by Logan Jacobs
“You need to stop being a little bitch,” I retorted as the others all stared at us. “Would you rather take your chances flying through the skies and being shot down by a passing soldier?”
No, he muttered in a low voice. Fine, she can disguise me… but just don’t turn me into a fucking turkey or anything like that.
“Alright,” I chuckled. “Beatrix, do you think you can morph Alexander into something… hmm, what’s the word I’m looking for?”
Something sexy, Alexander replied. Silvia is right here, man. Make me look awesome.
“Can you turn him into a raven?” I asked as I shook my head.
“Sure.” Beatrix nodded slowly. “Should be simple enough… in fact, I think we’d better shift all the animals.”
“Good idea,” Faye agreed, “maybe we can disguise them as a pack of dogs?”
“I’m actually not against that idea,” Vanessa commented as she gazed down at her wolf. “Neither is she.”
“Perfect.” I smiled before I turned my attention back to Beatrix. “Alright… are you ready to give it a shot?”
“Yeah,” she said with more conviction in her voice. “I am.”
I took a small step back and let Alexander hover in front of the light-haired brunette as she brushed back her fringe, raised her wand, and inhaled deeply.
“Transmuto!” she cried out, and a burst of yellow light blasted out from the tip of her wand and hit Alexander right in the chest.
My familiar’s entire body convulsed before he slowly began to shift into a smaller version of himself. His red eyes turned black as night, his wolverine features melted into the face of a raven, and then he stopped twisting in the air and flew in wide circles above us.
I’m not dead! he cried out. How awesome is this? I miss my blade-wings, but listen to this!
Raven-Alex let out an ear-piercing caw, and then he swooped down, perched on my shoulder, and puffed out his feathers.
How cool was that? he snickered.
“I’m happy for you,” I chuckled before I looked at the other animals. “Beatrix, you’d better hurry and change the rest of them. We don’t want to stay in one place for too long.”
“Okay,” she responded before she cleared her throat and changed each familiar into a different colored dog. “We need more normal and docile looking creatures to accompany us while we sneak into the kingdom.”
By the time she was finished, we had a pack of large, wolf-like dogs by our side and one raven up in the sky.
Cole, the woman from my dreams echoed. You’d better go before you waste anymore light.
“Agreed,” I responded out loud.
“What did you say, master?” Morgana asked in a soft voice.
“We’d better go,” I said. “We can’t waste another moment. Let’s head for those hills.”
As we trekked onward and headed for the lush, green peaks, I silently prayed to Satan that we’d all make it to this Wicca-hating kingdom in one piece. We had more members with us along for this journey, and it sent a chill down my spine when I remembered I couldn’t protect all of them with the pact.
If they died, that would be it.
Chapter 8
We struggled to breathe as we clambered up the hills and toward the top of the emerald peaks. No one said a word as we ventured onward, and thick beads of sweat dripped from my brow and spilled into my eyes as the air grew warmer and more stagnant. As we silently trekked further uphill, Alexander flew high above me with graceful ease.
Looks like we’re in for one hell of a journey, Cole, his voice reverberated inside my head. Satan… I’ve never seen anything like this before. If you thought these hills were challenging, just you wait.
“Why?” I asked. “What do you see?”
Acres of crimson woodland between you and a gated kingdom, he responded. It looks like you were right. It will probably take you a full day to cross the woods… if you’re lucky.
“Great,” I muttered as I rubbed the salty sweat out of my eyes.
“What’s wrong, Cole?” Marina asked as she arched her purple eyebrows. “I’m no mind reader, at least not yet, but it seems like you’re not too pleased by whatever Alexander just told you.”
“Well, it looks like we’re going to have to trek through a red forest before we make it to the kingdom,” I responded with a low sigh. “It should take us about a day… if we hurry, that is.”
“Ah, no surprise there. You did say it would take a day.” Akira grinned with pride. “I never doubted you for a moment, master.”
“Neither did I,” Circe added with a wink. “Our master is all-knowing.”
