The Witch Born to Smoulder (Inferno Book 4)

by Tanya Milne

  Jet fell silent; the only sounds came from the sea in the cove below and the leaves that rubbed together in the breeze.

  Eventually, Jet rolled back and faced me. ‘Dark magic, it will change you forever. Is that what you want?’

  Inside me, the forces of yin and yang stirred.

  ‘It’s my destiny, Jet. This was always going to happen. I’m not like my family – I’m not pure. I need to do whatever it takes to protect them. Help me, please.’

  Jet let out a long, deep sigh. ‘I will teach you on the condition that you never go anywhere without me. I need to trust that you will never put yourself in the kind of danger you did last week when you took off. We must make plans…together.’

  ‘Last week?’

  ‘We’ve been back for a week today.’

  ‘You’ve looked after me, all that time.’

  Jet smiled, dimples appearing on his cheeks.

  ‘Do we have a deal?’ he asked.

  I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. ‘We have a deal.’

  Jet smiled.

  ‘And you start teaching me tomorrow.’

  Jet groaned. ‘It is tomorrow.’

  He was right – the world around us was now cloaked in emerald green.

  ‘In that case,’ I said, energy returning for the first time in a long while.

  ‘In that case, we need to get some rest – magic can wait,’ mumbled Jet, his eyes closing.

  I nodded and watched my friend who had saved me, who was still willing to do whatever it took to help me, fall fast asleep.

  ‘Thank you, from the bottom of my heart,’ I whispered before snuggling against him and letting sleep claim me.

  Chapter Ten

  ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ asked Jet for what felt like the hundredth time.

  All day, he’d been trying to talk me out of learning dark magic. All day, I’d been telling him I’d made up my mind and that I had to harness every power I could before my family’s trial in six days.

  I rolled my eyes and clamped my lips together.

  ‘Okay,’ said Jet, holding his hands up in defeat.

  Excitement and dread mixed together inside me in equal measure.

  We stood in a round clearing deep in the bush, and above us the waning moon shone down weakly. Jet looked around the space and his gaze landed on Boy, who sat on the boundary, his eyes fixed on his master.

  ‘Learning black magic is about harnessing the powers of the dead,’ he said.

  I gasped, remembering the dead sailors who’d poisoned me with their dark magic.

  ‘Most people, when they die, they move on, past our world. But some, some get stuck. Perhaps they couldn’t let go, or perhaps others held onto them too tightly. Whatever the reason, their souls linger. It’s these souls that search for…you – their leader.’

  My skin prickled. I zipped up my jacket, but it did nothing to remove the chill that hovered around us.

  ‘It’s these souls – the dead – who can be summoned,’ said Jet.

  I gazed around myself, the shadows holding shapes where only moments ago there were only trees.

  ‘Do you feel that?’ he asked.

  I nodded, no longer trusting my voice.

  ‘Talking about them draws them closer. You…you draw them.’

  My heart started racing. Jet stepped closer and took my hand.

  ‘Tonight, I’m going to teach you how to summon the dead and how to send them away again. If you don’t send them away…they won’t go.’

  I shivered and rubbed my arms, but the night around us was too cold to fend off.

  ‘If last week was anything to go by, the dark creatures will try and harm you again. So you’ll need to send them away quickly.’

  I pictured them attacking me, filling me with their poison.

  ‘Still sure you want to do this?’ asked Jet.

  No!

  ‘Sure,’ I said, my voice cracking.

  ‘It’s critical you send the dead away quickly…to stop them from hurting you.’

  I reminded myself that I wanted to learn this, needed to learn this.

  I nodded. ‘What do I do?’

  Jet stood taller, his breath white in the cold night air.

  ‘It’s simple, but difficult at the same time. To call the dead, you cast a spell. And then you make yourself feel as you do in your darkest moments.’

  Suddenly, it made sense – why they came for me when I was feeling the most vulnerable, the most threatened.

  ‘How do you just make yourself feel like that when you’re not in danger?’ I asked.

