by N. K. Vir
“He’s not the most powerful witch anymore,” she grumbled to his retreating back before following him. She had taken two steps before she was pulled to a stop by a firm grip.
Tanith froze, every muscle in her body tightened, only the distant knowledge of where she was stopped the instant need to change and fight. Adrenaline thickened her blood and a few muffled gasps from the witch’s surrounding her alerted her that her eyes were glowing.
“She doesn’t like to be touched,” Daisy hissed at the owner of the hand that weakly held her captive.
“I know a born warrior when I see one,” Matilda replied.
Tanith felt the muscles running along her spine stiffen; that word meant something but not in the tongue the strange woman used.
“Please let her go,” Daisy pleaded.
Matilda clicked her tongue but did as she was asked. “She’s got control now,” she explained. “Has had ever since Kieran burned her with that stone you’re carrying in your pocket.”
Tanith squeezed her eyes shut trying to control the heavy rhythm of her heart and the rapid rise and fall of her chest. The world around her grew still and silent, the hushed voices that had a moment before been almost too loud for her sensitive hearing fell quiet. The eyes of the unknown witches fell upon her, staring at the strange shifter girl they had unwillingly let into their company.
Her vision darkened and was replaced by the memory that frightened her the most.
Someone she cared about, someone she loved was screaming to her. She could see the beautiful blonde woman’s mouth opened but no sound escaped her open mouth. The horrified look in her eyes was terrifying. An enormous beast of a man rose up behind the woman. His face was hidden in shadow and darkness
“Run Tani!” a voice from her past shouted. “Never let him find you!”
“Never let him find you,” Matilda said echoing her memory.
A shocked gasp filled her vacant lungs.
“Hush,” cooed a gentle voice, “It’s only a memory; a gift from a very lost girl.”
Matilda’s warm breath brushed across the nape of her neck drawing the fine hairs to stand at attention. She inhaled a slow deep breath and the quiet hum of the room resumed.
“Please leave her alone,” Daisy pleaded again.
“Two different eyes for two different worlds,” the crazy old witch continued ignoring Daisy. “One foot on this earth, the other firmly planted in the Otherworld. Those memories; they’re calling you home love.”
Tanith stepped away from the woman. The fragile, soft skin of her palms left a web-like imprint on her arm; sticky and silken like a mark that she would never be rid of. The overwhelming need to escape the witch who saw too well drove her to flee one danger and walk directly towards a new one.
He was irritated; like an uncomfortable itch that refused to be satisfied by a scratch. He felt like he had been eating his anger and magick since he’d walked into the convert church. He had wanted to make a quiet, yet good impression on the coven. His position had changed since he last encountered his fellow witches and many of the faces had changed. He looked around the room and found that he barely recognized anyone; the core of elders had remained the same but the friendly faces from his youth seemed to have drifted away. Time had eroded away the small community he remembered from when he was a child.
It had been awhile since he had attended a coven meeting. In the past he’d always found them at best boring and at worst uncomfortable. He was surrounded by people that knew him at his worst; an out of control little boy who could control the element of earth well before most even knew about their unusual ancestry. Now as the Sinclair Witch who struggled with control; he felt like the same scared little boy he had once been. Even here, hidden in the safety besides his own kind, he was an outsider looking in. As far as he could see there was one man who could help; Marek Grey.
Marek’s position within the coven had changed dramatically over the years but he had the lineage and power to back his skyrocket ride to the top. He came from a powerful, ancient line not too dissimilar from his own. Both of them had roots that stretched across the Atlantic and remained buried deeply in Europe. When he was younger Marek had been the wonder boy of the coven, never breaking any rules, always in control of his magick…in other words he was everything Kieran was not. He hoped that Marek’s loyalty to the coven, and by extension him, would guarantee Tanith a powerful ally.
