The Witch Born to Burn

by Tanya Milne

  Ezra smiled, his teeth shining in the moonlight. ‘Thinks you’re perfect for me.’

  My head went light. ‘I don’t understand. You were forbidden from having a girlfriend,’ I said, remembering the force of Orpheus’s hate when I first met him and the lengths he would go to protect his only son.

  ‘I thought so too, but lately he’s changed his mind. Thinks I’ve been moping around home too much.’ He imitated his father’s voice. ‘A nice young lady, from a good, pure Christian family, you hear, might do you good.’

  I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

  ‘I think my mum might have something to do with it. She likes you, a lot.’

  ‘She does?’ I said, remembering back to the beautiful, fragile, trapped woman.

  ‘What’s not to like?’ he said.

  ‘How about that I’m a witch, for starters?’

  He laughed and ran his fingers through his hair.

  ‘His worst nightmare,’ I said.

  Ezra reached out and found my hand, and blood surged through me.

  ‘In his eyes, I’m evil,’ I said.

  He stepped towards me.

  ‘His nemesis,’ I said.

  He moved closer so that our bodies touched.

  ‘We can’t be together, Ezra.’

  He pressed his finger against my lips and silenced me. Deep inside me, desire twisted and turned, and when he drew me to him suddenly and pushed his lips against mine, I pulled him closer and kissed him back.

  He was everywhere – my lips, my face, my neck. We reached a point that I’d never been to before and I pushed him away, gasping.

  ‘Stop,’ I said. ‘We can’t do this. We’re not even together.’

  He watched me warily.

  ‘Don’t you see? For the first time, we can be together,’ he said.

  ‘But nothing has changed.’

  ‘Everything has changed. We don’t need to sneak around, and my parents really like you. I hope yours will like me too.’

  ‘Of course they would – they’re already incredibly grateful for how you helped Elijah.’

  ‘Well, then, what’s the problem?’

  ‘You seem to have forgotten that just…being me will put us all at risk.’

  His smile disappeared and I knew I’d hit the mark.

  I placed my hands over my heart. ‘I want to be with you, I do. But if we’re together, I’ll be under your dad’s scrutiny all the time. It’s only a matter of time before I slip up, and then what?’

  Ezra rested his warm hand over mine. ‘Everyone in this town is under my father’s scrutiny. If we’re together, he’ll look out for you and your family…protect you.’

  His words made me flush and for a moment, I pictured us together.

  ‘Hide right under his nose, remember?’ he said.

  ‘Until something goes wrong, and it will go wrong.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Um, like when he finds out I’m a witch.’

  ‘How will he find out, huh?’

  ‘I might slip up, one time. That’s all it’ll take.’

  ‘We’ll be careful.’

  ‘What if one of my family slips up? Game over.’

  ‘It’s true, they might, but they might slip up anyhow. At least this way, we can try and protect them.’

  ‘What if we break up? He’ll turn against me for sure.’

  ‘Break up? What would break us up? You planning to break my heart already?’

  Now he was smirking at me.

  ‘You might break up with me. Find a nice, normal girl.’

  He laughed as he stepped forward and slid his hand around the small of my back. I tried to swallow, but couldn’t.

  ‘He’s so old-fashioned, he might try and marry us off,’ he said.

  WHAT!!??

  He leaned forward and whispered in my ear. ‘Worse things could happen.’

  I wanted to pull away from him and set him straight, but like it or not, his words had made it through all my barriers, all my fears and straight into my heart.

  ‘I’ve never had a boyfriend before,’ I managed to muster, my voice sounding strange in my ears.

  He laughed quietly and nibbled on my ear. ‘Be my girl.’

  Every part of me was alive with feelings I’d never known. We were meant to be together. He was my destiny and I was his. No matter what we’d done to try and stay apart, we kept finding each other again and again.

  ‘Okay,’ I whispered, and he pulled away to gaze at me.

  The mist was surrounding us now, and the moonlight lit up his face, which was full of so many emotions that I read, one by one – jubilation, fear, desire, protectiveness. I cupped the side of his face with my palm.

