“Watch out,” he called. “Hot water!”
All eyes on him. No eyes on the dumbwaiter. Adira slipped out and closed the door behind her.
“Hey, you! What are you doing?”
Adira froze.
“Don’t just stand there! We’re already behind schedule.”
“Right,” she said in a gruff voice to mask her own. “I’m on it. I’m just looking for the carrots.”
The man behind her grumbled something unintelligible, then said, “Well, you won’t find them staring at a wall. If the pantry’s out, go to the garden!”
Adira nodded and kept her head ducked as she careened out of the kitchen and into the hall toward the back exit. Hopefully, this was the way to the garden.
As she continued through the hall, the regent’s voice boomed from one of the sitting rooms. She ducked down another hall, pressing her back against the wall. Well, she wasn’t going to get to the garden that way.
As she stood there, her chest heaving with anxious breaths, tears blurred Adira’s eyes. Alec should be here. He should be somewhere. Alive. Adira’s throat pinched in. If she was certain of anything, it was that Dvorak could not stay regent. Even if she died in her effort to end his reign. But she wouldn’t be able to do that if she kept thinking about Alec.
She couldn’t stay still. Staying still made her think, and whenever she thought, she thought of him. Grief was a distraction that would cost her life too soon. She needed to stay focused and stay moving.
Adira hurried down the hall, around another turn, and straight toward another door. Just a few more feet.
A guard came from a hall on the opposite end and stepped into her path. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Keeping her head down, she waved her hand toward the door. “Garden. We need carrots.”
This wasn’t entirely untrue. The kitchen did need carrots. They were out. And one of the plants Adira needed was part of the carrot family.
The guard heaved a breath that came out hot against her scalp. Leaning down, he whispered in her ear. “You’ll have to do better than that next time.”
She tried to step around him, but he cut into her path again. “Go that way,” he said, pointing behind him. “And once you get to the edge of the garden, don’t look back. Run.”
The words chilled her. This guard knew who she was. And he was…helping her?
She nodded once, still keeping her face hidden just in case, and hurried outside. As the door closed behind her, she heard the guard speak again. “Regent Dvorak, I’ve been looking for you. There’s something that needs your—”
Adira didn’t stop to hear the rest. Whatever distraction the guard had planned wouldn’t last long. She had to get the herbs and supplies she needed from the woods and get back to her room before anyone noticed she was missing.
Once through the garden, Adira bolted toward the forest. As instructed, she didn’t look back—not until she safely reached the tree line. Her throat burned so badly she swore she could nearly taste blood, and her legs ached, but she couldn’t rest now.
As she hiked through the woods, she paused when she reached the path that would lead to where Alec had died. Her throat closed in. At this very moment, she was closer to Alec than she’d been in days, and yet, there was more distance between them now than ever. The space between Adira and Alec was life and death, and that rolled darkness over her flesh.
He had died for her, and yet, she stood there now, wishing it had been her. Wishing she could join him. And she might, soon enough.
Blinking back tears and sucking in a breath, she forced herself onward. Now was not the time for such thoughts. She loved Alec more than life itself, but she also loved the family she’d made through Miss Balek, and she couldn’t be selfish now. That time in her life was past.
Once she reached the outskirts, she started scouring the ground for any herbs that would have overgrown from the Deadlands in. She needed three things: water hemlock, nightshade, and white snakeroot.
She laughed bitterly to herself. It was as if she were trying to kill herself. And, indeed, she might. But her intentions here weren’t to join Alec, but to save her friends. She ground her teeth together, trying to push him from her mind. It seemed as if he had become her every step, her every breath. The pain of remembering him was crushing her mind, her heart, her lungs.
Adira growled, then grabbed the leaves from a nearby bush and ripped them off. She let out a wail and collapsed to the ground, sobbing. Her chest heaved breaths too quick to calm herself, and her hands trembled as she closed them into fists around a handful of weeds.
After a few minutes, she wiped her face and swallowed her grief once more, then stumbled through the blur of her tears to find the plants for her spell. She found the nightshade first. She would need lots of it—enough to make a wine, as it would be sweet enough to act as a carrier for the rest of the potion.
She picked the shiny, black berries from the dull leaves and collected them in her small leather pouch until it was half full. Once she’d gathered enough, she continued, her fingertips soon itching from plucking the nightshade berries.
Nearby, she spotted clusters of small white flowers indicative of white snakeroot, a plant so dangerous that not only would consuming it kill you, but even drinking the milk or eating the meat of an animal that ate the plant could also be fatal as well. This one she would need in smaller amounts. She plucked several of the white flowers and dropped them in her pouch as well.
The water hemlock took a while longer to find. The outskirts was old farming land, and celery and parsnips still grew wild here, causing Adira to pick the wrong plant several times. Once she found it, though, she was able to collect a fair amount rather quickly.
With all the herbs tucked away, she stood and stared back in the direction of the castle. She needed to get back soon. She’d wasted too much time looking for the water hemlock. They were probably looking for her already.
