Witchling Wars

by Shawn Knightley

  “I’ll take good care of it,” I said, admiring the handle once more.

  “Please do. I’ve heard you have a knack for breaking things.”

  “If you’re referring to the wand Ragna stole, that wasn’t my fault,” I countered.

  “Well, I will consider it your fault if anything happens to that wand. I’ll leave you two for now,” he said as he headed for the door.

  “Thank you, Daniel,” said Tobias, finally moving away from the corner.

  “Of course,” he said as he shut the door behind him.

  Tobias didn’t speak up until Daniel was down the hall and out of earshot.

  “Where is it?” Tobias growled. His tone was back to being frightening. And I had already learned what it was like to pretend as though I wasn’t afraid of him. He wasn’t beyond putting me in my place.

  “Where’s what?” I asked.

  “I consider your refusal to tell me the same as lying by omission. So I’ll ask you again and this time I want an answer. Where is it?”

  I took a deep breath and reached into my pocket, pulling out the vixra blood Georgeanna gave to me. “It’s mine,” I said, ready to snatch it away should he try to take it. “Edmund wanted me to have it.”

  He didn’t say anything. He merely stared at me. Which was almost worse than scolding me.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” I said. “You heard Arthur say he would provide me with what I needed to hunt down what’s left of your coven. And how did you know anyway?”

  “Because it takes extra power for a kruxa to use a wand successfully the way you just did without so much as a single mistake. I should know. I was a kruxa long before wands were invented to channel witchling power. They only exist because the luxra needed something to help them channel their diluted magic. The vixra have no need for such things, as I’m sure you saw in the Matthews residence.”

  I thought back to how Arthur forced my body to take on a physical form when I was using the tolepa potion. His magic erupted from his hand with such control. Control that I never had. And never would.

  “Why did he give it to you?” Tobias asked.

  My legs were starting to shake. I did everything I could to try and stop them. But I couldn’t help it. His presence was almost always a bit overwhelming. And that was what he wanted. He wanted to overwhelm me. To overpower me. To captivate me long enough for my blood to mark him.

  “It helps me find the vampires.”

  “You don’t need vixra blood for that.”

  “But it helps.”

  “Helps how?”

  I wasn’t sure I should even tell him. After all, he never told me that it was Edmund supplying him with vixra blood. That particular detail happened to slip from Eli’s mouth.

  I stood there in silence, not sure whether or not I should tell him. Not that he was going to give me a choice. He would force it out of me one way or another. He wasn’t the same after I woke up from being in the Matthews home. He was different. Aggressive. Maybe even a bit threatened. He saw me and Nathaniel. He saw us kissing. He saw how I kissed him back. And he wasn’t afraid to show me just how much it displeased him.

  “I-it gives me access to the vixra tunnels,” I confessed. “And propels me five seconds into the past.”

  A grin crossed his face. “Brilliant. Even after centuries the vixra still find ways to fascinate me. No wonder you’ve been able to catch the ones who haven’t left the city yet. If you can travel back in time you have a head start. They’ll run right into danger without realizing it.”

  He took a step closer to me. I wanted to move back. But I already knew what that would lead to. He would corner me into the wall like he did at my house. “You might want to take care of that,” he glanced down at my hands.

  They were glowing.

  “Damn it!” I shouted, letting my frustration out and forcing my magic back inside my palms.

  He laughed at me. That was why he took a step closer. To show me once again that I shouldn’t lie to him or even bother trying to resist him. My magic was in control and wanted to mark him. My heartbeat quickened and I was sure he could hear it.

  “Like I said, Harper. In time I will let your magic scar me. But not now. The vixra aren’t quite done with you yet.” His voice was practically teasing me. Like there was something he knew that I didn’t. A secret I wasn’t allowed in on.

  ‘Yeah, some secret. He enjoys seeing my magic unravel me.’

  And with that, he left the room and I was by myself again with only my own thoughts to torment me. Until I tried going to sleep. That was when Emily liked to have her fun with me.

  Chapter 4

  ‘Down the hatch.’

  I held a small bright orange liquid in my hand. The vial bubbled with magic as I opened the cork and swallowed the sleeping potion Daniel brewed for me. I didn’t like the idea of using a sleeping aid. Even if it was through magical means. I always heard horror stories at the cafe where I worked in high school from the divorcees on how they needed this pill or that pill to get through the day. To edge around their relentless emotions and eternally broken hearts while trying to find love again in a small town with limited options. I didn’t want to depend on anything. Especially something that forced me to shut off my emotions. But then again, this was more than medicinal. It was the only way I wouldn’t be haunted by Emily. Or at least the only way I could get some sleep with the reassurance that even if she did try to haunt me, I could get a few hours of rest before she could cause too much havoc.

  I laid my head down on the pillow and pulled the comforter over my body. The sun was starting to peek through the curtain. I let it stay open ever so slightly so the sun’s rays would spread over the bedroom. Another protection against Emily. Daylight wasn’t something the croxa apparently liked so I would find a way to sleep through it. Even if that meant having the covers over my head.

