by A. N. Sage
When he saw us, River bolted to shore, his eyes focused on only me as he ran. Every muscle in my body tensed until I felt like a statue of myself. Stone and cold and empty. My heart sank at the sight of him and I couldn’t help but mourn what could have been if things were different. There was only one other time in my life where I wished I wasn’t born a witch and this felt even worse than when Beatrix got caught. River’s big green eyes searched mine and I forced myself to look away. He was the enemy.
“Hi,” he said in that deep, sexy voice of his, “thanks for coming. I thought after last night—”
I held my hand up to stop him from talking.
“What happened last night?” Peyton’s ears perked up.
“Nothing,” I answered. “We hung out then River left. Nothing happened.”
Beside me, River’s shoulders rose and fell as he took a breath and his brow furrowed. There was a flash of pain across his eyes and I had to bite the inside of my cheek and look away before I said anything else to hurt his feeling. Why did I even care about his feelings? You think he’ll care about yours when he ties you to the stake? Stupid.
My hands fisted and I leered in River’s direction. “Why are we here?” I asked with as much venom as I could muster.
His feet kicked sand and I could feel his eyes on me in my peripheral.
“So?” I hissed his way without looking over.
When he finally looked away, I shivered, letting the pieces of my heart attempt to sew themselves back together. This was the boy I let kiss me, the boy whose lips I couldn’t stop thinking about even when I knew what he was. River looked up at Peyton, daring to sneak one more glance my way before answering.
“I want in on whatever project you’re working on,” he said.
“Nope!” I yelled out, shaking my head. “No way! Not having it!”
“Whoa, B, it’s cool. Calm down.” Peyton nudged my side. “Why are you so interested?”
River closed the distance between us and himself and the smell of his cologne dropped me on my butt. “Because I don’t think it’s a project at all,” he arched an eyebrow, “and I think I can help.”
“And what makes you think it’s not a project?”
“You’re trying to figure out who killed those students,” River said, his tone aggravated. “I want in.”
“I said no. No means no, trust-funder.”
“Trust-funder?”
In a flash, Peyton stepped between us, her arms out to the sides. “All right! Cool it, both of you! I don’t know what this is…” She waved her hand between us dramatically. “But I want to find out who’s killing students before someone else dies. The cops seem to be dragging their heels and this town has always had each other’s backs. So you two need to figure your crap out so we can sort this out.”
I cursed through a clenched jaw and River grumbled something under his breath.
“So?”
Beside me, my friend looked as annoyed as ever but maybe she was onto something. I may not trust River but I had a piece of information that could help the High Coven. Sebyl did say that they wanted me to infiltrate the hunter group and report back; what better way to do it than to use River to get to the rest? Could I do that? I wasn’t sure, but that wasn’t the point. I had to. And perhaps if we let him in on our search, he’d open up and lead me to the rest.
“Fine.” I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
“River?”
“Yeah, okay,” he mumbled.
Peyton patted me on the shoulder and flashed her teeth our way. “Perfect! One big, happy family!”
“So…” River arched an eyebrow our way.
“… What?”
“What have you got so far?”
A knot formed in my stomach and I pulled my lips into a tight smile. This would definitely be harder than I thought.
“B thinks whoever is behind this might be targeting the founding families,” Peyton said.
“Hmm…” River turned to face me and the golden tan of his skin made my mouth dry up. So much harder. “You could be onto something there.”
“Thanks,” I growled, “but didn’t need the reassurance.”
“Awesome, well, I think I found something you’ll want to see,” he said, brushing my attitude aside. “I took some of those books from the library home and I might have found a clue.”
Of course, you took them home. Because they’re yours, witch hunter! I wanted to scream. “What clue?” I asked instead.
“There was a reference to the original founders of the town so I ended up reading all night and found that whoever was here first might have left something behind.”
“Fae,” I thought aloud.
“Sorry, what?” River asked.
“The fae, or whatever,” Peyton answered before I could stop her. “Billie found mentions of them in some book in the Crystal Cauldron. Probably just an urban legend but both Grady and Lacey had ties to them so it might be worth looking into.”
“Were there any other student names that had the same family lines?”
“None that we could spot,” Peyton said, “but there were five blank spots at the top next to some female names. I didn’t recognize any of the last names though.”
I sighed, my face caught in a permanent frown. “We need to see those books you have.”
“Sure thing!” River grinned. “Let’s go.”
“Excuse me?”
He reached out for my hand but stopped himself before making contact. “They’re at my house, remember?”
Lovely.
“You guys go ahead, I told my dad I’d be home for dinner.”
There were no words to describe how deeply I wanted to slap my friend at that moment. Was she bat shit crazy? She couldn’t leave me alone with a witch hunter! Breathe, Billie, she doesn’t know he’s a hunter and she has no clue you’re a witch. Let it go and get the job done.
“Ugh, fine,” I murmured. “Let’s go.”
Peyton flashed us two thumbs up, turned around, and bolted up the trail. Her gladiator sandals kicked sand up as she ran and she was out of sight in seconds; leaving only me and River on the beach. My palms clammed and I fought the urge to run after my friend. I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I CAN’T DO THIS.
