Excerpt of Forbidden Road by Reut Barak

“Seth…do you believe in magic?”

That confused him. “I…don’t think so. What’s that got to do with anything?” Then, there was suddenly a look of understanding and almost relief on his face.

Did he get it? Was it just that simple?

“Wait, is this about faith? Do you belong to the Wicca religion?”

Not that simple.

“No. I am not a Wicca. I’m...” Here I go. “I am a witch. As in, I can do real magic.”

He tilted his head, for a moment measuring whether I were being funny. Or maybe he thought I might be a little bit insane.

“I can move things with my mind. I can conjure things. Change the weather...”

“Change the weather?”

“In a relatively small area. Say, the valley we’re in right now and...”

He shook his head, confused. And then, he looked at me. “Show me.”

Definitely not the response I’d expected. He just didn’t believe it! He observed me, waiting to see what I’d do.

I looked at the clear sky and imagined that through that blue I could see heavy clouds, as though they were behind it. I closed my eyes. Give me rain. Give me rain. The image of the drops was clear to me, and when I opened my eyes, clouds started rapidly forming above us.

In less than a minute, there was wind and rustling in the trees and drops of water started to come down from the sky.

“Are you…?” Seth’s voice was hesitant.

“Making it rain. Yes.”

“How?” he said, but it was rhetorical. I’d just told him how.

The rain got heavier, wetting the path and the ground, creating a strong noise on the water.

Seth looked around, knitting his eyebrows in bewilderment.

“How come we’re not getting wet?” he suddenly asked. The ground surrounding us was dry.

“I’d cast a protection sphere around us first. Nobody can hear or see us and we’re going to stay dry. I can make it warm, too, if you want.”

“Or, just stop the rain.” Then he smiled. “Sorry. That came out wrong.”

“It’s okay. It’s not a bad idea.”

He was still finding it hard to grasp that I was doing this, but at least he was responding. I NOW looked into the sky and this time imagined the sun shining from behind the clouds. Give me a blue sky. Give me a blue sky. The image was strong in my mind, and a few minutes later, the rain stopped.

“Incredible,” he mumbled once the sky had cleared. “What else can you do?”

I shrugged. “Different things. Like, conjuring. For example, the shoes just now. Or the protection spell.”

“Or love spells?”

I did not see that one coming. “Of course not,” I reassured him. “You can’t control minds.”

“So…this…us…it’s real?” he asked and then, he suddenly looked down. “I mean…”

He had just said he loved me! Not directly, but he did.

“Yes,” I said quickly. And I love you too, I wanted to add, but then, he hadn’t quite said it. “Actually, that’s why I have magic. My powers exist so that I can meet the right person in life, fall for them, and protect them.”

“Fall for them.” He breathed hard, and then finally smiled.