by Nadia Heaton
“Things didn’t improve for me as their relationship progressed. I was in love with Mirabelle as much as Jacob was. One summer, a year after they’d started dating, the three of us went on a vacation together. Jacob wasn’t a jealous lover. He was happy to share. He and I spent many a night worshipping Mirabelle’s body together.
“That should have satisfied me, but it didn’t. Being with her only made me want her more. I wanted her to myself. One evening, I asked to speak with her. The two of us walked away from the cabin where we were staying, to a cliff overhanging the ocean. I told Mirabelle about my feelings for her. I told her that I wanted her to leave Jacob and be with me.”
Ariana listened, spellbound. She’d never heard Rashid talk about his past before. She’d heard many tales of his adventures as a vampire over the last decade or so, but never anything about his life as a human. She had actually assumed that Rashid had been born a vampire like her, given the lack of any information about his human life.
“Mirabelle didn’t feel the same way. She told me that she loved Jacob, and that she wanted to be with him. I was desperate to get her to listen, to understand. I grabbed her arm, intending to spin her around, to make her look at me. I wouldn’t have hurt her, but I guess it didn’t look like that to Jacob.
“He saw what was happening and ran over to defend Mirabelle. He pushed me away from her, and I tripped. I fell over the edge of the cliff, into the ocean below. I tried to swim, but I’d never been a great swimmer, and I was shocked and startled by the sudden fall.
“The waves pulled me under. I knew I was too deep to get back up again without another breath. In that moment, I accepted my death. Manta rays were swimming all around me. I didn’t take much notice until one of them turned into a human. He bit me…”
Rashid trailed off, lost in memories. Ariana almost wished she wasn’t hearing this story. She knew that a lot of people’s experiences of being turned weren’t pleasant ones, but hearing such a horrible tale firsthand was far from fun. Rashid seemed to shake himself from the memories haunting him and continued.
“Once I was turned, I had to feed, but as soon as my thirst was satisfied, I returned to Mirabelle and Jacob, to apologize. I didn’t tell them what I had become. Jacob was a vampire hunter, after all, and would have killed me in an instant if he knew.
“Mirabelle suspected there was something different about me, but she never said anything. Needless to say, both she and Jacob felt horrible about the incident. We spent a few more nights together, but then the vacation came to an end.
“After that, Mirabelle started drawing away from me. I think some part of her knew what I was, but she didn’t want to admit it to herself. I still loved her, but I knew that we could never be – a witch and a vampire is a match that can never work, or at least so I thought at the time.”
Rashid glanced at Fleur and Savion, and Ariana knew what he was thinking. Had he and Mirabelle been able to overcome their ingrained prejudices, everything may have turned out differently. Ariana still wasn’t sure where she came into this, but she listened raptly all the same.
“It was six months later when I next heard from Mirabelle. She called, telling me she was in trouble and needed help. Naturally, I dropped everything and went to her. I found her alone, six months pregnant. Jacob had been killed by vampires, and she didn’t want to admit to her family that she had gotten herself pregnant out of wedlock.
“I stayed with her throughout the remainder of her pregnancy. Every day, I wondered who the father of the child was. Based on the timing, it was clear that conception had happened during the time the three of us spent together. It could have been mine or Jacob’s.
“As she got closer to her due date, I started doing some research. If the child was mine, and if it had been conceived after I became a vampire, it too would be a vampire. I knew I couldn’t allow Mirabelle to raise that child, if that was the case. She was a witch and hated all vampires by default, even more so after they had killed Jacob.
“When the child was born, my worst fears – and deepest hopes – were realized. I could see at once that the little girl was mine, and that she was a vampire. I had everything planned. I whisked the baby away, hiding her. I told Mirabelle the girl had been a stillborn. I sent the child off to my estate and stayed to comfort Mirabelle. Before long, she left, preferring to mourn alone. I returned, and set about arranging the child’s future.
