A Lying Witch

by Odette C. Bell

  Max nodded. “I know. But that can wait. Fagan won’t move again anytime soon – not now we’ve got Farley. He will go underground. We have time.”

  I looked up at Max. “Time for what?”

  “Time to get you home. Time to fix your wounds.”

  I winced as I remembered what had happened to the house. But then I remembered something else. I paled, dropping my gaze to my hands.

  I watched him narrow his eyes.

  “What is it, Chi McLane? You did good tonight. Great, in fact,” his voice shook with unmistakable pride.

  I paused. I felt like I was on a precipice, squeezed between two choices. Should I tell the truth, or should I turn from it?

  … The truth won out.

  I tipped my head back and looked him in the eye. “I caused this. I ignored my power. Did exactly what you told me not to do. Then… those darklings,” I cut my gaze to the left and locked it on one of those crumpled forms, “they attacked. I caused this,” my voice shook as tears streamed down my cheeks.

  At first, Max didn’t say anything. At first, he was nothing more than a looming shadow beside me. It took a heck of a lot of courage to shift my gaze up and stare into his eyes.

  I did not, however, see hatred flickering within.

  Just resignation. And that resignation? It quickly spread into a smile. “I know. But it doesn’t matter.”

  “It… doesn’t?”

  He shook his head with some finality. “No, Chi McLane. It doesn’t.” He reached a hand out to me.

  “Why? Why doesn’t it matter?”

  “Because you’re finally starting to tell the truth.”

  With that, I accepted Max’s hand. Yet, when it became all too clear that I could hardly stand considering the night I’d had, he stepped in and picked me up.

  My heart soared as his arms wrapped around me.

  I felt reassured, and yet I knew this wasn’t the end.

  For now, though? For now, I felt safe and secure.

  Tomorrow?

  We’d just have to wait and see.

  I was now a future witch, and who knew what would happen tomorrow?

  Epilogue

  So this was it, ha? I was a future witch. A lying future witch.

  I was up in the attic, pressed over one of my grandmother’s journals as Chi the cat sat purring in my lap. The little thing had kept insisting I come up here, had kept pawing at the piles of my grandma’s journals until I’d plucked them up.

  I was taking this world seriously now, wasn’t I? I’d learned my lesson at the hands of Farley and the darklings. I had now turned over the proverbial leaf.

  I frowned as I leafed over a page.

  It was torn in half.

  In fact, there was a lot missing from her journals. Either she’d been ashamed of what she’d written, or someone had come along and redacted them afterward.

  I scratched my head, leaning forward as I stared at the torn page.

  … There was something written along the margin, something that was so faint, I could only just pick it up as I pushed the book closer towards the light.

  Whoever had torn the page in half, had torn off half the sentence, but enough remained. Enough for my heart to suddenly kick, enough for a lick of sweat to spread across my brow.

  The sentence read: “Watch out for Max, he isn’t what—”

  “What the hell?” I whispered as I pressed closer to the book, running a finger over the page.

  I read the sentence out again, subvocalizing it as I spread my lips softly.

  Watch out for Max, he isn’t what….

  He isn’t what he seems? He isn’t a friend? Isn’t a fairy?

  As my mind cast through those possibilities, I shook my head. It was a defiant move. It was defiant, because my heart suddenly told me I couldn’t doubt him.

  He’d saved my life, come charging to my aid.

  And yet, these mysterious words remained on the page, taunting me.

  I looked from them to the doorway down to the floor below.

  I could hear Max downstairs cooking.

  Max the fairy. Max the pain in the ass. Max my doorway into this crazy world. Max who kept me safe.

  Max, the guy whose mere presence set my heart aflutter.

  That Max.

  I trusted him, right? I believed that he’d once been my grandmother’s bodyguard, that he’d lost his memories in her final battle. More than that, I believed he was the only man – or fairy – who could get me out of this.

  Right?

  “Right,” I answered my own question. I closed the book and pushed back from the chair.

  I walked away.

  One day, I would return.

  The end of A Lying Witch Book One. Book Two is currently available.

  If you liked this book, you may also like other urban fantasies by Odette C. Bell. For a full list of books, please visit www.odettecbell.com.

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