by Mona Hanna
She nodded, shut her eyes, and took a deep breath.
Brayden paced the room, wondering what was going on. He could barely sleep last night thinking about someone related to Julius trying to turn another High Witch. That was the man’s plan, wasn’t it? Ariel had seen the High Witch and a young man both trapped—what else could it be? It had to be about turning her. Ariel had been dreading this—dreading someone else wanting to hurt those like her. He knew this must be killing her; it was killing him. He looked back at Ariel, and she was gazing at him sadly. He frowned, going over to her and kissing her on the forehead. “Don’t you worry too,” he said. “I’ll worry enough for both of us. You just cast the spell.”
Ariel bit her lip. “Do you think… do you think the man is Julius’ son? Julius lived for so long—it might be a distant relative who just looks like him. But it could be his son. I hate to think of what Julius would have filled his own son’s mind with. He’d probably think High Witches are there just to be turned. It makes me sick, makes me ill. I can’t stand it, Brayden. If I could just go to them, I’d stop him—I’d stop him any way I could. The poor thing, she might not even know how to use her magic! Although the spell I saw her cast was enormous. I hope she gets away from him.” Ariel shut her eyes, putting her head in her hands.
Brayden grit his teeth, the tension he was feeling nearly unbearable. He hoped the girl would get away too. He hoped she wouldn’t lose her life.
***
The door was locked. Of course it was locked. Hallie tried the handle again, but it didn’t budge. She clenched her jaw, feeling like an idiot. All her power and a locked door stumped her! She grimaced, then decided to magically transport to the only other room she’d seen in the house, the one she’d first arrived in. She shut her eyes, took a deep breath, and visualized the small room. She focused intently, felt the tug in her stomach, then the spinning sensation which came from transporting. When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the other room, the curtains now open and light spilling into the room. Nicholas was sitting on a chair next to the table, reading something in the black leather book filled with dark handwriting Hallie had noticed before.
He looked up at Hallie and raised an eyebrow. “Good morning,” he announced. “Nice try. The door is locked in this room when I’m not in it, so had I not been here, you would have still been trapped.”
Hallie clenched her fists. “I can use my magic to undo a stupid lock!”
“And yet you didn’t. And for your disobedience, Sean will go without food and water today. Try something again, and he’ll have nothing tomorrow.”
Hallie growled at him. “You can’t keep us here forever! What if this Ariel person takes ages to find me? What if she’d not even looking right now? I want you to take me to Sean—I want to see he’s alright. You might have killed him already! Take me to him!”
She stomped her foot in anger, but Nicholas just sat there, staring at her. Maybe she should let her magic out. She could feel it, bubbling beneath the surface. She almost didn’t care that she couldn’t control it—she just wanted to stop him. But she looked at Nicholas and knew she didn’t want to hurt him badly. She hated him, she wanted to never see him again, but she couldn’t risk hurting him. She sighed, slumping her shoulders, then went and sat in the other chair. “Why are you doing this?” she murmured, rubbing her forehead. She glanced at Nicholas, and he only frowned.
“I told you.”
“But why do you want to hurt Ariel? Who did she hurt that’s so important to you? Your wife?”
“No, Hallie. Ariel didn’t hurt my wife. I’m not doing this because of who she hurt.”
“But, you said… you said someone was dead because of her. You’re not even making sense!”
“I don’t need to make sense to you!” Nicholas shouted, glaring at her, his eyes bright and menacing. He put down the journal and clenched one of his fists, gritting his teeth. Hallie stared at him in awe, and he stared back, looking at her with such hatred she could barely breathe. He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t get to control this,” Nicholas said, forcing the words out. “You’re behaving like a child, thinking this is some kind of joke, that this is all pretend. Do you know what it’s like to lose someone you love? To watch someone you love be destroyed and then ruthlessly killed? Ariel….” Nicholas shut his eyes, holding the bridge of his nose and taking deep breaths. He finally looked at Hallie with a dark intensity in his eyes.
Her breath hitched, her heart starting to beat faster.
