Witchbane (Book 5 in The Twilight Court Series)

by Amy Sumida

  I locked up and tucked the keys beneath the wheel's rim, as promised, just in case I didn't make it back to the car. Then I made my way, as stealthily as possible, through the woods. When I neared the clearing where I'd spotted the building, I dropped to my knees and crawled the rest of the way, right to the edge of the forest. I pulled the binoculars from my pocket and scanned the sprawling, wooden construction, as well as the surrounding area. I may have excellent eyesight, but it wasn't better than a pair of binoculars.

  The building looked well made for one built so rapidly. The timber wasn't stained or painted, which was the only indication that it had been hastily constructed. Still, the walls appeared solid, and the roof looked like it could survive a harsh winter. It was pretty late, after 2 AM, but I was surprised that there was no sign of movement in or around it. Not a single guard on duty, not even the glow of a candle through a window. The place looked, for lack of a better word, dead.

  “Don't move,” I felt something solid hit the back of my skull.

  “Alright,” I said after thirty seconds. “I'm not moving. Now what?”

  A slight hesitation. Then, “Who are you? Why are you here?”

  “I am Princess Seren Firethorn of Twilight, Extinguisher and Ambassador between the Councils and the Kingdoms of Fairy,” I snapped. “Who the hell are you?”

  “That's a long list of- did you say Twilight?” his voice betrayed the barest amusement. “There's no such thing as the Twilight Kingdom.”

  “I assure you, there is,” I growled. “And why don't you know about it? Who are you? And what are you doing here?”

  “Since when?”

  “Since when what?” I was getting really annoyed with this inane conversation, and even more annoyed at being forced to have it with the shrub in front of me.

  “Since when has there been a Twilight Kingdom?”

  “Since a really fucking long time, you asshat!” I snapped. “If you're a hunter, an extinguisher, or a witch, you should already know this. And if you're not, you shouldn't know enough to ask. So-”

  “Alright fine,” he muttered, “so there's a Twilight Kingdom. Wait,” he seemed to think it over and I hoped he wasn't heading where I thought he was heading. “If you're a princess and you're from this new Twilight Kingdom, then you're the Twilight-”

  “Don't say it!” I growled, irritated enough to turn around and bat the muzzle of his rifle away from my head. “A gun? Really? Who the fuck hunts fairies with a gun? What a damn amateur.”

  “I am not an amateur,” he huffed, the rifle falling to his side. “I'm a witch, a powerful one.”

  What he was, was big. He must have been over 6'7”. How the guy had snuck up on me was a complete mystery. His chest stretched the black T-shirt he wore, and his thighs did the same to his black, combat pants. He was nearly as big as Raza, and that was damn impressive for a human. Oh, excuse me, a witch.

  There wasn't much else to say about him. I couldn't see the color of his eyes in the dark, though his skin appeared to be just slightly darker than mine. Beyond that, he was like a ninja. He had on one of those balaclavas that bikers wear. The ones with the skull faces printed on them. It had actually given me a bit of a fright when I'd first turned around, but I was too angry to show it. There was only a thin strip of his face visible above the leering skull, right where his eyes were, and those were shadowed even further by the hood he wore. A leather hoodie. Nice.

  “So you're a witch,” I scoffed. “Where's the rest of your team? The Coven wouldn't send a single witch out here. Not after what happened with the Pack. Unless you're a scout. Are you a scout, Skeletor?”

  “Not exactly,” he scowled. “How do you know about the Coven?”

  “You really don't know who I am?” I countered, narrowing my eyes on him.

  It wasn't an egotistical statement. I was the Ambassador between the Councils and the Coven, as well as between the two Councils, and between the kingdoms of Fairy (I told you we twilight fey liked the between). Anyway, most witches knew of me, even if they didn't know what I looked like.

  “Should I?” he countered my counter.

  “Yes, you should,” I looked him over again, this time with my magical senses. I scanned his aura and blinked. Looked again. Blinked again. “What the hell are you?” I whispered in fascination as I drew closer to him.

