“That is an order.” Alice, help Jasper. Help me. With his words, he sent emotions that were not really between them. Trust. Empathy. I will protect you. We need each other.
The sentiments rushed across her as she peered down at Jasper. He struggled at her feet. His desperation was a new sensation from the elves. One that might serve her.
She crouched beside him, not sure what she had in mind would work. With a bloody finger pressed against his skin, she thought about what she said. Envisioning the words pulled from the air, and floating into her mouth backwards. In a soft voice, she repeated the wish in reverse.
Jasper drew in a lungful of air. His lips pulled into a toothy snarl. “Witch.”
Alice looked down at him, and reached out her hand. “Decker wants us to work together on the water.” Even though the emotions Decker shoved in her were weak, they were there enough that she didn’t want to abandon the elves.
The healer kept a distance from Alice, eyeing her suspiciously. “Will he need more, from you?”
She turned, ignoring the question and strode to Decker. “Ask me.”
He grimaced.
“Fine.” You will get no more. She turned back toward the other two.
Decker’s hand touched her hip.
The look on his face when she gazed down at him, asked the question he refused to. Was that the most he could do in front of his subordinates?
With a tight expression, she leaned down. “You have behaved badly. Very badly. This is not finished.”
Though his face remained one of a being facing death, and suffering, there was a glimmer in the blackness of his eyes that she read as amusement.
There was still blood on her hands and ear. He didn’t take much from the nip and it turned him around from delirious to coherent in seconds. “Do you have something I can use to leave you a little more blood, in case he needs it? I need a wet cloth as well. Anything to stop this bleeding.”
Jasper’s face switched from hate to disbelief.
The healer handed her a metal spoon and glass cup.
Alice took them both and left a tiny amount of blood, not liking the way the elf watched her. “This is for Decker only. If I feel you working magic on my blood, you will not fare as well as your oracle. Do not underestimate my power as he did.”
The healer stood straighter and gave her a cloth. “Save your threats, witch. I’m no mage.”
Alice cocked up a brow. A healer that wasn’t a mage? Not her problem. The water and the war. Those were her problems. She spun back to Jasper. “Did he leave you the water we gathered?”
Jasper grabbed her arm and tugged her out of the room. “Before we start, I need to know what happened between you and my leader?”
Alice knew what he wanted to know, but she didn’t want to find herself in the victim role again. “No, you need to help me fix this water. Anything you need to know to that end I will tell you. Anything you know that will help me, I would suggest you tell me.”
A smile replaced his scowl. “Very well, Alice, follow me.”
Alice followed him. His tone held an edge similar to the one that never left Decker’s. He was the elf that had urged Decker not to kill her. He was also the elf that gave her the stone she took so much comfort from. Now he was debating her life and value, same as the witches, same as Decker. “You’ve changed, Jasper.”
“Jasper?”
“I can’t say your name. That was the closest human name to what Decker called you.” She lifted both brows and shrugged.
“I see. You are elf. With moderate practice you should be able to annunciate, never mind, it’s irrelevant.” He chuckled, and shook his head. “I haven’t changed. I have always been a dark elf. You however seem to have left your timid in the swamps.”
She snorted. “Decker ate my timid. I think he still has some between his teeth.”
“While we both will undoubtedly have questions, it would be best for your safety, if we navigate quickly and quietly to a safe room.” Jasper led her deeper into the cave system, to his workroom.
In the silence, Alice let her thoughts wonder to her coven, Davina, her mother, Gretchen, and Chester with his strange story about the PPK.
At one point, she considered asking Jasper some of the million questions plaguing her, but considering his warning, decided against it.
Once they were in his room, he pulled the door closed.
Alice noticed when they stepped in, his room smelled like the coven, crushed plants, old fire, and death. The sensation in the air was different, distinctly elf, yet equally as dark and unwelcoming. In one corner was a small unkempt bed. The rest of the room looked like a work area. Jars, books, candles, and things that used to be alive, lined the table and shelves.
She crossed the room to what looked like his main work area and turned back to him. “Decker said you were proficient with witch magic. Do you know how to make a ward against a witch?”
Before he answered, he said a soft chant, and the door became a solid rock wall.
Alice sat her bag on the table. “Why are you locking me in? What must I do to prove I am here to help?”
“I’m locking out the elves who would destroy you that I mentioned.” In two long strides, he was at her side. “Why would I need a ward?”
“It’s not for you. I need one. I stole a grimoire from a cruel and powerful witch.” Alice pulled the pendant from her bag. “This is hers. Can you help me?” She saw doubt on his face. “If she tracks me here, there is no telling what she will do to get this book. At the very least, I will not be able to help you, if she curses or binds me.”
“All witches are cruel. What happened in the swamps?” He took the necklace from her, turning it in the light. “This is a powerful tool. You must work the ward.”
“Can you tell me how?” Alice could see from his expression he was impressed with the stone. “If we don’t hurry, please. We can talk about the swamps after I am safe. When they find Gretchen dead, her sisters will want to avenge her. As soon as they become aware of what I did, they will hex me. If my powers are bound, I will be useless to help you.”
