Caravan Witch (Questing Witch Book 2)

by Shannon Mayer

  His scream broke the forested silence and echoed through the air. As there were no animals to disturb, he was the only sound and it crawled up and down my spine.

  I forced my legs to move, left him bleeding, and walked to stand near the fire. “Skewer, Alex.”

  I held my hand out but didn’t look at him. Couldn’t. One look of disgust from him, Mac, or Oka and I’d be done.

  The thin wood skewer was placed in my hand. I jammed it through the meat.

  “Are you insane?” Roe roared.

  I turned just my head to look at him over my shoulder. “I’m hungry, Roe. And a little angry; I’ll admit to that.” I crouched and settled the skewer on the homemade spit.

  I said nothing more while I turned it regularly for the next few minutes. The worst part? The smell of Roe’s cooking thigh wasn’t half bad. My stomach growled and Oka sidled up next to me, clearly just as hungry as I was as the scent of roasting meat filled the air around us.

  She said nothing, and there was no accusation coming through our bond.

  Roe writhed on the ground, fighting his bonds, both physical and magical. It felt like someone tapping on my shoulder as he struggled to get his magic back so he could lash out at me, so he could raise another undead army.

  “I don’t need magic to make you speak. I was trained by one of the best when it comes to getting answers.” I turned the meat again, and it started to get a nice golden brown tint to it, even through the thick gray skin.

  “What do you think, Oka?” I asked, and she licked her lips in response.

  “Me too,” I said as I pulled the meat off the fire. I tore a piece off and tossed it to Oka. She wasn’t picky and gulped her portion down. I wondered if she even tasted it, then wondered if she was smarter for it. Eating the flesh of someone while they actually sat in front of you took a stronger stomach than I thought I had.

  I held it up to him, like a toast to his health, and took a bite. He’d tried to kill us. To wipe out the caravan.

  I took my time with the meat, chewing carefully while I watched Roe. The slightly overcooked flesh was terribly gamey and tough, but I acted like it was a fucking gourmet steak straight off the grill.

  Horror didn’t even begin to explain the look on his face. I thought he might puke for a second there, so I decided to encourage him. “Not too bad,” I said as I took another bite. “It’s a little like chicken.” Oka and I had eaten worse in our travels since the breaking, or at least that’s what I told myself. At least our bellies would be full by the end of the night.

  I looked to the boys. “If he clams up again, you’ll get some too if you want.”

  They didn’t answer, and I tried not to focus on whether or not they were as horrified as Roe. I was done being played by this ogre. I was getting my answers and I was getting them now. We’d already wasted too much time, giving him the upper hand. Well, no more.

  I tossed the last bit to Oka, who gladly scarfed it down, then stood, wiping my hands on my pants as I went back to Roe. “Let’s try this again, shall we?” Roe glared at me, watching me with a mix of fear and disgust. At least he’d stopped screaming. “Who is your master?” I asked slowly, emphasizing every word.

  He slammed his mouth shut, his lips making a fine line, so I moved down to his calf and started cutting. I wasn’t going to ask him again. He knew the question. I just stared at the spot I cut through, and the blood, and ignored the way my stomach rolled, or my heart quailed at what I was doing. What I would keep doing.

  It was one thing to tell someone you’d eat them if they didn’t do what they had to do. A totally different thing to actually do it.

  Roe screamed again and tried to jerk his leg away. “I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you! May an incubus eat your soul for breakfast, you fucking demon witch, I’ll tell you.”

  I finished slicing off a huge chunk of muscle and stood. I couldn’t do more than keep my face neutral, angry.

  “That’s more like it,” I said as I walked over to the fire, skewered the larger piece of meat and set it to cook. Now that I was done cutting him, he wasn’t talking, so I twisted so I could watch him as I turned his calf over the fire, just as I had the small piece of his thigh. Oka sat next to me, and swallowed hard, eyes dilated and locked on the meat as though she were stalking it.