  ‘You’re beautiful, did you know that?’ I said.

  He placed a hand over mine and closed his eyes. In that moment, I knew my feelings for him shifted past liking him towards something much bigger, much deeper and more lasting. I didn’t know then what it was, but in the days and months ahead, I would come to know exactly what that feeling was.

  When he opened his eyes, he turned his head slightly to the side, taking me in.

  ‘I want to remember this moment forever,’ he said.

  His words struck me, and I sat back and watched him, storing deep within myself every thought and feeling of mine, every look from him. Later, I would wonder whether his words had been a blessing or a curse, but in that moment, I became his and he became mine.

  Chapter Eight

  I was so used to sneaking in the back door that walking hand in hand with Ezra up my front stairs felt beyond strange. When we reached the patio, the automatic sensor light came on and I pulled my hand away from Ezra’s warm grasp.

  ‘We don’t have to hide anymore,’ said Ezra quietly.

  I gazed at my front door and listened to my family moving around inside.

  ‘Maybe not from your family,’ I said, then swallowed the lump in my throat as I pictured their faces when I told them Ezra, the son of our family’s mortal enemy, was my boyfriend.

  ‘I don’t want to keep us a secret,’ he said.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because you’re a terrible liar and I want to be with you morning, noon and night. Hiding our relationship will be impossible.’

  The sensor light clicked off and we were left in the darkness.

  ‘Are you ashamed of me?’ asked Ezra.

  I reached out and took his hand. ‘Not on your life.’

  ‘Well then?’

  ‘I know how they’ll react. Not long ago, I wasn’t even allowed to talk with you.’

  Ezra let out a long sigh. ‘You’re being a chicken?’

  I giggled. ‘Yep.’

  He leant in close and whispered in my ear. ‘The witch with fire in her hands is scared?’

  His lips found my neck and my breath became jagged. I pushed him away and the light came back on with our sudden movements. ‘Okay, okay, I’ll get this over with.’

  ‘We should tell them together,’ said Ezra.

  ‘What?’

  Footsteps inside started towards the door, and before Ezra could reply, my dad opened the door and glanced between us and then down at our hands, his eyes widening before he scanned the street.

  ‘You’d better come in,’ said Dad.

  Ezra stood still, looking at me.

  ‘Come on,’ I said.

  Together, we walked through my front door, ready as we were ever going to be to face the music.

  ‘Oh, Eva, where have–’ said Mum. She stopped as she took in Ezra and me. I wanted to snatch my hand away, but Ezra held it tightly.

  ‘What’s going on?’ said Elijah, who was sitting on the couch in the lounge room, watching the whole thing.

  I regarded my family, their questions and accusations stamped on their faces.

  ‘Eva?’ said Mum, her eyes fixated on our hands.

  ‘We need to talk,’ I stuttered out.

  ‘We?’ said Mum. ‘There’s a we?’
>
  ‘Mum, Ezra is right here.’

  Mum glanced at Ezra, who was watching me. Mum’s stare turned into a red-hot poker.

  ‘Can we at least sit down before the interrogation?’ I said.

  ‘Right,’ said Dad, gesturing to the couches in front of the fire.

  Ezra and I sat on the double couch and let go of each other’s hands. Across from us were my family, their faces set, their lips pressed together. I felt like a bunny frozen in the spotlight and my words wouldn’t form.

  ‘Eva,’ said Mum, her tone as sharp as a knife.

  I took a deep breath. ‘Look, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to tell you – Ezra is my boyfriend.’

  ‘What?’ said Mum. ‘We’ve been over this many times before – you both know it’s not possible.’

  I tried my hardest not to roll my eyes.

  ‘Do you think we don’t know the issues? That we came to the decision lightly?’ I said.

  The stone-cold eyes of my family turned my reasons for agreeing to be Ezra’s girlfriend from rock to liquid.

  ‘I’m sorry, but I just don’t understand,’ said Mum.

  I cleared my throat. ‘Well, for starters, we really like each other.’