“You think you have problems, Hallie, but you haven’t seen true pain. You haven’t lived true pain. You’re the luckiest girl in the world that no one knows what you are, but you don’t see it. You think your power is a problem, you think the way people taunted you was hell. But I’ve seen hell. You, with your comfortable life and a man who loves you and all the safety in the world, don’t know a thing about real torture. You hurt some people—they deserved it. You have power and strength and your life is your own! You have freedom, Hallie, and the only thing stopping you is you. So stop being a baby, stop talking, and be thankful I don’t wish you any harm. I’m a saint compared to some out there. You just don’t understand!” Nicholas slammed his fist on the table, then stood up and paced. He took heaving breaths, clenching and unclenching his fists.
Hallie was frozen, a trembling mess, shaking and quivering and finding it hard to breathe. Her emotions were taking over, her magic flowing through her, the horrible feeling of losing control overtaking her. She tried to calm down, tried to think clearly, tried to stop. But she couldn’t. She clutched her heart—this was all wrong—then it started to escape her. She had to let it out at something—not Nicholas. She stood up and hurried to the door.
Nicholas went to grab her arm. He was too late.
Her magic exploded out of her. A wave of white light, strong and blinding and unbound, hurtled towards the door and blasted it from its hinges. It clattered to the ground, broken in pieces, a mess of wood in the doorway. Hallie scrambled over the remains and ran through a hallway with several doorways along one wall and a staircase behind her. Nicholas was hot on her heels, but she didn’t stop. She had to find Sean.
“Sean!” she screamed, knowing he was there somewhere. “Sean!”
She ran to one door and opened it, then felt Nicholas grab her arm and pull her back. The room was empty. She turned and slapped Nicholas hard, shoved him back, and then she ran to the next door. She hurled it open, but once again it was empty. She ran to the next door and found it was locked. She whirled around to face Nicholas. He was staring at her with a look of fear. She was about to yell at him to unlock it, but then she placed her hand on the doorknob and funneled her anger and pain down her arm towards it. The handle burned hot in her hand, the metal turning bright red, and then it clattered away. She shoved the door open.
Sean was sitting on a chair, bound by ropes and with a cloth covering his mouth. His eyes were filled with pain as he looked at her.
She began to sob. “Oh, my love,” she whispered, hurrying towards him. Strong hands pulled her back by her upper arms, and then Nicholas wrapped his arms around her and pressed her against his chest. She squirmed—any second he could transport her out of there, away from Sean. She cried out, tears pouring from her eyes, knowing she was going to do it, but she didn’t want to.
She lowered her head and screamed, her skin starting to burn, a white heat radiating from her. The light shone bright and searing, and Nicholas cried out in agony as he fell backward and writhed on the floor. His skin was burning. Hallie wailed and threw herself at Sean, transporting him with her, chair and all, back to her home. They arrived in the front room and then Hallie fell to her knees, screaming and crying. She didn’t want to hurt him. She didn’t mean to hurt him.
***
Ariel shut her eyes, about to try the locating spell once more. She took a deep breath, concentrating on her type of magic, focusing on finding someone else who had the same power. But it was different this
time. The previous times she’d felt nothing. This time she felt a tingle from within her belly, almost an ache. She focused on the spell once more, and the feeling inside her grew.
She felt the table starting to shake. She heard the mug of potion tip over, liquid dripping into the floor. She clutched the table with one hand, still holding on to the string with the vial, almost crying out from the searing pain inside of her. She bent over the table, then suddenly threw her head back, feeling more magic pouring out of her than she’d ever felt before. When she opened her eyes and lowered her head, a fiery golden glow was emanating from her stomach. And the vial was frozen, standing upright on a spot on the map.
She looked at Brayden, who was gazing at her with his mouth open. She took a deep breath, the room becoming silent once more, everything still. The glow at her stomach faded. She was herself once again. It was very difficult to breathe.
“Brayden?” she said, releasing the string in her hand.
He swallowed loudly. “Yes?”
