A Witch’s Demons (Witch's Path Series: Book 6)

by N. E. Conneely

  My fingers tightened, digging into her bony shoulders. “What are you not telling me?”

  “I only wish to help her. I will not harm her.” She said it like it was a vow.

  “We will take my car.” I set off at a brisk walk and was not at all surprised when Ashley kept pace.

  The ride to the lodge was quiet. Ashley’s gaze was on the road, but I doubted she was really seeing it. For my part, I found it difficult to maintain the focus necessary to drive safely. I knew almost nothing of this woman, yet I was taking her to see Michelle in hopes of several miracles.

  However, Ethel’s best resources had been unable to treat Michelle. Given the current outlook, any help, any improvement, would do wonders for Michelle. It would help Ethel and the rest of the witches too. No one knew what to do for a witch who was suddenly unable to do even the simplest spells. All talk of the future had stalled, but I could see the looks that went between Ethel and her subordinates. If Michelle could not use magic, her entire future would change, and that was a subject no one had been willing to broach with her.

  When I turned the car in to the lodge’s driveway, Ashley shifted in her seat. I hoped whatever it was Ashley intended to do worked. I hoped it helped Michelle. I would love her no matter what, but I doubted she would love herself if she lost her connection to magic forever.

  “Michelle,” Ashley rasped. “Is she the determined sort?”

  I parked the car and turned to look at her. “Michelle is a great many things—competent, responsible, and reliable. Her determination, it is like a living thing, one that could move mountains and turn the tides and hold back a hurricane.” I inhaled slowly, distancing myself from the memories of her pain. “Right now she is injured and less of all those things.”

  “As I would expect.” Her voice was soft. “My oath as a healer, I’ll do no harm to her. I’ll do my very best for her.”

  “That is all I can ask.” I got out of the car, went around and opened the door for her. She took my arm, and I guided her up the steps.

  Reaching out to the lodge, I asked it to ensure we had a clear path to Michelle’s apartment and to have Ethel and Nancy nearby. They deserved to be there.

  Ashley looked neither right nor left as we walked through the hall. It was as if she could already feel Michelle and had no interest in anything else. She paused outside Michelle’s door and looked at me with eyes that seemed like they had seen the rise and fall of civilizations. “Trust me, elf. All will be well.”

  She released my arm, turned, and grasped the knob with one gnarled hand. Ashley pushed the door open and stepped inside.

  I followed her in, searching for Michelle. She was where I’d left her, curled up in the big chair under the bay window. After closing the door, I strode across the room, coming up beside Ashley. As I moved in front of her, she grabbed my arm in a grip that was surprisingly strong for a woman as slight as she was.

  “Let me.” There was no room for debate in her voice.

  After giving her a hard look, I stepped aside.

  With every step forward Ashley took, the air seemed to grow warmer, as if so much magic had been poured into the room it was chafing against the confines. Ashley knelt in front of Michelle. Long minutes ticked by. A single tear slid down Michelle’s cheek.

  “Did you know?” There was tenderness in the gravelly voice.

  Michelle nodded.

  “Did you know this would be the result?”

  “No.” Michelle’s voice was barely a whisper. “I thought I would die, or be damaged but still able to use magic. I never thought I would become this mockery of a witch.”

  “What would you do to be healed?”

  Not even a flicker of hope crossed her face. “I can’t be healed. I’m broken, always will be, and must adjust.”

  Ashley shook her head. “I don’t want to know what your sorrow thinks. I want to know what you would do to be healed.”

  “Nothing.” The despair in her voice dug into Elron’s heart. Again he wished he had truly understood the risks.

  Michelle looked out the window, focusing on the brilliantly blue sky. “I have made enough bargains, enough promises, for a lifetime. I avenged my friend and ensured no one else would suffer because of a demon.”

  “I can’t make you the witch you were before, but I can give you a chance to be a witch again, and perhaps one day you’ll be able to regain all of what you lost.” Ashley’s hands were shaking, but Michelle was still looking out the window and did not notice.