If the witches stood together; backing the claim that Tanith had been abused, attacked by a rogue vampire previous to her attacking Wills they had a shot at Tanith surviving. The wolves had already offered their support siding with Tanith; and with a word of forgiveness by the Historian he was sure that the Trinity could not reasonably execute Tanith. He just needed Marek to agree.
“The newest hero of the coven,” Marek greeted him, arms extended and a broad smile upon his bearded face. He had changed since Kieran had last seen him. In the images he had retained from when he was a boy Marek never had a beard; but the streak of grey along with the new long dreadlocks added a certain mystique to the aura of power that had always surrounded him. He looked like a witch.
Kieran stepped into the welcoming embrace and patted the man he had both feared and admired his entire life heartily on his back. “Good to see you,” he murmured and was only mildly shocked to discover that he meant it. If anyone could understand the pressures of an important position in the magickal world it was Marek.
He stepped back trying to keep the hug short and welcoming but Marek kept contact resting his hands on his shoulders; prolonging the contact. His thin, long fingers dug into Kieran’s shoulders, pinning him in place. “The impossibly powerful boy has finally come home.” Marek’s tone was parental and filled with a touch of disappointment but the grip on Kieran’s shoulders was loaded with anger.
“Are you angry?” Kieran asked stepping away. Marek’s eyes slipped away from his and started at someone over his shoulder. The smile quickly vanished from his face and a dark look veiled the earlier kindness from his eyes.
“No,” Marek replied quickly painting a smile back on his face.
Kieran turned his head and caught sight of Tanith making her way towards them; behind her Daisy and Matilda were huddled together, whispering. His eyes quickly shifted back to Tanith. She had changed somehow. Of course being accused of attempted murder and facing the real possibility of her own life coming to a quick and sudden end tended to dramatically alter a person; but it was more than that. Tanith had changed in a matter of minutes and it was more than her demeanor. Her eyes, always her most striking and unusual feature, had changed. Her right eye had deepened to almost the color of the midnight sky while the left had paled dramatically almost losing all of its pigmentation. The change was so drastic, so rapid that he could not hide his gasp of surprise. Unconsciously he took a step forward and was stopped from going further by Marek.
“You are the most powerful human witch Kieran; let her come to you,” Marek whispered seductively in his ear.
He listened.
Chapter Fourteen
The Darkness Settles
It was true, what his mother had once told him. When faced with an unhappy ending sometimes you just had to keep the story going. At the time she had been talking about her inability to accept the fate of his curse. His mother had always been one of the bright places in his life; her light had only ever been outshone by one…Tanith.
He had heard his mother’s voice whispering about endings banging against his ear drum. He wanted to keep their story going; he wanted his own perfect ending. He had seen the far off look settle into Tanith’s eyes; and he reacted before his ever working mind could stop him. If he had stayed still and done nothing she might never know how he felt about her; how much he needed her. He had kept his eyes locked on hers and forced his feet to move quicker. His mind tried to talk him out of what he was about to do but his heart was singing in triumph. When he had touched her he truly felt magick touch him for the first tim
e. He ignored the fear in his gut and the circling doubt in his head and spoke from his heart, from his soul, pouring himself into the kiss he had given her every opportunity to escape from. He wanted to believe, he needed to believe he was changing his own story. When his lips had brushed against hers it was the first time he felt fear mingle with hope. Fear that it was the last time he would touch her; hope that there would be many more. One brief taste of her and he knew he could not live without her.
A stray branch scratched the side of his face forcing him out of his beautiful memory.
He licked his lips, the tip of his tongue tingled with the fading taste of her. He wiped the tiny beads of blood from his cheek with the back of his hand and stared at the dark smear under the light of the quickly ripening moon. Kane had planned his final assault well. The full moon would prevent him from being able to stand by her when she faced the Trinity’s judgment.
Lucas stopped.