“The baby and I just cast a spell.”
Chapter 12
Hallie finally stopped crying and looked up at Sean, still bound to the chair. She wiped away her tears and hurried to the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and returned to the front room. She began cutting away at the ropes, first the ones over his torso and then the ones at his feet.
Sean undid the cloth binding his mouth, and Hallie threw down the knife, gazing at him sadly. He took her hands in his and bundled her in his arms, holding her in his lap and burying his face in her neck. She gently kissed his head, stroking his hair, whispering she was sorry. He finally lifted his head to look at her. “You saved me, Hallie. You have nothing to be sorry about.”
“I’m sorry I pushed you away,” she said. “I’m sorry I told you to leave. I’m sorry I thought for one second that we shouldn’t be together. I didn’t mean it—I swear I didn’t mean it.”
Sean kissed her on the forehead. “Good. Good. Go sit on the settee—I’ll be back in a moment.”
She nodded, getting of his lap and watching him go down the hall. She sat down, breathing deeply, glad their ordeal was over. Although she knew it wasn’t really over. But she wasn’t going to think about the rest now. She just wanted to be with Sean.
He walked into the room a while later, barefoot, holding a glass of water. He smiled at her, then sat beside her, putting the glass on the small table nearby. He kissed her neck. “Oh, Hallie, I want to lie down for a month. And I want to kill that idiot. What’s going on? What did he want with us?”
Hallie did her best to explain what she knew, which wasn’t much.
Sean frowned when she was finished, running his hand through his hair. “So this is all about him killing Ariel? And because Ariel is looking for you, you were going to bring her to him? Why is she looking for you?”
Hallie chewed her lip. “I think… I think she’s like me. I think we have the same kind of power. That’s why Nicholas isn’t just going to her—he wanted to lure her to him so he would have the upper hand. Otherwise how could he hurt her, if she’s strong? Maybe she has control of her power, unlike me. I don’t know what she wants with me, exactly, but I think that’s why she’s seeking me.”
Sean looked at her closely for a long time and then his lips formed into a smile. “This is amazing.”
“What! No, this is terrible!”
“No, Hallie, don’t you see? This is what I want—someone to help you with your power. Someone to explain to you why you’re different. To help you not be afraid of who you are. I hope she does find you. I don’t know what we’re going to do now, though. I can’t imagine Nicholas is just going to forget about you. We’ll have to face him when he heals.”
Hallie frowned, knowing he was right. She looked at her hands. “I don’t know what to do, either. I don’t really want to go back to work now, not with all this going on.”
“Can’t you just take some time off? You’ve worked there long enough.”
She nodded. “I’ll send word to Amos that I’ll have to be away for a while. I don’t know if I’ll have a job when I come back, but I’ll have to just wait and see.”
Sean kissed her on the cheek. “You can get a job anywhere. You’re amazing. Right now, I need to sleep. Come on, let’s go to bed.”
Hallie smiled in spite of her sadness, and Sean raised an eyebrow. He took her hand, brushed it with his lips, and then led her to her bedroom. She shut the door and walked to the other side of the bed, then saw Sean take off his shirt and begin to undo his trousers. “Sean!” she said, but he only grinned.
“What? You’ve seen me naked already. Hell, you saw me naked when we were children.”
“That was different,” Hallie said, stating the obvious.
He only smiled again. “I just want to be comfortable,” he said, pushing his trousers down and kicking them out of the way.
Hallie watched him climb into bed, her eyes roaming over his muscles, taking in how tall and perfect he looked, and then she looked down at her hands. He lay under the covers, watching her. She blushed. “Alright,” she said, her fingers shaking slightly as she began to remove her dress. She avoided Sean’s gaze as she let it pool on the ground, then got into bed wearing only her thin beige undertunic. Sean wrapped his arms around her, snuggled her close to him, and pressed her up against him. She lay her hand over his heart, kissing his chest, breathing in his scent.
He moaned slightly. “Oh, Hallie, I was so worried I’d never see you again,” he whispered, smoothing his hand down her hair.
