Heart of Thorns: a Between the Worlds novel

by Morgan Daimler

  “Rose this is my partner Jessilaen, he’s a Commander in the Elven Guard,” Allie said. “Jessilaen, this is my good friend Rose, she’s an artist.”

  The two sized each other up for a moment then Rose extended her hand. “Nice to meet you, uh, Jessilaen – am I saying that right?”

  “Jess-ih-layn, yes,” he said repeating his name more slowly for her. “It is nice to meet you Rose. Allie speaks of you very fondly.”

  Rose blushed slightly, “I’m pretty fond of her too. Why don’t you two come in and we can talk inside?”

  Allie relaxed a bit as they followed Rose, until she realized that Jess was still uneasy. He tensed even more as they walked in to the little cabin and he took in the iron items scattered around the room. Allie had gotten used to the amount of iron crowded into the small space to the point that she forgot how much it really was. Jess’s reaction reminded her though, as he edged into the room and carefully stood in an open space, giving the entire room a wary look. She winced slightly feeling herself tensing in response to his discomfort. Rose was oblivious to all of this and busied herself in the small kitchen space. “Would you like a drink? I have water, milk, and I can make tea.”

  “A glass of milk would be nice, thank you,” Allie said. Jess simply shook his head silently. “So Rose, we seem to have a problem that I was hoping you might be able to help with, or at least give us some advice about.”

  “Sure,” Rose said, handing Allie a glass. “What’s going on?”

  “Well, to be blunt,” Allie started, Jess still a silent presence at her back, “someone seems to be trying to hex us, or our house. We aren’t exactly sure which.”

  “Is this related to all that bad luck you and Jason were telling me about the other day?” Rose said frowning and sipping from her own drink. “Something must have changed since we tested your energy then.”

  “Yeah, well…Jason and I were in an accident yesterday. We’re both okay,” she rushed to reassure Rose when she saw the alarm on the other woman’s face. “He broke his arm, and his truck is totaled. But…anyway…then this morning there was a small fire at the house and afterwards we found a hex paper…”

  “Do you still have it?” Rose cut in setting her drink down.

  Allie shook her head. “No. I buried it in salt to nullify it’s effects as soon as we found it, but it had a rune on it, like an S with an extra curve; I recognized it from a book on American folk magic-“

  “Yes it’s a bane rune for ill luck,” Rose interrupted again, clearly unhappy. “That particular one is commonly used in southern folk magic, especially south eastern. Where did you find it?”

  “In my other partner’s jacket pocket – the same jacket I was wearing when Jason and I got into the accident,” Allie said.

  Rose shook her head, then went back to the kitchen quickly getting out a small bowl, water, and some salt. Allie looked back at Jess who was still watching silently, radiating concern. She decided to explain before he started getting twitchy about what Rose was doing. “She has a way to test for a hex on a person.”

  He nodded stiffly and then watched as Rose repeated the salt water test she’d used the other day with the same result. She shook her head, “So there was a hexed paper, but you personally aren’t hexed.”

  She glanced uncertainly up at Jess. Allie asked what she guessed Rose was too shy or intimidated to say, “Can she check you too?”

  He nodded again and thrust his hand out. Rose glanced at Allie then walked over to Jess and repeated the test, but again the water stayed clear. Rose went over and sat down on one of the stools by her small kitchen table. “And he isn’t hexed either. Which means whoever is doing this might be sticking with physical objects, even though that’s much more hit or miss…”

  “How do you mean?” Allie asked when Rose trailed off.

  “Well, you said it was in your friend’s pocket but you and Jason were the ones who got hurt, because you were wearing the jacket.” Rose explained. “Which means that you two were probably collateral damage, or else the person was counting on you being near or wearing the jacket but was willing to risk the actual owner of the jacket getting hurt too…you see?”

  “Right,” Allie said slowly. “It’s just going to affect anyone nearby so it’s like an area effect weapon. Which makes it far more dangerous.”