“Ready?” River asked, nodding to his car in the parking lot.
I peeled my gaze off him and glared at the trees, anything to avoid looking into his brilliant emerald eyes. “Let’s just get this over with.”
The Jury’s Still Out
Pulling up into River’s driveway was like entering the Secret Garden. The foliage lining the winding road that led to his home was so thick and wild, I could barely see through it. Flowers of every color sprouted from the ground and the trees, large and old, intertwined their branches into a formidable fortress of green and yellow. My jaw unhinged and I stared in abandon at the three-story house that unfolded before us when we drove through the main gates. It was like something out of a picture book.
Unlike the Chandler residence, which was modern despite a few detailed finishes, River’s house looked like a dollhouse. It had the same Victorian architecture as the other homes in Shadowhurst but different somehow, more gothic. Intricate woodwork stretched around every window and door, and the porch that sat at the front was sprawled with climbing vines that reached all the way to the attic’s windows. Much like many of the homes in Shadowhurst, River’s house was a vivid bright blue with a shingled roof in a more pristine condition than some new builds I saw back home. Around its wide base, an array of flowers spread from the grass and reached their colorful petals to the sun.
“Wow,” I whispered, mouth still gaping. “Your house is intense.”
Beside me in the driver’s seat, River chuckled and unbuckled his seat belt. “It’s… different. Ready for the tour?”
I was ready to get the hell out of there but I guess it couldn’t hurt to look around while I was here. I mean, I had to get information on him somehow so I had something to bring
back to the High Coven.
My eyes lit up and I jumped out, eager to see what this fairytale wonderland offered.
I followed River up the bend in the driveway and to the front door with a hop in my step like a kid that just got the video game she wanted for Christmas. All around me, the elements of the garden blasted through, seeping into my body, and riling my magic. Their sharp scents intertwined into a mixture unlike anything I’ve experienced before; it was like being in a department store’s perfume section but magnified tenfold. I breathed in, my senses locking on the lilacs to my right. My magic snapped to attention, reaching for the flowers’ element with such fury I thought I might implode. The air shifted and solidified over my palms and tears pooled in my eyes as I blinked away the bright lights that flooded my vision. The energy in the garden was so strong that I couldn’t decide what element to pull from first. The flowers, the earth, the cool breeze that whipped my hair back and forth? My body froze as I swallowed them whole and let their power flow through me. I wasn’t sure how much more teasing I could take and when River unlocked the front door, I almost ran him over in my urge to get inside. My skin tickled from the power I sucked in and I was so rejuvenated that I completely forgot whose house I was in.
One look around and I was back to my moody self.
The front hall was a complete opposite to what I had grown used to at the Chandlers’. It was tight and cozy, with picture frames lining the walls in random patterns; each one featured River at different ages of his life. My eyes locked on a photo of him as a baby in a toddler bath with foam standing upright on his head and I stifled a laugh.
“Ugh!” He grimaced. “I told her to take that down a million times.”
“Why?” I asked, “It’s cute.”
His face lit up and I fought the blush that crawled up my neck to my cheeks. It’s not cute, you moron. Witch hunters are not cute.
“Thanks.” River smiled, that damn dimple blocking my senses. “Come on, my room is this way.”
I froze. His room? We’re going to his room?
“Smooth…” I tried to joke but my nerves read through every word.
“It’s where the books are.” He arched an eyebrow and sneered. “Unless you’re thinking something else?”
“Just show me the books.”
I pushed past him and marched up the stairs to the second floor even though I had no idea where I was going. When I reached the landing, I scanned the hallway but all I could see were locked doors. What did you expect? A sign with his name on it? Maybe a little dinosaur picture to match? He’s not five. I groaned and turned back to him, shrugging my shoulders to let him know I had no time for games right now.
“One more floor,” he grumbled and led me to a spiral staircase at the end of the hall.
Step by shaky step, I followed him up, my eyes staying on the tips of my boots so I didn’t have to look up at his behind and pass out. It was a harder task than I imagined and by the time we reached his room—which I quickly realized was the attic—I had ground my teeth until my jaw hurt.
The room was smaller than I expected and I wondered why he chose this space over all the other rooms I knew were available in the house. It was just him and his mom living here, why not take a proper bedroom? When I looked around, I saw why. The attic was more what I would imagine a teen boy wanted for a hideaway. It was tucked away and out of sight—forgotten. There wasn’t much in the way of decor and unlike the rest of the place, River’s room left little to the imagination. All it housed was a bed, a small mahogany desk that perched under one of the three, circular windows, and a red beanbag chair covered in wrinkled shirts. Who even has beanbag chairs anymore? This guy is hopeless.
My ears perked up as the woodsy scent that was so River engulfed me. The entire attic smelled like him and I was having trouble keeping my thoughts together.
River threw himself on the queen-sized bed that still had tossed sheets from the night before and reached around to the nightstand. His shirt rolled up and I jerked my eyes to one of the round windows. Don’t think about his abs, don’t think about his abs, I recited and forced myself to inspect the garden below.