But she couldn’t just walk into the castle with a pouch of known deadly plants. She needed to prepare the tonic first.
She headed toward a large boulder to use as a workspace, and her feet wavered beneath her. Catching herself on a tree, she took a deep breath. She shouldn’t have picked so much nightshade. The contact was already making her vision spin. She took a few more wobbly steps, then had to clutch another tree for balance as she lost her stomach in the underbrush.
Sweat beaded on her face and neck, and her skin went cold, but she managed to make it the rest of the way to the boulder. She gripped the sides, steadying herself, but it would be no use. She couldn’t do anything feeling like this.
Adira tipped her gaze and scanned the area. The river that ran from the Deadlands and up past the castle was only a few yards away. If she could make it that far, she could clean the poison from her hands before she continued.
Between bouts of dizziness, Adira made it a few feet at a time toward the river. When she arrived, she scrubbed her hands in the cold water and splashed some on her face. Closing her eyes, she sighed. She didn’t feel any better, but, hopefully, it wouldn’t get any worse.
Near the riverbank were patches of mint, and she took a few leaves and chewed them to help quell the nausea, then made her way back to the boulder. She needed to be more careful.
Adira dumped the contents of her pouch onto the large rock and lifted the small bottle that had been buried at the bottom. What she really needed was a mortar and pestle, but the only place she knew to get one was Miss Balek’s, and she would never make that hike now.
She would have to make do with what she had. One way or another, she was going to make this deadly concoction, even if it killed her. And it probably would. After all, that was what the potion was designed to do.
Chapter 30
Since losing his parents, Alec wondered about the afterlife. Were spirits divided into heaven and hell? Was the afterlife for humans only, or did all living souls go there? Animals…plants…ravagers? If there was heaven
and hell, he knew where the ravagers would go, but what about himself?
Or did souls, as some people believed, remain on Othala, walking around a parallel plane, unable to touch this one.
As Alec stared down from outside of his body, a feast to the ravagers, he ground his spirit teeth together. He could not simply watch over this world and do nothing.
What had his parents believed? How many times had his father—his real father—told him about the vows they took on their wedding day. When the officiate said, “Till death do us part,” and his father said, “Not even death could do us part.”
That was the love he had for Adira.
Death could not stop him.
And neither would these ravagers.
Searing pain rocketed him back to consciousness. He wheezed a breath.
You’re alive, someone said. It sounded more inside of his head the first time, but when the voice spoke again, it was an audible whisper. “You’re alive.”
Barely, he thought.
He opened his eyes. Darkness. He blinked. Light filtered into his consciousness, but everything was blurry.
“Hurry!”
He knew that voice. Anastazie. But she was in a cell back at the castle.
He pressed his palms against the soil and lifted his head, blinking until his vision cleared enough to see. “Anastazie?”
The little girl stood at the edge of the Sector One, her hands balled into fists that she was now shaking excitedly. “Oh, Alec! You’re alive. Please, hurry!”
Alec tried to get to his feet, but stumbled in his effort, landing just a few feet from Anastazie. He braced himself. Wait. He was forgetting something. The sundial.
Slowly he turned back, still on hands and knees, to scour for the necklace.
“Alec, please. If the ravagers sense you are alive, they will come back! You need to get out of there.”
“I need the sundial,” he muttered.
Anastazie let out an exasperated sigh, then bolted into the Deadlands, just past him.
“Anastazie, no!”
She swiped the sundial before running back. Grabbing Alec by his arm, she pulled him toward the sector’s border. There had to have been some magical strength involved for her to pull off that one, but Alec was too beat down to think on it.
Ravagers seeped out from the forest line. They sensed life. That was what they were after. Not flesh. Not blood. Life.
Anastazie had the near strength of a man, surely due to magic, but it wouldn’t be enough to pull Alec from the Deadlands before the ravagers reached them.
He forced himself to his feet and hooked his arm around her to help guide her ahead of him and to safety. Stumbling sideways, he turned in time to take a few steps closer to the border. When he fell, he caught himself on his hands, more in crouch this time. Then he sprang up and toward Sector One once more.
Anastazie turned around to try to pull him again, but he pushed her out of the way before one of the ravagers could get to her first. Alec tumbled behind her, falling to his back. A ravager sliced at his calf, but it was too late. Most of his body was already in Sector One. He tucked his knees up, bringing his legs and feet onto the other side of the protective force field.
The little girl stood over Alec, looking down at him while he grunted a painful breath. “I can’t stay,” she said. “They don’t know I’ve escaped. I need to get back.”
“But how did you—”
“Magic.” She held up a metal cuff, no longer clasped to her wrist, then she tossed a pouch at him. “You forget my magic was second only to Adira’s. I may be little, but I’m strong. But I have to get back before they notice I’m gone, or it’s going to make things worse.” She grabbed Alec’s wrist, pried open his fist, and pressed a handful of herbs into his palm. “Eat these. Then find Adira.”