“I knew that if I raised her myself, it would be unavoidable that she would one day find out about who her mother was. No one deserves a burden like that – a vampire, knowing they’re born to a witch. I had her moved around the globe, letting different vampires raise her. I watched from the background. I hope it was a good life…”
Rashid’s eyes slowly turned to Ariana. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t know what else to do. I only wanted your happiness.”
Ariana’s knees were weak as she stared at him. She was so shocked that the world seemed to narrow down to a single point that ended in Rashid’s face. She was vaguely aware of Julio supporting her with a tight arm around her waist. If not for that, her legs probably would have given out.
She didn’t know what to feel. Part of her was shocked and angry at Rashid for keeping all this from her, but as she looked at him, as she saw the pain and regret laid bare on his face, Ariana found she couldn’t hate him. He’d been wrong, but she believed Rashid when he said he only wanted her to be happy. Judging by how she felt now, growing up with the knowledge that she had a witch as a mother would have been every bit as much of a burden as Rashid had feared.
“You’re… my father.” She tested the words out, liking how they felt on her lips. Rashid nodded, his expression torn between worry and hope. Julio let off a few butterflies, startling Fleur and Tristan, who both stared at him. Tristan seemed enchanted by them. She held out her hand, letting a bright blue butterfly land on it.
Ariana tore her eyes away from Rashid. The butterflies reminded her of her primary mission here – getting Julio’s voice back. She clung to her mission like a lifeline. Everything she had found out made Ariana feel ungrounded, like she was falling through space with none of the familiar handholds to catch her.
This, at least, was something she could focus on. “What about Julio?” She turned to Lisette. “Have you found a way to break the spell on him?”
Lisette sighed. “Not yet, I’m afraid. It’s very complicated, undoing another witch’s work, and Mirabelle is one of the most powerful witches out there. It may take some time.”
“Maybe not as much time as you think.” Fleur stepped forward slowly, her eyes flicking between Ariana and Julio. “Ariana is a witch, too, even if she’s never learned to use her powers. That makes four of us here directly related to Mirabelle who can perform magic. I think if we combine our powers, we may be able to break the spell by sheer force, rather than trying to untangle it, which as you said, would take a while.”
Ariana didn’t much like this idea. “I can’t use magic. I’m a vampire.”
“Vampires have magic too,” Rashid reminded her. “I’m prepared to bet that you’ve already used your witch magic at some point, but you simply mistook it for vampire magic.”
Ariana wanted to reject the entire theory, but Fleur’s next words made her reconsider. “If you’d like, we can keep working on a way to unpick the magic, but that could take several weeks, and if you help us, we could probably get Julio’s voice back now.”
Julio took Ariana’s wrist, and she looked at him, already ashamed of her protests. What was more important than getting Julio’s voice back?
Instead of looking offended, he smiled and shook his head at her. He traced out words on her palm. I can wait.
Ariana’s heart filled with something she couldn’t name as she looked at him. Of course, Julio would rather go weeks more without being able to speak than have her do something she wasn’t comfortable with.
“No, I’ll do it,” she told him. “I’m just being silly. This
is a part of me, even if I didn’t know it before. It can’t hurt me.”
Julio shook his head again, but Ariana put a hand to his cheek, stopping the motion. “I want to hear your voice,” she told him quietly. She felt a deep connection to Julio, despite having only known him a short time, and Ariana needed to put a voice to the words in her head.
Finally, he nodded. He squeezed her hand, shooting a concerned look at the witches, then back at her. He made a pausing gesture with his hands, which Ariana understood to mean that if she needed to stop at any time, he would be okay with it.
Oh, she wanted to kiss this man. That could wait for later, though. For now, Ariana wanted to get Julio’s voice back.
“Alright.” She fixed Lisette with a determined gaze. “How do we do this?”
