by Logan Jacobs
“I’m grateful for the help,” Vesta said to my surprise. Then she turned to look at me, and she frowned. “But rest assured, Cole, I won’t need it again.”
“Noted.” I nodded and then returned to my book.
We all studied in uncomfortable silence until it was time for lunch. When we entered the banquet hall, the other witches didn’t stare at me as much as they did yesterday, so I supposed they were slowly growing accustomed to me.
Or at least they were learning to tolerate me.
When I sat down in the banquet hall, there was a plate of roasted duck, asparagus, and mashed potatoes in front of me. There was also a goblet filled with an orange liquid, and when I took a sip, I realized it was sweetened pumpkin juice.
“So,” Vesta began after we ate in silence for a good couple of minutes, “we need to get that blood … tonight.”
“Agreed,” Morgana replied with her wide, ice-blue eyes. “We should work together, go deep into the wood as a group to hunt down our own creatures. It will be safer and more efficient.”
“But what creatures?” Faye asked with a frown. “We each need something extraordinary, but also something that won’t get us killed.”
“There are gremlins, werewolves, wendigos, and ghouls … take your pick,” Vesta suggested before she turned to look at me and scowled. “Not that I care, but I wonder how you’ll do on your own.”
“Oh, I’m not going alone.” I smirked. “I’m coming with you.”
“What?” Sweeny shrieked, and her voice had gone up about five octaves and grabbed the attention of a nearby table. “I’m not going if he’s going.”
“Yeah, who said you were invited?” Morgana scowled.
“Because unlike the rest of you, I actually have protection, unless you’ve already forgotten about my dagger?” I replied in a low voice. “So, why not let me tag along and keep two eyes on you?”
The witches all curled their lips in disdain, but then Morgana finally shrugged.
“I say let him come, because if he dies tonight, we won’t have to put up with him any longer,” she sneered and then met my eyes. “But I swear, Cole, you better not fuck this up for us.”
“I won’t,” I said after a moment. “I can hold my own. Besides, I have an idea. Why don’t we just hunt separately, and then meet up at an agreed spot, just in case anyone needs help?”
“Fine,” Faye snapped, and her green eyes flared like twin emerald flames, “but if you do happen to mess up, we’re going to use you as bait.”
If I were being completely honest, the main reason why I wanted to tag along was because I had no clue what kind of creatures lurked in the woods. These witches could at least show me what I was walking into, and there was power in numbers.
The women all eventually nodded their consent, except for Sweeny.
“Then, I’m not going,” the scarred witch snapped before she stood up. “Have fun tonight.”
She stormed away, but the rest of the witches shrugged it off and continued with their meals.
When I returned to my room, I decided to lay down for a bit. I needed the rest before our late-night rendezvous to hunt down a creature.
As soon as my head hit the pillow, I drowned in dreamless sleep, but I was woken up to the sound of an impatient knock at my door.
“One moment,” I groaned before I sat up and rubbed the exhaustion from my eyes.
When I opened the door, all the witches, aside from Sweeny, were standing there and draped with hooded cloaks.
Time to find a monster to kill.
Chapter 5
All the women were wearing different colored robes as they stood in the hallway outside my room. Akira was draped in an ebony velvet cloak, while Vesta was dressed in a shimmering, silver robe that matched her eyes. Faye had a crimson-colored robe about one shade darker than her hair, and Morgana had a plum tinted robe that made her icy blue eyes stand out.
“Let’s go,” Akira whispered. “The sooner we leave, the sooner we can return in one piece. But first, everyone needs to take a vial before we go.”
“I have them,” Vesta said with wide, eager eyes.
She handed us each a small glass vial to collect our blood, and once mine was safely tucked into my pocket, I nodded and closed the door behind me.
As we passed through the corridors, all the paintings followed us with their beady, judgmental eyes. The lights dimmed as we headed down to the first floor to leave the castle, and goosebumps rose across my skin.
“Is it me … or are the paintings judging us?” I muttered under my breath.
“Many of them were witches who were killed during the early ages,” Akira said as if it should have been obvious. “They are vindictive bitches who would love to see us fail.”
“Why?” I asked in confusion.
“They are filled with pain, anger, and resentment.” Vesta shrugged. “So, their intentions for the living are not in our favor.”
I nodded as we quietly passed through the front door. As soon as we stepped outside, the air was frigid, and the icy, howling wind whipped past my face as we headed toward the black forest.
No one said a word as we entered the thicket, but I could feel the tension from the group as we walked deeper and deeper into the woods.
“We’ll definitely find something tonight,” Morgana whispered. “I can feel it in the air.”
“How can you be so certain?” Faye asked. “I’m not sensing anything.”
“It’s just a raw feeling,” Morgana replied and rolled her blue eyes. “Stop being so pessimistic.”
“I’m not being--” Faye started to say, but then Vesta whipped around to face them.
“Would you two stop bickering?” she hissed. “We need to work together, or we’re not going to find anything. Then Vanessa will fail us, and we’ll all die.”
“Agreed,” Akira added, but she shot me a dirty look. “Let’s keep quiet and keep going.”
