What the Spell Part 1 by Brittany Geragotelis Read Free Book Online Page B

attention onto you. We don’t want you to start choosing magic over good, old-fashioned hard work and perseverance.”
    “But don’t you think these gifts were given to us for a reason? Why would we have them if we weren’t supposed to use them?” I questioned. I felt like we were speaking two different languages.
    “Of course you can use them, Brooklyn. We just want you to use them wisely ,” my mom said. “History has shown that the more magic you use, the greater chance you have of people taking notice. And when that happens—well, it can be bad for everyone involved.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    My parents looked at each other and then my mom pulled out the same book that she’d been holding the night of my unbinding and stroked it gently. “Brooklyn, we know we don’t talk much about our magical history, but we think it’s time you learned about your ancestors and the . . . difficulties . . . that fell upon them.”
    Mom was right about that. Trying to get my parents to discuss our family and their ties to witchcraft was like pulling teeth. Every time I’d asked a question in the past, they’d either changed the subject or told me I wasn’t old enough to hear it. It used to frustrate me to no end, because I thought they were just treating me like a kid. But now it seemed as if their motives might have been more complicated than that.
    “How much do you know about the Salem witch trials, Brooklyn?” she asked me.
    I wasn’t sure where this was going but didn’t bother saying so. The Salem witch trials had been too big a topic to ignore while I was growing up, because it was one of the only things my parents had shared with me concerning the witching world. Anything my parents had conveniently left out, I’d been able to learn from other twitches online who studied witch history in their coven classes.
    “I only know what you’ve told me and what I’ve been able to find on the Internet,” I said. They nodded for me to continue, and I racked my brain for the details. To placate my parents, I regurgitated what I knew about this infamous time in our history. “Um, sometime in the late 1600s, a whole bunch of people in colonial Massachusetts were accused of practicing witchcraft. In the end, around twenty people were killed for allegedly being witches. Since then they’ve been exonerated to the nonwitching world, but we know from our own magical history that some of those who were killed actually were witches. Several were innocent bystanders.”
    “Correct. And do you know what caused the hysteria in the first place?” I shook my head no. “Well, it all started when Samuel Parris, a member of the Cleri coven, became hungry for power. He wasn’t the most powerful of the group—that was Bridget Bishop—but he had aspirations to make the Cleri the most prominent coven in the witching world. When he realized that Bridget and most of the other Cleri didn’t feel the same way, he betrayed them by starting the rumor that they—and several other people in the town—were practicing witchcraft.”
    “Why would he do that? Especially when it could come back to bite him in the—”
    “As far as we know, Samuel Parris targeted the witches in the group that he knew wouldn’t fall in line with him. And he knew that if he just got the rumors started, the townspeople would take care of the rest,” she said. “You see, sweetie, power can be dangerous if put in the wrong hands.”
    “Wait—let me get this straight. You think I’m gonna go all power crazy like that jerk-wad Parris and sell other witches out?” I was starting to become a bit hysterical, but could you blame me? From the sound of it, my own parents werecomparing me to a murderous, lying psycho. I couldn’t help but be hurt. “Geez, I’ve had my powers for, like, a day, and you’ve already got me starting the next witch trials? Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
    “That’s not it at all,” Dad cut in. “You’re