When Wishes Bleed

by Casey Bond

  A scene emerged, a moment I lived but was too young to recall.

  I hid behind Mother’s skirts. Grandmother Ela’s face was pinched tight as a fist. “Who is responsible for this?” Ela demanded, pointing to a circle of smoking, split trees behind the House of Earth.

  I looked up into Mother’s proud face. Mother smiled at me and smoothed her hand over my hair. “She was responsible.”

  “You are teaching her dark magic?” Ela blustered. Her hair was the color of a fawn’s, tawny and thick. Grandmother was beautiful. Her beauty was natural, not sharp like Mother’s or mine.

  “I will teach her many things, Priestess. All of which she has a right to know.”

  “Fate bade you introduce her to the darkness?”

  Cyril smiled. “Fate no longer controls me. I cast him out.”

  “You couldn’t,” Ela argued, but her voice wavered.

  “I told you I would be stronger than he, stronger than you all one day,” Cyril said sweetly, but there was something in her tone that made the hair on my arms raise. My belly started to burn. I clutched it with my hand.

  A voice inside my head spoke gently. “Be still, little one.”

  Grandmother’s eyes snapped to mine. She stared at me until her eyes went blank. “He lives in Sable,” she whispered, her fingers raising until they covered her mouth.

  “What?” Mother asked. Her brows kissed as she crouched down and looked into my eyes – the way Grandmother had.

  “She is only a child, Cyril. How could you?”

  “Have you been keeping secrets, Sable?” I cowered from the look Mother gave me. “I didn’t send Fate to her, Priestess. I would never have wished such a future for her, but perhaps it is fortuitous.”

  “Fate will do nothing but twist her, as he’s twisted you. The Circle will not allow that to happen. We must protect our home, our Houses, and the witches within them – from Fate, from you, and now from Sable.”

  “Do as you must, Priestess, but know that I will protect my daughter from you as well.”

  Mother called upon the sky. It turned dark, much darker than I had made it. The ground shook underfoot, vibrating the smooth pebbles beneath my pointed boots. I didn’t understand all her words, but knew what she’d done. Her spell had created a divide between the Priest, Priestesses, and me. A magical circle was rooted around me, preventing their magic from being used to harm or influence me. I could feel the dark power radiating from it.

  My grandmother looked horrified. “Recant the spell,” she demanded.

  “Never,” Mother snapped. “I will protect her from you. I will protect her from this kingdom, and I will find a way to cast Fate out of her as well. I’ve found that I might need his favor again to achieve the goals I have in mind…”

  The voice in my mind spoke up. “Do not fear her, little one. She cannot force me away.”

  Fate was speaking. Grandmother said he was inside me, and now I could hear his voice. I felt the knot of him in my stomach.

  “Cyril, if you continue down this path, you will be banished. Both of you.”

  Mother threw a laugh over her shoulder as she took my tiny hand in hers and began to lead me back to the House of Fate. “And which among you is strong enough to cast us out?”

  My mother was the one who drove the wedge between my grandmother and me. Grandmother feared Fate, and Cyril driving him out only sent him looking for a new witch to inhabit. For some unknown reason, he chose me.

  She lived in terror of me because of his influence, combined with that of my mother’s. She knew that even though she bound her own daughter, she would never be able to bind me.

  And now Tauren was at the mercy of my mother, a woman who didn’t know the meaning of the word.

  Fate clawed at my insides. “Where is he?” I begged him. “Tell me where Tauren is.”

  Focusing, I heard voices. Many distressed, quiet voices. I walked to the front door and threw it open, my eyes landing on the witches gathered in the Center. They huddled together away from their priest and priestesses, who still burned. I looked for his tall figure, but couldn’t see him among the crowd.

  “Tauren!” I called out, searching for him among the hundreds of familiar faces. When the witches saw me, they began to shout, begging for help.

  I would help them, but first I had to find Tauren. She hadn’t killed him yet, or else I wouldn’t be here.

  My stomach sank the moment I found him.

