Witch Fall

by Amber Argyle

  “Chen has been using your sister and the others to fight back against Kalari,” he said.

  Lilette instinctively wrapped her arms around herself. “I know.”

  Han looked off in the direction Pescal had gone. “I don’t think this can go on much longer. The hope for peace grows more fragile with every passing day.”

  She caught sight of Pescal weaving through the gardens toward her and let out a tiny breath of relief. “What do you think will happen?” she whispered.

  Han watched Pescal, something dark crossing his face. “I don’t know.” He paused. “I’m surprised Doranna let you out here by yourself.”

  “I lost her.”

  Han cut her a glance. “Wastrels aren’t allowed in the gardens unless their services are called for. I thought you knew that.”

  Lilette wondered if Doranna had been searching for her all this time.

  Pescal arrived with light pastries and two cups filled with golden liquid. “I would have brought more if I’d known someone else was going to join us.” Despite his friendly words, their undercurrent clearly said Han was not welcome.

  Lilette wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but Han had already made his choice, so she remained silent.

  Han studied Pescal, his eyes glinting, and then he turned to Lilette. “You’ll be staying at Sash’s tree tonight?”

  Panic stabbed through her. She didn’t know where she was supposed to stay.

  He must have noticed her hesitation. “You know how to find it?”

  She mentally retraced the path. “Yes.”

  Han gave Pescal a hard look. “I’ll be waiting to see you arrive safely.” He turned and strode away without looking back.

  Pescal didn’t press the issue, just handed her the cup and guided her to a nearby tree. She drank the liquid eagerly. It tasted the way flowers smelled. Some layer of it was familiar, but she couldn’t place it. Delicious.

  Pescal handed her half of a pastry. The flakes dissolved in her mouth, and she licked the sugar off her fingers.

  Her body seemed to be waking up, every sensation magnified. The gentle caress of the wind felt enticing. Pescal stroked her arm, sending tendrils of fire through her blood. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, igniting a spark between them. “My tree isn’t far from here.”

  “Mmm,” she murmured, her eyes closed. Some part of her blared a warning, but it was overcome with the heat and the sensations.

  He helped her to her feet, his fingers trailing down her side to rest on her lower hip. Unable to help herself, she reached up and twirled his cowlick around her finger.

  He leaned down and breathed in her ear. “Come on, we’ll go out the back way. Less people to fight through.”

  Desire ripped through her, nearly making her gasp. “Yes.” She would go wherever he led her.

  “What are you doing?” Lilette whirled around to see Doranna rushing toward them, her face red and her gaze furious. “You know you’re not supposed to be out of my sight.”

  Pescal brushed his lips along Lilette’s ear, and fire pulsed in her lower belly. She just wanted Doranna gone. Now. “I’m all right with Pescal.” He chuckled and nuzzled her ear.

  Doranna shot him a murderous glare. “She’s an apprentice, and you know it. Your Lead will hear about this, I promise you.”

  He kept moving. “I’m just looking after her, making sure she finds somewhere to sleep tonight.”

  Doranna planted herself directly in their path. “No you aren’t, and no you won’t.”

  “Get out of my way, wastrel.” Pescal put an unnecessary amount of venom into the last word.

  Lilette pulled back, shocked at the hatred in his voice. “Don’t talk to her like that.”

  Pescal’s entire demeanor changed as he turned toward her—the meanness sucked back in like an oyster snapping shut. “Sorry, sweetling. I just want to do what’s best for you.” He stiffened as he turned back to Doranna. “You are excused.”

  Lilette ran her tongue over the roof of her mouth, her lips aching to be kissed. She pushed against him. “Let me go.”

  “It’ll be all right—better than all right,” he purred as his hold on her tightened. He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, and the fight drained out of her.

  “Let her go,” Doranna said tightly.

  A muscle in Pescal’s face twitched. “Get out of my way.”

  Doranna’s fist flashed out, connecting with Pescal’s temple. He staggered back, knocking Lilette down. He scrambled to his feet and lunged at Doranna, but she skipped out of his reach.

