The Witches of the Dark Power

by Gabriella Lepore

  Mia frowned. ‘Your boys?’

  ‘I’ve sent Roland to summon my strongest Hunter and most accomplished Arcana. They should be here by nightfall.’

  Roland, Mia guessed, was the other boy who had been in the library when they’d arrived. The boy with the auburn hair. ‘Do you have a Glass Castle, too?’ she asked Amos.

  He chortled. ‘Oh no, dear! I don’t have a castle! I’m not that affluent, I’m afraid. I lead a small coven out west on the coast. We inhabit a disused lighthouse. There aren’t many of us, but we have plenty of years of experience under our belts.’

  Mia smiled. ‘Thank you for calling for their help. I’m sorry for dragging you all into this.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ Wendolyn told her. ‘You are part of the Glass Castle, Mia. We are one unit.’ The others nodded in concurrence—apart from Isaac, who simply folded his arms.

  ‘We’ll get to the bottom of this in no time,’ Amos added.

  Isaac rose from his chair, lifting the hefty book along with him. ‘I’ll begin the deconstructing, and when Roland returns he can assist me.’

  ‘That’s the spirit!’ cheered Amos, overcompensating for the otherwise dismal tone. As Isaac marched out of the room, Amos turned his attention to Wendolyn. ‘How about I brew us all some hot tea?’ he offered. ‘I dare say there’s nothing that a nice cup of tea can’t fix.’

  By nightfall, morale was low. Blue, Dino, and Mia had hardly moved from the drawing room all day. Between them they’d worked through a tower of books. So far, their search for the spell to break the Arx had been entirely unsuccessful.

  And it wasn’t just the mountain of dusty volumes playing on Mia’s mind. Another day had passed and still no sign of Colt. Every time the drawing room door had opened, she’d whirled around in her seat, expecting to see him standing there. But each time she’d been disappointed.

  Forget about it, she told herself now. Focus.

  She returned her attention to her present book. The complex text seemed to blur before her eyes. She blinked once or twice to regain her focus.

  When twice an Arcana of the fifth house does thus apply its means to its predecessor of the fourth house, aligning to the Luna cycle in retrospect of the equinox . . .

  Mia frowned at the text. Huh? She read the passage again.

  ‘This makes no sense!’ she wailed, closing the book and pushing it aside. ‘Anyone else want to take a break?’

  There was a chorus of thumps as Dino and Blue slammed their books shut. Isaac scowled at them from across the room and returned to his reading.

  Dino stretched his arms above his head and yawned. ‘I never want to read another book again,’ he groaned. ‘Wait . . . that’s not enough. I never want to read another word again.’

  Blue rubbed his eyes and yawned. ‘Shall we stop for the night?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Dino before the last word had even left Blue’s mouth.

  ‘Yes,’ echoed Mia.

  Isaac cleared his throat and glowered at them. ‘Shh.’

  Mia rose from her armchair and shook out her stiff limbs. ‘I’m going to take a walk,’ she whispered to the boys.

  Dino sat upright. ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ she reassured him in a hushed voice. ‘I won’t go far. I’ll be around the castle.’ She started across the drawing room before he could question her further.

  Without looking back, she ducked through the doorway and let the door fall shut behind her with a thud. Alone now in the dimly lit corridor, Mia made for the huge arched doorway leading outside.

  Away from the wood-burning warmth of the castle, she was met with a burst of wintery air as she stepped outside. The dwindling sunlight cast purple shadows over the stone courtyard, like fractures in a murky river. Mia wandered through the courtyard, trailing her fingers along the castle’s rough outer walls.

  A sudden swell of cold evening breeze flushed her cheeks and flowed through her long brown hair. The breeze drew her focus to the hedges that separated the courtyard from the grounds.

  Mia shivered.

  Colt was out there. She knew he was.

  After a quick backwards glance to the castle, she tentatively forged on, crossing beneath the hedge archway and emerging for the first time into the unlit gardens. Tall hedges looped around flower beds, and weathered benches lined the walkway.