“Fucking hell, can you all stop mooning over Cole and focus?” Vanessa growled under her breath. “If there’s a red forest ahead of us, it’s the Redwood, and we need to be careful. There could be countless ibridas lurking about.”
“Ibridas?” Marina repeated as we pushed onward. “What are those?”
“Oh, I know!” Morgana gasped as if we were in class. “Professor, may I please explain?”
“Knock yourself out,” Vanessa muttered as her pale-blue eyes scanned the path ahead of us.
“Ibridas are crafted hybrids between elder and Wicca magic,” the bookish brunette said as she struggled to breathe. “They can take the form of people, animals, trees, flowers… well, you get the idea. Their blood courses with both light and darkness, but it is tainted forever by elder power.”
“And this kingdom we’re headed to is filled with them,” Vanessa remarked as her black familiar followed on her heels. “As Miss Morgana said, they were born with tainted magic… it’s filthy, really. But the point is you must stay alert at all times. Who knows who could be watching us once we enter the Redwood? Samara could have spies everywhere.”
“So, in other words,” Akira grunted as we reached the top of the hills, “we need to keep our heads low and our eyes peeled?”
“Precisely,” Vanessa said once she caught her breath and pushed back her sweaty, loose strands of hair. “Simple spells will be safe, but others should be kept to a minimum. So, Cole, as much as you would like to show off with your advanced magic, let’s keep it in your wand, shall we?”
“I had no intention of putting us into jeopardy,” I said, and I did my best to not roll my eyes at the ill-tempered professor. “Headmistress Theodora already made that perfectly clear, but thank you for the reminder, Miss Vanessa.”
“Good,” she growled. “And it’s still professor to you… I’d hate to have to repeat myself through this entire journey.”
An awkward silence filled the air as we pushed onward, and by the time we reached the very top of the hills, we all took a deep breath and steadied our labored breathing.
“Fuck,” I gasped as I stared at the vast red woodland in front of us. “Alexander wasn’t exaggerating. That’s going to be one hell of a walk.”
We all took a moment to stare out at the ocean of vibrant red trees before us. It was unlike any woodland we’d ever seen. All the leaves were deep shades of scarlet, crimson, and ruby, and beyond the Redwood laid a grand and silver city-kingdom, with a castle that surpassed the tallest trees of the forest. The kingdom shone like a cluster of diamonds beyond the wash of blood-red trees, and as the early morning sun kissed everything in its path, a strange mixture of enchantment mingled with dread flowed through my mind like a coursing river unsure of its true course.
“It’s incredible,” Marina remarked as her lavender eyes scanned the entire view, “but unnerving at the same time… I simply cannot explain it, but it feels like a deep concave of the ocean. Mysterious, beautiful, and terrifying all at once.”
“That’s what hybrid magic is supposed to feel like,” Vanessa muttered as she bit down on her lower lip. “Come on, we’d better get going. There’s no point gawking at it.”
“Agreed.” I nodded. “We have an entire day of walking ahead of us.”
As we headed down toward the forest’s outskirts, Alexander fluttered above us and con
tinued to play the role of our guardian in the sky. So far, I didn’t feel any presence of danger lurking about, and strangely, the woods felt almost inviting, but I refused to give in to its alluring nature. It was a facade, and deep down, I knew its power was meant to make us feel comfortable and to lower our guards so it could attack when we least expected it.
We ventured through the bloodshot thicket, and we walked in tense silence for about an hour, until suddenly, Circe stopped in her tracks and violently sneezed. The stillness shattered as birds cawed and flew into the sky, and everyone jumped out of their skin before they turned to look at the blonde Wicca with wide, terrified eyes.
“Sorry,” Circe whispered as her face turned a shade of rosy-pink. “I couldn’t hold it back any longer.”
“Can’t you sneeze any quieter than that?” Vanessa hissed. “Satan… I think I lost a decade of my lifespan.”
“I said I was sorry.” The blonde Wicca shrugged. “Anyway, now that we’re talking… I was wondering about something. I didn’t want to bring it up before, but now I don’t see why not.”