  ‘In your case, I’m sorry, but that’s not a good enough reason, and you both know it,’ said Mum, dewy sweat appearing on her forehead as she turned to Ezra. ‘I can see you’re a very nice young man, and we’re incredibly grateful for the help you’ve given our family, but it’s not safe, for either of you. Your dad would never allow it.’

  I thought back to the long conversations I’d had with my parents when Elijah was recovering. I’d told them everything, even the fact that Ezra knew our family’s secret. They’d been devastated, but in the end had no choice but to accept it.

  I was so lost in my thoughts it took me a moment to realise Ezra was speaking.

  ‘I understand why you feel the way you do, but what you need to understand is that since that memory-altering potion, my parents have grown to like Eva – a lot. In fact, they’re both hoping that Eva will be my girlfriend.’

  Elijah started to laugh, and it took one of my death stares to make him stop.

  ‘I’m sorry, sis, but don’t you find this a little funny? I mean, the mortal enemy of our kind wants you to date his one and only son.’

  I narrowed my eyes at Elijah. ‘Not one bit.’

  Ezra spoke again, his voice calm, almost hypnotic. ‘I will never tell a soul your family secret, so my father will never know. And if Eva and I are together, it will help protect your family.’

  Elijah laughed again, but there was a trace of madness to his outburst.

  ‘I know where you’re coming from, son,’ said Dad to Ezra. ‘And if the situation were different, I’d be thrilled for you both, but don’t you think this is like playing with fire?’

  The truth of his words struck home, and my breath left me.

  ‘It would only be a matter of time before you got burnt, and then what? We’ve got nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,’ said Dad.

  Ezra gazed into the faces of my family and spoke quietly, yet with determination. ‘I would do anything to protect Eva…and all of you. Yes, we would need to be careful and it wouldn’t be without risk, but no one is safe these days. Wouldn’t it be safer if Eva and I were together? To help protect you.’

  ‘Hide right under his nose, remember?’ I whispered.

  A log from the fire crashed in the grate, but my family stayed still, wrestling with the lesser of two evils.

  Finally, Mum spoke up. ‘If anything goes wrong…’

  ‘The thing is Mum, we’ve tried not being together and it hasn’t worked. We keep coming back to each other, time and time again. We’re meant to be with each other.’

  Mum turned to face the fire and spoke, her voice laced with acceptance and sadness. ‘It’s fate bringing you together. Whatever happens now is meant to be.’

  I felt hot and cold all over. Would this decision that felt so right change the course of my family’s destiny? Would it protect us like Ezra said, or would it lead us into the epicentre of the fire?

  I locked eyes with Elijah, my twin soul. In them, I found my answer.

  ‘I say fight fire with fire,’ he said, the same words Violet from across the street had said to me in this same room. Elijah turned to Ezra. ‘But you must know we’ll do anything to protect Eva, and I mean anything. Can you live with that?’

  Ezra stiffened in the chair beside me. We all knew exactly what he meant, who Elijah would choose to look after if the going got tough.

  A gust of wind rattled the windows and Ezra took my hand.

  ‘Eva is my family now,’ said Ezra, looking up at my family. ‘And so are you – if you’ll have me.’

  For a few moments, the fire burned, the windows rattled, but no one said a word. My heart, my fragile heart, waited for the answer that would change the course of my life.

  Chapter Nine

  When I woke the next morning, sunshine was streaming into my attic bedroom. For the few moments between being asleep and being awake, I felt at peace, as though everything were as it should be.

  A sharp knock at the front door made me sit up, and the events from the day before, including Ezra becoming my first boyfriend, crashed down on me.

  I remembered back to the exact moment when my family decided to take a chance on Ezra and let him into our lives. There was something about the way Ezra had spoken that touched us all – a plea from his heart to ours to love him.

  After Ezra had left, we’d sat in stunned silence as the reality of what we’d agreed to overcame us.

  I listened to the muffled voices downstairs and wondered who our mystery guest was. Visitors had been rare since Orpheus had turned neighbour on neighbour. I stood and opened my bedroom door, then froze when I heard Max’s voice.

  It was as if the hands of time turned backwards to the day when Elijah was arrested and Max was in our house, hunting me. I slumped onto the cold timber floor as Max’s words floated up the stairs.

