The Night

by Felicity Heaton

  “You look terrible,” she said, her soft voice doing more to comfort and warm him than the blanket wrapped around him ever could.

  He smiled briefly at the cup of tea that she held out to him and took it. She was always ready for him when he came back, waiting with a blanket and a hot cup of tea to soothe him.

  He placed the cup down on the small wooden table beside the armchair and then stretched. His muscles protested and stiffened further, his whole body aching. Picking the tea back up, he sipped it and resisted his desire to purr. It was sweet and hot, just what he needed after going through the pain of the transformation.

  “It is getting increasingly difficult to come back.” He looked at her and she turned her face away. “I know this is not what you want to hear. I fear that soon I will remain forever changed... but I will be neither man nor cat.”

  She sat opposite him and he could see her agitation. His eyes glided over the books and potions, anywhere but her. He didn’t want to see the hurt as it surfaced in her eyes. It was too much. It pained him more than she could possibly know.

  “You have done so much, Celene. Remember when I first came to you?” he said, looking into her eyes and hoping his words would bring happier memories to her, ridding her of any sadness his previous ones had brought.

  She nodded. “How could I forget?”

  “I thought you weren’t a witch.” He smiled.

  So did she.

  “And I thought you weren’t a cat.”

  Zane leaned back into the chair and sipped his tea again. It warmed him, soothing his sore body.

  “You were right. I was so wrong... wrong to come here and burden you like this,” he said and the solemnity returned to her eyes.

  “The magic is too strong.” Her small smile spoke volumes of hurt to him.

  “We are running out of time.” He went to move and hissed, breathing in sharply.

  “You are hurt.” Within a split-second she was perched beside him on the arm of his chair, her eyes wide and flitting about him, searching for his injury.

  Her concern touched him but he had hoped that she wouldn’t notice. He didn’t want her to hurt herself anymore, not for him.

  “It is only a scratch. I got into a fight.” He smiled but her frown said that she could see straight through his words.

  Her fingers ran lightly over the cut across his chest as she pulled the blanket down. Her frown intensified and she placed her hand over the wound. He knew what she was going to do.

  “Do not waste your life on me, Celene, please?” he said.

  He wasn’t surprised when she didn’t look at him or even acknowledge that he had spoken. As stubborn as ever. As stubborn as when they first met a year ago.

  She pressed her hand against him. He didn’t want to watch her but he couldn’t help himself.

  Was it only a year since they met? She had learnt so much, had seen so much, in such a short space of time but it didn’t astound him. She had settled into life with him around so quickly, as though he had always been with her. Even his nudity after the transformation didn’t seem to bother her anymore.

  He didn’t know what he would do without her.

  When she withdrew her hand, her nose was bleeding. He reached out to wipe the blood away but she moved out of reach and looked straight into his eyes, hers as clear as the moon had been last night.

  “It is my life to give.” She paused and the tears were back in her eyes.

  He sighed and knew why she was upset. Healing a small cut wouldn’t have taken enough of her life to cause her nose to bleed. She had tried to heal more than his wounds. She had tried to cure him.

  Before he could say anything to her, she was moving away.

  “I have to go,” she said, her back turned on him.

  She stopped near the foot of the stairs and looked at the curtains. He saw his opportunity and took it.

  “Where do you go each day?” he said.

  She looked up the stairs and he wished he could see her face. If he could see her eyes when he asked her that, he might be able to read the answer in them.

  “You know I can’t tell you that.”

  Zane didn’t press her when she cast a sorrowful glance over her shoulder, the lower half of her face obscured by her long blue-black hair. He let her walk away, knowing that tomorrow would bring another opportunity to ask her. He had no right to force her to answer him. They both kept secrets from each other. He only hoped that those secrets wouldn’t be the undoing of them as he feared they would.

  After drinking the remains of his tea, he dressed and went to the window. He drew the curtains aside and watched the sun as it broke the horizon, spreading golden light across the land. There was a familiar click as the door upstairs was locked.

  Where did she go? He knew that she wasn’t in the room. He had chanced it one day and magically unlocked the door. There was no one in there. It was a bare room. Ever since he had met her all those months ago, she had always left him with the rising of the sun and had returned as it had begun to set. He was as curious about it as she was about the details behind his curse.

  He wished that he had told her about it when he had first met her. To reveal the truth now would upset her too much and he didn’t want to risk driving her away. He had tried many times during those first few weeks, but he hadn’t been able to. When that part of the curse had been broken, it had been too late to tell her.

  Going over to the desk, he idly shifted the books and glass bottles around as he thought about how he had met her. It had been months after the night he had been cursed. In all his time in Valunthier, the third kingdom, he had never thought he would fall prey to such base magic. As a seventh level wizard, he should have been above them, should have known how to protect himself, but he had been foolish. A moment of distraction had burdened him for eternity, unless he could find some way of breaking the spell on him.

  He had tried.