  “Guardians!” Doranna called. She rolled on the ground, coming up before Lilette, who was struggling to get on her feet.

  Within seconds, high-level guardians had converged, hands on their ornate swords. “What’s going on here?” one of them asked.

  Doranna pointed a shaking finger at Pescal. “This man is trying to take advantage of an apprentice.”

  Pescal tenderly touched his temple, which was already swelling. “She hit me! That wastrel hit me!” There was no denying the hatred now.

  They all turned to Lilette, whose emotions were so strong they made her shake. She wrapped her arms around herself to stop herself from stepping towards Pescal. “I–I think I’m going to be sick.” Her eyes locked with Doranna’s. “I need him,” she whispered. “Why do I need him?”

  “Creators’ mercy,” Doranna gasped. She gave Pescal a look that could flay the spines off a sea urchin.

  One of the guardians strode to Pescal and gripped the collar of his shirt. “You think you can get away with drugging a witch, boy?”

  He said nothing.

  Lilette was quaking with the urge to be touched. Licking her lips, she stepped toward the guardian. “Drugging me?”

  The guardian took a step back, dragging Pescal with him. “Can you get her home? I’d send some of my guardians with you, but . . .”

  Doranna gave a curt nod. “I’ll take care of her.”

  “Drugged me how?” Lilette asked. “What did he do to me?”

  Doranna took a firm grip on Lilette’s elbow and herded her toward the pavilion. “You were warned never to accept food or drink you hadn’t seen prepared.” Her words were soft, but they stung anyway. “You live among witches, child. Potions are easy to find—even the dangerous ones.”

  Tears pricked Lilette’s eyes. “It was Pescal—I trusted him.”

  “Come on. I have something that will help,” Doranna said. They left the gardens, passing a pair of guardians restricting those who could go in. Lilette found herself drifting toward the closest one.

  Doranna held firm to her arm. “Keep your gaze down—it will help.”

  Lilette stared at the ground. “I thought you couldn’t come into the gardens.”

  “Only if we’re called for.”

  “But I didn’t call for you.”

  Doranna didn’t respond.

  Inside the pavilion, only a scattering of food remained. Beyond, the crowd had thinned from a solid mass to clusters of witches who were far outnumbered by the wastrels still hard at work gathering pollen.

  “Where’d everybody go?”

  “Home, mostly. It’s after midnight, and the festivities continue tomorrow. The gates will be closed soon, and the rest will have to leave as well.”

  Even with her eyes downcast, Lilette knew where the men were. Not going to them was physically painful. She tried to concentrate on the discarded leaf plates crushing under her feet and giving off the smell of sap, which mixed with the honey smell of the chesli flowers. “Doranna, I—” She pulled free and bolted toward an older man, not caring about the woman on his arm.

  Doranna grabbed her arm and dug her heels in. “Han is waiting for us at Sash’s tree. He’s the one who sent me inside the gardens.”

  Lilette fixed her gaze on the path and started marching down it, not caring whom she passed. Han stood up from the table when she shoved the door open. She shot into his arms.

  He s
tumbled back, surprised. “What—”

  “Hold her,” Doranna said.

  Lilette buried her face in his chest and the pain ebbed away, but the desire flared up stronger than ever. She tried to stop her hands from tracing the bulk of his muscles. Tried and failed.

  He trapped her hands against his chest. “Lilette?” He pushed her back to look at her face. “What’s wrong with her?”

  Doranna was busy searching through the shelves and didn’t bother to answer.

  His gaze locked with Lilette’s, and his eyes widened. “Her pupils are solid black!”

  Lilette didn’t care. She tipped forward, brushing Han’s earlobe with the tip of her nose. Creators’ mercy, he smelled so good. “I want to taste you,” she whispered before licking his neck.

  He froze. “What did he give her?” His voice was deadly and cold.

  Doranna set down a half dozen clinking bottles. “A love potion.”