Jasper sat the pendant on the table and scurried around, gathering things from his shelves. “The most effective ward you can cast against a witch will be using your elf magic. A witch can undo another witch’s spells, as you are aware, and will be attempting. However, they struggle against elf magic, especially light elf.”
“You know light elf and witch magic? Do all cave elves?” She leaned over, looking at the supplies he was spreading out.
There was a flash of pride on his face, followed by a grin. “I made it a point to be useful. Oracles are always in danger, as we often give advice that is not welcome. The more useful, the less likely a violent temper tantrum is to end my days.”
“The same reason he lets me live.” Her fingers reached toward a flower. “That’s pretty.”
“Don’t touch.” He batted at her hand. “They are poisonous to many things, and we still don’t know what you are exactly.”
“Right, because I haven’t been dissected yet. I suppose he will know more now that he…” She reached up to her ear. “This hurts.”
“After the ward, I will give you a salve. Our bites can leave a sting, infection, and well, I’ll give you something.” While he talked he scribbled some words on what looked to Alice like a thick piece of paper or a thin piece of wood. “Can you read elf? You will need to recite this, and understand the meaning of it as well.”
“I can’t.” Alice studied the symbols that formed the words. They were not familiar to her tongue, but they felt familiar to her soul. “I feel them, almost.”
“Try.” Jasper grabbed a long stone with a flat end and ground seeds.
Alice uttered a few syllables and looked toward him for advice.
He sat the stone down, stepped to her, and put one hand on her throat and the other on her stomach. “This is where our words originate. Not your mouth. Feel it there and try again.” He let her
go and said the first word. “Hear where I pulled that from?”
“Why do you speak human?” She watched him for reaction.
“We have for as long as anyone remembers. The myths of both our kinds say we lived along with humans in the distant past. All three of our kinds interacted.” He continued to grind the seeds.
“Myths?” Humans and elves? “Do you believe them?”
“There are many human civilizations who left records of creatures of power and magic, things that didn’t look like them. Gods, monsters. Light elves, angels, dark elves, demons, check your ancient history. You seem the curious type. It will take digging. Those civilizations are lost to you. Replaced by a simpering… well, humans that are no longer able to handle the awareness that they live alongside us.”
“Demons? Elves are the basis for demons? I can see that, biting things in a cave.” She watched him working. “The light elves helped civilize humans? Is that what you are saying? They are human gods?”
He stopped grinding and looked at her with distaste in his eyes. “If you leave here, look at the old, very old, history, and if you see it with open eyes, you will know those angels, light elves for the sanctimonious creatures they are. All they did was bask in the worship. They never gave humanity anything other than slavery. The demons are the ones who gave knowledge and technology. Read it with impartial eyes.”
Alice backed away from his tone and the hateful look in his eyes. Dark elves as the educators of humanity? No wonder humans were so awful. “Dark elves, helped humanity?”
“Witches, like dark elves are creatures drawn to the shadows, hidden places light elves won’t go. We scurried there with our forbidden knowledge. I suspect witches did the same, forgetting the original enemy, and making new ones in humans who didn’t share in the arcane gifts that light elves never wanted them to have to begin with. That sharing with others was the foundation of our exile to the underground. Higher, blessed species, didn’t want to share. We did.”
“Then why are we natural enemies?” She shrunk from his sigh, hearing it filled with impatience.
“Competitors for space and survival often are, no matter how reasonable it is to be otherwise. Thirst for knowledge in non-magical creatures, and our desire to show that we can all control some magic are no longer common traits.” He turned, smiling at her. “You and Decker have risen above the evolved instinct to kill each other. At least long enough to suit your own needs.”
“He bit me.” She shook her head and tried again to repeat the words, this time getting the word out with a closer annunciation to what he’d said. “I’m getting better.”
“You aren’t feeling it. Try again.” He went back to crushing seeds. “Find the words in your gut, speak them from the throat.” By the time Jasper prepared the ingredients, Alice managed to say each word. He told her what they meant and then quizzed her. “This is powerful, it’s important you get the proper intention with each word.”
“What else will I do? How are we using all of this?” She waved at the things he’d been working on.
“You will add things between words as I instruct. Hold the meanings and your intentions at the center of your thoughts.” He left her and returned with a large pot. “Ready?”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “Yes.”
“I know you have had a long, trying day, but you must put your full soul into this.” His tone filled with caution.
Alice drew in a breath and nodded.
“Start by adding this pile of roots to the bottom. Say the first three words, lay them as your foundation.” He stepped out of her space.
“Why are you walking away?” She turned to see he’d put distance between them.
“Powerful magic in the hands of a novice can go wrong quickly. I wouldn’t want anything to blow up in my face.” Amusement played at the corners of his mouth. “Go on.”
Alice did as he said, each utterance feeling more powerful as the words came from her soul, where they had been hiding. Chester’s warnings about her safety made it easy to focus her intentions. Before the last step, she lit the ingredients.
“Now, set the pendant in the fire and temper it with your spell.” Jasper gestured in front of them.