  “I… I…” Michelle’s voice faltered. “I don’t know.”

  Behind me the apartment door crept open. Glancing back, I saw Ethel, lips pursed into a thin line and eyes narrowed.

  “You!” Ethel stomped past me. “Get away from Michelle.”

  Ashley sat back on her heels. “I am here to help.”

  “You never help—you only hurt people.” Ethel sneered. “You’re breaking the oaths you made, the ones barring you from clans or meetings or anything to do with our way of life.”

  “I’m trying to fix your precious protégée,” Ashley shot back. “If you’d stop accusing me of terrible things, you’d see that.”

  Ethel snorted. “You’re a parasite. I should never have sheltered you.”

  “Me?” Ashley screeched. “I’ve spent years giving back, trying to atone for my sins. Now, finally, I have a chance to do just that, and you accuse me of using her for my own betterment?”

  “It’s what you did before,” Self-righteous certainty radiated from Ethel.

  “That,” Ashley hissed, “was long ago. I am not that person, not after what I’ve lived through.”

  “Yes.” Ethel grinned. “Which is what you should be doing somewhere else where you aren’t interfering.”

  “Enough!” I bellowed, cutting both of them off. “Get over here, explain yourselves, and cease your bickering.”

  Two nearly identical sheepish and apologetic looks were cast in Michelle’s direction—not that she noticed—before the witches joined me near the door.

  Nancy, who’d been watching from the doorway, glared at both the women. “You will be civil and spare my daughter your arguing. Can’t you see she’s hurting?”

  “A blind man could see that pain,” Ashley muttered.

  “That’s my daughter,” Nancy said sharply. “Considering what she did, you should show some respect.”

  Ethel rolled her eyes. “This one doesn’t know the meaning of that word.”

  “Old hag,” Ashley muttered.

  “Silence,” I snapped. “All of you will be civil to one another while you explain the problem to me.”

  Nancy sighed. “I don’t know, but I don’t want them distressing my daughter.”

  “I won’t let them upset Michelle.” I patted her shoulder. “Now, which of you would like to explain?”

  Ashley and Ethel exchanged a look.

  Finally Ashley sighed. “It has to be me. Ethel doesn’t know the full story.”

  Ethel glared but didn’t object.

  “In my youth, I was rather troublesome.” Ashley looked at the floor. “Because of that, I have some unusual abilities. I can help Michelle. Once I do, I will not bother any of you ever again.”

  “That’s not even close to the truth,” Ethel hissed. “She was cursed. Or that’s how I’ve heard the story. My predecessor wasn’t sure why Ashley was cursed, only that she had been, and part of that curse was something rather close to immortality. Her abilities are different from the rest of us witches because of either that curse or what she did to earn the curse.”

  Ashley frowned at Ethel. “That is hardly relevant.”

  “What”—Nancy cut in—“are you going to do to my daughter?”

  “Heal her, or at least start the process.” Ashley didn’t stop glaring at Ethel.

  “She can’t be healed. I tried.” Nancy’s voice caught. She cleared her throat twice before she was able to continue. “I tried, better witches tried. It isn’t possible.”
>
  “You’re wrong,” Ashley said flatly. “And if you leave me alone for a few minutes, I’ll prove it.”

  Ethel opened her mouth, undoubtedly to protest.

  Ashley cut her off. “You can argue or you can give me a chance to save your precious protégée. Your choice.”

  “If you hurt her…,” Ethel said.

  “Yes, yes. You’ll be on the rather lengthy list of people who will get revenge.” Ashley pointed at Nancy and me. “Duly noted. Now, may I get to work?”

  Ethel nodded reluctantly.

  “Please.” Nancy’s voice wobbled. “Please help my daughter.”

  I stepped aside so Ashley could pass. There was nothing I could say that she would not have heard or thought. I reached out to the earth, silently asking for its help and approval.

  Ashley pushed her sleeves up as she walked over to Michelle. Leaning down, she whispered to Michelle. Any answer she received was too quiet for me to hear. Ashley moved around to the back of the chair, pressed her fingertips to Michelle’s temples, and closed her eyes.