  “So she’s in love with him now!” Han roared.

  “She’s in love with the nearest man,” Doranna corrected as she poured ingredients into the bowl.

  “I’m going to kill him.” Han pulled away from Lilette just as her lips found his collarbones. She cried out and moved to follow him, her hands outstretched.

  “You leave and she’ll be out searching for someone else! I barely got her here.” Doranna added dried leaves and ground something in a pestle. “You can kill him later.”

  “Han.” Lilette’s voice was trembling. The smell of crushed herbs hung between them.

  He slowly shook his head. “I’m not sure if I’m strong enough.”

  “Please,” Lilette whispered.

  “You want me to find another guardian to keep her occupied until I can make this potion?”

  Han took one reluctant step toward her and another. And then he was holding her. She melted against him, his body next to hers sending a shock through her. She tipped forward and pressed her mouth to his neck, gently kissing him.

  He moaned. “Doranna, hurry.”

  Knowing his resolve was weakening, that she was close—so close—to having him touch her back, Lilette worked her way up his neck to his jaw. He looked at her, defeat in his gaze.

  She leaned forward and took his lower lip between her teeth, sucking gently. He moaned softly. Fire licked up Lilette’s middle before settling into a warm ember in her lower belly.

  “Try not to react,” Doranna said.

  Lilette chuckled on the inside. He’d already let go of her hands, and she was making good use of them, pulling up his tunic to run her hands across his broad chest. “Han,” she whispered in a breathy voice. “Don’t you want to touch me too?”

  With a groan, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her—kissed her like she’d always dreamed he would, with no taste of goodbye, no regrets. Just need and want and the promise that he’d never leave.

  Then Doranna shoved him. “Hey! She’s had the love potion, not you.”

  Gasping for breath, Han pressed her forehead against his neck. “If you don’t give her something, we’re both going to be in trouble.”

  “Lilette, drink this.”

  She was too busy with her hands to listen.

  “Lilette, drink it,” Han begged.

  She smiled against his skin. “Only if you promise me something.”

  “What?” His voice was low and gravely.

  “Promise to come upstairs with me.”

  He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down.

  “It’s all right,” Doranna said. “Promise her.”

  “I promise.”

  Without looking at the other woman, Lilette held out her hand. Doranna placed the mortar in her palm. Lilette wrinkled her nose at the sharp smell of crushed herbs mixed with some kind of liquor and tipped back the mortar, nearly gagging as the sludge crawled into her mouth. Her throat burned and her eyes watered. She scrubbed her tongue along the ridges at the top of her mouth to try to clear out the taste.

  She started to put down the mortar, but Han tipped it up. Just the pressure of his fingers on hers was enough to convince her to finish the rest.

  Once it was gone, Doranna took it from her and collapsed on a chair.

  “What does it do?” Han closed his eyes as she took his earlobe in her mouth.

  Doranna rubbed her face. “Something to make her sleep and something else to counteract any potion.”

  Lilette felt dizzy. She pulled back to look at Han, but her vision had gone fuzzy. A sudden lethargy weighed down her limbs. “You promised,” she reminded him.

  Doranna waved him off. “Go on. She won’t do anything but sleep anyway.”

  “Come on.” Cupping her elbow, he guided toward the stairs. Her body was heavy and light all at once. Han gave a grunt of frustration before scooping her into his arms.

  She nestled her head against his chest as they wound up the stairs. “Han?”

  “Hmm?” he grunted as he maneuvered her feet first into a room.

  “I think you’re in love with me.” His arms tightened around her and she sighed against him. “You shouldn’t be. It’s very dangerous to love me.”

  He eased her onto a mattress of rushes and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I know,” he whispered against her skin.

  But Lilette was already dreaming, and his words burned to ashes that blew away before she could capture them.

  Chapter 29

  I would have done things differently had I known it was the last time I would see my mother and my home. ~Jolin

  Lilette woke choking on her own scream. She shot up in bed, her heart pounding hard enough to bruise her ribs. Her head felt like it was full of boiling water. She twisted in bed just in time to vomit all over the floor.