  ‘You remember how you felt in those darkest moments. Once you feel these memories, really feel them, as though they were happening, the dead will come.’

  My stomach flipped, but I made myself speak, ask the most important question of all. ‘How do you get rid of them?’

  ‘To get rid of them, you have to do the opposite. You must think of memories that made you happy, when your life was at its best.’

  I held my arms, willing myself not to shake.

  ‘Sure you want to go through with this?’ he asked.

  I nodded, but my voice betrayed me when I spoke. ‘What if I can’t remember?’

  Jet raised his eyebrows. ‘You can still kill them off, one by one, like we did in the boat. Otherwise…they will keep coming. It’s dark magic, Eva. You need to know what you’re playing with…what will play with you…what will stop at nothing to…kill you.’

  A gust of wind stirred in the trees, making me jump.

  ‘Have you…done this before?’ I asked.

  Jet nodded. ‘My parents taught me, when I was younger. Our family descended from a line of fire witches, similar to you. But my family were never pure white witches like your family.’

  ‘Not all of my family,’ I reminded him.

  I thought of my family again like I had all day. Even though I was still recovering, they needed me. The time for being scared was over.

  ‘Let’s do it,’ I said, my steady voice returning.

  ‘Have a go. If something goes wrong, I’ll step in until you’ve got the hang of it. Okay?’

  ‘Okay,’ I agreed.

  He let out a long, deep breath. ‘Close your eyes and repeat the word “vocatio.”’

  ‘Vocatio,’ I said quietly.

  ‘Now remember a time when you felt helpless, scared and all alone.’

  I closed my eyes and before I could even seek a memory, one was there, waiting for me. It was the moment I saw my family being arrested, taken away.

  My heart began thudding in my chest.

  ‘That’s the way. Now try and feel how you did in the moment. Can you do that?’

  A groan escaped from somewhere deep inside me as I felt the raw shock, the terrible betrayal, the fear deep in my heart. My heat seeped away into the ground, leaving me cold to the bone.

  Jet spoke again, his voice rushed. ‘Now remember one of your happiest memories.’

  I opened my eyes, and there in front of me was a scene from a horror movie. Emerging from the bushes, coming towards us, were the dead. Many were sailors, but there were also women and children – their skin mostly washed away, every single eye socket glued to me.

  I began to back away, but then I felt Jet’s hand on my shoulder. ‘There is only one way to escape them. Do as I say. Close your eyes, block them out and remember a happy memory.’

  I closed my eyes, but all I could picture was the dead, getting closer by the second.

  ‘When you’re ready, say the word “discedo.”’

  I tried to remember something, anything – but nothing would come.

  ‘Eva!’ said Jet.

  I opened my eyes and the dead were nearly upon us. I screamed and Jet yelled, ‘Discedo!’ making them disappear in a puff of smoke.

  I stared at the space where they had been. ‘How…did you do that?’

  ‘Practice,’ said Jet, running a hand through his hair. ‘You’re going to need to find you
r memory quickly, Eva – or…you know what could happen.’

  I nodded, trying to find my calm in the midst of a storm.

  ‘Got a memory?’ he asked.

  My mind flicked backwards and amongst the darkness, I found a moment from a happier time.

  ‘Don’t overthink it, and Eva, don’t open your eyes this time. You need to trust me to tell you when to change your thoughts. Can you do that?’

  I stared at him, wide-eyed.

  He rubbed my shaking arm. ‘You can do this. I know you can. Now, let’s see what you’ve got.’

  I took a deep breath, then spoke the word vocatio. Within seconds, my body was flooded with the pain of losing my parents.

  ‘Okay, now, a good memory. Let it fill you.’

  I felt the icy tentacles from the dead wrap around me, but I cleared my mind and remembered a time when I’d been happy.

  I was on Ezra’s boat. Ezra stood behind me with his arms wrapped around me. The sky above us was blue, and the breeze ballooned the sails.

  ‘Good, that’s good – keep it up, let it fill you,’ said Jet.