His body froze but his mind continued running with possibilities. His racing mind audibly clicked and anger began to override the fear he’d been laboriously carrying with him all day. His hands clenched into fists crushing the delicate object he had spent the past few hours searching for. Instinct took over and he began to run. Leafy, woody branches whipped him spurring his legs to move faster, begging his frail human legs to find more speed. He tore past James, barely recognizing the stunned look on his face; and not missing a step when the other man called out to him. All the while one thought screamed at him over and over…
He’s picking us off one by one.
Kieran would watch out for both girls. Tanith was safe. She was power in a tiny package and would help Kieran protect Daisy. Yesterday she had taken Kane by surprise. He had never been more proud. If Kane was planning on separating them, dividing them to better gain the advantage he could press that advantage of it at any point. He had done it in the past and did not trust that it would not be in his wheelhouse to repeat the move. He may have them all scrambling to find a way to save Tanith but she could very easily not be his ultimate target; and Wills was currently alone and very vulnerable.
He tore through the last few trees that separated him from the house and skidded on the gravel of the driveway, nearly losing his balance. The lights inside the house were off but the porch light was on; a warm beacon calling them all home. Wills, he hoped, would be safely hidden with her book she could no longer read. Kelly had gone out to stock up on food for the tiny horde she felt obligated to feed.
The sound of James winded voice calling out to him reignited his own sense of panic. He sniffed the air hoping his weakened sense of smell could detect anything out of the ordinary. He detected the faint, lingering odor of gasoline hiding beneath the earthy scent of pine and damp grass but the trace of it was old. His keen sight scanned the dark, empty spaces between him and that lone light of the porch. Slowly he began to approach the house, silently crunching the gravel beneath his feet. He tuned out the noise that surrounded him, James repeatedly calling out his name, the gentle hum of the summer insects, the soft rustling of the leaves swaying in the intermittent wind. He forced his ears to listen for the unusual. A faint metallic squeak, sounding more like a shotgun in the quiet fired his heart into overdrive.
His head whipped towards the porch. Wills’ dark silhouette emerged from inside the house. She stumbled onto the lighted porch. The rate of his heart accelerated instead of calming at the sight of her. She stumbled, the tip of her shoe catching on a piece of the screen door Kieran had broken yesterday. Her faint whispered curse reached his ears. He smiled. The tiny action calmed his pounding heart and cooled his heated blood.
“Wills,” He called out to her and flinched when he saw that he’d startled her. “Don’t move!”
His legs moved, quickly covering the distance between them, afraid that if she took just one step more that she would fall. Violent images of what the future could be sped through his mind as quickly as the scenery flashed past his eyes. Tanith gone, wiped from the earth. Kieran; devoured by his own uncontrollable anger and burned alive by a fire from his own hands as he failed to overcome the dangers that threatened them. His own fate, sealed the day of his birth, was once what he feared most, now it was the destruction of the people he loved most in the world. At the end it would be Wills who stood alone. The only comfort, the only cure for the possible future was if Wills did not fall now; and he was the only one to prevent it. He recognized the irrational thought even as it bloomed in his mind but still he could not stop himself from saving her from the fall he saw coming and the destruction that was to follow.
He leapt onto the porch ignoring the steps his arms reached out catching Wills as she stumbled forward. He had saved her; he had saved them all. “I told you not to move,” he breathlessly whispered in her ear as he clutched her tightly. “You could have hurt-,” he caught his tongue between his teeth silencing the mad thought that had driven him hard to prevent her fall.
Her muffled laugh gently vibrated the tense muscles of his chest melting away the anxious fear he’d been carrying a moment ago. He had saved her…he had saved her. He kept repeating the phrase silently in his head.
“My knees and perhaps a sliver of my pride,” she responded. He heard the hidden smile in her reply. “You however are squeezing the air out my lungs,” she jokingly wheezed.
“Sorry,” he muttered slowly releasing her and stepping away.
She blindly swatted at him, hitting him with a light lucky hit. “Did you find it?” she asked hopefully. If he hadn’t be aware of the pressure she had heavily place upon herself he would have guessed she had sent him out to fetch a pint of ice cream.