  He backed away and tripped over a bush. His gun flew up as he flailed. I caught it, but I didn't have a chance to catch him too. I figured the gun was the safer thing to go for. He crashed to the ground, making an astounding ruckus. I instantly dropped to the ground, turning to look back at the building warily. Still nothing. That crash should have alerted them. Someone should have come out to investigate. What in the world was going on?

  “You okay?” I stood, turned back around, and held his gun out to him, knowing better than to offer him a hand up. Big guys like that didn't take kindly to a woman giving them help. Especially after falling on their ass in front of her.

  “I'm fine,” he growled and lumbered to his feet. Then he snatched his rifle back.

  “Hey, that was your own damn fault,” I pointed at him. “I was just curious. You got some,” I waved my finger around him, “super sonic shit going on.”

  “Some what?” his eyes narrowed.

  “Your magic. It's weird,” I explained. “You look hot and cold all at once. And everything's blowing around together.”

  “You can see that?” he blinked.

  “I told you I'm Princess- you know what? No, this feels wrong,” I looked him up and down. “As in, you're not right. Who are you? I told you my name. Common courtesy demands that you reciprocate.”

  “You're not at all what I'd thought a fairy princess would be like,” he noted blandly.

  “Thank you,” I nodded. “Your name?”

  “Killian,” he muttered, “Killian Blair.”

  “Killian Bear, more like,” I muttered.

  “What's that?”

  “Nothing,” I waved it off. “We don't have time for this. We need to find out what happened to the teams.”

  “The teams?”

  I froze.

  “What tribe are you from?” I cocked my head at him while furtively filling my hand with magic. “What kind of witch are you exactly, Killian Blair?”

  “Storm,” he said quickly. Too quickly.

  “Why are you here, Storm witch? And where are all your other little storm troopers?”

  “Alright,” Killian's shoulders sagged. “I don't actually know what you're talking about. I don't know about any teams or what happened to them. I'm here for my mother. She was grabbed off the street by a group of insane humans, and I tracked her here.”

  “Huh?” I was baffled.

  “A group of human men abducted my mother and a friend of hers, while they were shopping in Juneau,” he growled. “The men brought them here.”

  “Your mother wasn't a part of one of the teams?” I still couldn't wrap my head around his story.

  “I just told you, I don't know what fucking teams you're talking about,” he growled.

  I frowned, thinking it through. So perhaps the Coven hadn't told all of the witches what was happening up here. But you'd think they'd at least warn the ones who lived in Alaska. These people needed to know what was going on in their backyard. But maybe the Coven didn't want to panic anyone. Okay, fine. So Killian didn't know about the mission to apprehend Uisdean and his reanimated bride. But why would Uisdean and Rue send humans out to abduct a couple of Storm witches?

  “Do you know who those humans are working for?” Killian brought me out of my musings.

  “Yeah, I do,” I looked back at the building with narrowed eyes.

  It had been far too long for us to be standing out there, having a casual chat, without anyone noticing. Granted, we were in the woods in the middle of the night. But still, Uisdean would have had better security than that. Even if it was of the fairy-struck variety.

  “Well?” Killian put his face in
mine, and a sliver of moonlight hit him just right. His eyes were green, shade as yet indeterminable, what with moonlight coming into play. But it was a pretty color.

  “It's my evil Uncle Uisdean and his undead bride,” I said, just to see his reaction.

  “What did you just say?” Killian wasn't having it. His eyes narrowed and his face twitched against the skull. A very satisfactory result, even with that concealing balaclava.

  “My Uncle was the King of Unseelie until very recently,” I explained. “He's a son-of-a-bitch scoundrel, so I call him Evil Uisdean. Evil Uisdean stole a fairy artifact, which he used to bring his wife back from the dead. But he did it in a way that brought Rue back wrong. She's now more evil than Uisdean is. And let me tell you, that's a feat.”

  “You said this Uisdean guy used to be king?”

