Bone Witch

by D. N. Hoxa

  So I looked.

  The first thing I noticed was the blue sky. The clouds. The four moons in it.

  The second thing was the large wall in the distance, sparkling under the sun.

  The third was the trees before it: some big, some small. All red.

  My body moved on its own, and soon, I could no longer see out the window. I’d gone back to the middle of the room. Julian said something, but I couldn’t make out his words. I did make out his eyes and his ears.

  He was a fairy, and he’d made it home, he said. Home.

  “Winter, please. Don’t run,” he whispered from very close to me.

  I almost laughed. Running required strength. My knees were shaking violently. I couldn’t run if I tried.

  Think, think, think, my head said to me. I blinked fast, hoping against all odds that this was all just a stupid dream. Common sense said this couldn’t happen. My eyes still said it did.

  I was in the Fairy realm.

  When Julian put his hands around me and pulled me forward, I let him. It couldn’t get any worse than this, so why bother? He sat me down somewhere, and I was thankful. My legs could no longer hold me. Even my heartbeat was awfully quiet.

  “Why?” I whispered, my voice a strange sound to my ears.

  “Because it’s my home,” Julian said.

  He was sitting right next to me, holding my hand. I felt used. Disgusted with both him and myself.

  “Why did you do this to me?” I’d never allowed anyone in the world to see me at my weakest, but fuck it. I was in the fairy realm, far away from anyone who mattered.

  Julian was suddenly in front of me, his hands framing my face. His fairy hands. God, I’d been such a fool. How could I not have noticed? How could I have done this to myself?

  “You’re a fairy, too,” he said, his thick brows raised as he searched my face. “Winter, please. If you let me explain—”

  “Who are you?” I cut him off.

  “My name is Julius Kendar Rawmoon. I am a Prince of the Unseelie Court.”

  Oh, wow. Prince. So fucking fancy. How could I not laugh?

  “Winter, please! You’re losing it. Please calm down.”

  It only made me laugh harder.

  “Let me lay you down so you can get some sleep.”

  He grabbed my shoulders. My mind felt like it snapped in two. I didn’t have to move a single muscle. My beads attacked his arms at my command. Blood splattered on my cheek before I realized that one of them actually went through his flesh and came out the other side. Unfortunately, I didn’t have it in me to be surprised any longer.

  Julian fell back with a hiss of pain. I stood up on my shaking legs and finally thought to take in my surroundings.

  The room was large. In front of me, there were three more rooms I could see, divided only by semi-circular wooden arches, and furniture. The one right next to where we were had a large table with more than twenty chairs around it. The window there was bigger. A lot more light made the wood of the furniture shine like it had just been polished. After it, because it was darker, I could only see half of the biggest bed ever.

  “Where are we?” I asked, my voice cold. Emotionless. So much better than before. What was done was done. No point in thinking about the whys. All I needed was a way back.

  “In my chambers,” said Julian, standing up to face me, his left arm still bleeding.

  My beads were in front of his face again, bloodthirsty.

  “Take me back, right now,” I demanded.

  He looked at the beads, buzzing in front of his eyes, and if he was smart, he’d know that they’d go right through his eye sockets next, and come out the other side.

  “I can’t,” he whispered, and my beads got closer to him.

  “Do it, Julian. Do it or you’re dead.”

  “If I’m dead, then you’ll be stuck here forever.”

  My mouth clamped shut. It took all my willpower to keep the beads from turning his face into raw meat. He was right. Damn him, he was right.

  “What the hell do you want from me?” I hissed. “You got what you wanted. You’re home. Now, take me back!”

  “I want you to listen,” Julian said. “Please, just listen to me. I owe you an explanation.”

  “I don’t give a shit about your explanation. All you owe me is to take me back.”

  “If I promise to take you back, will you sit down and let me talk?”

  Ah, this guy. He really was funny.

  “Is there something wrong with you? Do you really expect me to trust anything you say?”

  “I do.”

  Definitely something wrong with him.

  The massive door to my side called my name. My mind was shouting at me to just run to it, but my gut wouldn’t let me. I was in the Fairy realm. Where the hell was I going to go? Julian brought me there. He was the only one who could take me back.

  Sitting back down on the leather sofa was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. I had to fight my own body with all my strength just to be able to stay put.

  Relieved, Julian sat down in front of me. He looked at my beads, right in front of his face still, then at me. I raised a brow. My beads weren’t going anywhere.

  “Okay,” he whispered, nodding like I gave a shit. “I’m sorry I lied to you. Believe me, I had no other choice.”

  “You always have a choice.”

  His hands pulled up in fists. I begged him with my mind to make a move. Just one move so I could blow his brains out. But he didn’t. He just talked some more.

  “I led a division of the fairy army that was sent to Earth against The Order. We arrived just hours before the portals were destroyed. My men lost their powers. They were hunted and killed like animals,” he said, and I would have felt bad for him had he not been a lying bastard. “I was the only one who survived with enough magic to create a disguise.”

  “Why didn’t you lose your powers like the rest of them?” I asked. If I was being forced to listen to him, I might as well get all the details.

