by Ross Turner
“And what would you want in return?” Alistair asked, his eyes glinting.
He already knew what the troubled Evans would say; he had wanted the same thing himself for countless years.
He simply yearned to hear him speak the words.
Malcolm’s expression contorted into a grimace, but his reply sounded hungry and longing.
“The same as you do…” He answered. “To see my brother pay for what he’s done. I want to see him suffer like the coward he is…”
Alistair smiled cruelly and nodded, grinning wildly.
“I can help you get the old man.” Malcolm went on, his mind churning over desperately. In truth he hadn’t really expected to get this far and still be alive, so he found himself all of a sudden in unchartered territory. “Let me speak to them. I’ll gain their trust so you can get your wolves close.”
“And how would you do such a thing?”
Now it was the turn of Malcolm’s eyes to glint maliciously.
“I can think of a few ways…” He replied vaguely, his fingers flexing as they felt the familiar, aching urge to end Kaylm’s life.
Alistair smiled heartlessly.
“Your plan is crude.” He replied. “And flawed in more ways than one.”
Malcolm held the old man’s gaze, unflinching.
“But I admire your courage, and your heart.” He relented. “Very well. I accept your offer.”
In truth, Alistair didn’t care if Malcolm’s efforts yielded any result or not.
He knew the value of eyes and ears in the human world. He had not walked amongst them for many decades, for he had grown to be more a wolf than a man.
If he could gain more knowledge about his enemies, about those protecting his brother, he would eagerly take it.
Or, if this boy proved to be useless, it mattered not.
Either way, Alistair would still claim his prize. If his brother was forced to watch the two Evans fight to the death in the process, he would only feel yet even more guilt, and the thought of that too pleased the Alpha greatly.
Malcolm, blinded by fury though he was, was not stupid. He knew Alistair would only use him for as long as it suited him.
But he wasn’t bothered by that.
He had set his heart upon revenge. That was all he cared about now. Having just secured Alistair’s blessing, he had guaranteed safe passage, and indeed a powerful ally, even if only temporarily.
Provided it was long enough to rip Kaylm’s heart from his chest, the troubled Evans honestly didn’t care.
“I’ll leave immediately.” Malcolm stated.
“You must travel west from here.” The old man told him. “To the abandoned city of Ravenhead. That is where you will find them.”
Malcolm nodded gravely.
“I have already spoken to the one you call Marcii.” Alistair warned. “Don’t give them any reason to think you’ve spoken to me. They do not trust me.”
Malcolm couldn’t help but let a wry laugh slip under his breath.
“I don’t trust you.” He replied.
Alistair smiled in response. His thin lips pressed tightly together and his expression remained devoid and empty.
When he spoke his words were hollow and resounding, forming a pit in Malcolm’s stomach and sending shivers coursing up and down his spine.
“Such is my curse.” The old wolf breathed. “And soon yours too.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
It wasn’t long before the empty streets of Ravenhead were filled with billions of flecks of fallen snow. As they always will, with their infinite number of patterns and designs, the heavy snowflakes soon merged together to build foot high snow banks, blanketing the town before Marcii’s very eyes.
Ever since she’d first arrived here this place had always had a haunted look about it, Marcii thought to herself. But now, carpeted in glistening white, it looked more peaceful than anything else.
The sight of it for some reason brought a troubled smile to her lips.
But then it also brought with it a sudden flurry of thought, as she saw the ghostly woman Raven draw breath to speak. Marcii glanced between Raven and Kaylm, realising suddenly that everything she was about to say, he would not hear.
He was still the only one who could not see Raven, and now that Marcii could see she was preparing to speak, she couldn’t just leave Kaylm in the dark.
Without a second thought, unsure if what she was trying to do would even work, Marcii clasped her hands to the sides of Kaylm’s head. She rested her nose and forehead against his, holding his gaze so close that they may as well have been one person.
Creating and holding a thousand images in her mind all at once, instead of being thrown into a vision at the mercy of Mother Nature, Marcii created her own apparition.
Stepping inside of the vision she’d created, taking Kaylm with her, she allowed her dear friend relive everything she herself had learned.
Kaylm saw the mysterious, ghostly woman Raven for the first time, and simultaneously came to realise everything about her that even Marcii herself was only just discovering.
The more that he saw, the more that Marcii showed him, the more he realised how deep all of this really went.
She even showed him her visions with Ekra in the canyon. She recalled for him everything that her Guardian had said, and revealed to him all that she had learned over the weeks and months of trying to gain control of her powers.
All of it.
She gave him absolutely everything.
If they were to share this life together, as they both knew they wanted to, no matter what, she wasn’t going to hide anything from him.
Not a single thing.
Eventually, after what felt like yet another short lifetime, it was done.
Marcii looked a little drained and Kaylm more than a little overwhelmed, but there was no time to rest.