  Mia stepped onto the grass and paced across the lawn. She knew exactly where she was going. Resolved in her quest, she moved in and out of the hedges, carefully avoiding the barren winter flower beds. Once she’d manoeuvred her way through the maze of hedges, an open stretch of dull December grass rolled down into an embankment. From the ridge, she was able to see to the forest below—the forest that was off limits to her and all other Arcana. Even on a clear evening like this, there was a dense layer of mist clinging to the front trees, hiding them almost entirely from sight.

  Mia stood motionless for a while, allowing the breeze to coil around her arms and legs before it moved up to her throat, where it settled like a collar. The scent of pine drifted out from the forest, igniting her memories of summer. Her memories of Colt.

  She squinted as she scanned for movement amongst the long shadows. There was something there, she was sure of it.

  Boldly, she began down the embankment, closing in on the curtain of mist that eclipsed the forest. When she reached the hazy boundary, her stride didn’t falter. She allowed the mist to swallow her, to lick at her skin and seep into her lungs. She was caught now, drawn in deeper by the mist’s enchantment—whether she wanted to venture farther or not.

  Her feet hit the forest floor in robotic thuds, crunching through the fallen bronzed leaves as she passed through the web of trees.

  I’m not afraid, she reminded herself. Her heart began to beat faster. The mist’s enchantment was unnerving; her legs weren’t her own anymore. She had willingly relinquished her control the moment she’d crossed the forest border. So much for just having one reckless act per lifetime, she thought ruefully.

  With that, Mia’s feet were knocked from under her. She stumbled forward, released from the mist’s enchantment, but before she hit the earth, arms clamped around her and hoisted her upright. No sooner had she caught her breath than she was being pulled deeper into the dark tangle of trees. She fought to free herself, but her captor held her tightly. And it didn’t take her long to realise that the arms around her did not belong to Colt.

  ‘Let go of me!’ she cried.

  Her attacker gave a low growl.

  Mia kicked back at him, squirming in an attempt to free herself. To her dismay, her efforts were useless.

  All of a sudden, she heard her assailant grunt and then abruptly lose his grip. Mia fell to the forest floor, disturbing a layer of tawny leaves as her palms smacked down on the soil. Some distance away, her attacker lay dazed, as though he had been thrown off course.

  Mia stole her first good look at him. He was a Hunter. A boy, no older than thirteen or fourteen. Ebony curls flopped into his dark eyes as he staggered to his feet. He was short and stocky, and more solid in stature than any fourteen-year-old Mia had ever come across.

  ‘She crossed our border,’ the young Hunter snarled, looking through the trees at his own attacker. ‘She was mine for the taking!’

  ‘Let her leave.’

  Mia’s heart leaped at the sound of the voice.

  ‘Colt,’ she whispered. She turned and stared into the shadows, following the young Hunter’s gaze, but she could only make out his vague form amid the leaves.

  ‘Let her leave, Finn,’ came Colt`s strong voice again.

  Finn, the young Hunter, glanced at Mia before returning his attention to Colt. ‘But . . . no,’ he objected flatly. ‘She’s an intruder.’ His voice was surly and quick, and he rasped with irritation. ‘She’s fair game. Permit me to make a kill,’ he demanded.

  Mia bristled.

  Colt didn’t respond. Instead, he spoke to Mia from the shadows. ‘Leave now, Arcana,’ he utte
red quietly. ‘You are not welcome here.’

  Finn looked back and forth between the two. He trembled with the promise of a hunt, but at the same time he seemed stunned, clearly shocked by the exchange he was witnessing. An Arcana and a Hunter, after all, had no business conversing with each other. And Mia, a trespasser, was fair game—as he had pointed out to his leader.

  Mia tried to speak, but the words caught somewhere in her throat. She staggered to her feet and stumbled backwards, almost tripping over tree roots as she turned and ran from the dark forest.

  Well, that couldn’t have gone any worse, she thought wretchedly as she raced back to the embankment. He’s already forgotten I exist. She considered the option that perhaps she’d been disillusioned all this time. Perhaps she’d simply been caught up in the fantasy that she and Colt could ever be something other than a freak-of-nature mistake.

  Her heart ached at the thought.

  The soaring castle walls came into view in the moonlight. Mia raced beneath the hedge archway and emerged into the courtyard. As her shoes hit the paving stones she came to a stop, panting. In the safety of the courtyard, she paused to catch her breath.