I moved forward, ahead of the group, and pulled out my dagger. At first, I thought one of the girls was going to make a fuss about me leading the way, but no one said a thing.
Perhaps it was because I had the weapon in my hand.
We continued to move forward, but without any arguments this time. Tonight, it was difficult to see where we were going. The moon was covered by thick, gray clouds, and the black trees towered over us as we slowly made our way deeper into the woods. I adjusted my eyes to the darkness and stepped over twigs and leaves that rustled as we moved.
“Be quiet,” Akira hissed to no one in particular.
“Who are you even talking to?” Vesta demanded.
“All of you!” Akira growled. “Satan, you’re going to draw attention to us all with your heavy feet.”
I could tell the black-haired witch was nervous, they all were. So, I did my best to move onward without making a sound, and after about an hour of walking into the darkness, we finally came to an opening in the trees. It was a circular space with no twigs, dead leaves, or debris covering the ground, so the dirt was completely bare. There were markings drawn into the earth, and I immediately noticed there was an unnerving presence in the air, but I couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“The Wicca circle,” Akira hissed.
“Well, what is the Wicca circle?”
“It’s sacred ground once used for collective sacrifices, back during the dawn of time--” Vesta started to explain, but then Faye shot her a death glare.
“We don’t have time for a history lesson,” the redhead snapped. “Look, we should get to it and part ways now.”
“Let’s meet back here once we have collected our blood,” Morgana said before she craned her neck to face me. “Don’t even think about following me, Cole.”
“Fuck,” I groaned before shaking my head. “I had no intention of following you, Morgana.”
“Good,” she snapped.
Everyone separated into different directions, except f
or Vesta and me, who remained behind. I was about to head back into the woods until the lavender-skinned witch grabbed my arm.
“Come with me,” she demanded. “My leg is still sore.”
Part of me wondered if this was some kind of excuse to just have some extra protection since she drank an entire bottle of mending potion last night.
I shrugged with a lopsided smile. “If you insist.”
“I don’t need your help,” she snarled.
“Then why are you asking?” I glanced down at her fingers around my arm.
“It’s safer for both of us.” She released her grip and then shook her hand like she’d been burned. “Let’s go.”
I nodded in agreement, and as we walked back into the thicket, I had to squint to see where the hell we were going. It seemed the farther we walked into the woods, the more difficult it was to brush past the branches and vines that were in our way.
We had been walking in silence for a good minute before Vesta quietly spoke up.
“So … where is your home?” she asked without looking at me. “Everyone has been wondering.”
“I have no idea,” I replied with a shrug.
“How can you have no idea?” she snapped. “Are you lying to me?”
“Look, I just … ended up here,” I hissed back, “with no clear recollection of where I came from. Why the hell would I lie about that?”
“It just seems so odd,” she said after a moment of deliberation. “Well, maybe you were placed under an oblivion curse.”
“I honestly have no idea,” I muttered. “Can we focus on the topic at hand? I don’t want to die because I failed Vanessa’s damn quiz.”
The topic of my past irritated me because I desperately wanted to know where the hell I came from and how I got here, and more importantly, why the devil wanted me to stay at the academy.
When I looked back at Vesta, I could tell she was about to say something else, but then, a loud rustling noise came from behind one of the trees ahead of us.
“Stop,” I ordered.
We both stopped in our tracks and glanced at each other, and I caught a glimpse of fear in Vesta’s silver eyes as they darted back to the source.
I took a step forward, but then she grabbed me again.
“Let me go first?” she said.
It was more of a question rather than a demand.
“Alright,” I relented after a moment of deliberation, “but if I see that you need help, I’m stepping in.”
“I’ll be fine.” She rolled her silver eyes. “Don’t make me regret agreeing to allow you to come.”
“Don’t make me regret offering it,” I countered.
Her molten silver eyes softened a bit, and she slowly let go of me.
“Fine,” she whispered, “just let me do this.”
I gestured for her to go, and Vesta gradually moved toward the sound. The rustling of the leaves continued, so she cast her eyes around us for a moment. Then she stooped down and quietly picked up a decent sized rock before she made to move toward the rustling sound.
At first, I thought about letting her go, but something made me reach out and stop her.
“Take my blade,” I suggested under my breath.
I didn’t know why I’d said this, none of these witches had been exactly kind to me, but the thought of the sexy lavender-skinned witch getting disemboweled didn’t exactly fill me with joy.
“I don’t need it,” she argued.
“Yes, you do,” I bit back. “Don’t be so fucking stubborn.”
Vesta sighed, and then she dropped her rock and reached out toward me.
I handed her the blade, and then something made a long, screeching sound before it scuttered from the brush. I whipped around and saw a small and scaled creature speeding from the leaves toward Vesta. The monster made a long hissing sound as it neared her feet and opened its mouth, and I saw a small set of teeth ready to chomp down on her, but she managed to dodge the creature before it could bite her. Then she swiftly brought the dagger down, and a disturbing crunching sound followed.
Vesta stabbed the creature repeatedly until there was a pool of blood seeping from underneath its small, dismembered body. I waited for the beast to turn to stone, just as the centaur had, but nothing happened.