Alice picked it up by the chain and reached into the flames, resting the quartz in the center. The fire licked her hand, but didn’t burn her flesh. Once she sat it down, she stepped back.
“Repeat the entire spell.” Jasper sounded awed at what he saw.
When Alice uttered the last word, the flames disappeared into the pendant, as if it sucked them inside. She turned to him. “Did I do that right?”
Jasper caught Alice as she dropped. “Yes, rest.” With one arm around her he walked her to his cot. “You will need this on you.”
Alice sat on the bed. “I don’t feel very well.”
“Magic of that intensity is draining.” He helped her lay back, retrieved the necklace, and slipped it over her head. “Do you need anything else?”
She heard his questions, but didn’t care. Alice snuggled against his rough pillow, sleep tugging at her. “No.”
Jasper watched a second before he cleaned up the workspace.
“Jasper?” Alice’s eyes grew heavy but her heart lightened.
“Yes?” he answered from across the room.
“Thank you.” A comfort that didn’t come from the hard bed wrapped around her. Jasper would be her ally.
Chapter Eleven
SAMANTHA STOPPED IN her tracks when the air thickened. Foreboding dimmed the moonlight, casting its dark shadow under the trees. The dread that wrapped her heart as soon as Gretchen said there was trouble, tightened.
Leaves crunched as animals scurried in the shadows. Her pulse thrummed in her ears as she strained to hear anything out of the ordinary.
Gretchen had sent the other witches to secure the coven house, while the two of them scoured the woods. She’d said Alice was fleeing, and sounded certain the half-elf was plotting with the cave elves.
Magic buzzed, standing out against nature and its expected vibration. Samantha remained still, locking in on the direction. Gretchen, Alice, and something like Alice, but not quite. Her instinct told her something important was happening. No matter the depth of her concentration, the presences flickered in and out.
While she was afraid for the coven and worried about what the elves might do, fear shouldn’t have affected her ability to sense them at their distance. What caused the flickering? Fading auras? No! Gretchen and Alice were fighting. The something else remained a steady presence, allowing her to be certain about what she felt.
Dark elf.
She broke into a run, paying no mind to the noise she made as she crossed the distance between her and where she felt them. A pit of desperation grew in her stomach as she neared.
Two presences fled. The other vanished.
“Goddess, protect my sister witch. Hold her in your healing embrace until I arrive. So mote it be.” Her words trembled, lacking the cadence of a proper prayer, or the certainty of a declaration.
Samantha stumbled forward as a body came into view. No. Not her.
Gretchen laid motionless. Her head rested at an impossible angle. Blood soaked the earth under her. Too much blood. No healing would fix that. No dark pacts could heal her. She was dead.
Her knees slammed into the earth as she dropped to the ground beside Gretchen. The warmth of Gretchen’s skin made Samantha wonder if she had run faster, or made more noise, if the elf might have fled, sparing Gretchen. She ran her hands over the lifeless body. No presence remained. Even a priestess couldn’t breathe life back into her. “I’m so sorry.”
In front of her, still in range to track, the murderers escaped into the woods. Also in front of her was a creature that might have answers about Alice.
She scanned the darkness. None of the witches were following. If Alice was willing to murder a sister witch to return to her elves, what would they find at the coven house?
; Nothing else hung on the air aside from the fleeing pair and the usual animals. She was alone in the woods.
She glanced down, again feeling guilt that she didn’t get there in time to help. “I’ll be back for you.”
Samantha gave chase until the growing distance between her and Alice made it impossible to track her. She veered off the faint trail, and headed for the cabin she’d followed Gretchen to once. The light elf who hid there would have answers about what to do with Alice, and why she turned up on their doorstep. Whatever the cost for spying on Gretchen and him would be worth it to avenge her fallen sister,
With the coven sisters afraid to disobey Gretchen, this might be the last chance she had to sneak away unnoticed. There wouldn’t be time for anything when the chaos brought on by being without a leader swept through their midst.
A few minutes passed and Alice’s sensation no longer tickled her aura. One with a similar vibration grew stronger, pulling her in what she knew was the right direction.
The elf’s hideaway wasn’t in a clearing. It sat nestled in a small space between the trees. The woods surrounded it on all sides, with a slight gap at the door. The interior light from its windows scarcely broke the tree cover.
Samantha’s bravery and certainty vanished when her eyes landed on the tall slender figure silhouetted in the opened door. The dread that shrouded her earlier, also slipped away. The sadness of losing Gretchen that engulfed her, eased into peace. Her mind stilled as she beheld the otherworldly creature.
The bronze skin shimmered, emitting its own soft glow. Solid azure eyes gleamed in the darkness as they peered down at her. He assessed her in a slow sweep before returning to her face. At the end of his pointed nose, nostrils flared in disapproval.
In a melodic voice, he asked, “why are you here, witch?”
“Alice.” One word was all she could think of. The questions about all the things she felt certain he would know, were trapped in her mind and refused to come from her mouth. His presence humbled her, and she wanted to leave without answers, rather than face his judgmental eyes. She needed those answers, for Gretchen. “Dead,” she added as her thoughts drifted to Gretchen.
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