was he going to tell?
Channie held her breath and used a small amount of Chastity’s power to cast what she hoped was a weak spell.
The boy hopped off the picnic table and closed the distance between them in two strides. He was tall—much taller than she’d thought. He was also stronger than he looked. He grabbed Channie with one hand, digging his fingers into her side, then slid his other hand to the middle of her back. He pulled her close and crushed his mouth against hers—taking her completely by surprise.
Her first instinct was to curse him and run away, but she wanted to know what Chastity’s magic would do on its own. So, she kissed him back. He tasted like spearmint and honey. Magic pulsed out of her without warning.
The boy jerked his head up and shoved her away from his body. He pushed his hair off his forehead with both hands and gaped at her. “What the hell?”
Tears pricked the back of Channie’s eyelids. This was not how she’d imagined her first kiss. She knew it was selfish to focus on her own disappointment when the poor boy was so obviously confused and frightened—but how could she reassure him with Chastity’s magic buzzing like a swarm of hornets?
She blinked in an effort to hide her tears, but they leaked out of the corner of her eyes and slid down her cheeks.
The boy opened his mouth as if to speak, but then slammed it shut and shook his head. He held his elbows close to his body, lifted his hands, palms up, and shrugged his shoulders as he backed away from her. He leaned over, grabbed a bicycle off the ground then raced away, disappearing into the shadows.
~***~
Channie couldn’t believe how deeply the boy’s rejection wounded her. She kept herself under control until she climbed back onto the roof, then gave in to her tears.
Her bedroom window slid open with a gritty squeak. Channie whirled around and was instantly blinded by a shaft of light. She would have tumbled off the roof if Abby hadn’t grabbed her arm.