  “I can do this all day, Roe,” I said. “You’ve got a lot of meat on you, and I have the two guys to feed, not to mention the caravan,” I said as I watched him.

  He glared at me. “The Sorceress. She is the one who branded me.”

  That meant nothing to me. I looked at Mac and Alex, but both shook their heads. They hadn’t heard of her either.

  “Fine. A sorceress then,” I said as I pulled the calf meat off the fire. “Where is she?”

  “She is everywhere, demon witch. Always watching.”

  I snorted. “Cryptic answers like that are going to fill my belly for sure.” I pointed at him with a piece of his own meat. “So keep them coming. I think you can spare a few more pounds.” I tossed the piece in my mouth and chewed. “Hm. Not as good as the thigh meat, wouldn’t you agree, Oka?”

  She didn’t answer me. She was busy chewing up her own piece of ogre.

  I offered pieces to Mac and Alex, but they shook their heads. I could see the struggle in them both to keep their mouths shut.

  I shrugged. “More for us,” I said as I tossed the meat to Oka even though my gorge rose.

  “Let’s try a different question,” I said as I forced myself to swallow one last piece of the calf meat. The rest I gave to Oka. “Why is she targeting the caravan?”

  He laughed. He actually laughed.

  “I’m not sure you’re in a good position to be laughing at me.”

  “Stupidity is always funny,” he said with more confidence than I thought he’d earned, considering I’d carved off a significant portion of his leg.

  “Then you’re a fucking monkey’s uncle, Roe,” I countered.

  He stopped laughing and looked at me, the smile never leaving his face. “It’s not the caravan she’s after, demon witch. The bitch shifter was right. It’s you the Sorceress is coming for.”

  19

  Roe’s words hung in the air like a bomb poised to explode. The Sorceress wanted me.

  Jasmine had been right about me bringing danger to the caravan.

  Alex leapt, and was on Roe with a knife at his throat. “This ends now, ogre,” he said, a deep growl in his voice.

  “Do it then, wolf. Do it, and your master won’t have her answers.”

  “She isn’t my master, dumb-ass,” Alex snarled.

  “Well, what is she to you then? A lover? Or a wannabe lover? Ah, that’s it, isn’t it? She’s with the bear, but you still want her. I see now,” Roe said, plucking a chord he’d somehow figured out was tender.

  Alex snarled, and I put a hand on his arm before he could drive the knife through Roe’s throat. “Even with a knife to your throat, you can’t help being an asshole,” I said. “Not sure why I’m surprised.”

  Mac stepped up next to us. “Let’s just be rid of him. He’s a dead weight and with his magic bound he’ll be at the mercy of his wounds. We’ll find the wall and food ourselves. We have to be nearly off the cursed land,” he said.

  Roe laughed again, and Alex pressed the knife into his neck a little harder. I clenched my hand over his bicep, my fingers digging in when a bead of blood popped up at the tip of Alex’s blade.

  I wanted Roe’s blood. The desire for it sang in my veins and the darkness in me cooed a lullaby I could almost remember. I shook my head, clearing it a little. “No. He is still useful. He still has answers inside that thick skull of his. And I will have them.”

  “And at what cost will he give you your answers?” Alex demanded through clenched teeth.

  “No cost at all, my friend.” I finally let his arm go. “We’ll let him sleep on what we’ve taken tonight.”

  The lie was hollow sounding, even to me, but I ignored the anxiety it st
irred. My stomach already rolled and twisted with the ogre’s flesh. I turned and went back to the river, as quick as I could without hurrying.

  Mac reached out and touched me gently on the back as I went by him.

  “I need a drink,” I said before he could ask where I was going. Something to wash down what I’d eaten.

  The aftertaste of Roe’s flesh clung to the inside of my mouth now that I wasn’t showboating. Now that I wasn’t trying to keep it together, I could taste the sweat from his skin, the rank gamey meat that was not meant for human consumption. I gagged, heaved and went to my hands and knees next to a tree as I brought up everything I’d just put down.