  “There was a battle for his kingdom,” I nodded. “I fought in it. Uisdean lost and fled here. But he still has the artifact, and we believe his wife's magic has been twisted by her resurrection. She appears to be able to freeze people to death, and then bring them back as zombies to serve her.”

  “Like Beckoners?”

  “Sort of,” I shrugged. “Beckoners can't bring back the recently deceased, and they don't freeze people... again, something you should know,” I paused to give him a suspicious look, but he kept his stare steady on mine. So I continued, “But basically, yes. Yesterday, three teams came here to apprehend Uisdean and Rue. They never returned. The mission footage showed some horrifying things.”

  “So you came to look for them?” Killian asked skeptically. “A fairy princess, all by herself, in the Alaskan wilderness? Why would they send you?”

  “They didn't,” I grimaced. “One of the Extinguishers who went missing, is my father. Well, the man who raised me. It's a long story. I came for him.”

  “So we're both here to save a parent,” he mused.

  “A-pparent-ly,” my mouth twitched.

  “Oh great,” he rolled his eyes, “a punny princess.”

  I chuckled. At least he wasn't making Twilight jokes.

  “Are you any good with that thing?” Killian waved a hand towards my sword.

  “I'm an expert,” I smirked. “But more importantly, it's made of iron. Do you have any iron weapons on you?” I watched him carefully. If he didn't know about iron weapons, he was a big fat liar, and definitely not a witch. In which case, I would dream-dust his ass.

  “Of course I do,” Killian rolled his eyes and angled his torso so I could see the twin swords strapped to his back.

  “Alright,” I smiled in relief. “I take it back. You're not an amateur.”

  “Thanks,” he huffed and then set his eyes on the building. “I've been watching it for an hour. There hasn't been any sign of life.”

  “Care to team up and investigate?” I held my hand out to him.

  “Okay, Twilight,” his deep voice held a chuckle in it. He swung his rifle around on its strap, hooked it over his shoulder, and shook my hand. “Let's go find our family.”

  Chapter Eleven

  My foot crunched upon the ground. We both stopped and looked down.

  “Ice,” I whispered.

  “It's too soon for snow up here, much less ice,” Killian scowled at the impossible ice.

  “It's not natural.”

  “That's what I just said.”

  “No,” I rolled my eyes. “I mean, Rue did this with her magic. My Uncle's reanimated wife. Her mór is freezing things.”

  “Her more?”

  “Her mór, it's a fairy's main magic,” I explained.

  “Alright,” Killian's eyes crinkled like he was smiling beneath the balaclava. “Let's be wary of her mór then.”

  “Mór or less,” I chuckled.

  “You're pretty human for a fairy,” he laughed with me.

  “I'm half human actually,” I glanced over at him. “You've really never heard of me. I mean-”

  “You're kinda a big deal?” he teased.

  “Well, yeah, but that's not what I was going to say,” I laughed, louder than I should have, and then looked around anxiously.

  “I don't think anyone's here, Twilight,” Killian concluded.

  “I think you're right,” I agreed. “But we should still be careful.”

  “No kidding,” he kicked the ice with the toe of his boot. “Though I could probably deal with this.”

  “Oh you could, could you?” I started towards the building again. This time, with a little less stealth.

  “Maybe I'll show you sometime,” his voice lowered to a purr.

  “Baby, whatever you've got, I can handle it,” I don't know when I'd become so cocky or why it was so much fun to act that way with this guy.

  “I'm sure you could, Twilight,” he chuckled.

  “Shh,” I said suddenly. “Do you hear that?”

  There was a light scraping sound coming from the building. We hurried to the front door, splitting up to flank it, all business in an instant. Killian held up three fingers and I nodded. Two. One... I flung open the door as he pulled his swords to face off with whatever was on the other side. Brave.

  And a little stupid.

  A bird came bursting through the doorway, wings as black as sin, screeching as it went. It flew right into Killian's face and he stumbled back, barely catching himself before he fell down the stairs.