“And what’s that?” Beatrix sighed.
“Well, what are we going to do about food?” the serpentine witch asked as her forked tongue flicked out and licked her lips. “I can go an entire day without eating, but it’s not exactly a comfortable feeling.”
“I was actually thinking the same thing,” Nyx grunted as she rubbed her stomach. “I’m fucking starving.”
“Hmmm… I think blondie is right,” Akira said as she tapped her chin. “It’s not a great idea to keep going without something in our bellies.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” Vanessa sighed as she rubbed at her temples. “That walk made me absolutely famished.”
“Really?” Morgana questioned as she cocked her head to the side.
“Yes, really,” the professor snapped back with an icy stare. “Believe it or not, Miss Morgana, I have needs, too.”
“So, why don’t we hunt, then?” Faye suggested with bright eyes. “We don’t have to use any powerful magic. We can just track something and kill it.”
“With what?” Marina asked as she looked around the group. “We don’t have any weapons besides our newly bonded blades the professors showed us how to craft, oh, and our wands, but I don’t think they were exactly meant for hunting.”
“Well, we do have the dogs,” Penelope answered as she looked around the group for affirmation. “We can use them to kill small game… can’t we?”
“I think that’s a great idea,” I replied as I looked down at the wolfish creatures. “I’m sure they can catch something. Faye, do you know any simple spells for tracking animals? We need to save as much time as possible. There’s no way we can waste an hour or more aimlessly trekking through the woods.”
“I do know of one,” the redhead responded with a proud smile. “It’s something I learned when I was a child and living in the woods with my--”
“Does it require powerful magic?” Vanessa sharply interjected.
“No, not that I recall,” the redhead said as she shook her head. “All I have to do is mutter a small incantation, and whichever animal I can think of, their tracks will appear.”
“Then, by all means,” the dark-haired professor replied with a tight smile. “Go ahead. We don’t have all bloody day.”
“Right.” Faye nodded before she rolled up her sleeves and cleared her throat, and as her eyes darted warily around the red woodland, she carefully aimed her wand at the path in front of us and took a deep, steady breath. “Ostende mihi viam in qua cupio”
As the spell left her rosy lips, a pale-pink light spurted out from her wand and lit up the forest floor. Then the incantation melted into the red earth until small, pink footprints appeared in the dirt, and within seconds a clear trail presented itself before us. Now, all we had to do was follow the tracks.
“Shit,” I chuckled as I turned to Faye. “Well fucking done!”
“Thank you, master,” the redhead said, and she blushed a deep shade of scarlet that matched the trees.
“You can kiss each other’s asses after we’ve found food,” Vanessa sighed as she began to lead her familiar down the tracks. “Come on, before the trail gets cold.”
“Someone is even bitchier when she’s hungry,” Akira snickered under her breath, and all the women, aside from Morgana, started to giggle.
“I don’t know what you just said, Miss Akira,” Vanessa called back without turning around, “but I don’t appreciate it.”
“I was just saying how relieved I am that we’ll be eating soon, Professor,” the black-eyed witch lied through her teeth. “That’s all.”
“Uh-huh,” Vanessa remarked as we followed the trail. “Miss Faye, since you seem to be the most useful when it comes to animals, perhaps you’d like to join me up here?”
“Yes, of course, Professor,” the redhead said before she ran to catch up with Vanessa.
“What kind of tracks are these?” the former siren asked as we headed deeper into the wood.
“I think it’s a rabbit or hare,” I responded as I gazed down at the small prints.
“Damn it,” Circe groaned. “I was praying for something saltier… like leprechaun or newt.”
“I’m so hungry I could eat anything,” Penelope moaned as we quietly followed the pink footprints, and soon, we could hear rustling behind a grove of bushes.
We all stopped dead in our tracks before Faye and Vanessa turned to each other and nodded. Then we watched as the redhead leaned in and whispered into her familiar’s ear, and the professor did the same. In seconds, the two transformed dogs sprang toward the bushes and growled like feral wolves as they dragged out two large silver rabbits and began to tear their throats out.