I thought it was strange, but then I turned my attention to the dead being.
“What was that?” I asked as I stared at the bloodied creature.
It looked like an oversized red lizard with small, scaled human hands and long, elven ears. It had small feet, like a human child, and I shuddered at the disturbing sight.
“An imp,” Vesta replied, and her voice was laced with disappointment. “Damn it … this was not what I was hoping for.”
“It’s still a creature,” I pointed out.
“And a truly pathetic one at that,” she muttered.
“Well, it’s better than nothing,” I reassured her. “Would you rather return with nothing at all?”
“No,” the witch mumbled before she pulled out a small glass vial from her cloak pocket.
I watched in fascination as she picked up the bloody imp and squeezed it like a dishrag. The blood poured into her vial, and Vesta sighed as she placed it into her pocket.
“I’m going to meet back with the others,” she grumbled and shoved the dagger back into my hands. “Good luck.”
“What?” I smirked. “You don’t want to watch me one-up you?”
Vesta narrowed her silver eyes at me, but I thought I saw the corner of her mouth tick upward.
“More like I don’t want to wander around all night with you and watch you fail,” she countered before she turned back the way we came. “Try not to get killed, Cole, at least not today. If you do, Akira wins the bet.”
“Thanks … ” I muttered as I watched her leave. A part of me wished she would have stayed, but then I realized it would be more satisfying to show up to Blood Magic tomorrow with my awesome creature.
Whatever it ended up being.
So, I turned away from where Vesta had disappeared and stared into the dark forest.
“Okay, then,” I muttered to myself, “let’s do this.”
I walked past the dead imp and took a step deeper into the wood. My dagger was still in my hand, and I held it up as I moved carefully through the thicket. My heart was beating from anticipation as I pushed onward, but I did not let the silence fool me. Just because I didn’t hear anything, didn’t mean I was safe. If anything, the quiet was more deadly and deceiving, since it could fool someone into thinking everything was going to be alright.
I continued to move, with my blade raised to eye level. I could feel my blood pumping through me, and I kept my eyes on alert. I was in survival mode right now, alone in the black woods, deep into territory I knew almost nothing about.
Eventually, I came across a deep pit, and I peered down and stared into its abyss. I could make out the bottom, but it was a pretty good drop. If I hadn’t been on high alert, that would have been a nasty fall.
“Shit,” I muttered to myself as I stepped around the gaping chasm. “That was a close one.”
As I continued on, I wondered if I was going to find anything at all. I’d been walking for at least an hour, and so far, I wasn’t finding anything, and I was growing impatient.
Just as I thought I wasn’t going to find anything, there was a low rumbling sound that came from my right side. I stood my ground and tightly gripped the hilt of the dagger as I pointed it in the direction of the noise.
Then I caught a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring right at me. They were so bright they illuminated everything around me, and I remained still as a gaunt, skeleton-like creature crawled from the darkness.
Its legs were hunched over, and it bared its long, yellow teeth at me. Its skin was sallow and decaying, and it almost resembled a human corpse. It smelled rotten, too, like dead rotting meat left in the heat for too long. My eyes stung as it neared me, but I had to fight off the unbearable stench.
/>
The humanoid beast took another step forward, and I kept my blade pointed at the creature as I waited for it to attack. This thing looked as if it could be faster than the centaur, due to its slimmer figure, so I stared into its eyes and dared it to move forward.
I stood my ground and wondered how the hell I was going to overpower this beast. Then, as I met its dark, fathomless eyes, I remembered the pit I’d come across in the forest earlier.
I could lure this bastard back there and trap it.
“Come on,” I taunted. “Come here, you ugly mother fucker.”
The creature curled its lips back and exposed more rotting, dagger-sharp teeth. It moved slowly as if it was trying to determine what kind of prey or threat I was, so I pointed my weapon at it and readied myself.
The beast must have grown impatient because it finally lowered itself as close to the ground as possible, and I knew it was getting ready to leap at me.
So, I bolted toward the pit, and I didn’t bother to look back. I knew the beast was chasing me because I could hear it snarl and crash through the underbrush on my heels. My heart hammered against my sternum as I ran for my life, and I sprinted practically blind through the dark woods. I had a decent sense of direction, though, and I eventually saw the pit in front of me.
The yawning black hole grew closer and closer, and as soon as I was close enough, I swerved to the right, completely out of the creature’s way.
The beast couldn’t stop itself in time, and it tumbled down into the hole with a loud yelp followed by a bone-crunching thud.
I laid there panting in the leaves for a moment before I pushed myself back to my feet. Then I inched over to the pit, and when I peered down, I cast the illumination spell to get a better look at the beast.
Its dark, soulless eyes were bulging out of its bony, humanoid face, and it wildly snapped its massive, prolonged jaw at me. The monster looked like a mix between a wolverine and a dangerously thin human being. Whatever it was, it wasn’t trying to rise from the ground, and that’s when I noticed there was something sticking through its torso. Its raw, peeling, and sickly green skin was gleaming with red blood that slowly pooled around the object, and when I looked a little closer, I finally saw what it was.