  “My bloodline,” he whispered, and he looked almost ashamed.

  “Oh, that’s right. You’re royalty.” A damn fairy prince. See if I care when I kill you.

  “For a hundred years, I’ve been trying to find a way to come back home,” he said.

  Something moved in my chest, but I refused to acknowledge it. I was not going to believe a single word he said.

  “How many did you kill to do it? Better yet, how many lives did you take in the war?”

  Picturing Julian fighting a war from a hundred years ago was hard. Good thing I wasn’t believing any word that left his lips. Made it a lot easier to handle.

  “As many as I needed to,” Julian said, a dark cloud gathering over his face.

  Not going to lie, he did scare me. With his piercing eyes and those ears, he looked sharper somehow. More dangerous. That didn’t mean I was going to back down.

  “The Order took everything away from me. My friends. My home. Most of my powers. I wasn’t going to just let it go.”

  Any other time, I wouldn’t have been able to hold something like that against him. Any other time.

  “How did you find the dragon blood?”

  “Through the ECU. I had to take orders from them just to get my hands on it.”

  “They found out? That’s why they fired you?”

  But Julian shook his head. “No, they didn’t find out about me. They found out that the blood had enough power to create a portal from scratch. That’s why they fired me, and why they wanted the blood back so desperately.”

  He was right about that part. Sending a whole fucking army of werewolves to hunt down two people screamed desperate.

  “So what now? You’re just going to waltz back to Earth and kill us all?” My beads buzzed in front of his eyes. “You know I can’t allow that.” If I had to rot in that place for the rest of my life, I’d take it, but I sure as hell hoped I wouldn’t have to.

  “I’m not going anywhere,”
Julian said.

  I kept my relief to myself.

  “All I wanted was to get back home. That’s all I cared about. Revenge isn’t going to bring back my friends or those hundred years.”

  I rolled my eyes. “How big of you.”

  “You don’t get it,” he said with a dumbfounded smile. “They lied to you. They lied to the whole world! Nothing is like they say.”

  “Spare me, Julian. I’ve already heard that story.”

  “And I told you then that you didn’t have to believe me. Now, I’m telling you that you do.”

  “What do you care what I believe in or not? Not your fucking business,” I hissed.

  “Do you think you’d still be alive if I wanted you dead?” Oh? “Winter, every hallway in this castle is filled with my guards. A whisper is all it would take for them to walk in here.”

  Castle. We were in a fucking castle.

  “If I die, I’m taking you with me at the very least.”

  No matter how many guards walked in there. I could reach Julian faster, and if they somehow managed to hold me back, my beads would still be free. He would die, one way or the other.

  “Nobody has to die,” Julian said.

  Glad we were on the same page about that.

  “How did you manage to pull all of it off? The disguise. Being a Blood witch. I saw you do Blood magic at my aunt’s house.” I’d witnessed his spells, too.

  “I had a very long time to perfect my role,” Julian said. “Fairy magic can become anything you want it to. All I had to do was to learn how Blood magic worked and shape my magic into it.”

  “But you said the destruction of the portals took most of your powers.”

  Julian nodded. “It did. I worked with what I had. I grew my remaining magic through the years. I did what I had to do to survive for this day. The day I’d come back home.”

  “You could have told me this before.” He would have spared me a lot of this nonsense.

  “You wouldn’t have believed me.”

  “And I’d have been right! You lied to me.” Obviously.

  “The only thing I lied about was myself. Being a fairy. I promised you power, Winter. Now, you have it.”

  “What does that mean?” I whispered because I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

  He smiled like he was doing me a fucking favor. “You’re a fairy. In the fairy realm. This is exactly what enhances your powers. If you took a second to look, you’d feel it, too. Your beads have already felt it.”

  “You’ve lost your damn mind!” I could feel myself! Everything was the same.

  “Could they cut through flesh and bone before? Because I don’t remember them doing it when we were fighting for our lives in your aunt’s house.”

  That shut me up pretty quickly. True, my beads might be stronger, but that didn’t change anything.

  “Is this it? Are you done?”

  “Winter…”

  “I’m really tired. You can either send me back from where you took me—my home—or you can try to have me killed.”

  “I don’t want you killed, Winter.”

  “Right.”

  “I’m back home after a century, and I haven’t even left my room. Why do you think that is?”

  “Because you keep talking to me when we could both get this over with really fast!”

  “Exactly. I’m talking to you. I don’t want you to die. I want you to live,” he whispered. “I want you to live here.”

  “Live here? As in the fairy realm?”

  “Yes,” Julian said, his eyes full of hope. “Right here, with me. There’s a whole new world out there, Winter. I can’t wait to see it. I can’t wait for you to see it. You won’t ever be on the run from anyone again.”

  “You’ve lost your mind.” I shook my head, but it did nothing to erase his hope.

  “Back there, on Earth, there was nothing I could offer you, but here? I can give you the whole world if you stay with me.” He tried to stand, but my beads didn’t let him. I didn’t let him.

  “You lied to me. You betrayed my trust.” I’d have to be completely crazy to allow him to do it again.