Bloody ribbons flew into the air before the other familiars also sprang into action and dragged more rabbits from the bushes. Blood splattered everywhere as the dogs wriggled their heads and cut deeper into the oversized rodents’ gray fur, and by the time they were finished with their kill, we were looking at a dead nest of rabbits with their necks split open and their intestines spilling onto the forest floor like wet, pink snakes.
“Well done, Lily,” Faye purred as she rubbed her familiar’s ears. “That should be enough for a stew. The babies aren’t much, but they do make sweet meat.”
“I can make the stew!” Penelope offered as we began to pick up the bloody carcasses. “And if I can find the right ingredients, I think I can add a special spike to it.”
“What do you mean, a special spike?” Marina asked as she tilted her head to the side.
“I can add a small potion mix to the stew,” the bright-haired Wicca clarified. “It will give us a boost of energy and increase our senses… like a nocturnal animal on the hunt after dusk. I think it might help us navigate through the woods as well.”
“Sweet,” Akira remarked as she bit down on her purple lips. “Sounds like a winning combination to me.”
“What ingredients will you need?” Vanessa questioned with a raised, dark eyebrow. “I don’t want you wandering through the forest aimlessly if the requirements you need are not here.”
“I just need a pinch of root ponie, a dash of goblin grout, and a couple of mangdala petals,” Penelope said as she rubbed her chin. “Yep, that’s all I’ll be needing.”
“Hmmm,” Vanessa pondered for a moment. “I’m not sure about the grout, but the others should be here.”
“Oh, she’ll find it,” Morgana blurted out, and Vanessa shot her a cold, questioning glare. “What I mean is… I’ve read about redwoods before. The land grows almost everything as other woodlands, they are just red in color, but I don’t believe they’re harmful. And also, goblins can be found in almost any forest, so I’m sure the grout will be easy enough to find if you look in the right trees.”
“Very well,” the professor said with a firm nod. “Just don’t wander too far off, Penelope, and take someone with you.”
“I won’t take long,” the or
ange-haired witch promised before she fluttered her brown eyes at me. “Master, will you help me search for the ingredients while the others skin the animals?”
“Sounds good to me,” I replied before I stared up at a branch above me. “Alex… watch over them for me, please, and alert me if you see anything suspicious.”
Will do, my loyal familiar responded.
Penelope and I parted from the others while they carefully began to peel the fur from the rabbits with their bonded blades, and as we ventured deeper into the woods, Penelope turned to look at me and slowly smiled.
“Can you believe Vanessa is traveling with us?” she giggled as we passed over a couple of fallen, red branches. “I think this is her worst nightmare come to life. I wonder how long it will take until she has her first mental breakdown.”
“No kidding,” I chuckled. “Sometimes I catch her glaring at me, and it takes her a minute to realize I’m staring right back.”
“Do you think she secretly wants you, master?” the bright-haired Wicca asked before she came to a halt and bent down to cut a thick, crimson root from the soil. “Sometimes, I wonder if she puts on a show because she’s jealous of our bond. You know? It just seems like her frustration is over the top and perhaps partly because all her needs aren’t being met, if you catch my drift.”
“The thought has passed my mind,” I confessed as she tucked the ingredient carefully into her peasant dress. “I did vow to make every Wicca mine… and the professors were no exception. If I’m being honest, Vanessa has always seemed like a delicious challenge.”
“But do you think she’ll give in to you?” Penelope asked with bright eyes. “You are truly irresistible, master, but she’s just a tough shell to break, is all I’m saying.”
“I think she will,” I responded with a cocksure grin, “but it will certainly take time… just like it did with you. Now, what else are we looking for?”
“Goblin grout and the petals,” she said as her chestnut eyes studied the trees around us. “The grout should be inside the bark. It’s a natural paste that grows inside stubbier trees, also known as goblin trees. So, let me just cut into this one and see if I can nip some.”