I startled, blush creeping across my cheeks. “I’m sorry to stare.”
She waved me off. “No worries. I take it you’re not dead then. You radiate with warmth.”
I pursed my lips. “No, not dead.”
Was that where I was? It was starting to make more sense now.
“A quest then?”
I cocked my head at her question, wondering how much I could tell her.
The witch pursed her lips in turn but continued. “Let’s see,” she tapped her finger on her bottom lip, thinking, before looking at Amelia, “she isn’t quite yet dead either.”
“And she is not going to die.”
The witch raised her eyebrow at my growl and threw her hands up in the air. “Okay then, both of you —not dead. You are on a quest and...”
She snapped her fingers and I flinched.
“Oh sorry...didn’t mean to scare you. I was just having an ‘I think I guessed it moment’.”
I shook my head, looking back over my shoulder at Amelia’s prone form. “Not a problem, but I can almost guarantee you, whatever you guess will not be correct.”
She stared at me and motioned towards my dress. “Not on a quest to get your dead husband back, then?”
I barked out a laugh then covered my mouth.
“What is with the wedding dress then? Not many questers come around these parts dressed up all formal like.” She slipped from her chair, depositing her empty glass into the sink. “I honestly thought you were a dead bride carrying her child when you rolled up to my cottage.” She sat back down and spun her chair around lazily, “That was until you spoke to me.”
I shook my head, “Is that the realm we are in? The Veiled realm?”
The Witch put out her toe to the ground quickly, stopping the chair from spinning and stared at me, confusion slapping her face. “Well, this is a first for me. Normally questers know the realm they are stomping around in. So, you are not here to steal a soul back?”
I shook my head once more. I wasn’t sure if I could trust this witch. She acted as if she was alive but living in one of death’s realms. She took in my unwillingness to speak and shrugged, spinning her chair in circles again. “This is more like a pocket dimension into the Worlds of the Dead. The Veiled Realm you called it. From where I’m from, this would be considered purgatory or maybe a waiting room, for those with a sense of humor.”
I was still trying to process her explanation and the strange words she was using as she spun lazily about, when a crash, followed by a yell, echoed from outside the cottage. The witch’s face twisted in anger as she bolted from the chair, running down the hallway towards the front entrance. I followed, hot on her heels as she swung open the door and dashed out onto the porch.
“I smell life!” A male voice screeched.
I skidded to a halt, taking in the way the witch’s knuckles had turned white from gripping the railing to the porch so hard.
“I don’t give a flying rats ass what you smell, Gatekeeper.” The witch yelled.
I took a step to the side, peering at the male figure in question. The witch said Gatekeeper, and I came here to trade with the Gatekeeper. I recoiled at the sight of the man in front of me.
He was tall and skinny with skin so pale it reminded me of a winter’s full moon. I looked at his face and pushed down the urge to run right back into the cottage and slam the door shut. He was staring at me with a grin, teeth broken and jagged. His lips were pulled back, cracked and bleeding, and his nose was hooked like that of a bird’s beak. Reaching up and pulling a hand through long, stringy black hair, his cold black eyes burned with hunger. They connected with mine and my heart began to race. The Gatekeeper pointed and opened his mouth to speak, when suddenly my view was blocked. The witch stepped in front of me, obscuring my view. She broke the spell the Gatekeeper had laid on me with his gaze, and I took a ragged breath. My lungs burned and I gulped at the air, realizing I hadn’t taken a breath since locking eyes with the Gatekeeper. I instantly regretted my intake of air as the stench of rotting vegetation, fouled water, and animal decay coated the back of my tongue.
I gagged and covered my mouth with my sleeve, trying not to breathe too deeply. The Gatekeeper and the witch started screaming back and forth at each other and I gagged again, trying not to vomit from the Gatekeeper’s stench.
“Go look for flesh elsewhere, you walking maggot!”
“I wish you lived so I could suck the marrow from your bones.”
“I would make you choke on it!”
“Give me the life you harbor!”
“Go suck an ass.”