  I could feel the potion stirring in my stomach, slowly drifting through my bloodstream and into my limbs. Soothing me and giving me the only peace of mind I had all day. A place where I could relax, take in one steady breath at a time, and have a dreamless sleep.

  Or so I hoped.

  When I opened my eyes, I didn’t know which day it was. Darkness had already taken over the room and I slept through the entire day. It felt like I had been asleep for minutes. Not hours.

  ‘What in the world?’

  I sat up, feeling as though I could fall back down to the pillow again.

  There was a silhouette of someone sitting on my bed just inches from me. Once my eyes shifted through the foggy maze that engulfed my mind most mornings I could properly see who it was. As if there was any real guessing involved.

  I let out a heavy sigh. “Emily, please let me rest. Just this once.”

  Her hair was in tangles. Her eyes were bloodshot. Her skin was deathly pale. And the veins around her eyes were as black as ink. Everything was normal. Well, my new kind of normal.

  She snarled at me and lunged at my throat, grabbing it with her absurdly strong hands and throwing me back into the bed. She was strangling me! Just like she did to Samantha!

  ‘Is this a dream? I can’t wake up! I can’t wake up!’

  I struggled for a single breath of air. None came. There was only the very real and very painful feeling of her hands clinging to my neck.

  ‘The wand! I have to get the wand!’

  My eyes darted to the nightstand. The wand Daniel gave me was sitting there undisturbed. I let go of Emily’s hands around my neck and reached for it. The tip had a faint glow. Did the magic inside the wand know I was in danger? It was only a fingertip’s length away. Just enough to ensure that I died there in Emily’s arms. Under the pressure of her hands fighting to make sure I didn’t live to see another sunrise.

  Darkness took over my senses and invaded my sight. She was sneaking inside my mind again. Showing me things I didn’t want to see.

  A spark of my magic flashed from my palm and into the wand. It struck both of us.
But it was too late. She was already in my mind and taking over my vision.

  I saw a man crouching in the forest. A forest so green that it gave Dilton’s woods a run for its money. The land was lush, the sky cloudy, and the air cold. I could feel goosebumps running up my arms and see my breath coming out of my mouth.

  None of it bothered me.

  I was eager. Bloodthirsty. Ready for a fight. Ready to kill all invaders who dared cross into my lands.

  I was only a few feet away from the man hiding in the woods behind the trees. Our cover was perfect. No one would see us. Not until we wanted them to.

  When I looked closer, I recognized the man near me. Although, it took me a moment given he was covered in blue war paint.

  It was Tobias. And he looked nothing like the man I saw sitting atop the platform on his throne before the Catach-Brayin. He looked savage. Like a tribesman. Or maybe even a warrior. I don’t know how I knew but the realization struck me hard. I wasn’t seeing any random vision. This was a vision centuries ago into the past. Maybe even a millennium or more. I had never seen this far back.

  Tobias’s eyes were hungry for blood. But not to feed on. Not to nourish his vampire limbs with the feast of human blood. He wanted to spill it. To see it crash into the ground and stain the Earth beneath his feet. He wanted the men marching in formation before him dead.

  Tobias was mortal. A kruxa. He flared his magic in his hand and stood up from where he was hiding.

  I peered to where his eyes were focused to see men in walking through the forest along a muddy trail. The land dipped into a valley. The men were completely exposed. So perfectly exposed.

  As I looked closer I could see what they were wearing with more clarity. Roman legionnaire uniforms.

  ‘Good lord. How far back am I seeing? My magic shouldn’t be able to see this far into the past.’

  I knew where I was. I didn’t know how I knew but I did. This didn’t feel like a normal vision. It felt as if I was seeing something I had already lived. A moment in time that had been forgotten but forever stained my soul. Was it the vixra blood still in my system? Was it giving my visions more power? Telling me more details than I ever encountered before? I didn’t have to put the pieces together. They fit beautifully in a tightly woven story.

  Tobias was indeed a warrior. He was fighting against the Roman soldiers invading northern territories of our lands. They came to conquer. To pillage. To take our land and to turn our women into slaves. And to possess our magic.

  Tobias leaned forward from where he stood in the forest to gain a better look from behind the trees, looking down at the men marching in unison like a plague swarming through the thick trees and morning dew.

  This was our time. Our moment. The Romans wouldn’t make it any closer to our tribe. They wouldn’t harm our people.

  I stood up to see that there were hundreds of other tribesmen everywhere. All perfectly hidden and protected by their magic. It was going to be a bloodbath.

  I was wrong.

  One of the Roman soldiers yelled something in Latin, alerting the other men that they weren’t alone.

  Tobias ran forward with a spear in his hand, his chest bare with paint covering his body, and his long hair trailing behind his back. He ran so fast that he practically created his own wind. A downpour of chaos ensued as he threw the spear directly through a Roman soldier’s armor. I saw blood sputter from the man’s mouth as Tobias unsheathed a sword from his side. And not just any sword. A Roman sword. One he had stolen from another soldier he killed. A prized weapon he cherished and used in every battle we fought.