  He was bound and gagged, a noose cinched tightly around his neck, standing on the trap door of the gallows.

  Cyril suddenly appeared in front of me, stopping me on my way to him. I sucked in a startled breath. My heart began to thunder. I wasn’t afraid of her, but I was terrified she would hurt Tauren. For a long moment she stared at me in silence, taking me in from hair to pointed heel. And if I wasn’t mistaken, she found me lacking. The feeling was mutual. She was beautiful at first glance, but at second, I could see the hatred she harbored, clinging to her like a parasite.

  I looked back to Tauren, hoping I was strong enough to save him, and that if I couldn’t, the spell I’d used to bind us would save his life and Brecan and Mira would arrive in time to spirit him away and hide him from my mother. That somehow the two of them could bind her, in water or in the sky, so she couldn’t hurt anyone else.

  The trapped witches’ cries grew louder.

  Cyril threw a glance their way. “Do not pity them, Sable. They are what is wrong with The Gallows. The Houses are divisive. The Priestesses and Priest clamored for power they didn’t deserve.”

  “And you deserve it?” I asked, raising my brow.

  She stabbed a pointed nail in the direction of a clump of disturbed soil in the Center. “I spent seventeen long years being trodden upon. I deserve every ounce of power that’s due me, and I will make sure nothing like that happens to me again. I know how you’ve been treated, Sable. Like a castoff. Like nothing. How can you even stand to look in their direction? They mean nothing to you, because you meant nothing to them.”

  “You are the reason they treated me as they did. You turned my own grandmother against me.”

  “I protected you!” she roared, taking a threatening step forward.

  I matched her step. “I didn’t need you to protect me from them. The only one I’ve ever needed protection from is you. You are the only one who has ever managed to hurt me.”

  She shook her head. “The only reason you weren’t bound with me was because of my protection spell, but even it didn’t cast Fate away from you as I’d hoped.”

  “For that, I’m grateful,” I snapped.

  She bared her teeth. “Fate hurts you every day, just by inhabiting you. He poisons your thoughts, makes you do things you otherwise wouldn’t, makes it hard to look at yourself in the mirror. He hurts you just by existing inside you. If he loved you, he would leave you alone. He would respect your wishes. He would honor your choices.”

  Fate had never treated me like I didn’t matter. He came to me. He protected me. And he wanted to protect me now.

  A frustrated, heavy tear fell from my eye. “And if you loved me, you wouldn’t be doing this to those I love.”

  Before she could respond, I spirited myself to the Circle and reached out to touch the barrier – to shatter it as I had the mirror she’d sent. Arron said that only a Fate witch could break her spell. I didn’t care how I’d been treated in the past or how divisive the Houses were, my mother was wrong.

  Something lashed around my neck and tightened, jerking me quickly away and abruptly cutting off my air supply. Cyril held the other end of the whip.

  “I, too, was Fate’s daughter. Don’t try that again, or I’ll hang you myself – on the gallows that I built.”

  I tried to speak and couldn’t. My vocal chords wouldn’t allow even a squeak.

  Mother let go of the whip’
s handle and I collapsed to the ground, my fingers digging into the parched grass. I unwound the whip’s sharp leather from my flesh, gasping for breath.

  Mira and Brecan appeared near the Center. A fierce wind blew across the pentagram, but even the gusts couldn’t extinguish the flames attempting to consume Ethne, Bay, and Wayra. Cyril started toward them.

  I called on Fate, rising to my feet again. As I did, Cyril felt the shift.

  “Don’t,” Cyril snapped, shoving me so hard I landed on my back.

  It was strange seeing her hovering above me, because it was like looking in a mirror. She hadn’t aged during her internment beneath the soil, and now that I was of age, we looked like sisters, almost like twins. She grabbed my arms and shook me. Hard.

  “Don’t unleash him. You will regret it.”

  “I’d never regret ridding the world of you,” I spat.

  She stiffened, her mouth gaping as if she’d been slapped. “I thought you would at least listen to reason.”