As she spoke, the ghostly Raven’s words were just as smooth and calming as they had been when Marcii had first heard her voice. Nonetheless, there was still the same regret hanging upon every sound.
Her luminescent violet eyes bore endlessly into Marcii, filled with longing and sorrow. For some reason now her deeply lined face and jet black hair, streaked with white and grey, made her look much older than she’d seemed before.
“I am Malorie’s mother.” The age bound ghost told her.
As she spoke, both Malorie and Reaper’s expressions changed and morphed a hundred and more times.
Their eyes spoke silently of great sadness and endless grief that it seemed they’d both shared equally.
“Or I was, at least.” Raven continued. “Now I’m just a mere memory of the person I once was, carrying the scars of my own mistakes forevermore.”
Raven’s explanation was vast and filled with deep emotion, as she told Marcii of her entire existence, and yet even more beyond it, for indeed her life had ended many years ago.
Amidst these self-same rolling hills and vast plains, a kindly man with great ambitions had once travelled the land.
He was a humble man, barely out of his boyhood.
His name was Leonard, and though he wandered endlessly for a time, he never found himself lost.
On his travels Leonard had been in search of many things, as we all often are.
Naturally, as all young men find themselves doing at some point or another in their lives, he was searching for something worth his time. He sought a way to happily while away his days and at the same time leave his mark upon the world. For he knew, just as we all do, that he would not remain here forever.
Unsurprisingly, many other things also occupied the young man’s mind.
At the forefront of those notions however, forever in his thoughts, was the longing to find love.
Such powerful and confusing ideas often occupy young minds and indeed overwhelm them much of the time.
It is a very difficult thing, to love another.
To some it comes easily, naturally even. Whilst for others, the r
oad to such things is long and arduous and fraught with danger.
Fortunately for Leonard, his decision was simple.
Arianne was a beautiful young woman who lived in a village only half a dozen miles from where Ravenhead would eventually be.
When Leonard passed through her village, intending like all others to stay only a short while, he found for some reason that he could not bring himself to leave.
At first he hadn’t known what it was that kept him there.
Once he met Arianne however, all became clear.
Before he knew it he had secured himself work at the mines, only half a dozen miles or so from the village. In seemingly even less time they were married and Arianne fell pregnant.
Soon enough, seemingly out of the blue, Leonard had found more than just one way to leave his mark upon the world.
They moved closer to the mines so that Leonard could spend more time with their baby once it was born.
And so it came to be that, as more and more people joined them, finding themselves treading much a similar path, an entirely new community was founded.
Their daughter, Raven, was soon born and their new home was named Ravenhead to commemorate the first birth in their new community.
The town expanded as more and more houses were built, spreading out in all directions around the ever deepening mines.
As Ravenhead grew older and bigger, so too did Leonard and Arianne’s beautiful daughter.
But not only did she grow in the same ways as all the other children, she also found that she could do things other children could not.
Somehow, though nobody knew how, young Raven had developed a connection to Mother Nature.
She could see and sense and control things that nobody else could possibly imagine.
The weather seemed to respond to her tiniest whim, changing and morphing at her command.
By the time she was a woman, handsome and lustrous in every way, Raven was revered by all who knew her, and indeed many more who did not, for word of her power and beauty spread far and wide.
Out of grief, Raven’s Keep was built when her parents passed away, taken by illness long before their time.
Following that, somehow even more so than before, Raven’s people practically worshipped her.
Never did Raven abuse her people’s devotion, or her powers. She was revered, in exactly the opposite way to those alleged witches who had been so brutally murdered in Newmarket.
Then one day, just as her parents before her had done, Raven too found love.
She soon fell pregnant and gave birth to twins: Malorie and her brother Mallorey.
Heartbreakingly, Raven’s husband was killed in a tragic accident when a section of a new mining tunnel collapsed, crushing him beneath a thousand tonnes of stone.
All of a sudden, amidst her life of love and adoration, Raven found herself alone with her two children.
Many years passed and in turn her children grew.
However, unbearably, as Marcii soon came to realise, that was by no means the extent of Raven’s suffering.
Raven’s connection to Mother Nature continued to grow, making her only more powerful and more in tune with the world all around her.
Unfortunately, in the end, that only added to her endless sorrow.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“When my son Mallorey was killed…” Raven breathed, her voice trembling. “I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t help myself. I lost control…”
Marcii’s heart was in her mouth.
“It swallowed me whole…”
Raven’s grief was so great at the loss of her son that her sheer emotion, in line with that of Mother Nature’s, engulfed her entirely.
It drove Raven’s power past the mere boundaries of visions and placed a terrible curse upon Ravenhead. The curse blanketed the town more heavily than snowfall ever could, driving everyone away, save they would lose their minds.
Any who managed to remain, though they were very few, had the sanity driven from their very thoughts.
The curse drained Raven’s strength so greatly that it claimed her life.
