His golden eyes should’ve been a dead giveaway. Who owns such pretty golden orbs for eyes? And the way he looked at me as he mentioned my blood this morning...I should’ve known.
“Are you afraid?” his intense gaze entrapped me, “Are you afraid of me, Lili?”
The question felt like pressure on my chest. I can hear the fork and knife in my hands still shaking uncontrollably.
A sudden explosion interrupted the heavy air of the conversation.
The door flew open, revealing Dain covered in sweat. He looked like he came from a marathon.
He was heavily panting, trying to catch his breath when he said, “They’re here.”
Who’s they? Where’s here?
Bran stood from his seat with a grim expression.
“Zoren, take Liliwen out the back door,” he said in dead seriousness without even glancing in the butler’s direction.
“What? What’s happening?” I stood up as he follows Dain to who knows where without responding to my panicked question.
Zoren, once again, appeared beside me without any sound. He gestured to go to the direction opposite of where the duo went, and I followed him through the carpeted corridor connected to different rooms. Outside the windows, black smoke was climbing to the sky from the west wing.
It was the direction where Bran and Dain were headed.
My heart sunk with worry.
“You need not worry, Ms. Alwyn. They will be fine.” I didn’t realize Zoren had stopped walking ahead of me.
He looked unfazed by the sight of flames crawling through the other part of the mansion. I know this mansion is huge, a blaze of any kind is something that should cause concern.
Not to Zoren. He looked perfectly calm.
“What’s happening, Zoren?” I couldn’t help but voice the unsettling anxiety that found its way to my chest.
“An intruder simply managed to get in. We should get going,” he briskly walked ahead of me as I try to comprehend what he said.
Simply? Nothing should be as simple as that!
“Then, Bran and Dain...?”
He stopped on his tracks and turned to me with unemotional eyes.
“As I said, you need not worry. They have all that is needed to handle this.”
Zoren turned on his heels in such a swift motion I almost missed it.
As he started walking again, I heard steady confidence in his voice, “They have the blood and the moon on their side.”
Chapter 4
Moonlight Lake
The quiet butler quickly led me through halls and corridors. Eventually, we came down the stairs leading to the basement.
Zoren twisted the key in the knob of a metal door standing in front of us. Despite how heavy it looked, it made no sound when my current companion opened it. He gestured for me to come in with a slight bow. The darkness looming inside the room set engulfed me, and fear took root inside my heart.
Something wasn’t right. I could feel it in my slowly healing gut
“It is motion-activated, Ms. Alwyn. The lights will turn on once you get inside,” Zoren explained, correctly reading the look of horror in my face. It wasn’t the perfect explanation, but it was enough to get me moving. The lights turned on when I stepped inside, and for a moment, I felt relieved. The room was empty, but there was a passage that led to what looked like a dungeon.
My guide passed by me then proceeded to walk ahead of me as he turned on the flashlight. I hadn’t noticed he had until just now. The narrow passage was dark. The lights in the room turned off immediately as we got inside the pathway with aged bricks as walls and a cement floor.
“You mustn’t panic. This place will not eat you.”
They always knew exactly what not to say.
“I understand that you’re scared. But this place is your sanctuary. It is, in fact, home to you,” he continued to walk forward without sparing me a glance yet somehow, his words were comforting.
A home?
Something about that felt oddly comforting to me. I didn’t question the possibility of it being false. I had felt a strange connection all day.
“Where are we going?” my voice bounced off the narrow walls.
“We’re going out,” he briefly answered.
Another explosion.
The place shook with stones and dust falling to the ground on impact.
Zoren, continued to walk, brushing away dust that hadn’t yet settled on him, from his shoulders.
The passage led to a room with stairs with only a brick wall atop and a lever.
Once we passed the doorway, Zoren pulled a door from the side and locked the latch on it, blocking it entirely. Even though he seems unbothered, he’s relatively cautious, and this somehow makes me feel more secure.
He led the way climbing through the stairs then pulled down the lever once we reached the top.
The wall moved and slid to the side, revealing a secret door leading to another dark room.
The room was small enough to fit five people. At the end of it, was a ladder, which was illuminated by moonlight seeping through a tiny hole in the trap door above it.
The rich sure love their underground passages and secret doors.
He climbed the metal ladder waiting with an incredible speed that didn’t reflect his age, despite his grey hair. At the top of the ladder, he unchained the trap door from a latch and pushed it open.
Not having any other options, I climbed the ladder cringing at the echo of clanking metal in the distance.
WE WERE GOING DEEP into the forest. Behind us, smoke rose to the heavens as raging flames rapidly devoured Penrhyn Mansion.
The mansion seemed to scream as it slowly crumbled to the ground.
We might’ve escaped the danger, but Bran and Dain were still out there. I hoped they were still out there. That seemed better than the alternative.
They could be gone.
I shut my eyes to stop myself from thinking about it. I had no real choice but to move forward as the stoic butler leads me deeper into the woods.