  The sun cast a beam of light onto Michelle’s face. Eyes closed, she tipped her head back, and for the first time since she had awakened to emptiness in her head, she looked serene. Time inched forward, and I kept hoping to get some indication of what was occurring.

  Ethel and Nancy inhaled sharply.

  “Tell me.” To my eyes, to all my senses, nothing had changed. Michelle and Ashley were in the exact position they’d been for minutes.

  “She’s rebuilding Michelle’s mind,” Nancy whispered.

  I tore my eyes away from my fiancée. “You said she could not be healed.”

  “She can’t. The parts of her mind that manipulate magic were damaged beyond any ability to regenerate. Ashley is rebuilding them, cutting away the old and using it as a template when she replaces it with new.” Nancy’s wide eyes were filled with a mixture of hope and terror. She grabbed my hand and squeezed.

  “She is using powers no born witch has.” Ethel’s voice vibrated all the way to my bones. If Ashley was not a born witch, then who, and what, was deep inside Michelle’s mind?

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I stood there, hardly breathing, afraid to interrupt, afraid to let this continue. My only solace was the serenity that continued to radiate from Michelle. Ashley had relieved Michelle’s pain, and for that alone she had my thanks. Nancy’s bone-crushing grip offered some comfort. Michelle’s mother would not stand by if Ashley were hurting Michelle.

  In the time it took me to blink, a ribbon of green light appeared in the air around Ashley and Michelle. It twisted itself around Ashley’s arm, flowed down her hands, curled around Michelle’s torso, and slithered through her arm. A moment later a red ribbon of magic joined it. In a matter of seconds, the air was filled with magic of every color, floating, rotating, filling the air around Michelle and Ashley.

  I wanted to ask Nancy what was happening, but I dared not breathe a word. With so much magic in the air, a momentary distraction could turn a spell from something healing to something harmful.

  There was a flash and the colors vanished. Panting, Ashley stepped back. Her wrinkled face gave me no hint as to the outcome.

  Michelle continued to smile into the sunbeam. Considering how long she had been in that position, I was half convinced she was asleep.

  The two witches beside me sighed in relief.

  I rounded on them. “Well? Not all of us know what happened here.”

  Ethel smiled. “I don’t know if Michelle will be the same, and even if she is it will take time, but there is hope.”

  Hope. A pressure in my chest eased. That was a far sight better than the reality we had faced even this morning. Hope was something we could build on, even if it was slow. Even if it took years.

  “How long before we know if she can use magic at all?”

  “A day. Perhaps two.” Ashley’s gravelly voice destroyed the reverent quiet we’d been maintaining. “Though it will be weeks before she can do spells of any real magnitude. Don’t let her cheat on that. It will only hurt her.”

  “She’ll be cared for.” Ethel’s voice was hard as iron.

  Next to me, Nancy was nodding in agreement. Considering my own protective feelings, Michelle was going to be hard-pressed to find a moment’s peace from all the well-intentioned oversight.

  “Good.” Ashley studied Michelle. “Elron, could you help her outside? I have a gift for her.”

  “A gift?” Ethel narrowed her eyes. “Why does she need to go outside?”

  “It requires the earth’s blessing,” Ashley grumbled.

  I laid a hand on Ethel’s shoulder. “She kept her word with the healing.”

  Neither Nancy nor Ethel looked happy, but they didn’t argue. Ethel latched her eyes on Ashley and I could see her mind at work.

  Ignoring her, I strode over to Michelle, knelt in front of her, and ever so gently brushed my fingers against her cheek. “Michelle, darling, are you awake?”

  Her eyes lashes fluttered. Sleepy green eyes focused on me. “Elron? It was so peaceful.”

  “You can go back to sleep soon. Right now we need to go to the altar.”

  She yawned. “Later.”

  “No, now,” I said gently. “I can carry you.”

  “’Kay.” She closed her eyes and held out her arms.