  A moment later, a tiny body leapt up onto the flat of my back. Oka lay down on me while I stayed there, a solid ball of warmth to counteract the shakes that had begun.

  “I think the waterfall will drown out the sound,” she said.

  I nodded, and spat to the side, then sat back on my heels. She slid from my back.

  I forced myself to stand and take a few steps away from the mess. Another tree and I let myself slide down the smooth bark and lean back.

  Oka sauntered up and leapt into my lap. She put her paws on my collarbone and patted one cheek. “That was well done. Even if it did taste worse than that first rat we ate.”

  I laughed, and pain shot through my stomach. “Don’t make me laugh. I think that vile meat poisoned me,” I said, clutching my belly. The aftertaste still stuck to the inside of my mouth, but I waited until the shaking stopped and my stomach was more settled.

  I stood and took the few steps to the river. I rinsed out my mouth, and then took handfuls of water, drinking it down. As if that would cleanse my soul. But when I pulled back, and the water settled in the small eddies, I caught a glimpse of my reflection. I looked nothing like the girl I’d last seen in a mirror.

  As if even my reflection didn’t know who I was any longer.

  My hair was darker, as if the blood I’d spilled had soaked into it. My face leaner, carved from years living on the edge of survival. And my eyes a darker blue, as if the magic always moved in them now, wisps of black against the once-clear color.

  You will change as your power grows. More beautiful, more desirable. It is the way of our magic, Pamela. The harder you fight it, the harder your life will be.

  I closed my eyes and tears bubbled up under the lids.

  “Oka,” I said, “what if I can’t stop the darkness when I need to, when it counts the most? What if it consumes me?”

  There was no hesitation in her response. “It won’t, Pamela.” She climbed into my lap again and put her forehead against mine. “I won’t let it. We will get through this together. Just as we always have. Only now, you have Mac too. And maybe even Alex.”

  I wanted to believe her, but . . . any real hope for a normal that I could tolerate was fading each day and with each step I had to take that led me to use the darkness inside me.

  I realized now that when I’d first used it, the magic let me believe I had some control. Like an addict, I kept going back, thinking I was strong enough, until it was too late. I was not stronger than the darkness.

  And I knew it. I was shaking as I scooped Oka into my arms and buried my face in her fur as if trying to find who I was in the smell of her, the feel of her tiny body. That girl who’d rescued a burnt-up kitten from the fire. That girl who didn’t know the world that lay ahead and still believed in the good in people. That girl who’d fought so hard to prove herself, only to lose all her power.

  I didn’t realize I was sobbing, the deep, gut-wrenching pulls of air as I held Oka so tightly. She never complained, just purred.

  My bond with Mac flared to life a moment before he scooped me up off the ground. His arms were strong, and I leaned into him as he walked. The tears dried in the short distance, and silently, he carried me back to the fire, and sat. He held me tightly in his arms while we watched the flames crackle.

  “Go to sleep,” he said gently. “It’s been a long day.”

  I rested my head against his chest and listened to the sound of his heart. In my arms, Oka relaxed against me, still purring. There was no question I was exhausted. My only thought was would my dreams bring me rest or more horrors?

  In my dreams there was no rest, but no horror either.

  I found someone I didn’t know I needed until I saw him, cloak flaring, blue eyes watching me, jet-black hair as slicked back as ever.

  “Raven.” I was running toward him before I thought better of it. He caught me as I threw myself into his arms, sobbing. My father was there and he was everything in that moment that I’d ever wanted in a parent.

  “I can’t do this. The darkness, it’s eating me up.” The words spilled out of me. “I don’t know how to stop it.”

  His arms tightened on me a moment and then he set me back from him so he could look me in the face. “Pamela. You are not the darkness.” His eyes were serious. “You are not the light either. You are a blend of two worlds, of two magics.” His hands lifted to cup my face. “And you are stronger than even you know.”

  He brushed a thumb over my cheek, over a tear.

  “That’s not real helpful,” I sniffed. “A concrete answer would be . . .”