  ‘So, you’re telling me that no one, not one person, in your house is sick this morning?’ said Max, his every word terse and threatening.

  Oh no!

  ‘What’s going on, Officer? Why do you keep asking whether we’re sick?’ said Dad.

  ‘Most people in town have woken up violently ill this morning. So sick, in fact, that they needed to go to hospital.’

  The death cap mushrooms!

  ‘What?’ said Mum, her voice pitchy. ‘That’s terrible.’

  ‘Terrible for them – not for you.’

  I imagined the scene at the hospital, knowing how sick people would be.

  ‘Can we help in some way?’

  ‘Help?’ said Max.

  ‘Well yes, that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?’ asked Dad.

  ‘Not exactly,’ said Max.

  I pictured his beady pale brown eyes as he sized up my parents. ‘I’m visiting every house to make a report of who is and isn’t sick.’

  In other words, to see who may or may not be responsible for this.

  ‘Luckily for us, we’re all well,’ said Mum.

  ‘What about Eva?’ said Max. ‘I’d like to see her.’

  My breath abandoned me completely.

  ‘I don’t think that will be necessary, Officer,’ said Dad. ‘I’ll check on her and let you know. You know how teenagers can be on a Sunday morning.’

  I held my breath as I waited for Max’s reply.

  ‘No, I want to see her,’ said Max, walking inside our house. ‘Where’s her bedroom?’

  ‘With all due respect, I don’t think that’s necessary,’ said Dad.

  I glanced down at my frilly lace nightie, bare shoulders and legs.

  Move, Eva, move.

  ‘Christian, isn’t it?’ said Max.

  ‘Well, yes.’

  ‘Christian, I’m a member of the special police department and have full and absolute power to do what I like,
when I like. If I want to see Eva, I see Eva. Now step aside.’

  As Dad argued back, I found my legs, made myself stand. I pulled on my dressing gown and headed downstairs. Elijah was a few steps in front of me, and we arrived in time before Dad grabbed hold of Max.

  ‘Well, well, well,’ said Max, his sleazy gaze sliding over my body. ‘That wasn’t so hard, was it?’

  I pulled my silk dressing gown closer around me, wishing I’d grabbed my thick fluffy one.

  ‘What can I do for you, Officer McCann?’ I said.

  His gaze dropped to my chest, and I wrapped my arms around myself.

  ‘Officer?’ said Elijah, standing next to me.

  Max glared at Elijah, his eyes narrowing. ‘Elijah, isn’t it?’

  I glanced up at Elijah, whose face was the colour of ash, and I knew in that moment that Elijah hadn’t told me everything Max had done to him that night.

  ‘Yes, that’s right. Is there something we can help you with?’ said Elijah.

  Max looked at us in turn. ‘Quite incredible that none of you are sick.’

  ‘We are very lucky indeed,’ said Mum, her eyes like frozen ice. ‘Do you know what made people so sick?’

  ‘Poison,’ said Max, his gaze fixed on me. ‘They say someone has poisoned the whole town.’

  I made myself blink and let out a gasp.

  ‘That’s shocking,’ said Mum quickly.

  ‘Yes, it is shocking, Mrs Martinez, that someone would do something so terrible to their neighbours. I mean, who would do such a thing?’

  I tried not to swallow the lump in my throat as I remembered back to the night before, when I told Gretel about the death cap mushroom. Had she told the police? Just how much did Max know?

  ‘I can’t imagine anyone doing such a ghastly thing. Perhaps it was an accident,’ said Mum.

  ‘An accident,’ said Max, his eyes fixed on my mum. ‘How so?’

  Mum kept her voice even, but her neck flushed with colour. ‘I have no idea – I just can’t imagine anyone doing such a dreadful thing.’

  ‘Certainly no one who’s sick would have done it,’ said Max, his gaze flickering across my family.

  ‘There must be something we can do to help, Officer,’ said Mum.

  Max glanced down at his clipboard and made some notes. ‘Orpheus will be very interested to hear you’re all well, most particularly young Eva here.’