  Long months he had spent alone in Valunthier, searching for a cure. When he had found none there, he had travelled to Arcanus, the second kingdom. The beauty of the city that rose with the hill it was built on, and whose buildings with their copper-green roofs flowed with the waterfall that ran through it to the sea, soothed him a touch, but not enough for him to forget his burden.

  It was in Arcanus that he had overheard the conversation that had changed his life and brought him to Celene. A group of witch hunters had been discussing a girl of great power, one that was prized above all others at the time. He had listened long enough and then masqueraded as a witch hunter himself to garner information on her.

  When he had finally left the city, it had been with a heavy heart, but one that bore a thread of hope that this woman could help him. He had doubted her ability, told himself over and over again that she wouldn’t be able to help him, anything to get his hopes back down. This was his curse to break, not anyone else’s, but he had tried everything and he had been tired.

  He had found her after searching across the Tri-Kingdom.

  Zane smiled to himself. He had foolishly expected her to live in one of the cities and had been shocked when he had finally tracked her to the little house in the Waning Woods.

  The night had fallen before he’d had a chance to introduce himself and he had approached her as a cat instead. She had fed him with the others and then when they had begun to leave, she had sat in front of him and announced that he wasn’t a cat.

  She had let him enter her house and when he had transformed back in the morning, she had offered him help without question and given him a place to stay.

  He wished now that he hadn’t taken her offer, but at the same time, he was glad that he had. They had made no progress in breaking the curse, but the months he had passed in her fleeting company had become precious to him.

  And that was why he couldn’t tell her why he was cursed.

  He couldn’t break her heart.

  He sighed and rifled through the books, settling on the one she had left a mark
er in. It was new. Beside it sat another one. How much gold these two tomes had cost her? When they had first met, this room had been empty. Now it was overflowing with books, all stacked haphazardly and discarded.

  They couldn’t break this curse. He had tried and failed, and he was a seventh level wizard. It should have been easy for him to break it, but magic was no use and no potion he had tried had stopped the transformation. There was only one way to lift it and that was to decipher the meaning behind the words that had been imprinted on his soul.

  Zane drew the book about Nubenfeld towards him, took up a piece of parchment and began to make notes on what he read.

  Celene brushed her hair from her face and smiled when she reached the bottom of the wooden staircase and saw Zane slumped over the cluttered desk fast asleep. She walked silently towards him and was about to wake him when something caught her eye.

  Leaning forwards, she looked at what he had written on the paper, his quill still resting on it and leaving a blob of ink at the end of the sentence. He had clearly fallen asleep when writing it.

  “The only peace you shall find is with the night,” she whispered the words and frowned as she felt something, a tingle and a buzz that ran through her, making her hairs stand on end.

  It had something to do with his curse.

  Celene carefully extracted the piece of parchment from underneath his hand, made sure that he was still soundly asleep and then stared at the words. She was certain that it related to his curse. This was the clue she had been waiting for all these months. Maybe now she would be able to break it.

  She folded the piece of paper up, stabbed her finger on a pin and drew a symbol on the square of parchment. She brought it to her lips and whispered to it. Her fingers hummed and she went to the window and opened it. Throwing the paper out into the evening air, she watched as it instantly turned into a white dove and flew into the distance.

  “Hurry,” she said.

  When it was out of view, she waited, unmoving, willing it to return to her before Zane awoke.

  There was a noise behind her and she froze, kept her eyes fixed on the horizon and knew without a doubt that he would soon find that she had taken the piece of paper.

  “You’ve read a lot today,” she said, hoping it would distract him.

  “I was trying to find a way to control it.” He stood and yawned.

  She could almost hear him stretching. She stared dreamily out of the window and wondered if there was a way for him to control his change. She doubted it. If there were, they would have found it by now. But then, they hadn’t been looking for that kind of spell.

  “It is always night somewhere,” she said and turned to him, “and day somewhere else.”

  He frowned and ran his fingers through his hair. His rich brown eyes reflected his fatigue. She smiled at him and he returned it, his bowed lips curving with it in a graceful way that didn’t suit the rest of his features. He wasn’t beautiful like some men she had met in her lifetime but there was an honest handsomeness to him and an underlying sense of masculinity. She had seen enough of his body to know what strength it held and that he could protect her physically as well as magically if he needed to.

  He had proved that on enough occasions. So many people had begun to hunt her. Why? In a way, she didn’t mind, because they couldn’t harm her and the reason Zane had found her was because others were trying to. He had pieced together the information and beat them here.

  “Did you have any luck?” he said, his voice echoing his weariness.

  She shook her head and then hesitated.

  “I have contacted someone who may be able to help,” she said in a quiet voice, part of her hoping that he wouldn’t hear her so he couldn’t be angry with her as she knew he would be.

  He immediately looked at the table where the piece of parchment had been and his frown intensified.

  “I told you not to do that!” His voice was almost deafening in the silent woods. “I told you not to contact anyone!”