21
It took a lot of willpower for Ariana to squeeze her eyes shut and allow Lisette to take a firm grip on her upper arm. She’d never been teleported by a witch before, and she wasn’t particularly keen on it now, but Lisette assured her it would be faster.
The sooner they got this over and done with, the better. Ariana couldn’t do anything about how she was born, but that didn’t mean she had to use her witch powers ever again after Julio had his voice back.
Julio clutched her hand as Tristan did the same with him. When Ariana opened her eyes, the scenery had changed completely. Rashid, Savion, Jermaine and Nobu were gone – they had remained at the beach, planning to patrol the seas in case Mirabelle tried anything in her submarine.
Ariana knew that she and Rashid had to talk at some point, but Julio came first. Besides, this would give her time to figure out what she wanted to say to him. She didn’t quite know what to do with all the information she’d been given.
She eyed the witches warily. Ariana trusted Lisette – she was the queen of the vampires, after all – but was less sure about her witch sisters, even though she now knew that they were her cousins. Fleur and Tristan gave her space, setting up a variety of candles, crystals and other similarly witchy things.
Ariana and Julio hung back, watching. Lisette came over to explain. “We need to conduct a ritual to break the spell on Julio. First, I’ll zone in on the magic holding back his voice, then we’ll all use our own magic to push against it. Together, we should be able to break the spell.”
“I don’t know how to use my magic.” Ariana now wished that she’d focused more on learning to harness vampire magic, but she’d never been a fan of it, thinking it too similar to what witches did. If only she’d known.
“I know. I’ll show you. Here, take this rock. Now, you need to focus on it. Look at it, and send all of your energy inside it. Magic is really just energy, redirected by our minds.”
“I thought witches needed incantations to use magic.”
“We do for spells, but that’s more advanced. Right now, I’m just trying to show you how to access your power. Manipulating it into spells is a whole other field, which I can teach you if you’d like, but in this case, it’s not necessary. Here, what will break the curse on Julio is a mixture of brute force and the power of our blood, since we’re all related to Mirabelle.”
Ariana nodded, not responding to Lisette’s offer to teach her magic. She suspected she would offend her half witch queen if she admitted that she’d sooner cut off her own hands than use them to cast magic that stemmed from witch ancestry.
She stared at the rock, trying to transfer her energy to it. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. Ariana knew that Rashid hadn’t been lying, but she still found it hard to believe that her mother was really a witch. Connecting with that part of herself was going to be difficult.
“Lisette, we need you over here.” Fleur switched places with Lisette, perching on top of a broken stone wall to watch Ariana struggle with the stone. Ariana tried to put aside her uneasiness. It was clear that Fleur and Tristan were committed to helping her break the spell on Julio. They weren’t the enemy here, despite being witches.
“Try to imagine your power as a light,” Fleur coached. “Red or white usually works well, something really hot. Send that searing light right into the stone, and let the stone be consumed.”
Ariana tried, she really did, but the stone remained stubbornly cold, not even warming slightly, let alone crumbling apart from heat. She couldn’t suppress the slight relief she felt at this. As much as she knew this was necessary, a large part of her never wanted to access her witch magic.
Fleur glanced around anxiously. “Try to focus, now. We don’t have a lot of time. Mirabelle isn’t just going to disappear. We need to head off any more dangerous plans that she puts into motion, which means we can’t spend long here.”
“I understand.” Ariana redoubled her focus on the stone, but it remained stubbornly cold. She reached back for Julio’s hand, which he took, squeezing gently. Ariana’s entire sense of identity had been thrown off. She didn’t know who she was anymore. It felt like she was falling, and she didn’t like it.
As much as she tried not to, she was increasingly clinging to her vampire side, trying to drown out the witch part of herself.
Fleur was frowning at her. “You’re a witch-vampire hybrid. You’re more powerful than any of us, except Lisette. I know that this is well within your capabilities.”
Surprisingly, Tristan rose to Ariana’s defense. “Give her a break, Fleur, this is her first time. She didn’t grow up using magic like we did.”
