The Witch's Quest

by Michele Hauf

Valor took a step back. “Nope.”

  She scanned about and spied another fallen log, also coated in moss. It was not still attached to roots. Probably it had fallen decades earlier. It would serve for an altar. Setting her leather spell bag down, Valor began to sort through the items while Kelyn chattered with the bird.

  “She’ll guide us through the portal,” he said after a round of chitters shared by both of them.

  “You speak falcon?”

  “Yes. Don’t you?”

  Valor smirked. He could probably speak to all the animals. “Well, if a tree comes after me, would you have a few words with it, please?”

  “Will do. You need my help?”

  “No. I’m going to draw a casting circle and I should be the one in it. You and Matilda stand over there by the maple sapling. I’ll focus the direction for the portal...” She turned and faced two parallel birch trees sporting peeling white paper bark. “There. Between those trees. Sound good?”

  “Better than good.”

  “All right. Stand back. I’m going to sprinkle some ash for the circle.” She tugged out the bag of ash taken from a fallen rowan tree.

  “Kiss me first,” Kelyn said.

  Dropping the supplies at her feet, Valor rushed to Kelyn and plunged into his arms. She lost all fear of crazy trees as Matilda flew up from his shoulder and cawed.

  The kiss dazzled her senses. Dragonflies fluttered in her heart. Kelyn’s arms were kind tree roots that wrapped about her body and comforted her soul. And her core tingled with the promise of intense sexual energy between the two of them. She could rip away his clothing right now and take him on the mossy forest floor.

  Maybe she should? If there was the chance he’d not return from Faery?

  Tickling the tip of her tongue with his, Kelyn ended the kiss and gave a quick kiss to one of her eyelids and then the other. He bracketed her head between his hands and bowed to meet her gaze.

  “Let’s do this,” he said. “For good or for ill, I’ve got your back.”

  She bumped fists with him. “Here’s to you getting your wings back, and...the two of us having wild faery-wing sex later tonight.”

  Chapter 23

  The witch knelt in the center of an ash circle before the altar placed on a mossy oak log. Matilda perched on Kelyn’s shoulder, her head cocked forward, wings back, fiercely intent on the witch’s actions and her mesmerizing intonations that echoed up from the circle and bewitched the forest into a humble calm.

  Sunlight melted over Valor’s violet hair, gilding her a Wicked enchantress who moved her hands slowly, ritualistically, as she took up the first item and held it before her to bless it. The werewolf claw stolen from a time traveler. It glinted once, betaken by her magic. She placed it on the moss and swept her fingers over it as she spoke words in a language that must have been created and brewed by witches throughout the centuries.

  Second, the vial of unruly lake water the shade of chewed bubble gum that the dark witch had blessed. Valor had specifically put up no protection spell of her own because of that ingredient.

  Kelyn glanced high toward the tree canopy. He knew others watched. They would not interfere unless necessary. And he trusted them.

  She poured the water over the claw and it emitted a pink smoke reminiscent of the lake’s color that lingered before her. The mermaid’s kiss she held above the smoke so it infused the paper and then seemed to peel the kiss off so it dropped onto the claw. Valor’s fingers curled and her shoulders swayed as her intonations grew more rhythmic, like a song that only monks could chant. She sprinkled the skull dust stolen from an eclectic archive over the concoction on the moss. A sudden flare ignited the claw and burned blue in thin flame.

  And, finally, the last ingredient. True love’s first teardrop. How did a person come by such a thing? Sure, witchy spell stuff was all odd and rare and mysterious, but...

  It struck Kelyn at that moment that it might, indeed, have been something she stocked for her witchy trade, or, on the other hand... Had she obtained it recently? Because it was...hers?

  The realization made him crouch and bow his head. He touched his heart, sending out all that he felt for her toward the witch. Respect, admiration and love. And in that instant she lifted her head and turned to look at him. Matilda cawed. Kelyn nodded, confirming something neither had dared speak out loud to each other. She loved him?