As we tread a path, I start to have visions of the same place in my mind. I felt like I had walked this path before.
The chirping of the crickets filled the silence of the forest. The silhouette of the trees triggered a memory.
My dream...
The vivid dream I had on the last night before my birthday...
If what I’ve concluded was right, then this path leads to...
I looked straight ahead, passed the walking butler ahead me.
And there it was, as clear as untouched water... the lake.
I was frozen in place.
What in the name of heavens is going on?
“Ms. Alwyn?” Zoren’s quiet voice brushed by my ear.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Was it not a dream? Was it another stolen memory?
My feet seemed to move on their own and I found myself in the open space to have a better view of the glimmering lake. I could hear Zoren coming just behind me.
The moonlight glittered on the peaceful water. The fireflies danced while the lilies ride their pods above it. It was a breath-taking sight. But it was also one to puzzle me.
“I’ve been here before,” I say, particularly to no one.
Still, the butler offered me an answer, “Yes, you have.”
I turned to him with a gaze that searched for more explanation. But he only looked at his wristwatch.
“He should be here by now,” he spoke mostly to himself, his voice barely a whisper.
“Who should be here?” the female voice caught our attention, and from behind us, Ryia emerged from the line of trees.
She wears an all-red suit with a pair of heels in vibrant red. The expression in her face tells me she’s not here to for a late-night dip in the gorgeous lake behind us.
Zoren stepped in front of me in defence. His right hand reached for something under his coat before daggers started flying towards Ryia.
Ryia looked almost off
ended as she waved her hand, stopping the daggers mid-air before they fell to the ground. For the first time tonight, I saw something other than unreasonable calmness in Zoren, as his back tensed... and with good reason.
Ryia’s magic is a force to be reckoned with. At least, that’s what I can recall from the memories I have now.
Zoren took a couple of steps forward, which transitioned into a full dash ahead and unsheathes another dagger from his cloak and launches fully with what I am sure was an intention to do some considerable damage. His efforts are futile. Red energy started materializing in the palm of Ryia’s hand before she hurled them at the butler. Zoren surprised me with his speed and agility as he quickly dodged her assaults.
When he’s near enough her, he jumped and flew towards Ryia to swing at her. But she was also quick enough to set an invisible barrier surrounding her being.
The dagger hit the barrier and deflected in a strong force that pushed Zoren back.
His brows pulled into a crease, and his eyes were full of hostility.
“I can’t believe they had an incompetent moron like you guard my sister. This is all too easy,” if there’s one thing I knew to be true about this woman... whoever she was, was that she doesn’t hold anything back in a fight. From the protection of the invisible barrier, she hurled wave after wave of Arcane force towards the Zoren.
I misunderstood the nature of her lies. I thought she was only posing as an Arcane Witch. I hadn’t expected that she would really be endowed with the abilities of one.
That’s because you’re still thinking of her as a White witch.
A Guardian is the chameleon of witches. They are abe to assume the role of any witch and fully tap into their power source.
This is not going to be good for Zoren.
I have to think of a way to help him.
I tried my best to chant the street spell I used against Dain in a murmur.
I know this won’t do much damage, but I can at least give Zoren an opening.
But before I could finish the first set of the incantation, I felt an invisible force hold me in place.
“Just settle down for a bit there, dear sister. I will handle this on my own,” she smirked at Zoren, who is now having a hard time dodging every wave of energy thrown at him.
Ryia completely misread my action as an attempt to help her.
That’s right! She doesn’t know. She still thinks she erased and replaced all my memories.
She’s preventing me from doing anything because she’s using this chance as a moment of glory for her, an opportunity to display how powerful she is as I stand here helpless.
Just the way she likes me!!
There were fragments in my memories that showed how she displayed her remarkable capability as the different kinds of witch she pretended to be.
She might not really be any of those, but she did exhibit weaponry and magical prowess that was far beyond average.
A red translucent whip formed in Ryia’s hand, which she wasted no time using. The whip lashed towards the dodging butler with a deadly crash as it zipped through the black night.
Zoren might’ve dodged the whip, but in doing so, he was unable to see waves of Arcane force coming at him from other directions. The dominant force threw him into the trees, and the impact knocked him unconscious.
She scoffed in his direction and was headed towards me when another dagger flew her way.
She was caught off-guard, but she instinctively dodged, causing the dagger to graze her arm. The perfectly ironed fabric of her sleeve ripped, and fresh blood poured down her limb.
Oh, no. Ryia is almost definitely going to kill him this time.
Zoren managed to prop himself up despite the wounds and bruises on his face and all over his body. His slicked hair fell to the forehead. Blood trickled from a cut above his brow down to his ageless face.
He was holding his left arm covered in blood as he was limping towards his opponent.
My racing heart inside my chest threw itself against my chest in a desperate plea for mercy.
No. Please don’t. Stop.
At this rate, he won’t be able to take Ryia’s rage. The woman was fuming with so much anger a thick arcane aura completely cloaked her figure.