  “Particularly now,” Jess finally spoke, looking stern.

  Rose turned to Allie, puzzled, “Why particularly now? What’s going on that makes it more dangerous now?”

  Allie felt herself flushing slightly, knowing what Jess was referring to but feeling suddenly awkward about it. “Well, ummm, it’s just that I’m, I mean I just found out that I’m pregnant.”

  “Oh, Honey!” Rose said, throwing her arms around her in an enthusiastic hug. “That’s wonderful!”

  Allie felt Jess’s reluctance melting, won over by Rose’s happiness about the baby, which so nicely matched his own. She forced a smile letting herself channel some of Rose’s pure joy to cover her own uncertainty. “Thanks. I haven’t quite processed everything yet. I just found out yesterday and it hasn’t really sunk in you know?”

  “Oh I know,” Rose said squeezing her shoulders. “But you need any help or have any questions you just come here or call. I had three I think I remember enough to be helpful.”

  In that moment Rose’s well intentioned words hit Allie hard as she suddenly realized that she would be going through this herself, without the usual elven support system which was her only, limited frame of reference for pregnancy and child rearing. She stammered her thanks to her friend but inside she kept thinking of her only experience with this subject. In Ashwood she had never been around a pregnant woman or baby, beyond socially with customers in the store. As a child growing up in a large Fairy Holding prior to that she had seen one pregnancy that she remembered, which ended in a stillbirth, and had spent time around a cousin with an infant when Allie herself was very young. What she most strongly remembered was that a woman usually relied on her maternal kin, the women who were most closely related to her, from early pregnancy through the child reaching a proper age to apprentice, for help with everything. Even Allie’s mother, despite the lack of favor Allie herself had with her own kin because of her father’s blood, had such a support system. It was only when Allie reached the age where that system began to fall away that her mother had become afraid for her and sent her to live with her father…Dear gods I don’t even know how to hold a baby she thought in rising panic.

  She felt her emotion drawing Jess’s attention and quickly throttled them down. Stepping back from Rose slightly she said, “Well you can see why we need to get to the bottom of this hexing business.”

  “Oh yes,” Rose said, her smile fading. “Especially if it’s already gotten to the point of people getting physically hurt. And you had a fire you said…If I had to guess I’d say whoever is doing this didn’t just cast and dash but is hanging around feeding energy into it.”

  “Good,” Jess said, earning a surprised look from Rose. “That means they are still here to be caught.”

  Rose looked distinctly uneasy at that so Allie pressed on, “Can we fix all this even if we can’t find out who’s doing it?”

  “Well….sure. But, if they’re still here adding to it,” Rose bit her lip. “It would be like plugging one leak while your boat is still crashing against the rocks. I think you probably are going to need to find the culprit if you can, or do some serious return to sender. Actually you probably should do that anyway.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Allie said. “Any suggestions?”

  “Hmmmm,” Rose murmured thoughtfully. “I’d probably do a couple things. A witch bottle for everyone you think might be affected, that’s pretty straightforward – you know how to do that?”

  “Yes,” Allie said, fighting nervous giggling as she thought of how she’d explain needing urine from each member of the household. Cross that bridge when you come to it she thought trying to focus. />
  “Right,” Rose said. “Next get a small mirror and a black candle. Dress the candle with 4 thieves vinegar if you have it, then drip some wax on the mirror and stick the candle in it to hold it. Chant ‘Bane and ill, I now return, back it goes, as this candle burns’. Got that?”

  Allie nodded and Rose continued. “Let the candle burn all the way down. My mother used to say if the glass cracks you know for sure it worked. If the wax flows off the glass you need to do something stronger. Then, finally, I’d do a knot severing to break this other witch’s power over you all. Take a black cord, tie a knot at one end and name it for your household, then another at the opposite end and name it for your enemy. Cut or burn the middle while saying firmly that you destroy any connection between you, then burn the end representing your enemy. Got that?”