  I scooped her up. She snuggled against my chest. I inhaled slowly, the vanilla of her shampoo tickling my nose. Yesterday I had not dared hope for this, a peaceful moment where she was content in my arms.

  Ahead of me the door swung open. Since any one of the three witches or the lodge could have done it, I simply muttered, “Thank you.”

  Ashley followed me down the hall and into the garden. I settled Michelle on the altar, smoothed stray hairs away from her eyes, and gently kissed her forehead. I moved back to stand beside Ethel and Nancy.

  My nose itched. I tried to raise my hand, but it would not move. Then I tried to turn to look at Nancy and Ethel, and I was unable to even start that motion. When I attempted to open my mouth, my jaw refused to budge. I was completely frozen in place. My eyes locked onto Ashley.

  She had an eighteen-inch yew wand clenched in her hand. I expected her to be smiling, but she had the same wrinkled face she always wore. “I would apologize, but I’m not sorry. Ethel had suspicions, and if you two knew as much of my history as she does, you would as well.”

  I tried to make my arm move, straining until the muscles burned and quivered. I had to protect Michelle, but no matter how much I strained, I was unable to lift my arm.

  “Now, where to start?” She sighed. “I wasn’t always a witch. There was a time before witches, so long ago I’ve lost count of the years. I was a fey, though the fey you know today have little in common with the primordial race I belonged to. First I, then others, began experimenting with magic. I believed we could do more, become more than what we were. Years passed and a group of like-minded women, and a few men, formed around me. We developed the first spells, laid the foundation for how witches use magic to this very day.”

  She pursed her lips. “That alone would have been, if not accepted, tolerated. But, as with any new art, what you don’t know is the real danger. In our studies of history, the earliest emergences of magic, we dabbled in things we did not understand.”

  Her voice creaked. “We created spells that should never have existed, and with those spells we touched power that was never meant to be used. The magic collided with our world, killing many of those who had cast the spell. From there the magic ate through all our spells. Our works, small and large, were failing. Each time a spell collapsed, it released energy that began to change us. First our ears lost their point, then our power diminished, finally the earth under our feet no longer sent blooms up in welcome.”

  Ashley closed her eyes. “It was my fault. I had set us on that path, encouraged, threatened, whatever it took to reach into the unknown.” Tears rolled freely down her face. “The earth, the elem
ents, nature at its most fundamental level, rejected us. Those of us who remained were trapped, judged. We were stripped of our long lives, connection to nature, and the few fey powers we retained. Our families, the society we had lived in our entire lives, rejected us. We were turned into the conjurers of magic we had stylized ourselves as for so long, but the cost was one we had never imagined.”

  A light glimmered in her eyes, and I could not tell if it was magic or a trick of the sun.

  “We left, or were driven out as the fey would say. The day we set out to find our own place, I was captured in a vortex of power controlled by a… a coalition of many entities connected to the most fundamental quality of nature and magic. I, the Many judged, had not been sufficiently punished. I was the one who had corrupted those women, led them away from the teachings of our people, caused deaths, and violated the trust placed in us by nature.”

  Her eyes were fixed on a faraway point, and pain that had never healed coated her gravelly voice. “The Many had a different fate in mind for me. I would never die. I would live, watching the effects of my action and how it hurt my family, my followers now called witches, and the fey I was leaving behind. I would be cursed to watch them struggle with the new reality of life, the changes in the world, and eventually I would watch them die. Then I would watch their children, and their children’s children, repeat the same bitter struggle. I would see the harm witches did to this world. I would live forever, without any hope of death, and watch the effects of my foolish choices echo through the ages.”

  I sucked in a deep breath. The muscles in my hand twitched, wanting to summon my sword and put her immortality to the test. She had healed Michelle, but from here I could see no good outcome. If anything happened to Michelle, it would be my fault. I was the one who had brought Ashley to Michelle. I had asked for Michelle to live an unnatural life span.

  “True immortality, life without any chance of death, is a curse like none other.” The grooved leather of her face tried to smile, but it was a look that would have frightened children. “Unless you can finally live to see good come from your choices. Then it becomes a blessing.”