She’s going to destroy him.
But he has nerves of steel. He’s never going to back down.
He kept going towards her, occasionally throwing daggers from under his suit. All failed to even reach the angered witch.
Ryia had enough of it. She stood still as she accumulated an abundance of scarlet energy around her.
In an instant, the massive energy bolt was released without so much a wave of her finger, and it made its way to Zoren, who was no longer able to move from where he was.
His worn and battered body was flung through the forest. I could hear him whipping through trees. He would be severely broken if he even survived.
I couldn’t see him anymore.
No!
After a few minutes of waiting for him to emerge again from the trees, Ryia smiled to herself and nodded with satisfaction before walking towards me. She wreaked of arrogance and victory.
I kept looking back to where she had thrown Zoren just now, silently willing him to reemerge. I realized at that moment that I didn’t even know what he was.
Whatever he is I hope he can heal
I desperately wished he’d stand up once again. But only smoke of dust appeared in his wake.
It can’t be.
He’s not dead, is he?
My mind feared the worst.
Please no.
Ryia was still walking towards me when the sound of an opening portal vibrated through the air. She stopped in her tracks with wide eyes at something behind me.
If only she would release me from this invisible prison, I could turn to see what it was.
A familiar relaxed voice spoke beside me, “You really think a bunch of baloneys were enough to keep us distracted? You’re not giving us too much credit.”
In my right peripheral view, I could see a big werewolf on all fours baring its fangs with a snarl.
There was a cold touch in my nape that wore off whatever it was that kept me from moving.
I turned to my right and see a smiling Bran with vampire fangs out. On my left, Dain in his full werewolf form.
Relief washed over me, and I could feel my tears well up in my eyes. I wanted to jump at the fanged duo in the joy of seeing them alive.
But I did my best to hold back any emotions I felt, especially in front of the woman who still thinks I’m on her side.
The duo stood in front of me protectively as they face Ryia whose face was contorted with utter disgust.
“You’re both alive,” I managed to whisper to their backs, my voice trembling.
Bran gave me a quick glance and winked, “Of course. We wouldn't simply hand you over to such a rotten witch.”
Chapter 5
Scarlet Moon
“What have you done?”
The question, however, was directed to the duo who had appeared out of the portal that disappeared the moment they stepped out.
I stare in cold frozen dread at the woman standing before me. My pale-faced blood-sucking friend seemed to be ignorant of the scarlet witch’s rage as he carelessly taunted her.
“We only knocked your friends unconscious...forever,” he offered her the same smirk that up until right now drove me crazy.
The woman’s brow twitched, and her jaw visibly clenched. I could see veins popping out of her temples.
Whoever it was that they ‘knocked unconscious’ was probably very important to her.
Not a good idea.
She had already taken out Zoren, and she didn’t seem against the idea of taking them both out too.
Dain didn’t want to feel left out, so the enormous beast started marching on his four legs towards her. He gradually picked up a faster pace until he began sprinting.
This was a fatal déjà vu. I
had just witnessed Zoren do the very same thing, and it did not work.
As I had predicted and feared, the werewolf lunged at the unfazed witch standing still.
Her eyes had become blood red, and with just one bat of an eye, a slicing force was thrown to the beast in the air.
A scream climbed up my throat.
No.
I shouldn’t be giving myself away now. There shouldn’t be any hints that would make Lili realize which side I am on now.
I still have to put up the act of being her helpless little sister.
Especially at this moment when she’s out for blood.
I watched as the arcane force charged at full speed to slice Dain in half.
In the nick of time, a portal opened just in front of where the large canine was lunging, hurling him to it and transporting him to the ground where he was out of the force’s path.
The blade-like force vanished to the heavens. The werewolf shook his head as he tried to recover from the unexpected fall. Before Dain could turn his head to the witch, another force blade was already hurled towards him.
Bran was fast enough to summon another portal in front of his ally to deviate the arcane force’s direction somewhere else. As it was released to the forest, one straight line of trees split into halves. It’s apparent evidence that anything that will stand in its way would be cut down
The power this woman displayed so far was something far more than any Arcane Witch possesses. In the faintness of my memories, I could remember encountering genuine witches governing the arcane arts with prowess above any other kind of witches.
But Ryia...
Her ability might be the apex among real Arcane Witches.
Even at this moment, I can’t help but be awed by her talent. The bubbling envy in my chest has been there for as long as I can remember. The feeling of the high regard I have right now is proof that if nothing else, the jealousy for her undeniable capability inside my troubled insecure mind was real.
Ryia was quick to figure out that her current offensive style was ineffective with how the duo worked. She set her eyes on Bran, standing just a few meters from me. Bran did not show any sign of yielding. He stood his ground, holding her gaze as a challenge and in a silent proclamation of war. He, like Zoren, would not go down without a fight.
Arcane Witch's Powers: Short Stories - Witch's Cursed Circle Series Page 3