  “Yes, I got all of it,” Allie said. “I can do that all tonight, yes?”

  “Yes, I would. In fact I’d do it as soon as possible, although do it in the order I suggested okay?”

  “Right,” Allie agreed as Jess stepped up and put his hands on her shoulders.

  “Thank you Rose,” he said gravely. “It is very kind of you to be so helpful.”

  “No thanks needed,” Rose said, relaxing a little bit. “Allie has been a good friend to me since I came here – she and Jason both have – and I don’t like the idea of anyone causing her problems. And I really don’t like the idea of anyone causing her problems when she should be busy celebrating such good news.”

  Rose and Jess smiled at each other in a conspiratorial kind of way, neither noticing that Allie was looking away. Why she thought as the other two began chatting about more normal things does everything keep coming back to that?

  Chapter 8 Wednesday part 2

  Allie walked into the house first, her head on the things she needed to do to follow Rose’s suggestions, and immediately knew something wasn’t right. She could hear Jason and Shawn in the kitchen talking; a perfectly normal pre-dinner scene. But something was wrong. She could feel it, deep down inside. After a moment of searching she identified the source as Bleidd, upstairs. She began jogging upstairs as quickly as possible, Jess at her heels. She knew he could feel it as well, and was just as nonplussed by whatever it was.

  She burst through the door to their bedroom, more dramatically than she intended, and found Bleidd standing at the large dresser against one wall, a backpack and duffel bag at his feet. He had pulled open the drawers which held his clothes and was clearly in the middle of packing. At the sight of the bags she felt a surge of anger, her mind immediately going back to her childhood. She had just returned to the rooms she shared with her mother after a stunningly bad lesson in magic with her great aunt. The other woman’s disappointment in her mingled with her own sense of failure and she had been struggling hard not to show how upset she was when she walked into her own little room in their suite and found her mother sitting on Allie’s bed, all of Allie’s things packed neatly into a few bags. She could still remember the feeling of terror as her mother had tried to explain, gently, that she was going to go live with her father, a man she’d never met…

  “What are you doing?” she asked her eyes going from the open drawers to the open bags.

  “I’m leaving,” he said, completely calm. Behind her Jess gasped.

  “You can’t,” Jess’s voice was full of the same shock Allie was feeling.

  “I can and I am,” he said.

  “No you aren’t,” Allie said, her chest tight with panic.

  “Allie, be sensible,” he said, refusing to look at her. “I need to do this. It’s best for everyone.”

  “I do not see the wisdom in this,” Jess said, his voice soft and confused.

  “He means its best for him,” she said sharply, saying to him what she’d never dared to say to her mother.

  “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

  “Harder than it has to be?” she said her fists clenching. “Do you have any idea how hard you leaving is going to be for us? Why are you really doing this? Because you’re mad at me for being pregnant?”

  The words hung heavy in the air between them all. Jess was still standing in the doorway and she could feel his shock blending with Bleidd’s anger. Bleidd finally stopped packing and turned to face her, stepping into the space separating them until she had to tilt her head up to keep eye contact. His emotions boiled in the air, hot and stinging, but when he spoke his voice was flat, “If this hex is only affecting you because you are close to me then when I leave you should be safe. And as to the other, that has nothing to do with me.”

  “Nothing to do with you?” she could feel herself shaking, aware that she was channeling his anger as much as her own. She had never felt such a strongly focused emotion before; it made her head hurt and her body tingle with power. She fought to control the surge of rage that filled her. A small part of her knew she needed to block what he was feeling, if only to keep herself from losing control, but in the moment she was too angry to really care. “What do you think, I knocked myself up? You are this child’s father and you are by Gods not skipping out on us.”

  “By the Law your child is not mine and I have no obligation to stay. And I won’t be swayed just because you want my emotional energy to feed on-“ he started, his eyes cold, and it was too much for her. She pushed him as hard and fast as she could, catching him in the abdomen; she was not strong enough to really hurt him, but it made him gasp and stagger back.