He had forgotten about the fragile splinter digging into his palm. “Yes,” he exhaled pushing away the dark thoughts that had haunted him a moment before. For the first time in recent days he saw light. Her widening smile forced the light to brighten.
She held out her hands waiting for the scrap of wood she had sent him in search of. He carefully placed the delicate curled bark in her hands and found it hard to believe that something so common, something so small, could be the key to saving Tanith.
She ran her fingers delicately over the silvery white bark of the branch he had scavenged for her. Her eyes stared down at it as if she could see it and not only feel it. “Thank you Lucas. Maybe now I’ll be able to see what has been hidden from us.”
She turned to leave; his hands reached out to grab her, to stop her and ask for more of an explanation. Headlights illuminated the darkened end of the hidden drive bathing him briefly in a bright light as Daisy’s little blue bug pulled into the driveway safely carrying three passengers.
They were all safe for now; and for now that was enough.
The small piece of wood Lucas had brought her was clutched protectively in her hand as she descended the newly installed spiral staircase into the hidden library beneath her aunt’s old house. She couldn’t bring herself to call the house her own but what lay hidden beneath she had, upon first sight, claimed as her own. The soft sole of her shoe touched on the familiar concrete and a sense of welcome warmed her cooled skin.
The book called to her, singing a song in an ancient language her ears could not interpret. As she walked silently down the hall the sweet sounding lyrics grew louder enticing her to move faster. There was a message waiting for her to uncover; a message that had remained hidden for centuries. Her heart pounded excitedly in her chest as she counted silently the number of steps she would need to take before she reached the room where the book continued to call out to her. Soft flickers of light appeared before her eyes as she entered the room, startling her and causing her to fall to her knees. The sudden impact forced her to lose her grip on the piece of birch Lucas had hunted down for her; she heard it skitter across the floor as her palms roughly scraped against the cold concrete beneath her. She ignored the burning of her palms as she blindly searched the floor for the piece of wood she knew was the key to unlocking an ancient puzzle. Tears of frustr
ation burned her eyes and the light of hope she had seen a few moments before was quickly snuffed out. Her search became more anxious and frantic. The fate of a friend hung in the balance.
Her library was supposed to be the one safe place in the world she had to escape to. It had now bitten her twice.
She pounded her fists against the cold, unforgiving concrete beneath her. She had kept her composure in front of the others assuring them all that this was a puzzle she could solve. She was beginning to have doubts. Lucas had probably been right. She should have been studying magickal law. She should have gone with the others and demanded a meeting with Marek herself. She had heard the quiet rumbling between Kelly and James as they complained that the new coven leader was little more than a power hungry witch who served no one but himself. She should have asked Daisy for more help; but she had convinced them that she could do it alone.
At the time she had been so convinced that she was right. She had not missed Adam’s strange words of encouragement when he had spied the Ogham text the desk in her study. ‘You are clever Rosemary.’ She had interpreted his strange words to mean that she was on the right path. She had been as blind then as she was now.
Tears of fear and frustration pooled in her useless eyes; she did not fight them.
She allowed herself to cry, pouring all the pressure and frustration that had been building inside her onto the floor. She had taken on the role of Historian in the hopes of helping. She had hopes of making a difference. She had seen the price the secrets inside the magickal world had extracted on the people she loved. Lies existed as freely as the magick flowed; and the keepers of the most dangerous secrets held all the power…the Trinity. She had wanted to expose them, limiting their power and the fear they wielded over every magickal being in the world. Surprisingly it had been Adam who had encouraged her to dethrone the Trinity. He had warned her that there were others out there. They were older, more powerful and infinitely more dangerous. If this world was to survive the old power structure needed to be torn down and re-worked. Every magickal human needed to unite if they had any hopes of defeating what was waiting for them, hiding in the darkness.