  “If you were reasonable, I might have.”

  Her expression closed off. “You have a choice,” she said coldly. “Save the witches, or save your prince.” Cyril glanced over her shoulder, her eyes narrowing at Tauren.

  “If you hurt him…” I warned.

  Tauren thrashed, trying to break free of his bindings, but they were likely spelled, and even if they weren’t, it was nearly impossible to do.

  Brecan spirited himself across the lawn to stand in front of the gallows and our prince. He nodded once to me, then called on his wind to push upward against the trap doors beneath Tauren, while Arron appeared beside him, loosening his noose.

  Cyril was livid. Her plans were slowly unraveling, and she did the only thing she could. She called upon the darkness. Murky shadows slid over the earth, cooling the grass beneath me and spreading frost across the dried blades of grass. My bones rattled within my skin from the power of their mist. Black fire burst from the ground, quickly spreading, outlining the pentagram and slicing through the worn trails. The witches enclosed within the Center screamed, huddling together in groups to keep away from the dark flames slicing between them.

  If only I’d reached a little farther, and had broken Cyril’s holding spell.

  Once Arron freed him, Tauren jerked the gag from his mouth. “Sable, get away from her!” Tauren yelled. He stalked forward, his golden eyes aimed at Cyril. “My father doesn’t believe in putting criminals to death, but I am not as good a man as he,” Tauren warned. “You will die for the terror you’ve inflicted.”

  My mother smiled maliciously. “Will I?”

  Everything that followed seemed to happen in slow motion.

  Cyril spirited to Tauren before I could reach him. Arron was suddenly behind my prince, clamping a hand on his shoulder and preparing to flee.

  I appeared behind my mother a second too late.

  She screeched as she dragged a dagger from within the folds of her dress and stabbed at Tauren’s middle. The resulting tumult was concealed by the dark shimmers of clouds left in Arron’s wake. Tauren’s roar of pain was swallowed up as the two disappeared.

  A sudden, blinding pain made me buckle. The bottom of my shirt was soaked crimson as the coppery scent of blood filled the air. I pressed a hand to my flesh, but it didn’t ease the pain or stanch the bleeding. I sucked in a sharp breath.

  “Sable!” Brecan screamed from somewhere off to the right. He sounded far away. Everything did. Sounds were muffled. I blinked heavily, wanting nothing more than to tell Tauren I loved him before my life restored his.

  I called upon Fate to help me, feeling his comforting darkness unfurl inside. His legs steeled mine. He stretched my fingers and then curled them into tight fists. His eyes saw through mine. My stomach stopped hurting and I floated somewhere inside myself, letting Fate consume me from within.

  We started toward her.

  Cyril.

  The one who betrays.

  The one who destroys.

  The one who covets.

  The one who kills.

  Fate’s thoughts jumbled with mine. They slid over and around until I couldn’t tell whether they came from him or me.

  Cyril was not concerned for me, but she was shaken, obviously struggling to make sense of what she was seeing. “I stabbed him, not you!”

  “She bound her soul to his,” Brecan spat, approaching her from the other side, herding her closer to us.

  “Sable, come back while you still can,” Cyril warned, reaching out to me while maintaining her distance. “You need help. Your body is dying.”

  Fate chuckled darkly. His voice overshadowed mine, then I couldn’t hear mine at all. All that remained was his warning.

  “No,” Cyril growled. She knew she couldn’t stand against Fate because she knew intimately how powerful he was. She’d had it inside her but foolishly cast him away; she regretted it every moment since. She pretended it was what she’d wanted all along, right up until the moment she tried to kill me to get it back.

  She called on the dark magic she knew so well, the atmosphere trembling with magic so terrible, so powerful, even the earth itself vibrated underfoot. She lashed out with a powerful blow. The writhing darkness should’ve knocked me off my feet, but with Fate steeling me, it was no more than an annoying flick. Fear flashed through her eyes a split second before she lashed out again.

  “Sable, he will not leave you if you don’t come back right now. Trust me, daughter.”