Grief quite literally consumed her.
Not only did she create it, but in fact she became the curse. Forced to reside in Ravenhead forevermore, albeit as a memory, Raven’s life was eternally changed.
Marcii remembered, from what felt like the very depths of her mind, something Malorie had once told her in Newmarket, seemingly such a long time ago.
She recalled a single comment that Malorie had made about once having a mother and brother. But that it wasn’t the case anymore, and that all she had left now was Reaper.
Suddenly, as she dredged up that memory, another realisation came to the young Dougherty.
She realised abruptly that when Mallorey was killed, surely Malorie would have been struck with the same grief as her mother.
But what had her reaction been?
Raven had cursed her home and driven out everybody she’d ever known.
Marcii realised in that moment that, although she did not know what Malorie had done, everybody’s reaction would always be different.
Everyone feels and deals with emotions differently, and will therefore always react in their own unique way.
Everything would affect someone’s response, Marcii’s realised: each individual’s strengths, intentions, fears and dreams, even their link to Mother Nature.
The possible differences were simply endless.
It seemed the most obvious question would have been to ask indeed how Malorie had reacted.
But, instead, Marcii posed an altogether different query.
“How can we be here?” She queried. “If this place is cursed?”
Raven thought for a moment, unsure what to say at first.
“I’m not entirely sure.” She admitted. “But I think it may be something to do with you…”
“Me?” Marcii asked, and Raven nodded.
“You and Reaper were the first to come here.” Raven explained. “I think your connection with Mother Nature has somehow countered my curse.”
“How?”
“I really don’t know.” Raven sighed, shaking her head. “But I must say I’m very grateful. If that is why, then it’s only because of you that I’ve been reunited with my daughter, and that she’s been reunited with Reaper too.”
Out of the blue then, breaking his silence, Midnight spoke, and his voice wavered even more than Raven’s had.
“How did Mallorey die?” He asked.
“He died at the hands of the wolves’ Alpha…” Raven told them. “My son was killed by Alistair…”
Somehow, after all that Marcii had shown him, Kaylm could now see and hear the ghostly woman Raven, and he listened with fascination and awe.
All at once though, as more and more terrible truths unfolded, he almost wished that he’d remained ignorant.
Almost, but not quite.
Midnight’s blood ran cold at Raven’s answer.
Suddenly he knew why his younger brother had killed Raven’s son. He could not hide the horror in his expression, and in an instant they all saw the reason behind Alistair’s evil and seemingly random actions.
For a time, before the curse, Midnight had lived in Ravenhead, as he’d already told them.
However, what he hadn’t told them, was that he knew Mallorey.
Not well, but well enough it seemed.
Having never known the reason for being driven from Ravenhead, or even that Mallorey had been killed, Midnight had never before connected the two.
Now though, things appeared to be falling into place.
Guilt consumed the old man and his entire body went cold.
Once again, it all seemed to be his fault.
All this suffering, it was all because of him.
Somehow his cursed brother had known of Midnight’s friendship with Mallorey, and had murdered him for it.
Surely there was no way that Alistair could have predicted what his
actions would cause, but nonetheless now, years later, even still he was tearing what was left of his older brother’s guilt-ridden heart apart, piece by piece.
Marcii saw all of a sudden why the old man Midnight’s grief and remorse ran so deeply within him. Everywhere he had gone, everything he had ever done, everyone he had ever known, he had paid for in other people’s blood and suffering.
Seeing his pain, Malorie and Raven moved immediately to comfort the old man and even the giant Reaper sat down beside him to help soothe his agony.
They all knew that, whilst none of this was Midnight’s fault, he felt entirely as if all the blame rested squarely upon his shoulders.
All at once, looking between her strange array of friends, Marcii realised two things.
Firstly, though she had guessed this when she’d shared her vison with him, she realised why Kaylm had been the only one unable to see Raven, though she had already suspected it. He hadn’t had the same bond with Mother Nature that the rest of them seemed to.
But, in showing him her visions, Marcii had indeed created such a connection.
She hadn’t even known that was possible; not that it would have stopped her if she had.
And secondly, she saw all at once exactly what Malorie and Reaper shared, and why they were so close.
How in the world had she not realised it before?
‘It’s only because of you that I’ve been reunited with my daughter, and that she’s been reunited with Reaper too.’ Marcii thought on Raven’s words, clear as day, and they burned into her mind so deeply it was as if they’d been there since the beginning of time.
The young Dougherty looked on in sudden astonishment, her mouth hanging slightly agape as her eyes fell upon Malorie.
“You…” She breathed, unable to manage any more than that.
She gawped at her fellow witch, and then at the enormous demon Reaper, her gaze flitting back and forth between the two of them over and over, utterly dumbstruck.
And to make matters worse, the two of them simply looked back at her.
Their eyes were filled with patient kindness, seeing that finally now, at long last, she understood.