  Jess lunged forward and grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her back before she could do anything else. “Stop this! Allie you must control yourself. Don’t let the emotions control you. We cannot fall to fighting amongst ourselves. Whatever else you might believe, Bleidd about why she wants you to stay you know it is not for anything as base as that. She loves you just as I do, and you cannot deny this. Our love is too strong to be broken by a simple human spell.”

  Allie wasn’t sure how much of that last was wishful thinking since it certainly looked like their relationship could indeed be broken by a spell, but she could feel Jess’s anguish as he spoke and she knew he meant what he was saying. Bleidd had straightened up and was standing refusing to look at her, but also not moving to return to his packing either. She made a monumental effort to get her own anger under control and to push his out so that it wasn’t influencing her, but she wasn’t sure how long she could maintain that way.

  “Commander, if she will not listen to reason then you must,” Bleidd said. “Simple spell or not it is wreaking havoc in our lives. People are being hurt. I cannot stay and be responsible for that. I have to do what is best, and go. I’ve given a lot of thought to what is best for my life-“

  “This isn’t just about you! This isn’t just about your life! Dear freaking Gods stop being so selfish for once!” she leaned forward as she spoke, Jess’s arms the only thing keeping her from flinging herself at him, as the rage surged through her again, dangerously close to overwhelming her entirely. She wasn’t sure what would happen if she lost control.

  “This is my problem!” he shot back, his voice rising. “I have to be the one deal with it. Not you. Not this time. I will-“

  “This is your child!” she yelled over him, and he flinched back from her as if she’d slapped him. “You can’t just walk away from us, from all of us.”

  “That is not how things work in Elven culture,” he said more quietly.

  “Oh fuck Elven culture!”

  “Allie!” Bleidd and Jess spoke together this time, but she was too upset to care.

  “I mean it. I don’t care that fathers aren’t supposed to matter. I don’t care that you’ve already convinced yourself that this was some side effect of a hex and a mistake-“

  “Allie, enough,” he said, stopping her. “None of this matters. You are contracted to marry Jess, or you will be very soon, and by the Law this child will belong to his clan. It will have no legal ties to me. It is not mine, no matter what the biology may be.”
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  For a moment she gaped at him, so angry she was speechless. She could feel Jess behind her, his emotions full of grief and sadness. When he spoke his voice was low. “Bleidd, the truth cannot be changed, not even by the Law. You are the child’s father. Don’t pretend it means nothing to you.”

  “It doesn’t matter what it means,” he spat the words out.

  “It matters to me,” Allie said, finally getting herself somewhat under control. She almost wished she could get the anger back though, as she found that as it began to fade it gave way to a terrible fear and despair. In her mind, even as she tried to speak as reasonably as possible all she could think of was her mother leaving her, her father dying, her grandmother dying…Syndra…Liz…She had thought after ten years of friendship she could depend on Bleidd, trust him, but the idea of another loss right now was unbearable. And everyone wonders she thought bitterly, why I don’t trust people easily, why I don’t let people in…She took a breath in and then continued speaking, “And it matters to Jess. This child is ours, Bleidd. All of ours – yours, mine, and Jess’s. Don’t you see that? You think this was bad luck, but it wasn’t. This way it will be all of ours, truly, and that should be bringing us together not pulling us apart.”

  He looked down, his hands still clenched into fists. “What can I offer any child?”

  “Once again,” she said fighting furious tears at being forced to beg him to stay, “fuck Elven society. I don’t care about any of that, and you know I don’t. I never have. What can you offer? I mean are you kidding me? You can be here, and you can be a good father, along with Jess, which makes this kid pretty lucky I think.”

  Jess was nodding, his grip on Allie easing as soon as he realized she wasn’t going to try to physically go after Bleidd again. “Listen to her, please, she is speaking the truth.”