by Mona Hanna
“I never had a need to,” Ariel said softly. “I never went anywhere. My whole life was just school and living with my uncle. I feel bad about that, though.”
“You wish you’d traveled?”
“No, I mean just staying with my uncle like that. I should have found work after school finished when I was fourteen, but I didn’t know what to do and my uncle was wealthy enough to support us. I suppose he always expected me to get married and move out, but I didn’t. Nine years of disappointing him. I just never met anyone, and didn’t know what to do. I did work for my uncle, like I told you, helping him with his work as an accountant, but he didn’t pay me and I was just stuck. It was my own fault, though. I guess I expected I’d get married too, but it just wasn’t happening. I was worried I’d be a spinster forever.” Ariel looked at her plate, feeling embarrassed.
Brayden reached his arm across the small table and took her hand. “You know you’re lovely, don’t you? Any man would be mad not to want you. But you know what? I’m glad you were a spinster, or else you couldn’t have been with me.”
Ariel giggled. “You were the first man who looked at me twice.”
“I find that hard to believe. Ariel, you’re beautiful. Don’t you know that?”
She smiled crookedly, her eyes becoming moist. “Did you think that when you first saw me? I was a mess that day. I was always a mess, Brayden. I’m not beautiful. I was always plain, ordinary, and never made myself pretty. It’s no wonder every man ignored me.” She sniffed, feeling overcome with emotion.
Brayden rose and moved towards her, their food forgotten, and took her arm to make her stand. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair as she nestled close to him. She felt him sigh. “Ariel I couldn’t stop thinking about you from the moment I saw you, and it wasn’t just about the dreams I’d been having. You looked so beautiful to me, so pretty, so sensual, and there was just something about you I craved. You being alone wasn’t about you not being good enough. Maybe it was about you believing you weren’t good enough, not even seeing when a man noticed you. Because I’m sure they did. You’re wonderful and sweet, and I love you. As selfish as it sounds, I’m glad you never found someone. The thought of you with someone else…”
Brayden became slightly tense, and Ariel lifted her head to look at him. “You’d have been jealous if I’d been with someone else?”
Brayden gazed at her closely. “Yes. I’d want to reach into your past and wipe the guy out.” He moved his mouth to her ear. “I’m glad I was your first,” he whispered. “I wouldn’t want anyone touching you that way but me.”
She felt a quiver run through her, and she gently kissed him. He didn’t release her; instead, he deepened the kiss, holding her tighter, moving his tongue with hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, delighting in his touch, in the way he knew just how to kiss her to make her tremble all over. He’d been her first kiss; he’d be her last. He was her everything. She sighed a little, and she heard him groan. He kept kissing her, and she felt herself become aroused, but they had no time for that.
Well, maybe they had a little time. They were still newlyweds, after all.
***
Thomas looked over at his new patient, lying on one of the small beds in the room where all his patients stayed. There were various sounds coming from the people on the eight beds—complaints, groans, whimpers—but this man was silent. He lay unconscious in the sparse room.
Thomas ran a hand through his grey hair and turned to his young assistant, Ethan. “It’s astonishing the way he’s burned, as if he was tightly holding something on fire. But how could that be? The wounds cover his chest and the inside of his arms, which are burned at such a level I’m amazed he’s surviving it. There’s only one thing which explains it.”
Thomas paused, then finished his thought. “I think he’s a warlock, with the power to control fire and water. I’ve heard his kind can create flames out of nothing, can touch fire and not be wounded. He’s certainly wounded, but he’s not dying—in fact, he’s improving already. He won’t be out of here for weeks and he’ll be badly scarred, but he’ll make it. He must be a warlock. An ordinary man would be dead.”
Thomas looked at Ethan, the blond boy staring at the patient with wide eyes. They hadn’t encountered a person of magic in a while, those people preferring to go to healer of their own kind. It made sense—they’d know how to treat them better and have knowledge non-magical people wouldn’t have.
The man’s neighbors had heard him screaming in agony and went into his house to find him lying on the ground, his torso badly burned. He’d somehow doused the flames, but he was in excruciating pain. By the time he’d arrived at Thomas’ workplace, he was unconscious. The man’s neighbors didn’t even know his name.
Thomas didn’t want any trouble.
He guessed this man was trouble.
Chapter 14
It was a strange month for Hallie. She sent word to her employer that she needed some time off. She didn’t know if her job would be waiting for her, but there was no way she could concentrate on work when Nicholas was still out there. Her mind and heart were filled with dozens of questions and the overwhelming sensation that she was just waiting for something. Ariel finding her? Nicholas returning? She didn’t know what it was, but there was something looming on the horizon. She could feel it in her bones. She couldn’t go about her days like normal with this ominous feeling hovering over her.
And then there was Sean.
He had brought his things to her home and had been staying with her. It was awkward at first, being around each other so much, having been intimate but still needing to grow closer emotionally. They needed to catch up on the lost years, needed to rebuild the friendship that had bonded them together for nearly their whole lives. At first they perpetually became distracted by kissing, touching, and making love. Hallie craved his touch, and Sean was only too eager to satisfy her. It was so overwhelming, consuming, heated—she’d never experienced anything like it. She loved growing close to him that way, but as the days went on, they did talk. About everything.
