“Heks come from the magic in the world,” she said. “We don’t love the same way humans do.” She scooted over on the bed, folding her legs beneath her. “A long time ago, before humans came to this continent, there was a sapphire that allowed us to readily access that magic. When two Heks experienced a special connection toward one another, they danced at a celebration where the two mingled their magic. Always one Skog Heks and one Grei Heks. The sapphire would shine, releasing the magic in the world, and two new Heks were created.”
“Were the new Heks babies?” I asked, trying to picture it in my mind.
Damaris shook her head. “When a Heks died, his or her body was saved for the ceremony. The magic would fill the deceased body, breathing life into him or her. The body would change, become younger, slightly different than before. But never a child.”
The entire process appalled me, but I tried to keep my face neutral so I wouldn’t offend Damaris. “Do you believe that when Morlet and I conceive a child, the child will create a new breed of Heks?” Would my child be human? How would Morlet’s magic alter the child?
“I do,” Damaris admitted. Reaching out, she took hold of my hand. “Kaia, your baby will be a human filled with both Grei Heks and Skog Heks magic. Your child will have a choice in how to use that magic. In other words, he or she will control the magic and not the other way around.” Her eyes shone with hope.
My power only consisted of Grei Heks magic—good and pure. When Morlet had shared his evil magic with me, thoughts of hatred, disgust, and utter loathing filled me. I wanted to hurt others; I even wanted to kill. The magic was both addictive and frightening. How would a child handle those feelings? How would he or she control such magic? What if Morlet’s magic was stronger than mine? What if the evil magic consumed the good?
“Do not fret,” Damaris said, squeezing my hand. “All will turn out as it should.”
I shivered, not sharing her certainty.
She turned my hand over, examining my palm. “Have you ever tried using your mind to focus your power instead of your hands?”
“I didn’t know that was possible.” Any time I used my power, I had to pull it out of me using my hands to direct it. But using only my hands paled in comparison to what I could do when I held my bo staff.
“Your mind, rather than your hands, can be the source of your power, willing and molding it to do as you please. Much can be accomplished by thinking instead of doing.”
“Is that how Heks cast spells?”
Damaris stood, closing the book I’d been reading when she’d come into the room and setting it on the dresser. “Sometimes.”
I stretched out on the bed, staring at the ceiling. “I don’t think my power can be controlled by my mind.” My hands always responded and it was natural to use them as a conduit.
“Then how do you explain your connection to Morlet?” She looked pointedly at me.
I’d never thought about it like that before. Could I control my power with my mind?
“That will be our lesson for tomorrow,” Damaris said before leaving me alone in our room.
“Kaia,” Morlet purred. “Wake up.”
My eyes flew open. I found myself lying on Morlet’s bed. I sat up. A fire roared in the fireplace, light from the flames dancing on the walls and illuminating the twelve golden framed pictures of the Krigers’ weapons. Morlet sat on the plush, red velvet chair next to the bed wearing his usual black cape, the hood concealing his face in shadow.
“Miss me?” he asked.
I hated when the dark magic within him dominated. Instead of responding, I got off the bed and stretched, waiting for him to get to the point of this meeting.
He stood and reached up, pushing his hood back, his mesmerizing blue eyes flashing with malice. “You will arrive at my castle in four days. Bring Vidar and Anders with you.”
“I don’t know where they are,” I admitted.
Morlet leaned closer, only inches from my face. “I know,” he whispered, making my skin crawl. “They’re already on their way here because of the scheduled executions.” His words confirmed my suspicion that arresting the rebels and sentencing them to death was a trap to lure us to the capital. Morlet’s lips curled into a smile. “Everything is going according to plan. Once you’re here, we can play.”
“Why do you want them? Why not just me?”
“Because you chose Anders over me.” His words sounded harsh, accusing.
I shook my head. Why did he care? I recalled the magical truth spell he’d put on me, forcing me to reveal that I loved Anders. Until that moment, I hadn’t been sure of my feelings. The trouble was, I cared for Morlet as well. It made no sense. But there was good in him—I was certain of it. “Anders and I are friends. Nothing more.”
“Only because you’re engaged to my brother.” He said the word brother with disdain.
“Not any longer.”
Morlet stilled. “Why?”
I shrugged. “I don’t love him.”
He turned and punched the nearest post of the bed, splitting the wood. “Because you love that damned assassin!” he roared. “I’ll kill him. I swear it.” He spun around, facing me again. “No matter. You will be here in four days.”
I tried to stop my arms from trembling. His instability scared me. “And if I refuse?”
“Then I won’t cooperate and there won’t be a chance in hell of ending the curse.”
“Please don’t bring Vidar and Anders into this,” I begged.
“I didn’t—you did.” He waved his hand, severing our connection.
I woke up. Four days. Traveling fast, it would take about three days to reach the capital from this part of the forest. I scrambled out of bed and grabbed my sack, stuffing it with an extra set of clothes.
“What are you doing?” Damaris mumbled, rolling over in bed.
“Nothing. Go back to sleep.”
The sky started to lighten as morning approached. I needed to pack some food and water before I left.
“Are you going after them?”