  “Danu damn those stupid birds,” I growled, even though I hadn't been the one nearly felled. “Was that a raven? I think it was a raven. I swear those birds are stalking me. And now it's turned into a full on avian assault. They're going to drive me stark raven mad!”

  “It was a crow,” Killian let out a long, irritated sigh.

  “Same difference.”

  “Crows are bigger,” Killian insisted.

  “Whatever, Skeletor,” I crept into the building, peering around cautiously for more ravens... or crows. “Stark crow mad just doesn't work.”

  “The question is, why was it in here?” Killian followed me. “And I'd like to think I'm more like He-Man than Skeletor.”

  “I just told you,” I growled. “They're after me.” I looked him over, “He-Man,” I scoffed, “you wish.”

  He was actually big enough for the title of He-Man, but soldiers didn't flatter each other, they traded insults. And I was in extinguisher mode, so my insult switch was flipped on. If Killian was a real soldier too, he'd understand.

  “You sound paranoid,” Killian pushed by me, hurrying down a main hallway and clearing every room he passed in a matter of moments.

  Yep, soldier boy. Now that we'd decided to work together, my insult had barely even registered.

  “You'd be paranoid too if you'd gone through what I had,” I called after him. Then I mused to myself, “Actually, I think the Blue Hag had a crow too. But the raven-mockers, that was a raven thing, obviously. It's right in the name.”

  And why the hell was I standing around muttering to myself? There could be fairy-struck humans hiding in the corners. Or my insane Aunt waiting to freeze me and turn me into a zombie. But there wasn't, and I knew it. I could sense it. Thus the shouting and the muttering.

  “Get in here, Twilight,” Killian called back to me.

  “My last name is Firethorn,” I snapped as I reached the final room. “Not Twilight.”

  I trailed off as I looked around. It was a spacious room, with rectangular windows to the left and right. The windows let in a fair amount of moonlight, by which we could clearly see both scorch marks and slowly melting rings of ice. There were also deep grooves in the floor, like things with claws had been dragged across the planks. Things like werewolves.

  “Damn it,” I crouched over one of the claw marks. “Poor Wesley. He was a good guy.”

  “Wesley?” Killian asked.

  “He's the Alpha of the local Pack,” I sighed and stood.

  “I'm sorry, I know this is like the worst timing ever, but it has to be said,” Killian shook his head in remorse. “He's the Dread Werewolf Wesley?�
�

  “That's totally inappropriate, Blair,” I tried to sound upset, but a laugh bubbled up. “I said something similar to Wesley when we first met. He hates that reference. Hated it,” I corrected and my face fell.

  “We don't know that they're dead,” Killian said firmly as he wandered around the room, picking up random objects.

  The entire place may have been vacant, but it was full of stuff. Furniture, tools, crockery (is that word even used anymore?). It looked as if Uisdean and Rue had left in a hurry.

  “What are you doing?” I frowned as Killian continued to pick things up.

  “I'm psychic,” he said matter-of-factly. “I'm trying to see if I can get a read on where they went.”

  “You're a psychometrist?” I blinked at him. “That's a rare ability. I didn't know witches had psychic skills. I thought you all were just descendants of the Fey.”

  “We're what now?” Killian put down the plate he'd been holding, to stare at me in shock.

  “Alright, enough is enough,” I crossed my arms over my chest. “How do you not know that witches are the descendants of fairies?”

  “Nobody knows that,” he scowled at me. “It's not true. You're messing with me.”

  “Uh, everybody know it because it is true,” I huffed. “The Councils made a treaty with the Coven. We all share info now, and one of the biggest pieces of information was that witches get their magic from their fairy ancestors. Fact. But the whole damn Coven knows that now. Which means, you aren't a member of the Coven. Fact. You're an outsider, aren't you? One of those... what do they call them? Bloody Ones?”

  “I'm not a Bloodless,” he sighed.

  “That's the word, Bloodless,” I shook my finger triumphantly. “Hey, I'm not judging you. I get the whole, rebelling against conformity thing. I'm just surprised you know what the Coven is, if you were born outside of it.”