  The slaughter started so fast that my mind was spinning. I wasn’t in my own body. I was in someone else’s. I ran after Tobias with daggers in my hands, ready to charge. Ready to fight. Ready to defend my land against the Roman invaders who threatened my people. And not just any people. Other witchlings. I aimed true at a soldier who hadn’t even turned his head to see me yet. He was distracted by the tribesmen on the other side of the forest charging at them like wild beasts. I summoned my magic to give the daggers more force and threw them in the air. They struck his back and sank deep inside his flesh. He was thrown forward so fast that his hands didn’t have time to catch him as he collided with the earth.

  I twisted my hand, manipulating my magic like a cord and thrust it back behind my head. The daggers returned to my palms without even going near him. They were infused with my magic and ready to find another victim.

  I saw Tobias in the distance, slashing away at their bodies as their eyes tried to make sense of what they were seeing. Wild beasts who wielded magic as a weapon and used it to stop the Romans from invading and pillaging.

  ‘You will never possess our magic. We should never have shown it to humans. You’re unworthy of it.’

  The vision changed without warning. I wasn’t standing on the battlefield in the forest any longer. I was tied to a stake with wood surrounding me, struggling to get free and staring down at Tobias. Two Roman soldiers had him by the arms. They were holding him down and forcing him to watch as one of the soldiers lit the pyre with me at the center.

  We failed. There were too many of them. Too few of us. They captured those of us who survived. And they captured me.

  Tobias screamed as the fire started to grow and the smoke barreled into my lungs. I shut my eyes so the stinging would stop. But it only got worse with each passing second. The merciless heat of the fire started braiding around my legs, burning into my flesh and catching my clothes on fire. Then my hair. The hot flames devoured me. My head reared up toward the sky as I tried summoning my magic. But it was too late. The pain was more than I could bear. So intense that I couldn’t focus. The fire consumed me as Tobias watched in horror, fighting to get free as the Romans only held him down harder.

  The last thing I saw before I opened my eyes and jolted awake from the nightmare in the safety of my bed was the utter panic on Tobias’s face as the blaze consumed me, body and soul.

  I sat on the large chair inside the hidden room within the library with a blanket wrapped tight around my body. I was shivering so much that I could hear my teeth rattling. Quite the opposite from the vision I had with flames curling around my legs on a pyre of death. And yet, it felt more real than any other vision I had ever experienced. More tangible. More emotional. It was as if I were right there in the thick of the trees, living it, breathing in the cold air and running through the woods down toward the heat of battle.

  The hairs on my arms and legs were standing straight up. My limbs wouldn’t stop trembling. And I couldn’t get warm. If I ever saw one of Tobias’s maids starting a fire in the library again I would put it out immediately. I would never be able to look into a fireplace the same way. As if watching Emily try killing her father with fire wasn’t enough, I had this experience to call on now.

  ‘Why did Emily show me that? What was she trying to achieve?’

  I was obviously seeing through the eyes of someone Tobias cared about. I could see it in his face as a Roman soldier took a torch and set it down on the pyre.

  But the thoughts that invaded my mind were more real than any emotional transference I ever received in the past from doing readings. I knew Tobias in an entirely different way. One where he wasn’t an arrogant prick who was pushing every button he possibly could to aggravate me in a strange form of courtship that I wanted no part in. He was a warrior. A fighter for his people. His tribe. The witchlings around him were defending the only home they had left from the onslaught of humans. He was protecting them in the same way he tried to protect the Catach-Brayin. Only his tribe all those centuries ago was worthy of his protection. I couldn’t see bloodthirsty vampires in the same way, no matter how hard I tried.

  I knew so little about ancient witchlings or the battles that took place. The stories of how witchlings eventually turned away from humanity and sought only to protect their own was always a mystery to me. I knew it happened but not all the reasons behind it. Something told me that I
just saw a small glimpse into why. The Romans sought to possess what Tobias’s people had. Sharing was never an option.

  I slowly reached out from the comfort of the blanket enfolding me and grabbed a pen, flipping the page of the notebook before me open and getting ready to write. Georgeanna said Edmund wanted an update from me on how our hunts were going. I was dreading telling him that they weren’t really accomplishing anything other than slaughter. Most of the remaining vampires of the Catach-Brayin wanted nothing to do with Nathaniel and had scattered to the winds. The only thing I was dreading more so than revealing this truth was how my penmanship would look. My hands trembled as the ink touched the page of the notebook he entrusted to me, giving me direct access to him the same way the other notebook did for me and Eli. Only this was different. Edmund was older. More powerful. Practically royalty. He was talking to a lowly kruxa like me and helping me out by providing me with vixra blood to use the tunnels and five seconds of travel into the past. If there was one person in the world I should never let down, it was Edmund Matthews.

  I set the pen on the paper and did my best to keep my hand steady. I even took out my other hand from the warmth of the blanket and gripped onto my wrist, forcing my hand steady.

  ‘Come on! How hard is it to write a sentence?’

  The touch of the pen left nothing but a scribbled line. I focused as hard as I could and tried again.

  Mr. Matthews,

  I received the vixra blood that you were kind enough to provide me. It has already been very helpfu-

  I dropped the pen. I picked it back up again and tried writing some more. A droplet of sweat fell from my forehead onto the page.

  ‘How can I be sweating? I’m freezing! I better not be getting the flu.’