  And he had fallen in love with her. Wow. This was immense. He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her silly, then—

  A banshee’s cry erupted in the sky, startling Kelyn upright. He gripped an arrow from his sheath and notched it on the bow. Matilda veered, aiming at the dryad that stalked toward Valor. And as the arrow missed the vile creature, another winged being swooped down and delivered a shoulder punch at the dryad’s chest, sending it off course and reeling in the air.

  “Thanks, Blade!” Another arrow notched onto the bow, Kelyn tracked the dryad who had come from a nearby oak while shouting to Valor, “Don’t stop!”

  Valor spread out her arms. With a few more incantation words, the blue flame, emitting pink smoke, rose above her and soared toward the birch trees she had designated as a portal.

  Kelyn followed the returning dryad. His brother, who had unfurled his black-and-silver wings, followed it, but the creature was small and swift, and blended with the tree bark, so one moment it was visible, the next, not. Just as it tracked overhead, and Kelyn’s arrow once again missed the target—curse his lacking faery skills!—the dryad dodged low and was met by Stryke’s wolf, who snatched it by the throat with his powerful maw.

  “It’s ready!” Valor announced. She gestured to Kelyn. “Where’s Matilda?”

  Kelyn searched the sky but didn’t sight the kestrel falcon. He caught Valor’s hand with his and now he saw the portal that gleamed before them. An oblong oval centered between the two birch trees like a liquid skein of ocean water. He hoped there weren’t mermaids on the other side.

  “Are those your brothers?” Valor asked as they rushed toward the portal.

  “Yes, they’ll keep the dryad at bay.”

  “You ready for this?”

  “All my life! Matilda!”

  The kestrel dived from the tree canopy and swooped over their heads. She glided toward the portal and, with a flap of wings, broke the skein into myriad glitters of wavering sky.

  “Now!” Kelyn pulled Valor after him. They both leaped through the portal and landed...

  ...in thick emerald grass dotted with red mushrooms. Their bodies rolled and they sprawled amid a dusting of blue-and-violet flower pollen.

  * * *

  Kelyn stood and brushed the violet pollen from his forearms. He helped Valor to stand and before he could hug her, she pointed behind him and shouted in surprise. He swung around quickly, but when reaching for his bow, realized he’d left it behind in the mortal realm.

  He didn’t see anything wild or vicious headed toward them. “What is it?”

  “The sky is freaking azure and that tree bark is actually yellow.”

  He chuckled at her marvel. And then took a moment to look about. Indeed, the deep blue sky bejeweled the air. The yellow tree resembled most trees, only the bark was golden and the leaves were also a shiny yellow gold. The grass at their feet was green. Looked like normal grass. And the mushrooms dotted about also looked normal.

  And there in the sky, far yet large, loomed a green moon, and beside it hung a pearl moon.

  “Is that for real?” Valor asked as she noted the same thing.

  “Most definitely.”

  Kelyn rubbed his fingers together and sniffed at the violet pollen. “Whew! That’s potent.” Like the lushest flower he’d ever smelled. And yet a darkness permeated that scent and he wanted to get it off his fingers. But rubbing frantically against his thigh did not
hing more than further imbue it into the whorls.

  Insect sounds chirped, buzzed and chirred about them. Nothing too unfamiliar, but the noise seemed to rise and fall in sync, almost like a symphony. Cool.

  They stood in a field that edged an extremely dark forest. Kelyn couldn’t see past the tightly spaced trees any farther than about ten feet. He highly expected to see eyes flashing at them from within.

  “I wonder if these are the same as in the mortal realm.” Valor squatted to inspect the mushrooms.

  “Uh, sweetie?”

  She looked up at him in inquiry, her violet hair spilling over the grass tips.

  “Remember what happened last time you tried to take something from Faery?”

  She quickly dropped the mushroom and stood. “Right. Just here for your wings. So, where do you think we should go? I vote no on the creepy forest.”