I blinked, listening as they went back and forth throwing insults at each other. A nervous giggle trickled out of my mouth and the two suddenly grew quiet, turning to look at me.
Guess it was my turn to speak.
Then again, maybe not, as the Gatekeeper pointed not at me but to the door. “Give me that.”
He licked his lips in a disgusting manner, and I turned to see Amelia staring at the Gatekeeper whilst clutching the doorframe.
I quickly stepped in front of her, blocking the Gatekeepers view. “I most certainly think not.”
He stared at me, cocking his head. “To succeed in whatever silly quest you are on female, give me the child and I will grant you the soul you are looking for.”
Right, I take it people are constantly questing to this pocket dimension to retrieve souls. The witch let out a bark of laughter and put her hands to her hips. “Ha! Jokes on you, slime breath. She isn’t looking for a soul.”
The Gatekeeper smiled and drool slid down his chin. My skin crawled as he continued to stare at me, or rather through me to Amelia. There was no way in any realm I was going to let that thing touch her.
“She is off the table, Gatekeeper.” I thanked the gods silently as my voice rang out in confidence and not the shaking mess I felt like inside.
Lifting his cold, dead eyes to mine, a line appeared between his brows. “You are not dead. You seek no soul. Why are you in my domain, Female?”
Shit.
What did the Knight tell me again? The hound will give me a weapon, a sacrifice must be made, travel to the Gatekeepers home...
A hound and weapon, other than my still hidden dull knife, would be nice right about now. “If you must know, I am waiting for a hound.”
“There are no hounds here in my domain, Female. Now give me the girl.” The Gatekeeper hissed and stuck out his hand.
There was no way I was sacrificing Amelia to this creep, quest be damned. “No.”
The witch crossed her arms, smirk cutting across her lips in a harsh line. “Well then, you heard the woman. No means no. No girl for you. Now go bother someone else and get off my lawn.”
The Gatekeeper snarled, charging up towards the steps of the cottage. The witch’s eyes grew round with surprise and sudden fear. She twitched, moving her hand in some sort of motion to cast a spell but I knew in my gut, she was not going to be fast enough. Without a second of hesitation, I launched myself at the Gatekeeper, intercepting his path. Wrapping my arms around his thighs, I shoved my shoulder into his gut, tackling him back down the stairs and onto the ground. I heard the witch yell, but I was too invested in keeping the Gatekeeper pinned to the ground to hear what she said. I knew this was my only chance to incapacitate the Gatekeeper and I wasn’t about to mess it up. I straddled him, pinning him to the ground with my weight. He snarled in my face and ripped at my shoulders with boney fingers, black jagged nails sinking into my flesh. The rotting stench from his mouth engulfed my face and I screamed, as all the frustration from the past two weeks hit me all at once. My mind snapped, and I saw red as I yanked out the knife hidden up my dress sleeve and slammed it into the Gatekeeper’s chest. I barely registered his face going slack and I yanked the knife out, plunging it back into his chest over and over again. Exhaustion racked my body, and I dropped the bloodied knife to the ground, unsure of how much time had passed. I slid off his still, lifeless form and
stumbled away, falling to my knees and sucking in a ragged breath. I looked up at the porch. The witch was clutching Amelia to her side and both of them had the same slack-jawed looks on their faces.
The witch broke the silence with a whisper. “What did you do?” Comprehension, along with nausea, hit me like a runaway horse just as the Gatekeepers body started to convulse. Black and silver smoke erupted from his body and I fell back, scrambling away as the smoke shot upward like an arrow. The smoke curved and launched itself at Amelia.
Letting out a yell I jumped to my feet, but I was much too late. The witch wrapped her body around Amelia in an attempt to shield her, but the smoke went right through the witch. My heart shuttered as Amelia let out a strangled scream. I bounded up the steps trying to grab Amelia’s limp form and missed, toe catching on the last step, landing hard on my knees by her side.
Frantically smoothing Amelia’s hair back from her face, I growled in the witch’s direction. “Do something!”