  I returned to the memory, but my mind flittered ahead. I was standing inside Ezra’s boat and he was telling me that he couldn’t leave with me, that we couldn’t be together.

  Jet swore and seconds later, he shouted, ‘Discedo!’

  I opened my eyes to see puffs of smoke all around us, only feet away.

  ‘What happened?’ he asked.

  ‘I had a good memory, but…then it turned bad. Sorry. I’m hopeless at this.’

  Jet laughed. ‘For a moment there, I thought our game was up, but no, you’re not hopeless. Perhaps you just need to think of a better memory, a stronger memory – one that doesn’t turn bad.’

  ‘Right,’ I said, closing my eyes, a memory that I didn’t expect flooding my mind. ‘Ready?’

  ‘As I’ll ever be.’

  For the third time, I cast my spell and made myself remember the night my parents were taken away. In seconds, Jet told me to find my happy memory.

  This time, a new memory filled every particle in me, taking away the darkness and the pain, leaving me happy and light.

  ‘Now cast your spell,’ he said.

  ‘Discedo!’ I yelled, then opened my eyes to see the dead, who were nearly upon us, evaporate into nothingness.

  ‘You did it,’ said Jet, taking me into a hug. ‘How do you feel?’

  The last memory returned. For a few short moments I’d forgotten about the danger my family were in. I’d forgotten my broken heart and the fact that I was playing with magic that might well turn my heart to darkness.

  ‘I feel happy…we weren’t killed.’

  Jet laughed and pulled back from me. ‘That’s enough for tonight. Let’s go back to camp.’

  ‘Until tomorrow night,’ I reminded him.

  He let out a deep breath. ‘Don’t remind me. Let’s get out of here.’

  I gazed around at the trees, which shivered and swayed in the wind. I pictured the dead lost souls I had conjured up from the platform between life and death.

  ‘You don’t have to ask twice,’ I said, taking his warm offered hand and leaving the place of dark magic.

  The sun was shining brightly and the spring morning held the first promise of warmth in so long that I’d almost forgotten how it felt to be properly warm.

  I pulled the spare mattress into the sunshine and lay down, letting the warmth seep through my shirt and warm my bones. It had been two days since I’d recovered from the poisoning and even though I was getting stronger, I still had a long way before I was restored to full health.

  Seeing the dead come for us last night hadn’t exactly helped. Returning to camp had been a relief, but it had done nothing to help me sleep well. All night long, I’d tossed and turned, the faces of the dead greeting me no matter where I looked. Eventually, Jet, who slept beside me, had brought me a cup of tea. We had stayed awake and talked until the spirits returned to wherever it was they had come from.

  Pearl strutted from the tent, eyeing Boy, whom she had already tamed into submission, then pranced her way to where I was. She groomed herself before she lay down beside me and fell promptly asleep. The moment her eyes were closed, Boy trotted towards me and then dropped himself down next to me, causing Pearl to voice her displeasure before turning away, disgusted.

  I laughed and for the first time in what felt like forever, I felt like my old self. I’d started to learn dark magic and hadn’t changed. My family were safe, for now.

  ‘Well, that’s not something you see every day,’ said Jet with a laugh. He had returned from checking the beach for signs of the coastguard. ‘A witch, her cat and a wolf, all snoozing together.’

  ‘I can highly recommend it,’ I said, propping myself up on an elbow.

  ‘If you say so,’ said Jet, sitting down on the end of the mattress and patting Pearl, who purred away like the lush she was.

  ‘All clear out there?’ I asked.

  Jet nodded. ‘Yep, only ocean as far as the eye can see. They’ve stopped searching for you…out here. They must think you’re hiding somewhere on the mainland.’

  And just like that, the real world I’d managed to push away for a few seconds came crashing back in. I sighed, sat up and turned to Jet.

  ‘We should make a plan…for afterwards…after we get my family out.’

  Jet glanced at me, his dark eyes searching far beyond what I wanted him to see.

  ‘Well, if there’s one thing I’ve had a bit of lately, it’s time to think. Basically, we have two options – we could come back here to hide, or–’

  ‘We get the hell out of this place,’ I said. ‘And never look back.’