  “Two votes against the forest. So maybe...” Kelyn swung in the opposite direction. Gray boulders serrated by glistening violet crystals sat on a low hill and were frilled with trimmed shrubbery.

  That was odd. Who trimmed the shrubs way out here? Or were they way out anywhere? They could have landed in someone’s backyard for all Kelyn knew.

  Much as he’d like to wander about and admire the scenery and take in the scents that at first smelled familiar, but then changed to something slightly sinister, he had come here with a job to do. Get in, get out.

  In theory.

  After he had his wings, could he not spend some time wandering about as he wished?

  “I think that’s them!” Valor rushed across the grassy field toward the forest.

  “I thought we voted against that way.” But when Kelyn saw what she headed toward, he took off, as well.

  The them she’d shouted about was what looked like his wings. And two of them were not attached to a body, because the demon who had taken them was cutting them off his back at the edge of the forest.

  As they neared, the demon snapped upright, one wing in hand, the place where it had been severed leaking thick black blood. The other wings, tattered and almost beyond Kelyn’s recognition, lay on the ground in a pool of demon blood.

  “Ah! So you’ve come for your wings, eh?”

  “Looks like they are not serving you well.”

  The demon clutched the severed wing to his chest and gave them both an imperious lift of chin. “They’re mine. You gave them to me.” Then he eyeballed Kelyn, at right about neck level. His eyes glowed brightly.

  Kelyn touched the cipher hanging from his neck. “Do you see something you’d rather have much more than my useless wings?”

  The demon’s lower lip quivered.

  “I can make a trade. Of course, this is merely a trinket. And those...”

  “These are worthless!” The demon thrust one wing at Kelyn and he caught it. “You can have them for the cipher. Awful bit of goodness and nice. I should have taken the cipher from the start. I knew I could use it, but I’d always wanted wings.”

  The wing in Kelyn’s grasp shivered. He clasped it to his chest, feeling as if a part of him had been returned, and yet that part was now tainted and worn. “What have you done to them?”

  “Not a bloody thing. I’ve worn them since you gave them to me. Thought they’d get me entrance back into the Unseelie court’s good graces, me being Wicked and all. Those unspeakably pleasant things!” He kicked at the wings on the ground. “I cannot raise my fist at an attacker to save my life! Awful bit of niceness and honor running through those ugly wings. Do you know I helped a crippled sprite across a stream? What was that about?”

  Valor cast Kelyn a knowing grin. So his kindness had paid off. But how, exactly? Sticky demon blood smeared across Kelyn’s arm and wrist. It smelled rotten, while the sheer fabric of his precious wing had tears in it and the edges were frayed.

  “Give me the cipher!”

  Kelyn tugged the leather cord from around his neck but clasped the circle tightly. The demon made a gimme gesture with his hand. As Valor bent to touch one of the severed wings, the demon slapped a foot onto it and tched at her. “Not until he hands over the cipher.”

  Kelyn rubbed his thumb around the cool, hard surface of the thing. He’d never known what it was, beyond that it had sort of sealed his friendship with Matilda because it was the first gift she’d brought him from Faery. He swallowed and searched the sky. Matilda flew overhead. It was a nervous flight in a tight circle that made him second-guess giving the thing away. “I’m not sure.”

  “Kelyn, your wings?” Valor nudged.

  Matilda cawed once. The stark cry pleaded with him. But it wasn’t the same plea Valor had made. The bird had issued a confirmation of alliance. He could feel her heartbeat in his chest. The flap of her wings beat the air, holding her aloft. She didn’t want him to hand over the cipher?

  But he’d come all this way. He held his reason for being in hand.

  “I’m waiting, faery.” The demon stepped forward, crushing one of the wings under his foot. “It’s a bit of stone that’ll allow me to navigate to my people. You know they hide us here in Faery. Cast us out to a place at the edge where no others can be bothered by us, the half-breeds who are so hideous.”

  “You’re not hideous,” Kelyn said. And he meant it. The demon had helped him and Valor when they were desperate. And he had chosen freely how to pay the demon for such help. “But I’m not sure...”