She was holding herself, arms wrapped around her middle, with the look of shock stamped clearly across her face. An audible snap of a branch made both of us turn back towards the yard where I had left the Gatekeepers body. Mist had pooled around the house and into the yard, steadily rolling up to the cottage and an eerie quiet had fallen. The mist shifted, rolling upwards and a big, black beast the size of a small horse emerged, trotting towards the cottage steps. The beast looked to be a cross between a large hound and an even larger wild cat. The mist whipped around the beast, bringing forth the smell of biting frost and snowy forests.
I knew that smell, it smelled like the stronghold.
The beast halted in front of the cottage and gently deposited a circular object wrapped in cloth onto the first step. Its molten silver eyes locked with mine and it grinned, producing a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth the size of my ring finger. I froze, afraid to even breathe as it turned and trotted away. The mist encased the space it had occupied as if nothing had been there. The witch’s sudden gasp, along with a faint moan from Amelia, had me moving, and I jumped down the stairs to retrieve the wrapped object. It didn’t feel like a weapon, but after everything I had gone through over the last week, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I was holding an object that could lay waste to an entire Realm with a single trigger word. Scrambling back up the steps, I followed the witch into the cottage, slamming the door as the mist licked at my heels.
Chapter 3
I stared into the cup of tea in front of me. The liquid was dark and the steam, which had once risen from the cup, ceased some time ago. Amelia was back in the bedroom with the door open. She was unmoving except for her chest, her breathing labored and shallow. The witch had gathered Amelia in her arms when I had scrambled down the steps to retrieve the weapon. We had barely made it inside before the mist fully engulfed the house. It was just there now, pressing up against the windows and sucking out any natural light. The witch had flipped a switch next to the door, and I sat bathed in a glowing light that emanated from the ceiling. I stopped caring some time ago what type of magic this house or witch possessed. For hours, I had sat at Amelia’s bedside watching her breathe, until the witch came into the bedroom, shaking me out of my stupor. I stood, numb to everything around me, but had eventually made my way out to a seat in the kitchen. The witch had tried speaking to me, or really at me. Her lips moved but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. Truth be told, I just wanted this entire experience to be an awful dream. Reaching up I pinched my arm, praying to wake up. The witch slapped my hand and snapped her fingers in front of me.
“Don’t snap your fucking fingers at me.” It came out slurred and I shook my head, trying to clear my foggy mind.
What in the banished realm was that? I’ve never spoken to someone like that before.
I tried focusing on the witch in front of me. Her eyes were brimming with concern and I looked down at my hands, still covered in a sticky, blackened substance.
I had killed the Gatekeeper.
I was not supposed to have killed the Gatekeeper. I was supposed to trade with the Gatekeeper, but he wanted Amelia. I couldn’t let that happen but now ...
“What—What did I do?” I whispered, focusing back on the witch.
She sighed and stood, riffling through a cupboard. She produced a bottle and popped the lid. The smell of strong liquor emanated from the bottle as she took a swig. “That was the Gatekeeper.”
I shook my head no when she offered the bottle to me. “I know that thing was the Gatekeeper. What was the smoke? It came out of him and entered Amelia.”
The witch groaned and rubbed at her forehead. “No, the smoke is the Gatekeeper. You cannot kill an Elemental. You can only kill its host.”
My stomach dropped as her words sank in. A sacrifice— the hound had not come until after I killed the Gatekeeper’s host. All the blood drained from my face and I slipped out of the chair, stumbling into the bedroom. Sitting down on the foot of the bed, I reached out hesitantly, hovering a hand over Amelia’s leg. The witch silently stepped into the room and leaned against the wall.
“She is the Gatekeeper now?”
The witch didn’t say anything, taking another swallow from the bottle she was still holding. I scrutinized Amelia’s still form, she looked paler now, but her breathing was even and full.
“Will you take care of her?” My voice cracked and I fought back tears.
The witch made her way over, gently putting her hand on my shoulder. “You won’t have to worry. I’ll be here to guide her and keep her company.”