  Beneath the dark sky, the wind howled through the distant trees. Mia started towards the castle entrance.

  But she had hesitated a moment too long. From behind her, a hand clasped around her waist, wrenching her backwards into a narrow alley indented in the outer castle walls.

  A scream escaped Mia’s lips, but the hand slid up over her mouth, stifling her cries. Watching helplessly as the bleak courtyard slipped further away, she was dragged deeper into the chasm in the castle’s walls.

  Chapter Four

  Health Warning

  Mia struggled to free herself as the hand pressed harder against her mouth. The sheer castle walls soared high above her on both sides, terminating in a narrow aperture exposing the moonlit sky.

  With renewed vigour, she pressed her hands against the arm that was snaked around her waist. In response, the hand clasping her mouth slid down to her throat. She opened her mouth to scream just as the hand swept her hair aside to expose the nape of her neck. ‘You know, you really should be more careful about where you loiter,’ said her captor, his breath brushing her skin.

  Mia shook his arm loose from her torso and fell back against him, her rush of fear melting into relief.

  ‘You told me to go,’ she whispered breathlessly.

  ‘And you listened,’ Colt replied into her ear. ‘I like it when you listen. The occasions are few and far between.’’

  He stepped back, spinning Mia to face him. But as she turned, she squeezed her eyes shut, knowing that when she opened them, she would finally see him again. Not as a dream, or a memory, or a shadowed figure in the forest. This time, she would see him as him.

  Colt gave a throaty laugh. ‘You can open your eyes,’ he coaxed her. ‘I haven’t been hideously maimed or anything.’

  She indulged in the sound of his voice for a second longer, then opened her eyes and met his gaze. There, Colt stood before her, exactly as she’d remembered him. His black hair was a little mussed as it swept across his brow, framing two deep-green eyes that were now bathed in sliver moonlight.

  Mia reached out and touched her fingertips to his cheek, feeling his expression move into a careful smile.

  ‘Welcome home.’ Colt raised an eyebrow and smiled wryly.

  ‘Thanks,’ Mia breathed. ‘It’s good to see you. Although was it necessary to pull me in here? You really should come with a health warning.’ She moved her fingers from his face and touched them to her racing heart—though it was no longer fear that made her pulse race.

  Colt smirked. ‘I am the health warning. Besides, it hardly seemed fair that Finn got to play and I didn’t.’

  ‘Yes,’ Mia muttered, cringing at the memory. ‘Well, I hope I won’t be running into Finn again anytime soon.’

  ‘Finn is the youngest of my new coven,’ Colt replied. ‘He’s good, but hot-headed.’

  ‘Tell me about it,’ she agreed. ‘Maybe I should have introduced myself.’

  Colt gave an indifferent shrug. ‘I don’t think it would have mattered.’

  ‘He doesn’t know about me?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Oh.’ Mia’s heart sank a little. Colt hadn’t mentioned her at all? ‘You know I arrived yesterday, right?’ she asked, unable to stop herself. She searched his eyes for a reaction.

  His expression was removed. ‘I know,’ he said simply.

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘I had a feeling you’d come.’

  ‘I take it you’ve heard about my . . .’ she trailed off, then cleared her throat. ‘About my problem,’ she finished weakly.

  He smiled. ‘I have heard, yes.’

  ‘Just my luck, huh?’

  ‘You do seem to gravitate towards disaster. Why is that?’

  She sighed. ‘I don’t know. Maybe I overdo my quota for reckless acts.’

  Colt reached across and pulled a twig from her hair. ‘Even I could have told you that.’

  ‘I’m meant to be invincible,’ Mia went on, ‘but all this Arx thing does is tape a neon kill me sign to my back.’ She held her palms skyward. ‘Oh, well. At least I can brag about the invincibility part.’

  ‘True,’ Colt appeased. ‘Although there aren’t many who would dare to covet what you have, I’m afraid. And those who do covet it’—he looked down at his feet—‘are certainly not the ones you should be bragging to.’ His last words were eerily amplified as they bounced off the cold paving stones.

  ‘Oh, great. Yet another downside,’ she muttered. ‘I have the worst power ever.’