Sean told her about his time at sea, about the difficulty of living aboard a ship, and all the places he’d traveled to. He hadn’t liked being at sea but said he’d learned a lot from his uncle. Hallie felt a sense of admiration for him for going through so much. Her heart ached over one question, though: why hadn’t he written to her while he was away? Complete silence for two years? She broached the question to him one night in bed.
He’d held her hand as they sat beside each other, remaining silent for a long time. Finally he’d looked at her with sadness in his eyes.
She’d felt her heart sink, waiting for his answer. It wasn’t what she expected.
“I wanted to… I actually did write to you, long letters about everything I was thinking and feeling. But I could never send them. I didn’t know what you were doing, if you were still thinking of me. But it wasn’t just that… how could you learn to be strong without me if I was always holding you up? How could you learn to survive completely on your own if I was always there for you? I didn’t want to be separated from you—you were my closest friend. Are my closest friend. But I couldn’t hold on to you. I had to let you go. And just hope with all my heart that one day we could be together again.”
Hallie had felt sadness at his words, at the hurt he must have been feeling, but knew deep down he’d done the right thing. She was stronger now. She’d branched out, did things which made her uncomfortable, only to become a better, more secure person for it. She didn’t need to hide behind Sean anymore—she could defend herself. She could take care of herself. But, oh, how she’d missed him.
She’d told Sean about leaving home, about the independence and joy she’d felt moving somewhere where people didn’t know about her past and weren’t constantly judging her. She hadn’t really made many friends, but people respected her in her town, thought of her as intelligent and a hard worker, and always treated her well. Until s
he’d met Nicholas, no one even knew she was a witch, something she had been sure to keep hidden.
Apart from getting to know each other, Hallie and Sean were focused on trying to learn all they could about Nicholas. They’d asked around their town, trying to find out who the man was, where he was from, and about his past. Anything that could help them fight him. Anything to prepare them for whatever he would do next.
Hallie was at home waiting for Sean to return from trying to find out more information. She was in the kitchen preparing their dinner on the warm summer night when she heard him come through the front door. She went to meet him, dismayed at the scowl on his face. “Nothing?” she asked as he walked to the table.
He sat, leaned back in his chair, and sighed. “Just a dead end. You’d think after a month of asking around, we’d come across someone who knows something. All we know is he’s rich, not from around here, and the most secretive son of a….”
“We’ll figure it out, Sean,” Hallie said, wanting to quell his anger. “Sometimes I think I should just magically transport back to his house. I know it would be stupid in case he’s there, but I don’t know how to find the place otherwise. We know it’s close by, or else he couldn’t have transported me there in the first place. We just have to keep trying to find out more information, but the waiting is killing me.”
Hallie groaned, sick of the anxiety in her stomach. She and Sean sat in silence for a while, then Hallie brought in their food and they shared their meal. They didn’t speak while they ate, both of them dwelling on their troubles, Hallie presumed. The stress was starting to take a toll. Hallie could see the tiredness in Sean’s eyes, and she felt weary herself. Something had to change soon. They had to have a breakthrough. Something had to happen.
She just hoped, whatever it was, it wouldn’t hurt them.
***
Brayden and Ariel walked into the room they’d rented at a small inn in the town where their ship had docked. The place was a few days from the town where the other High Witch was. They didn’t know the woman’s name but were going to worry about locating her once they’d reached her town. For now, they needed to rest and recover. It had been a very difficult few weeks’ travel.
“I feel disgusting,” Ariel said, sitting on the bed in the small room while Brayden put down their bags. “That was the worst—the most filthy—the most revolting experience of my life. I’ve never… ugh, I need to bathe ten times. And then another ten times. And the seasickness.”
Brayden sat beside her, feeling revolting himself. The living quarters aboard the ship had been cramped and dirty, with all the passengers squeezed into a small space and at least half of them suffering seasickness. The food was awful, and the trip very bumpy and rough. He and Ariel had been so relieved to finally be able to leave the ship.
She had suffered far worse than him, though, between the seasickness and her pregnancy finally starting to show. She was now just over five months, and it was astonishing how much her stomach had grown just in the last month. She’s had to wear the larger-sized clothing she had brought with her, and she said she was feeling some discomfort from being so much bigger. Ariel’s steadily growing bump didn’t bring her the joy it normally would have, as she had been worried her nausea was harmful for the baby. There was nothing they could do, though. She didn’t have the magical strength to heal herself, which was something that greatly worried them both.
“We’ll get cleaned up and then have a huge sleep,” Brayden said. “I’m so sorry the trip was so bad for you. Maybe we should rest here a few days, give you a chance to recover before we head out again.”
“No. No, we’ll leave tomorrow,” Ariel said. “I haven’t traveled this far to stall finding the other High Witch. I don’t want to delay it in any way. Besides, I think I’m okay now. After I wash, I’ll feel much better.”