“No.”
Damaris sat up, eyeing my sack. “Then what are you doing?”
I had a vague notion of which direction to travel.
“Kaia,” she said, rubbing her eyes. “What’s going on?”
“Morlet gave me four days to get to his castle.”
“You can’t travel through the forest alone.”
“I don’t have a choice.” Stein or Henrik would gladly accompany me on the journey. However, once we arrived, they would never let me enter the castle alone. Under no circumstance could I risk having them around the king. If he tortured them to hurt me, I would never be able to live with myself.
Damaris got out of bed and changed into her brown wool dress. “I’m going with you.”
“No, you’re not. I can do this on my own.”
“I want to go with you,” she said, putting her boots on.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Traveling with a companion would be safer, even if Damaris didn’t have any magic in Nelebek since she was fulfilling the previous Grei Heks’s role. “Do you know how to get there?” I asked.
“Yes.” She glanced at my bo staff in the corner of the room. “Leave your weapon here. We can’t risk the new Skog Heks, Norill, getting ahold of it again. Since you can use your power without the weapon, you won’t be completely unprotected.”
“I’m not sure I’ll be strong enough without my bo staff.” There were wild animals in the forest. Brubjorns, fugls, and ulvs. Then, once we finally made our way through the forest, we had to find a way into the capital which was surrounded by a massive twenty-foot wall with only one entrance and exit guarded by soldats. After that, I had to get to the castle without being caught.
“You will be,” she whispered. “There is a lot you don’t know or understand. During our time together, I will fill you in on what is necessary to ensure you are prepared for the tasks ahead of you. Now go and gather food. I’
ll speak to Marius.”
“He won’t let us leave.” And we didn’t have time to argue with him.
“Don’t worry about that. I can be rather convincing when I need to be.”
3
“How can you walk in a dress?” I asked Damaris. We had been trekking through the forest all day. Leaves clung to the fabric of her dress and mud soaked into the bottom six inches of it.
“How can you walk in pants?” she countered.
“Easy. They don’t tangle around my legs, and I can run and kick if I need to.”
She laughed. “I’m so used to relying on my magic that I never think about clothes inhibiting my movements. But what I wear doesn’t matter to me. Pants, dress, shirts, they’re all foreign. In my kingdom, our clothing is very different from yours.”
“What do you wear?” I climbed over a fallen log, trailing Damaris. The sun was starting to set. We needed to find a place to sleep for the night.
“Where I come from, Heks fall into two distinct groups. Either you work with humans and wear silk robes, the color indicating your rank, or you live in the desert realm and wear nothing at all.”
I couldn’t envision Heks running around without clothing. “Which group do you belong to?”
She glanced back at me. “Which do you think?”
“The desert realm?” I guessed since she’d told me she arrived in my kingdom without any clothes on.
Damaris looked forward again. “Is there a place we can stop for the night?” she asked, changing the subject.
Closing my eyes, I gathered my power and sent it out of my hands while picturing a cave. A pull came from up ahead and to the right. “About a half-mile from here there is a small cave of some sort.”
“Did you just use your hands to direct your power, or your mind?”
Glancing at my hands, I honestly wasn’t sure what I’d done. “Both I think. My mind to tell it what to do, my hands to release the power.” Although, it seemed so natural that it just happened.
“I want you to take it one step further, like you do when you connect to Morlet. Your mind will direct your power through your hands, then instead of having it target something—whether it be a person or an object—have it do something.”
“Like when I healed Anders?”
“Exactly. But keep in mind, you can destroy just as easily as heal.” She paused, looking around.
“Head to the right,” I said. “The cave isn’t far from here.”
“To answer your previous question, I live in the king’s castle serving as the representative for my people.”
My skin prickled. “You mean to say you are the highest ranking Grei Heks in your kingdom, and work with the king?”
“Yes, but there aren’t many of us left,” she replied.
“How many Heks are in your kingdom?” In Nelebek, there were only two—Damaris and Norill. Neither of whom had their magic because of the curse.
She shrugged. “A couple hundred.”
I whistled, unable to imagine more than one Skog Heks. Damaris’s kingdom had to be plagued with problems. Hopefully, I would never know what it was like to be around so many of them. Norill was bad enough, and she didn’t even have her magic.
“That isn’t many,” Damaris said, a sharp edge to her voice. “There used to be over a million Heks. Now there are a couple thousand between all twelve kingdoms combined.” She glanced back at me, her eyes revealing a mixture of sadness and hope.
I stood knee-deep in water. A bright moon lit the night sky revealing tall trees that grew out of the water forming some sort of forest. Thick mist drifted around the skinny trunks like a living blanket. Something brushed my right calf. Glancing down, I saw a snake sliding through the dark water, away from me. Loud buzzing sounds filled the heavy air. A pungent smell invaded my lungs making it hard to breathe. A lightning bug zipped by my face. Everything felt too real to be a dream.
The water rippled and then everything around me stilled, even the bugs stopped making noise. To my left, about thirty feet away, vines slowly rose out of the water, contorting into the shape of a large animal standing on two legs. The vine-creature plucked something out of a tree and threw it. Morlet sailed through the air, arms frantically waving. He landed with a splash not far from me. The thing turned, its red eyes looking at me. I remained still, unsure what to do.