  He looked to Valor, who shrugged. She could never understand all the complicated consequences that ran through his brain right now. If he handed over the cipher, would Matilda...? What would become of his and Matilda’s bond?

  And yet with his other hand he clutched the tattered wing against his chest. He could not survive with but the one wing. He needed all four. And his soul screamed for him to fit those missing pieces back into his life.

  “Very well.” Kelyn thrust the cipher forward. It dangled from the leather cord. “It’s yours.” He flipped his hand, and the necklace soared toward the black-skinned demon, who caught it with a gnash of his fangs.

  “And these are yours.” The dark thing kicked the remaining wings across the grass toward them.

  Overhead, Matilda keeled out a warning caw. It was so piercing Kelyn winced.

  “I’m out of here.” The demon stepped backward into the forest and became one with the blackness, red eyes flashing twice in blinks before dissolving to nothing.

  Valor picked up a wing and inspected it. She turned a beaming smile at him. “That was easy. Who’da thought, eh?”

  Right. But what had he sacrificed in turn this time?

  “Never look gift wings in the mouth. You did say the spell would take us directly to my wings.” Kelyn traced the serrated end that yet bled black demon blood. “Good job, witch.”

  “You don’t look happy. I know this looks bad, but they’ll clean up.”

  “They’re tattered,” he said on a breath that caught at the back of his throat. “Used and damaged.”

  “It was the demon that made them this way. Once you have them back on, they’ll be good as new. I’m sure of it.”

  “Sure.” His eyes searched the azure sky. No Matilda anywhere. Had the moons darkened?

  Valor stepped up to him. “Let’s put them back on, yes?”

  He nodded and with one last search of the sky, bowed his head and fell to his knees before her. With a reluctance that felt as heavy as grief, Kelyn pulled off his shirt and then handed her the wing he’d held.

  “How do I do this?” she asked.

  “Just put them where they belong. Right over the scars. They should heal to me. I hope. Valor.”

  She paused before walking around behind him.

  “Thank you,” he said. “For everything. I know how you got the final ingredient.”

  “Y-you do? Right. I
told you, I had it in stock.”

  “Valor.” On his knees before her felt right because she stood a goddess before him, and he her lucky consort. “You are a real, exquisitely lovable woman. I love you.”

  “Oh. I, uh... Jeez. Are we going to do this right now?” She sniffled and a teardrop spilled down her cheek.

  He hadn’t expected that reaction. And he wasn’t sure what to do now. Miss Tomboy was going all tears on him?

  “Yeah, so maybe I did get that last ingredient right after you left me at home the other day. I was hoping you might have stayed the night with me. But you walked away. And I, uh...you know.”

  She couldn’t say it. But he didn’t need her to say it. He felt the love emanate from her.

  “Sorry I left you hanging like that. I had to go to my brother’s house and straighten something out between us.”

  “Oh. And did you?”

  “Yes. Trouble and I are good now.”

  “I’m glad. I sure hope he can be good with me, too. I hate having lost him as a friend.”

  “Give him some time. I have a feeling he misses pizza night with you.”

  Valor shrugged. “It’s fun, but if I’m going to share my pizza with anyone now, I’d prefer it be you.”

  “No pepperoni?”

  “How about veggies on half?”

  “Deal.”

  The moment demanded a fist bump, but Kelyn instead pressed his cheek to her stomach and hugged her. The witch was his. He was no longer threatened by her friendship with his brother. And his wings had been found. And even as the insect song seemed to rise in warning about them, he could only be thankful.

  Rocking back onto his toes and looking up to her, he winked. The witch actually blushed. Yep, he loved her.

  “So,” he said with a splay of a hand, “you going to stand there with my wings or will you put them on and let me see if I can get them to work again?”

  “Yes, of course!” She scampered around beside him, and then she backtracked and leaned down to kiss him. “I love you, too. Thank you, for not giving up and for letting me help you get to this moment.”