  “I know you don’t think my word means much right now, but I—”

  “Stop.”

  My God, he was getting right to my head. My brain had already started to picture what life would look like in a place where I belonged. Where I looked like everyone else. Where I didn’t have to think about hiding what I was. Where I was as strong as everyone else. Where I didn’t have to think about where I was going to hide next.

  A place where I didn’t have to pretend to be someone I wasn’t.

  “I’m a Bone witch,” I whispered.

  I’d been a Bone all my life. My mother had been one. My aunt, too. No matter what had happened, I was my mother’s daughter first and foremost. I loved my home with all the good and the bad in it. I also loved to fight. Maybe not for the same reasons I’d fought before, but fighting was my whole life. If you took that away from me, there’d be barely anything left.

  “You’re also a fairy,” Julian whispered. “Please, just think about it.”

  “Why?” I asked. “You have everything you’ve ever wanted now. You’re back where you belong. What does it matter if I stay?” What did I matter to him?

  “It matters. Of course it matters. I want you by my side every single day. I want to know everything about you. What makes you laugh and what ticks you off. What makes you happy. I want you.”

  There was no hint in his voice that said he was lying. That didn’t mean I believed him. No matter that my heart beat like crazy in my chest as I looked at his face. This was his world. My father might have really been a fairy, but I was born a witch. The fairy realm wasn’t my home. I already had one on Earth.

  “I need to go back.” I’d never sounded more sure in my life and part of me was relieved to hear the confidence in my voice.

  “Winter, I will never lie to you again,” Julian said, but I shook my head.

  “It’s not about that.” And it really wasn’t. I hated what he’d done, but I also understood. In his place, I would have tried to do the same. He hid, just like I wanted to hide from the world ever since I got my powers. He was ready to do anything to go back home, just like I was, right now.

  “Tell me what I can do,” he said.

  This time, when he stood up, I moved my beads away from his face. There was no fear left in me. He could no longer change my mind. My decision was already made.

  “You can take me back home.” He squatted in front of me and took my hands in his.

  “I don’t want to.” At least he was being honest. “Stay for a few days. Just come outside with me and see.”

  “But I can’t.”

  I couldn’t allow anything else to try and change my mind. It didn’t matter how easy life would be here. It didn’t even matter that Julian would be with me, every single day, though all I wanted to do was fall into his arms and never let go.

  “This isn’t me, Julian. This is you. I respect that. I want you to respect my decision, too.”

  “You can’t ask me to just let you go.” I read pain in his perfect eyes, and it made my heart break a little more.

  “Would you do it if I asked you to go back with me?”

  Julian’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. He looked down at my lap, at my hands wrapped in his. It was enough of an answer, one I expected. Reluctantly, I pulled my hands back and stood up.

  “I’m ready.”

  As ready as I would ever be. The part of me that liked the idea of staying for just a day, just to see what it was like, tried to make me want to look out the window again, but no. The less I saw, the better. This was not where I belonged.

  “Okay,” Julian whispered and stood up.

  “What are you going to do next?”

  “I’m going to just…take my time.” His lips pressed tightly together as he walked to the middle of the room.

  “No, I mean with the portal. What d
oes this mean for my world exactly?”

  “Nothing. The spell that opens virtual doors into different dimensions was only half when I found it. Nobody else knows the second part but me.”

  “Which means nobody else can open the portal?”

  “This is a portal by definition, but not like the ones that used to connect our realm with Earth. This door isn’t rooted to any place, but the magic of the conjurer and the words of its spell. Through them, you can get anywhere.”

  “Anywhere?”

  Julian nodded. He would no longer meet my eyes as he spoke. I almost ran and wrapped my arms around him, just one more time before I never saw him again. But I couldn’t. The fewer memories I had, the easier it would be to forget them, and it was already going to take a very long time to forget Julian Walker.

  “Winter, I’m offering you all I have,” he said.

  “And I’m giving it back.”

  The words scratched my throat as I said them. I wanted to take everything he had to offer, lies and all, but they would ultimately destroy me. I knew myself well. The guilt would never let me be anything but miserable. I hated betrayal, and it would be easy to feel like I’d betrayed my home, my family, my life, if I stayed there.

  “I’m going to miss you,” Julian said.

  “I’ll probably miss you, too,” I said to try and lighten up the mood, but it didn’t work. Julian raised his arm and with a sigh, began to chant.

  “What should I do?” I asked.

  Back at the cabin, he’d asked me to release energy. I wanted to be prepared when the time came.

  But Julian shook his head. “Nothing. I have my power now. It’s going to be enough.”

  A bit disappointed that he no longer needed me, I kept my mouth shut as I watched him chant in that language that was probably something fairy-ish. Soon, the black dot appeared in front of his hands. Mesmerized, I watched as it expanded into a large hole, big enough to fit three people at once.

  When he was done, Julian stepped back.

  “There’s something else I need from you,” I said. When he looked at me, I wished he hadn’t. He said once to me that he didn’t like to see me sad. Guess I could say the same thing. But I was positive that he would forget all about me as soon as I was gone. That made it a bit easier.