Morlet moaned, pushing himself to his hands and knees and coughing up water.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my focus remaining on the creature.
“Kaia? What are you doing here?”
The thing moved toward us, the water splashing with each step it took. It towered at least fifteen feet above me. I slowly backed up, wishing I had my bo staff.
It headed straight toward Morlet. “It is time to finish you off, human!” the creature bellowed, its deep, gravelly voice hurting my ears.
Not wanting any harm to come to Morlet, I ran and positioned my body in front of him, facing the creature. “You will not touch him,” I yelled, wondering if Morlet and I were sharing a dream.
“I do as I please,” it sneered. “Move away before I hurt you.” It took another step toward us.
Raising my hands, I willed my power to gather, then I forced it out, striking the creature. It flew backward, landing in the marshy water with a roar.
I dropped to my knees beside Morlet. The warm water smelled of rust. Another snake swam by. “Can you stand?” I asked.
He shook his head, coughing.
“Is this a dream?”
He nodded, his entire body shaking.
The creature clamored to its feet, splashing water on me.
“Have you had this dream before?” I asked, jumping to my feet to face the creature.
“Yes,” Morlet answered, his voice filled with panic. “And you can’t be here. Each time it gets closer to killing me. This time it might actually do it.” He coughed again.
“You can’t die in a dream, can you?”
“Back away,” the thing roared. “I am taking this human with me.”
Morlet knelt in the water, heaving deep breaths. “It pulled me under last time, then I woke up.”
I’d never seen him appear weak and frail before. It unnerved me. Some of my dreams had similar scenarios, and I knew without a doubt that this vine-creature had something to do with the evil magic in the world. For whatever reason, it wanted Morlet. “You will not touch him,” I hollered.
“Kaia, don’t,” Morlet begged. “I can handle this.” He tried to stand but couldn’t.
The creature tilted its head to the side, its red eyes focused on me. “I feel magic in you, human,” it said. “Not as much as in him, but some is there, living inside you.” It lifted its arms, and its hands glowed a deep red. “Humans aren’t meant to have magic.”
I had an odd feeling that if this thing hurt me in this dream state, the injury would carry over to when I woke up. I needed to make it out of this alive, and I needed to save Morlet. Without overthinking it, I dove for the creature’s legs. Before I collided with it, it swung its arm, whacking me under the water. My father had drilled it into me not to panic during a fight. Trying to remain calm, I scrambled to my feet, dripping wet. It was too large, too strong. Maybe if I used more of my power, I could destroy it.
Once again, I willed my power to gather and shoved it out of my body, toward the creature. Nothing happened.
It chuckled. “I am a fast learner.” It must have put a shield in place. The creature turned toward Morlet, mist swirling around its massive frame. It reached for him.
“No!” I screamed. The thing picked Morlet up, holding him between its vine-like hands. “Use your magic!” Why didn’t Morlet defend himself?
“I can’t,” he replied, trying to pry the fingers from his torso to free himself.
“Fool!” it bellowed as the vines started to recede into the water, the creature losing shape.
I couldn’t let it take Morlet under the water with it. Standing with my feet shoulder w
idth apart, I dug deep within my core, gathering my power. When enough of it amassed, I willed every ounce of it to my palms. Opening my mind as Damaris had suggested, I sought the creature’s consciousness. I found a strange murky presence reeking of dark magic. Imagining an open line between us, I sent all my power toward it, telling it to burn.
An inhuman wail shattered the night. The thing released Morlet, its vines exploding into thousands of pieces, showering down upon me. Morlet fell into the water. I ran for him, pulling his head above the water and shielding him from the falling debris.
That wasn’t quite what I had anticipated, but it worked. Everything quieted down. The swamp returned to normal—bugs filling the air, a soft wind blowing, and the water teeming with life. One of the trees to my right had a thick, low-lying branch, so I dragged Morlet over to it, hoisting him out of the water.
Moaning, he wrapped a leg around the branch, and I pushed him the rest of the way on top of it. “Are you all right?” I asked, climbing on next to him.
His eyelids fluttered open. “Kaia?”
“I’m here.” I’d never been sucked into one of his dreams before, and I had no idea how to get out of it.
He reached his hand out, and I clutched onto it. His fingers were cold and his arm still shook. “You should have let the thing take me,” he muttered.
“I couldn’t.”
“You shouldn’t have risked your life for me.” His blue eyes shone bright in the darkness, lighting up his face.
“When I’ve needed your help, you’ve always given it to me. This was a chance for me to return the favor.” Didn’t he understand how I felt about him? That even though he had dark magic, I also saw the good in him?
The corners of his lips pulled into a slight smile. “So this was simply payback.”
“No…I wanted to.” Revealing that made something in my stomach flutter. His eyebrows drew together and he shook his head as if he didn’t understand me. “I care about you,” I insisted, releasing his hand. “Despite everything you’ve done, I have feelings for you that I can’t explain.” I drew my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them.
Conquering Fate Page 3