The girl ran off. Alec’s world started to go dark again, but before it could, he brought the pouch to his face and poured its sweet berry contents into his mouth. He needed to stay awake. He may have escaped the ravagers, but he couldn’t let Dvorak or the guards find him before he found Adira.
Alec Kladivo had been saved by a little girl.
He chuckled, but the pain turned his laughter into a wince. Something was broken.
After he pulled his body up with the support of a tree, he leaned against the bark and scanned the area. Well, now what? He could go back to the castle like this, but he wasn’t sure how much to expect from the berry mixture Anastazie had given him.
After lifting a large stick from the ground to compensate for his lack of balance and function, Alec started toward the river. He pressed the branch’s tip against the moss of the rocky forest floor with each step, grunting through the pain.
As he continued his hike, either adrenaline took over or the concoction the girl had given him did. Pain subsided, but he was still covered in blood. His need for the walking stick waned. Throwing it to the side of the path, he increased his pace.
By time he reached the river, he felt almost human again. As he used the water to clean away the blood, he realized his wounds had already healed significantly. That little girl’s ability to heal rivaled the regent’s.
Perhaps it takes more than one witch to run this place.
Once clean, Alec took some big gulps of water from cupped hands, then wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist. Now it was time to go after Adira. He turned to start his hike toward the castle, smiling the stupidest grin of his life.
Well, that was easy.
A few yards up stream and a short walk into the woods, Adira stood in front of a large boulder. Alec didn’t even ask himself how she got there. The ladies of Miss Balek’s home were proving themselves well.
Alec jogged over to Adira, who was so absorbed in whatever she was doing that she didn’t look up. When he reached her side, he touched her shoulder.
She jumped back with a short scream, but then quickly covered her mouth.
“It’s just me,” Alec said, reaching for her again, but she stepped back away from him, her eyes going wide.
She shook her head and dropped her hand from her mouth. “They found your body.”
Alec didn’t want her to jump away from him again, so he stood firm. “I’m sure I looked dead. I may even have been for a while. But no one came to check.”
“A guard told the regent—he said—he—” Adira’s body shook, and she reached back to brace herself against a tree.
“If a guard said they found a body, they were lying,” he said. He might have been dead, but he’d still seen everything. Now wasn’t the time to explain that to her, though. “If one of the guards told Dvorak he found my body, then I still have friends inside those walls.”
Adira’s body slackened against the tree. “You’re alive?” she said, as though testing the idea. More confidence followed the next time she said the words: “You’re alive!”
She ran to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, nearly knocking him back. This time, he allowed himself to embrace her in return.
“Of course I am,” he mumbled against her hair.
She pressed her face into his shoulder, and tears wet his flesh. “I thought I was imagining things.”
“Do you often hallucinate about dead men?”
She just laughed against his body, then pulled away and stared up into his eyes. “We don’t have much time,” she said, as if suddenly sobering up. “I need to get back to the castle.”
Alec grasped her hands. “No way. We’re leaving.”
She shook her head, sliding her hands from his. “But my friends—”
“Are stronger than you think. Anastazie’s the one who saved me from the ravagers. She can get out on her own, and I’m sure the others can, too. Now come on. We need to go.”
“Where’s Anastazie now?”
“She went back to the castle.”
Adira nodded. “She knows she needs to be there to fight this. And I do, too.”
“No,” Alec said firmly. “You don’t. We’
re leaving.”
Adira stepped away again, crossing her arms. “To go where, Alec? There’s nowhere to leave to.”
“They think I’m dead, and you’ve hidden yourself for over a decade before. You can do it again.” He paused, pressing his lips together. He couldn’t do this anymore. If she knew how he felt, she would stop resisting what they both knew needed to be done. “Adira, please. I love you.”
She froze, her hands lowering to her sides. “Don’t say that, Alec.”
“I love you, Adira, and I won’t let you sacrifice yourself.”
She stalked toward him. At least, he thought she was. Instead, she reached past him and grabbed her pouch from the boulder, then turned and started toward the castle.
Alec jogged after her. He placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her, and she spun around, tears glazing over her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
She brushed him off. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
“Me?” He grabbed her wrist before she could run off again. “I’m not the bad guy here, Adira. And you’re the one who taught me that people are too precious to be manipulated like game pieces. It might have taken me a while to come around, but I have, and it’s because of you. Because I love you.”
Adira’s lips trembled. “I…I love you, too, Alec. But—”
“No buts. No more excuses. I shouldn’t have pushed you toward this. I was wrong; there is no excuse to sacrifice a human life.”
Pressing her lips together, Adira shook her head. “But you weren’t wrong. I need to protect these people.”
“You really believe that? Who would you be saving? What kind of humanity is worth saving if they believe sacrificing people is the only way to do it?”
She placed her palm against the side of his face. “I’m looking at it, Alec. I believe in saving humanity like yours. You changed, and they can, too.”
Origin: an Adult Paranormal Witch Romance: Othala Witch Collection (Sector 1) Page 20