  Colt tilted his head and smiled at her. ‘Or the best, depending on your standpoint.’

  ‘Seeing as though my standpoint is me, it still comes out as the worst.’

  ‘You’re a Tempestus, too—or have you forgotten?’ Colt reminded her. ‘Feel free to brag about that. Now there’s a power worth coveting.’

  ‘You’re only saying that because it’s your power, too!’

  ‘And it’s a damn good power to possess!’ he countered. ‘Now, you don’t need to say what we’re both thinking. I would make any power excel.’ He paused for Mia to agree, then carried on regardless. ‘But a Tempestus is a force on its own merit.’

  ‘Well, my Tempestus power is hardly a force to be reckoned with.’

  Colt grinned devilishly. ‘That’s really not the power’s fault, now, is it?’

  Mia frowned at him. ‘Hey,’ she protested. ‘I do try.’

  ‘You try to try, I suppose.’

  She threw up her hands. ‘I don’t have time to practise lately. I’ve been busy trying not to die.’

  ‘That’s fair,’ he conceded. ‘It must take up a sizable chunk of your day.’

  ‘Exactly. Not dying is hard.’

  ‘Don’t I know it.’ Colt paused and glanced towards the courtyard. ‘I assume the Arcana are still searching for the spell to safely remove the Arx?’

  Mia nodded. ‘We’ve been looking for the Extraction ritual all day. I just want to get rid of this toxic force-field before anybody tries to take it from me.’

  Colt’s eyes narrowed. ‘And no trace of the spell yet?’

  Mia shook her head dejectedly. ‘Nope. They can’t find the book with the spell to steal the Arx, either. Who knows whose hands it’s in by now.’ She bit her lower lip. ‘I hate the Arx curse.’

  Colt frowned. There was a pause before he spoke again. ‘The Arx isn’t intended as a curse,’ he said at last. ‘Some of the greatest witches of all time were guarded by it.’

  Mia folded her arms. ‘Really? Like who?’

  ‘Spangles, for one.’

  ‘Spangles, as in William Wix?’ Her eyebrows shot up. Naturally, she brightened a little at the thought that Wendolyn’s late husband, the very founder of the Glass Castle, had been guarded by the Arx force-field, too. ‘Did he use the spell to remove it?’

  Colt’s gaze wandered b
ack down to the narrow stretch of floor. His lack of response was answer enough.

  ‘Oh. He didn’t,’ Mia guessed. All of a sudden she felt queasy.

  Colt exhaled. ‘No, I’m afraid he didn’t break the Arx.’

  ‘What about the other spell?’ Mia asked in a small voice. ‘The one to steal the Arx. Did that happen?’

  Colt was silent again.

  ‘See?’ she said weakly. ‘Not dying is hard work. Even for the best, most super powerful witches.’ Suddenly, Wendolyn’s tense reaction to the problem made sense. Her husband had been killed for the very reason that was now threatening Mia’s life, too. ‘Do you know who did it?’

  ‘Wendolyn and Amos suspect it was a Hunter, but no one knows for sure.’

  Mia let out a shaky breath. ‘Not to be pessimistic,’ she said, ‘but if they couldn’t save William Wix, how will they save me?’

  Colt met her gaze in the darkness. ‘Are you forgetting your secret weapon?’

  She furrowed her brow. ‘The Arx?’

  ‘No. Your other secret weapon.’

  ‘Um . . . knowledge?’

  ‘No.’ Colt rolled his eyes. ‘Me.’

  She leaned against the wall with a hopeless sigh. Just as she did so, a particularly jagged rock grazed her finger. She winced and quickly drew her hand to her chest. A trickle of blood spilled over her skin.

  ‘Ouch,’ she grumbled. Then her eyes widened. ‘Blood on my hands,’ she murmured to herself.

  The vision had come true.

  And it wasn’t as dire as she’d feared.

  Colt pursed his lips and his pupils dilated. He took an agitated step backwards until he was pressed against the opposite wall, still only an arm’s length away.

  ‘Sorry.’ Mia quickly wiped the trace of blood onto her jeans, knowing from past experiences how uncomfortable it made Colt. He was, after all, a Hunter trained to have a thirst for blood.