  Doranna was by her side in an instant. “What’s wrong?”

  Lilette pressed the back of her wrist to her mouth and swallowed to keep from vomiting again. “Hassacre.”

  Doranna reared back and squinted out the window. “This close, if the witches were singing, we would hear them.”

  Lilette’s head pounded in rhythm with the horrible twisting around her. She pressed her fists over her ears and moaned. “Where’s Han?” Creators’ mercy, had she really thrown herself at him like that?

  “Downstairs.” Doranna rested a hand on Lilette’s back. “Has it ever been this bad?”

  “No.” Lilette struggled to smooth out the waver in her voice. She would not cry. “This isn’t the shifting of the elements to turn the seasons against themselves. This is using the elements as weapons.”

  “But you’ve felt that before.”

  Lilette nodded. “So why is this time different?”

  Doranna’s eyes widened. “The potion I gave you last night, it would have cleansed the sleeping tincture from your body.”

  “Creators help me, I cannot bear it!” Lilette pushed herself to her feet and started forward. She had no idea where she was going, only that the world was screaming its death cry and she had to stop it.

  She stumbled down the stairs. Near the door, Han was sitting up, his gleaming chest laced with scars, some white with age, others a livid pink. Creators’ mercy, she’d felt them last night.

  “What’s wrong?” He blinked up at her.

  Lilette couldn’t look at him. But what had happened between them didn’t matter, not right now.

  Doranna quickly filled him in while Lilette started toward the door. Han pulled his tunic over his head and grabbed his weapons and knives, struggling to juggle them while buckling them on. “Are they sinking Harshen?” he asked. His gaze locked with Lilette’s, and her resolve hardened within her.

  “If they are, I’ll make them pay.” She wrenched open the door and trotted down the steps. The chesli flowers were still open, moths and other night insects dancing from one to the next. But the people were gone. “Where is everyone?”

  “They clear them out of the inner city after the witchling hour.”

  Using her witch sense, Lilette led them uphil
l, toward the source of the discord. “It’s nighttime—why isn’t it raining?”

  “It never rains during the chesli harvest,” Doranna said.

  The closer they got, the worse the hassacre became. Lilette pitched forward and vomited bile into the foliage at the side of the path.

  Han stood beside her. She held out a hand, trying to keep him away from the sight of her spitting vomit.

  “Can’t you help her?” he pleaded with Doranna. “Surely there’s some kind of tincture.”

  Lilette shook her head. After what Pescal had done to her, she would never take a tincture again. She spit into the bushes and dropped her voice to a whisper. “Why? Why have you turned away from me—after everything we’ve been through?” She shouldn’t care about this now, but she had to know.

  “Turned away . . .” His gaze darkened. “Is that what he told you?”

  She realized that Han hadn’t even seemed to recognize Pescal last night. Pescal had lied about everything.

  “I’m going to find him. And I’m going to kill him,” Han growled.

  Doranna picked a handful of mint leaves and handed them to Lilette. “Suck on these.”

  Shoving them into her mouth, she let go some of her shame about how she’d acted last night. It wasn’t her fault. And she hadn’t lost Han. She took hold of his arm. “Come on. People are dying. Creators help me, I can feel their screams.”

  She staggered forward, picking up speed until she was running. Finally, they stepped into the ring of power. But it was empty. Lilette gripped the hair at her temples. “I don’t understand.”

  Doranna took a step toward her. “Child, you have a lot of potions in your body. Perhaps—”

  “No!” Lilette gasped for breath. “I know what I feel.”

  “Lilette,” Han began. “There’s no one here.”

  She turned a full circle in the moonlight. “Yes, they are. I can feel it.” She closed her eyes and spread her witch sense. The wind tugged at her hair, bringing with it the smell of something burning. And as surely as she knew this chanting was destruction made audible, she knew it was directed at Harshen. And it was the strongest at the tree beside them.