Ella's POV

An hour later, Max, Milly, Leo and I were stood amongst the tall pine trees of the forest by the edge of one of the pack's many large lakes. We were a mile from the village Milly and Max lived in and we'd seen no one.

"We're alone," Leo said after returning from taking a quick walk around our surroundings, checking no one was around.

Max stood with his arms folded and a look of steel as Milly turned out towards the lake. She took a deep breath and glanced across the blue water, which reflected the sparkling rays of mid day sun. She then closed her eyes and brought her hand to the amulet.

For a few moments, there was nothing. Just complete silence as Milly stood motionlessly, holding her eyes tightly shut.

She was concentrating hard, I could tell.

Then, the most amazing things began to happen.

At first, the skies darkened as the clouds came rolling in. Then the gentle breeze whipped up to a gale, blowing the leaves on the forest floor into columns of spirals and shaking the branches of the trees above. I looked up to Leo who was watching the sky in awe.

Then the water of the lake began to bubble and splash and cave up into large waves, crashing at the surface.

She then held her hand up and everything ceased. The skies drained back to blue, the water retreated and the air became still and calm again.

Milly then opened her eyes and turned to us. Leo smiled and nodded.

"You are gifted, Milly," he said.

"There's more. Do you want to see?" she asked.

We nodded and she turned back to the lake.

Max still stood a few metres away, his eyes cold and fixated on Milly.

There were another few moments of silence before the ground around us began to shake. To begin with just a little, and then progressively more. I had to take Leo's hand for support until it suddenly stopped. Only a few seconds later, a spark struck a metre of so away from Milly's feet, it the blossomed into a flame and grew into a perfect circle of flickering fire all around her.

The flames brought a red glow to her face as she leant her head back and the grew into tall curling beacons moving at the command of her hand.

It was then that we heard the snapping of a branch only ten or so metres away.

Leo's eyes snapped to where it was coming from and Milly opened hers too. There was a boy, eleven years old at most, stood, half-hidden behind a tree with his mouth ajar.

Milly's eyes suddenly became filled with panic as the boy stared at her.

Leo stepped forward towards him but he turned on his heel and began to run in the direction of the village.

"No!" Milly said lurching forward too and reaching out towards him.

But as she did a powerful ball of fire shot from her hand, and ejected straight towards the kid.copy right hot novel pub