Blinking back tears, I knew if I started crying now, I wouldn’t be able to stop. Standing, I made my way to the head of the bed and shook Amelia’s shoulder. She moaned and rolled towards me, curling up into a pillow.
I shook her shoulder again, “Amelia? I need you to wake up.”
The witch stepped up beside me. “Amelia. You need to wake up right now.”
Her tone was sharp and I turned, ready to tell her to back off, but instead stifled a scream as Amelia shot straight up with a gasp. We stared at each other in silence as her eyes began to shift, darkness encasing the whites of her eyes.
Amelia blinked and the darkness dissipated. “My Princess! Many apologizes, I must have slept in.” She made a move to get up, then stopped. Gripping her head, confusion painted her face as she gazed up at me.
I forced a smile. She shook her head and blinked a few more times. When she looked back at me her eyes were black again.
“Hi again!” The voice was higher pitched, and I took a small step back. “It’s nice to be out of that other body. He was not a nice man, and he was mean to my souls. I never approved. Thank you for allowing me to escape.”
I stuttered, mind going into a panic. “Who—what—you’re welcome?”
The elemental possessing Amelia’s body produced a huge, toothy grin before getting out of bed and skipping right out of the bedroom. My jaw went slack, and I stared at the imprint Amelia’s body left on the bed, trying to process what was happening when the front door creaked open. I bolted from the bedroom, almost barreling the witch over and tripped across the hem of my dress. Hitting the ground hard, I skidded into a wall and my head snapped back. Shaking off the pain and ringing in my ears, I rolled up to my feet and staggered out onto the porch, clinging to the railing. The witch was hot on my heels, slamming into me. She wrapped her arms around my waist pulling me backwards before I tumbled down the stairs. Blinking back the tears in my eyes, I watched Amelia―no, the elemental in Amelia’s body―walk down the pathway, mist parting around her. She lifted her arms, making a shooing motion. The mist started to dissipate and the dark, leafy forest began to emerge. I shielded my eyes and looked up, blinking rapidly into the high noon sun, set against a cloudless bright, blue sky. The witch made a noise and I turned, still in her arms. She was looking up at the sky in disbelief. Slowly, she let go of me and made her way down the stairs, eyes still to the sky before sitting on the last step. A soft smile caressed her li
ps as she looked in the elemental’s direction, who was skipping back over to us with a smile. “I like this new body.”
I clenched my jaw, barely keeping my tears at bay. The Elemental must have sensed something amiss as she tilted her head , looking at me. “Why are you sad, Human? You freed me from the nasty man.”
I shook my head and instantly regretted it, as nausea tried to swim its way up my throat. “I just―I’m just going to miss her is all.”
Her brows creased and her lips turned down in a frown as she looked from the witch then back at me. She breathed out a little ‘oh’ before her frown turned into a smile. “I see. You came here on a quest, not realizing.”
My breath was ragged as the elemental stepped closer and grabbed my hands. “I―we ―,” she looked at the witch, “will take care of this body and dimension. Now you must complete your quest. The weapon. Bring it to me.”
I blinked, dumbfounded. Oh yes, the wrapped package the hound dropped off.
“I’ll get it.” The witch murmured and stood, going into the house leaving me alone with the elemental. She stared at me with black eyes, face emotionless.
I had to say something. “Ummmm, is Amelia still in there?”
The elemental giggled through Amelia’s lips. “Of course she is, silly. Her mind and mine are intertwined together. Her thoughts will be mine and mine hers.”
Right.
I gently pulled my hands away and took a step back just as the witch reemerged. She handed me the item and I held it out to the elemental.
“You don’t want to see what it is?” The elemental asked as I placed it into her hands.
“No,” I whispered, throat hoarse from my unshed tears.
I just wanted to go home. I was barely holding it together as is and I needed this quest to be over with. The elemental shrugged and put it into her cloak pocket.
“Oh! The necklace.” I blurted out, turning to run into the cottage to retrieve the weird blue liquid on the chain. It probably had something to do with the weapon. “It is in my bag.”
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