“That’s quite the backyard you have.”
Behind me, River slammed something on the floor next to his bed. “Yeah, my mom is into all that nature stuff, I guess. She spends every minute in that garden.”
“I can see why,” I murmured and turned to face him. “That the book?”
River nodded and scooted to the floor before patting the spot next to him. Hesitantly, I wavered over and sat down, making sure there was at least a foot of air between us. Even from the distance, I could smell his cologne and my toes curled just thinking about it. Oblivious to my torture, River flipped the pages of the book until he found what he was looking for. “This part here, see?”
I followed his finger to a passage that talked about creatures that stalked the humans in the dark. My eyes narrowed as I read over the paragraph a few times. Shadowers! This book referenced shadowers. My heart raced and there was so much spit gathering in my mouth that I had to swallow several times just to keep from drooling. So the witch hunters didn’t just want my kind dead. It relieved a part of me; at least now I knew they weren’t prejudiced against my people; these assholes wanted everything dead that wasn’t like them.
It was an odd stance to take, I knew that. Witches hated shadowers just as much and I never had a problem with that. But I didn’t want to have anything in common with River and the rest of the hunters; not after everything they’ve done to my people.
“You think this is about the fae? Like in that book you read?” River asked.
My face snapped up and I shot a confused expression his way. He had no clue that shadowers existed which meant there was a lot more he didn’t know. “Could be,” I lied and pulled the book into my lap. “I don’t see what clue you were talking about though.”
“Well, when I read this, it got me thinking. What if back in the day when the…” He paused and shifted his weight. “When the first hunters killed all those witches,” he continued and I swallowed the nausea that crept up. “What if they didn’t get them all?”
They obviously didn’t, you prick, or else I wouldn’t be here.
“Huh?” He nudged my side.
Shit! Did I say that out loud?
“What do you think?” River urged.
I breathed out in relief that my mouth hadn't betrayed me like the rest of my body tended to do when he was around. “I mean, maybe. So what?”
“I was thinking that if that’s the case and there were witches that were left undetected, they must have had kids. What if this killer is a hunter or something; trying to finish the job or whatever? It would explain the empty spots you saw in Grady and Lacey’s family trees. Maybe those spots were there for the witches?”
I turned his words around in my mouth before shaking my head. “No, those were fae. I just know it.”
“You think the fae exist?” He asked, baffled.
“Why not? You think witches exist,” I fired back. “Enough to learn to hunt them.”
River’s lips pressed together and he leaned his head back on the mattress. His wide chest rose and fell as he thought over what I said. “Yeah, well, the jury’s still out on that.”
“Meaning?”
“This whole hunter business, it’s kinda stupid. My mom pushed me into it since I was a kid and I hated it. I mean, it seems impossible to believe something like that, but she was so insistent. Honestly, I think that’s why my dad left. They always fought about it. Sometimes, I could hear them yelling in the kitchen even from all the way up here. Dad hated that she pushed me into it but she was adamant about it. She used to say ‘it’s good for a young boy to have hobbies’. I wanted to tell her that most guys my age played sports but after my dad left, I was all she had left. So whether I liked it or not, I had to keep doing it. Anything to keep her happy. Plus, it was kinda fun to learn all that stuff. And the physical training was a go
od workout.”
“Physical training?”
“Yeah. I guess hunting witches is hardcore exercise. Whatever that even means.”
“So you’re what? Some kind of ninja or something?” I laughed but my insides hurt just thinking about what he was saying.
River’s eyes met mine and for a second, I thought I saw him blush. “Sort of, I guess. I’ve been training to fight for so long, it’s almost second nature by now. You know, I used to try and show off my moves to my dad when I was a kid cause I really wanted him to be proud of me. Didn’t work. He left anyway.”
Just like that, I forgot who I was sitting next to. I couldn’t see the hunter or the person raised to want me dead. All I saw was a sad boy with a broken family and my heart tore for him. He didn’t choose this just like I didn’t choose who I was. I shook my head, forcing myself to snap out of it. No, we didn’t make the choice to be who we are, but that changed nothing. It’s where life landed us and I had to deal with that.
“You know, you’re right,” I whispered, “there might be something here. Fae or witch, real or not, something is hunting these kids. And I think we’re on to something following the family lines. Even if we don’t believe in the magic nonsense, the killer might, so we have to think like them.”
River laughed. “Someone’s been watching too much CSI…”
I was about to snap back with something clever when a head of blonde hair popped up through the attic’s small door. “River, honey, I was about to make—”
The woman that barged in on us straightened her back and eyed me suspiciously. From the protective glare behind her eyes, I knew without a doubt this was River’s mom and she was wondering what the weird girl was doing in his bedroom.
“Hey, mom!” River said. “This is Billie, we go to school together.”
Mrs. Hunting fumbled with a pearl button that held her prim, white suit secure. Her deep, brown eyes rolled over my slight form and I could see the wheels turning in her head. After a few long—and excruciating—seconds, she tossed her mid-length wavy blonde hair to the side and walked over, hand outstretched toward me.