  ‘My thoughts exactly. You don’t know how long I’ve been dreaming about getting out of here,’ said Jet. He smiled so widely that my dormant heart jumped to life. ‘The only question is…how?’

  ‘Orpheus is guarding the roads and the sea – but now that we can disguise ourselves, we should be able to get past the coastguard and with luck on our side, none of the supply ships will see us. Once we’re away from Melas, our options will open up.’

  Jet’s eyes were blank as his mind ticked away, thinking things through.

  ‘We can take your grandmother and Violet too, of course,’ I said. ‘And we have money hidden in our house.’

  Jet’s gaze lasered in on mine. ‘Do you really think it’s possible?’

  ‘Well, we both know it’s not going to be easy. But being witches has its advantages. If we’re smart and more than a bit lucky, we have a chance…and I say we take it.’

  Emotion after emotion flashed over Jet’s face. ‘After all this time…I’d started to think this was it – this was my life.’

  I felt as if I were sinking. ‘It can’t have been easy, being here on your own.’

  For weeks, I’d been living my life in Melas, planning my future, falling in love – all while Jet was sitting here on his own, trapped.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Jet – for not coming out these last few weeks – for not being there for you. It was complicated and I thought…I was going to be forced to marry Ezra. My every move was being watched.’

  Jet turned from me, but not before I saw pain flash through his eyes. ‘It’s okay. And unless my memory is mistaken, I told you not to come and see me.’

  ‘Because I decided that my future was with Ezra. All I can say is, I’m sorry. I’ve only been here for a short time and I couldn’t imagine being here alone, without you.’

  Jet’s lips pressed together. For the first time, I had a much clearer understanding of how bad it had been for him – what kind of future he had faced alone.

  ‘It’s okay. I understand,’ he said.

  ‘Can you forgive me? Really forgive me?’ I asked, then swallowed as I waited to see whether Jet would ever really trust me again.

  ‘I won’t lie. When you told me, when you left me…it hurt, bad.’ He turned from me to try and shield me from his pain. ‘But
I don’t blame you. You followed your heart and there’s nothing wrong with that. In my mind, there’s nothing to forgive. You’re my friend and you will always be my friend.’

  Had I followed my heart?

  All of a sudden, my mouth went dry. I’d chosen Ezra, but had I made that decision from my heart? At that time, Ezra had broken my heart once before. I had given him a second chance. Was that because my future was intertwined with his? Or had I chosen Ezra because I truly loved him? The question sat uncomfortably on my skin, like the next apology I needed to say.

  My body flooded with heat. ‘I’m sorry for coming on to you like I did when I wanted you to teach me black magic. I truly wasn’t myself, but still… That was inexcusable.’

  A blush spread across my face as I remembered what had happened on the rocks, the way we had kissed.

  Jet laughed. ‘To be honest, if I weren’t so worried about you, it would have been pretty funny.’

  ‘Funny? If I recall, you weren’t laughing when I kissed you.’

  A red stain spread up Jet’s neck. ‘No, that part wasn’t funny.’

  ‘I’m sorry, you’ve put up with a lot from me. I’ll try and be a better–’

  ‘Friend,’ said Jet firmly.

  ‘Friend,’ I agreed quietly, knowing that in no way was I ready to open my heart to love again, but if I ever was, the chance of Jet wanting to be with me was well and truly non- existent.

  I lay back on my stomach, turning my face away from him, my heart aching in a way that I’d never expected.

  ‘What were your memories last night…to call and send away the dead?’ he asked.

  The memories filled my mind. For a few moments I couldn’t find my words.

  ‘The bad memory was my parents…being arrested…and my first happy memory was with…’

  ‘Ezra,’ said Jet.

  ‘Yes, but as soon as I remembered that time, I recalled how it felt when…we broke up.’

  The cicadas, which had been quiet for months, started up their shrill cries.

  ‘I’m sorry, that must have been hard,’ said Jet. ‘Do you want to talk about…what happened that night you came here?’