  The one who lies.

  Fate marched me toward her. He thrust his hand out and oozing darkness poured from his palm, knitting an otherworldly length of rope. The strand glittered as he used my hands to knot the end with practiced ease. It was almost as if he’d somehow stolen the dark umbilical cord of the universe itself and hidden it away until this precise moment, like it was the cord’s fate to protect me, to protect us all.

  The rope ached and rejoiced in its freedom, encircling her neck and reeling her in until my steely fingers gripped her jaw. She thrashed and fought to free herself, panting and cursing and attempting every spell she could think of as she clawed at my arms. She tried to call forth more dark magic, but Fate would not allow it.

  Fate roared in her face and then, as if she weighed no more than an acorn, he threw Cyril toward the Center. The witches trapped inside jumped to avoid her and Cyril landed in the middle, sprawled on the heap of earth from which she’d recently clawed her way out. The instant she realized she was coated in the soil, she jumped up, screaming and rubbing her skin where it lay as crumbling dust. Bits of earth flew from her skin as she hurried to rid herself of it.

  Her eyes glittering with malice and rage, Cyril lodged a burst of darkness toward me. It shattered against my chest, but didn’t break me. Fate again sent out his dark, viscous tendril. It coiled around her like a twister, tightening like a serpent who delighted in squeezing its prey until its bones snapped and it went slack.

  Cyril grunted as her magic escaped her.

  Fate used my body to march toward the Center, breaking through the magical barrier Cyril had erected. His presence alone extinguished the black fire, breaking the spell and setting the witches free. They spilled onto the lawns in mystified disarray. Some panicked, running into their Houses for cover. Others hovered, unsure what to do or how to help. Brecan and Mira shouted to them, but I couldn’t hear what they said. I could only feel Fate.

  In this moment, he embodied the feeling he gave me when I stalked someone he wanted dead.

  It was terrifying. It was wonderful.

  Cyril saw his intention to kill her.

  Her body deflated before she regrouped. Her eyes darted from side to side. She was going to make a run for it.

  “Keep her in the Center!” I managed to fight past Fate to scream to Brecan.

  He cast wind around the circle that spun faster and faster aroun
d us until everything beyond it was a blur.

  “Sable. Take back control of your body,” he gritted. “I can’t keep this up forever.” His wind began to weaken, the tight funnel loosening like the strings of a corset.

  Tauren fought his way through the fleeing witches and fell through the weakening wall of wind, calling my name, unaware of the tiger in his midst. Cyril grabbed Tauren, using him as a shield. His defiant golden eyes met mine as he screamed for me to run.

  Deep within, I struggled with Fate, trying to thrust him out. He wanted revenge. He wanted Cyril to suffer. But his ire, his uncontrolled anger, blinded him to Tauren’s presence. And I would protect him, even from Fate.

  “You promised,” I reminded him. “Let me do this. I trusted you; now you must trust me! I have to save him. I love him.”

  Tauren needed me. I took in the small blood stain on his shirt, then looked at the crimson dripping from the white fabric of my own. “Please,” I begged again.

  Fate paused, then slowly receded, tucking himself somewhere deep within me.

  Cyril laughed. “You actually did it.”

  The wound on my stomach pulsed. My legs faltered as I clung to Fate’s rope, whispering an incantation he fed me. As my lifeblood dribbled from me, in penance, her magic would bleed away from her. When Tauren and I locked eyes, I flicked mine to the side and he dipped his head in understanding. When I threw the rope, he dove sideways and the loop of Fate’s rope fell over Cyril’s neck. “Let’s see how you like it, Mother.” I jerked the cord. Hard. She lost her footing, clawing at the strand that I’d transformed into a slick, black serpent.

  She croaked a spell, desperation lacing her voice as she repeated the incantation again and again to no avail. Her magic was nearly depleted, as was the strength in my legs.

  As I dragged her into the Center to one of the empty stakes, Brecan appeared next to me, his wind dying down. The snake coiled around Cyril, wrapping around her quicker than she could move.