Brayden left her to bathe while he arranged for a woman who worked at the inn to wash their clothes. A long while later, they were both clean and lying in the soft, large bed, warm and comfortable. Brayden wrapped his arms around Ariel, the scent of soap and flowers wafting from her freshly washed hair, the sound of her slow breathing making him feel drowsy.
He put his hand gently on her belly, her bump definitely noticeable. Ariel had been perpetually touching her stomach since she’d started to show, something she had done before but was doing more now. Their child was becoming bigger. She was growing, blossoming, coming to life. Only four more months and they would get to meet her. Their little Erica. Their little darling.
They just had to get through helping the new High Witch out of the danger she was in. Ariel hadn’t had any more visions about the girl, so they were no closer to figuring out who the man that looked like Julius was. They were both certain the man wanted to turn the other High Witch and only hoped she had escaped him. What if she hadn’t? Were they too late? Was the High Witch safe or was she still in huge danger? They didn’t really know anything. Just that they had to get to her, and fast.
Chapter 15
“But you’re still healing. You still need medical attention.”
Nicholas finished doing up his shirt, then stood and started to walk from the room full of patients.
Thomas, the healer, moved in front of him, blocking his path to the door. “At least let me give you some salve for your wounds. I don’t know why you’re so eager to get out of here, but not taking care of yourself will only ensure you get worse, not better. You may be doing well, but you’re a long way from being fully healed.”
Nicholas took a deep breath, looking down at the middle aged man. “I’m fine. I’ll send payment for your care. I don’t need any more help.” He pushed past Thomas, walked out of the room, and left the building. He began to walk briskly down the street, feeling a little winded at his first time properly exercising in weeks, and decided to just magically transport home. He stopped, shut his eyes, visualized his home in his mind, and instantly arrived within his house. He sat down in a chair at a table and leaned his head against his hand, sighing. Everything had fallen apart. So much for his plan. So much for his revenge.
He still hated Ariel. Still hated everything she stood for. Because of her, the one he loved most was gone, and no one even cared. No one even cared! He didn’t want to hurt Hallie—she was nothing to him. It was Ariel, young, beautiful, powerful—everything a man wanted and everything his mother was killed for….
Everything his mother was killed for.
But no one cared that Nadia was dead. No one cared that she was used, taken advantage of, a slave for over twenty years to his pig of a father. None of that mattered to anyone. Her death was forgotten, nothing, of no consequence. Nadia was slaughtered in front of all those people and everyone had just moved on.
No one even made a move to stop Julius killing her, the men who worked for his father had said. The men who had been there the day Julius put Ariel through the test. Ariel had saved her lover, saved her family, but they’d all left Nadia to die. Julius ruthlessly murdered his mother so he could have Ariel, and they’d let him to save themselves.
Julius was already dead, and his hatred for his father was sated by the fact the man had been killed. He was almost grateful to Ariel for wiping the man out, something he’d never been able to do. Almost grateful for her hating Julius as much as he did.
But Nadia still had to be avenged for being sacrificed for a younger woman.
He wasn’t going to rest until he’d killed Ariel.
And anyone who tried to stop him.
***
The blood. The blood.
“ARIEL! NO!”
***
Hallie shot up in bed a few days later, breathing heavily, her heart racing. She tried to hold on to her dream, to what she’d seen, but it was slipping out of her mind quickly. She had glimpses—a blonde young woman and a man screaming her name, the flash of a knife, sticky and bright red with blood—but the images faded. All she had left was the feeling. Her heart gradually slowed down and her
breathing returned to normal, but the feeling in her stomach was horrible.
She told Sean about the dream over breakfast.
He froze, gaping at her. “Do you think it was actually her? Ariel?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“Who else could it be? Hallie, did you have a vision? Do you get those? Was Nicholas in the dream?”
“I don’t know, Sean, stop pressuring me! I don’t know what I saw, just that it was a dream and it was awful. No, I don’t get visions—at least, I don’t think I do. I’ve never been able to figure out what my power is. Witches or warlocks who receive visions don’t have other powers—that’s their core gift. I can do… other things, so I don’t think….” She groaned, shutting her eyes, feeling so terrible her teeth hurt.
Sean grasped her hand. “I’m sorry, it’s just so huge if it was a vision. I don’t want you to be upset.”
Hallie looked at him gratefully, then nearly jumped when there was a knock at the door. She frowned, not expecting anyone, not knowing who it could be. She rose and walked towards the front door.
Sean immediately moved to stand beside her. “Just in case it’s someone dangerous.”
“Nicholas isn’t likely to knock,” she replied but wasn’t really admonishing him. She half-smiled, then opened the door a little way. She saw two people standing there, a blonde young woman and a man with light-brown hair. Hallie froze, unable to think clearly. She gulped, then slowly opened the door wider.
The woman looked at the man and nodded. She took his hand and appeared to take a deep breath. “Is your name Hallie?” she asked. “My name is…”
“Ariel,” Hallie whispered.
Ariel looked at her in surprise. “How did you know?”
“How did you know who I am? Who are you?”
Ariel bit her lip. “I’ve been looking for you,” she said. “I think… we have something in common. May we come in? We really need to talk. I don’t want to alarm you, but I really need to tell you something important. It’s about… your power.”