  Celene flinched away but then rallied as her own anger rose to the surface. Her fists clenched and she set her jaw, frowning at him as her lips compressed into a thin line of annoyance.

  His eyes widened when a breeze entered through the open window. The paper on the desk began to flutter in it. It grew stronger, sweeping his hair around while leaving hers unaffected. Her jaw tightened and she narrowed her eyes on him, her breathing quickening and becoming heavier as she struggled to control her feelings.

  “You won’t tell me why you’re cursed!” She stared hard at him, unleashing everything she had been holding inside. The breeze that swirled around them rapidly became a gale that pushed against Zane and toppled the stacks of books on the desk and sent them crashing into those piled on the floor. Papers flew around the room in it, circling above her head. She had to get hold of herself before something bad happened, but all she could think about was how he was holding them back and making it impossible for them to lift the curse he was under. “How am I supposed to stop this?”

  Celene stormed out of the room.

  Zane kept perfectly still as everything suddenly dropped back into place, the wind disappearing in the blink of an eye. Papers drifted down, spinning and twirling. He knew that she was right. He had to tell her.

  He had to go after her and explain.

  He went to follow her and then growled in frustration as his body twisted and distorted. The growl ended in a meow.

  Slinking to the door, he went out onto the porch and sat down beside her.

  Celene kept her eyes fixed on the distant rising moon. It was slowly appearing behind Syrinia, silhouetting the towers and domes.

  “We must go and see what Elektra has to tell us. She sees all. She will know your curse and may be able to help if you will only tell us more about it. It isn’t far.” She looked down at him and saw he was staring into the distance. “Are you not going out tonight?”

  No response. She looked at the point his yellow eyes were fixed on and sighed at the approaching thunder clouds.

  “They will be gone soon. Go out.”

  He still didn’t move.

  Celene stood, smoothed down her dress and walked inside, leaving him on the porch. The tappity-tap of claws on wood made her look over her shoulder and she was surprised to see him following her. She picked up his clothes off the floor and smiled at him when he curled up on the armchair. Placing his clothes over the back of it, she rubbed him affectionately behind the ear and listened to him purr. She knew that his staying in was a way of apologising to her when he couldn’t say the words.

  Sitting at the desk, she opened her book and her smile widened.

  “It’s nice to see you tonight.”

  The quiet purring slowly drifted away and silence descended on the room as Zane fell asleep. She looked at the open window, hoping her sister would give her an answer soon. She had known long before Zane had dared to mention it that he was beginning to lose himself. With each change, he was one step closer to changing into something else, something not quite a cat and not quite human. She couldn’t let that happen to him. Maybe back when he had first come to her, but not now that they had grown so close to each other.

  Compassion wasn’t driving her to help him break the curse.

  It was love.

  A soft cooing and flutter of wings at the window made her turn sharply. She stared at the bird as it preened itself and struggled to compose herself. There was a chance that Elektra didn’t know anything about the curse, but there was also a chance that she did, and she couldn’t stop herself from hoping that inside the note would be the answer she had been searching for all this time.

  She rose from her seat and crossed the room to the bird. It stepped onto her outstretched hand and with a small puff of smoke became a note again. She unfolded it carefully, slowly, her fingers trembling with anticipation so much that she couldn’t move any faster.

  When it finally opened, she held her breath and steadied herself before re
ading it.

  Erikka, Witch of the South Star.

  She let her breath go and smiled as her whole body felt light. Now she knew who had cursed him, but she had no clue as to the witch’s whereabouts. She glanced at Zane where he lay curled up and sleeping on the seat of the armchair.

  She crumpled the note in her hand and it disintegrated.

  Discovering whose spell he was under seemed easy compared to the task that lay ahead of her.

  He hadn’t wanted her to contact anyone about the curse, so he certainly wasn’t going to want to confront this Witch of the South Star.

  But they had to.

  She would find a way to convince him to come with her to see Elektra.

  She would find a way to save him.

  CHAPTER 3

  Zane woke slowly to find himself curled up on the tattered couch at the back of the room. He smiled sleepily when he realised that Celene had placed a blanket over him and then his eyes darted to the window and he was wide awake when he saw that the sun was already beginning to rise. In precious little time, she would disappear again and leave him for another day. He hated that they had such fleeting moments together when he wanted so much more, too much to ask of her. She wanted to help him and he wasn’t about to fool himself into the believing that the kindness and compassion she had shown him was anything more than friendship. His heart ached, whispering words to his soul that stirred it into life and spoke to him. She cried for him, and cared for him, and sometimes when she looked at him he felt as though he could see right down into her heart and clearly read the feelings she hid there.

  But he was in no fit state to be with her, no matter how much he wanted it, and he wanted it more than anything. He couldn’t burden her and cause her pain for the rest of her life. She would continue to battle with the books, pushing what skills she had to the limit and draining herself of life in order to try and lift his curse. She would never stop. He saw that every evening, every time she gave him another potion to drink.