She held onto him, kissing his chest once more. “I wasn’t going to just leave you there,” she said. “I had to get us out.” Her voice broke on the last word, remembering what she’d done to Nicholas. She didn’t think she’d hurt him badly enough to kill him, but she’d still wounded him.
Sean moved so he was looking at her. “You had to do it, Hallie,” he said, holding her face in his hands. “You had to. Don’t feel guilty. Don’t do that to yourself.”
“But… I hurt him…”
“And if you hadn’t, he might have killed us! I love you, my darling, and I promise you, you didn’t do anything wrong. I promise you.”
She looked into his deep green eyes, her heart filling with emotion. “You love me?” she whispered, so quietly she wasn’t sure if he’d heard it. But he smiled a little, and she knew he had.
“I love you. I’ve loved you my whole life. I just want you to love you.”
She kissed his soft lips, then wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you too,” she said. “You mean so much to me. I never want us to be apart.”
“Then all you have to do is not leave,” he said, “because I’ll never leave you.”
She felt a few tears fall from her eyes, and she kissed him again, passionately this time, feeling his hands roam over her body as he clutched her to him. Her heart soared in her chest as they embraced, so happy to be back in his arms. They settled down, holding each other, and fell asleep in a warm hug.
She loved him so much. She had to protect them both.
Chapter 13
When Hallie awoke, it was evening and the house was dim and silent. She looked over at Sean lying next to her on his back, with his arm across his stomach. She snuggled close to him, put her hand on his bicep, and watched him sleep. He looked so handsome, so peaceful, and she hated that he was brought into the whole mess with Nicholas. All because of her! Or really, in the end, because of Ariel.
Hallie wondered about Ariel—wondered how old she was, where she lived, if she was indeed looking for her. Was Ariel really like her? How had she learned to control her powers? Had she found someone to help her, or was she just better at it than Hallie—just naturally good at controlling her magic, unlike Hallie, who couldn’t do a thing right with it. The memory of Nicholas’ screams when she burned him ripped through her mind, making her scrunch her eyes shut in pain.
If she was a real witch, she could have gotten herself and Sean away without hurting
anyone, could have cast a spell with finesse and control, which could have saved them both. But she wasn’t a real witch. She was cursed with strange powers, which only brought stress and misery and pain to her and those around her. What had Nicholas said, that she was both blessed and cursed? Something about the wrong kind of person hunting her? What did that even mean? She sat up, brought her knees up to her chest, and rested her head on them, so very, very confused. She wanted answers. She wanted to be normal.
She felt Sean moving beside her and looked to find him rolling over in bed and opening his eyes. He blinked a few times, rubbed his face with his hand, then reached out and pulled her towards him by the waist. He brought her into his strong arms, resting her against him, and then settled back down. Hallie placed her hand on his chest while her head rested at the base of his throat.
He kissed her hair. “You alright?” he asked, and the memories of all the time he’d asked her that over the years flooded back to her.
She pressed her lips to his collarbone. “Fine, now that we’re back together,” she said quietly. He rubbed her arm gently, his other hand on her back. She felt his warm breath on her hair.
“We’ll be okay, Hallie,” he said. “We’ll get through this. Can I…” He paused for a moment, and Hallie wondered what he was thinking. “Can I stay here? Just for a while.”
She smiled. “Of course. As if I’d want you anywhere else.”
He laughed softly, holding her tighter. “I’ll go to the tavern I was staying at and get my belongings later. I didn’t bring much—I didn’t know how long I’d be in your town. I really did expect you to be back home.”
Hallie frowned. “I had to get out. You know how horrible it was for me. I was never going to have a real life there.”
Sean was silent for a moment. “Your parents seemed like they really wanted to see you when I asked them about you. Your mother said you hadn’t written or visited them in months, and she became kind of teary. Your father didn’t say much, but I could tell he was upset too. I understand you wanting to stay away, but I don’t think you should ignore your family forever. I know your parents made your life difficult, but I still think you should see them. Maybe when this is over.”