Fleur didn’t seem to be impressed by this argument. She fixed Ariana with a look that seemed to see far too much. “Don’t think I don’t know what this is about. This is that stupid vampire prejudice against witches. You don’t want this to work.”
“I want Julio to have his voice back.”
“Yes, but you don’t want to access your witch powers to do it. I’m telling you, the three of us aren’t strong enough to break Mirabelle’ spell on our own. We need you, and you need to step up.”
“I’m trying!” Ariana snapped. Julio stepped closer to her, a calming presence, but Ariana didn’t look at him. She didn’t want to see him offer to wait weeks again, because she was afraid she’d take him up on that offer.
Fleur folded her arms. “You’re not trying hard enough. If you’re not committed to doing this, then you should let us all know right now, and we’ll stop wasting our time.”
“I am trying,” Ariana growled. “It’s not as easy for me as it is for you!” That much was true, but she also knew that Fleur had a point. How much was she holding herself back without even realizing it?
“This hatred between witches and vampires, it’s unfounded,” Fleur told her in a softer tone. “Think about it. Of all the lessons you’ve ever been taught on the subject, is there one reason for our kinds to be at odds that still applies this century?”
Ariana opened her mouth to respond, then closed it again. She didn’t want to admit it, but Fleur was right. There had been plenty of conflict between witches and vampires in the past, with atrocities committed on both sides, but nothing in recent generations. All of the witches who had participated in past battles were long dead.
If anything, it was witches who had more right to hold a grudge against vampires – after all, many of the vampires who had fought in the previous wars were still alive today.
Fleur continued, her eyes burning with sincerity and passion. “It’s flaring up again, the old feud between us, helped along by Mirabelle and those like her. We only have two options. One, we go to war. Two, the younger generations on both sides usher in a new era, where we can finally live in true peace, not an uneasy truce that could erupt at any time.”
For just a moment, Ariana could see it. They weren’t all that different from humans, really – two powerful opposing forces, both with the option of settling their differences or initiating bloodshed on a staggering scale.
What would it be like not to have a primal hatred for witches, a hatred that stemmed from no experience of her own? Ariana’s eyes fell on Julio. Two butterflies came out of his mo
uth and flapped idly away.
She never would have met Julio if not for the curse. Mirabelle – a witch – had made it possible for her to meet him. As she looked at him, her heart seemed to swell. Bad idea or not, Ariana was in love with Julio. Denying it wasn’t doing her any good.
If anyone had a right to hate witches, it was him, after what had been done to him. Yet he’d heard the story of her origins. He knew what she was, and he was still here by her side. Ariana knew that it wasn’t just to get his voice back. Julio was looking at her with the same soft look in his eyes that he always had when he looked at her.
Ariana took a deep breath. “Let’s try it again.” She pushed all thoughts about how she didn’t want a witch’s power out of her mind and focused on the rock in her palm.
At first, she thought she was imagining it, but no – the rock was warming. She suddenly yelped and tossed it aside as it scorched her palm. The rock hit the ground and disintegrated.
“Much better!” Fleur lifted her own hands, conjuring a green wall of light. “Now, do the same thing with this. you need to destroy the wall of light. This is similar to what it’ll be like removing the curse form Julio.”
The wall of light proved harder to destroy, but Ariana managed it. When it finally flickered and died, Julio applauded, butterflies surrounding the two of them. As much as she was looking forward to hearing his voice, Ariana had to admit that she would miss those butterflies.
“Alright, that’s about as much time we have to prepare you. Lis, Tristan, we’re ready. Let’s do this.”
22
Julio sat in the middle of the circle while Ariana, Lisette, Fleur and Tristan held hands around him. The other three chanted words that Ariana didn’t understand, but Lisette had assured her that this wouldn’t matter. The words would set the spell, but the contribution they needed from Ariana was her power.