  “The Sorceress. I know of her,” he said. “Or at least rumors. She is dangerous, out of control, mad with power. And young, like you.” His eyes darkened and he shook his head. “Be wary of her. She’s never known anything outside of violence and power that is so dark, it would consume the world if given the chance.”

  “She’s hunting me.”

  He grimaced. “I am not surprised. You are a potential threat. She will try to find a way to eliminate you. Or use you. That would be worse, I think.”

  I didn’t like that I agreed with him on that. Better to be dead than a tool of someone who had no conscience.

  I put my hands on his forearms, needing to feel that he was truly there. “The darkness speaks with my mother’s voice, Raven. Was she evil? Did she fool you into believing she was good?” Because as much as my father was chaos incarnate in some ways, he wasn’t evil. He did what he believed was right. And I understood that.

  His eyes widened and then he smiled. “No, she was not evil, Pam. Powerful and hungry for power, yes. But evil? Never. Which means it is not your mother speaking to you through the magic.” He pulled me close once more. “Hang in there, Pamela. I am doing what I can to help you, even though you cannot see it now.”

  I clung to him, breathing in the smell of far-flung forests and the sharp tang of a high mountain wind. To just stay here, to let him take care of everything, the desire for that was so intense that it shocked me. “I’m . . . so afraid. I don’t want to lose myself to that madness.”

  He held me tightly and kissed the top of my head. “Let your familiars in, let them help you carry not only the fear, but the darkness,” he said softly, voice and arms fading. “All three of them.”

  My head snapped up and he was gone, and I began to wake.

  Oka didn’t stir as my eyes popped open wide and I sat there with my mouth hanging open. Mac didn’t stir either. Alex was awake, though, and watching me from the other side of the fire that had long ago died. He smiled warmly at me, fatigue in every line of his face, but I couldn’t smile back.

  All three of them? Was that truly what Raven had said? Holy gods and demons below, did that mean him? Did it mean Alex?

  A sudden burst of nervous energy shot through me, propelling me forward. I stood as gently as I could. But I still jostled Mac, and he woke, and grabbed me around the waist with his eyes still closed. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked with a yawn.

  I bent down and kissed him on the forehead while I held my sleeping cat in my arms. “I need to stretch my legs. Go back to sleep.”

  I set Oka in his lap and he settled back in. He was out before I even stepped away from him.

  Roe snorted derisively at me. “You’re soft.”

  I looked down at hi
m, and without a second thought, backhanded him hard enough that he fell onto his side, leaving blood on my hand. He struggled to sit up, eyes stunned.

  “Yes,” I smiled down at him, the fear and anxiety and my dream sharpening me in ways that nothing else could have, “I’m soft to those I love. And hard as a fucking iron girder to those who cross me. Perhaps you’d best remember that, ogre.”

  20

  Alex

  The hit Pamela handed out to Roe surprised me, her strength beyond what I thought she could have as a witch more than a bit of a shock. But the smile . . . that truly caught me off guard. Clearly, she was not herself. Pamela had never relished hurting others, even if they deserved it like Roe. She had one of the softest hearts I’d ever known.

  How the hell did I help her with this? The only thing I knew was that I wasn’t going anywhere until she didn’t need me anymore. However long that was.

  The sun peeked over the edge of the trees, chasing away the night.

  Now was as good a time as any to get moving. The wall and whatever food was behind it weren’t coming to us.

  “You ready, Pam?” I worked hard to keep my voice light. She’d eaten a piece of Roe yesterday, and by the smell on her when she’d come back from the river, had lost it too. But that was some hardcore steel she had in her to put on the show. As much as it made me see her in a new light, I was proud of her for doing what had to be done. I didn’t think Roe would have buckled for anything less.

  She kept her back to me and nodded. Mac and Oka stirred, stretching almost in tandem. I grabbed my pack and walked toward Roe. He’d stopped bleeding at least sometime in the last hour. Hopefully he could walk.

  I wasn’t sure how he would walk without most of his calf muscle, but it was hard to worry about him after what he’d done to us.