Why Natalie? What did she have to do with this? Amira wanted to yell. She was so sick and tired of being used and ordered around. So sick of being a pawn in their twisted game, she was this close to snapping.
Once, just once, she wanted to feel what it would be like to be more than someone’s means to an end. Maybe then living wouldn’t be that pointless. No matter, she gathered herself, knowing orders were orders, even if all she wanted to do was shove it someplace far and deep. But in the end, Amira would heed it, if only to see where this could lead her. And then she would make her decision.
Her mind set, Amira walked to her closet, determined to find something less sumptuous than her golden empire waist gown with diamond and citrine-embroidered halter top. Only then, standing in front of a huge mirror, did she notice she wasn’t wearing it any more. Instead, she was in some cheap, azure-blue muslin monstrosity, two sizes too big and full of patches. Her hair was down, tied in a simple braid. She looked like a homeless person sans the dirt. Oh, but she had no doubt she would be as clean as a chimney-sweep by the same time tomorrow—if she managed to survive, that was.
This was disturbing. Not the appearance—she didn’t give a damn about that—but the fact that she had failed to notice when her garments had changed. Now’s not the time to think about it, Amira reminded herself, and after taking a deep breath, opened the door.
It wasn’t hard to evade maids, but nabbing Natalie proved to be time-consuming. First, Amira had to wait till her cousins arrived, and then, true to his fashion, Ciaran didn’t let his twin out of his sight for even a second. The very reason she was here was the obstacle Amira needed to elude.
That one had over-protectiveness etched right down to the marrow of his bones, which always drove Natalie crazy. Amira had heard dozens of their fights; she had even agreed with him on occasion, though silently. Telling him—that was another matter.
She didn’t need him as her own constant shadow, because despite the abyss between her and any other member of his family, she knew he considered her as a sister like Natalie. Worse, a young witch in a world where even the smallest suspicion upon your person got you burned.
But shadow was what she got. And since her parents had left in a hurry this morning…
“Is she coming down any time this century?” Ciaran’s annoyed voice interrupted her thoughts. “Or is she already down and on her way to those damned woods?”
Not yet, Amira mouthed. Ciaran’s mistrust didn’t surprise her. After all, it was well-earned.
She waited for him to get anxious—never took more than few seconds, he’d always been restless and hotheaded—and watched, hidden in her corner, as he ordered Natalie and the youngest, Logan, to stay put, while he rushed upstairs taking two steps at a time. No doubt ready to break down her door.
This was her opportunity. The ten-second window she had to make do with. Don’t disappoint me, she silently willed the blonde witch to defy her brother’s orders.
“Well, you can do whatever you want, but I’m not going to stand here like an idiot just because our brother has a stick up his—”
“Nat!” Logan exclaimed, but like so many times before, Natalie marched out without a backward glance, not caring that she was courting her twin’s wrath.
Silly girl, Amira sighed, even if her running away was what she’d hoped for.
“And where do you think you’re going?” she asked as she caught up with Natalie just outside the stables. This was beyond silly—it bordered on the ridiculous.
“Amira!” she stumbled, taken aback by her sudden appearance. “What … what are you wearing?”
Amira rolled her eyes heavenwards. “Not the expensive silks any vagrant would love to get his hands on, that’s for sure!” She looked Natalie up and down, again wondering what the hell she was thinking. Just because Ciaran was annoying as Hell, didn’t mean he was wrong. In Natalie’s case, at least.
“I … I …,” she mumbled, lost for words, “please don’t tell Ciaran. I just wanted…” her trembling voice trailed off and Amira immediately realized Natalie’s desire.
“Freedom,” she uttered, knowing both of them wanted the same. “Come with me, then.” She’d give her an adventure and a lesson all wrapped in one.
The girl needed to understand that running away had nothing to do with freedom. Amira ran constantly; and yet, she was never free. And maybe, just maybe, this would save Natalie’s life in the future. She tended to make awful judgment calls simply to contradict others. Some life-experience was long overdue.
Natalie followed her without a protest, mounted her mare, and took off as if Dazlog himself was in pursuit. The girl threw back her head and laughed. Pins were flying all around, her long golden hair escaping its imprisonment strand by strand, while she kept laughing, enjoying the moment. At least until she noticed their destination.
Her laughter died. Even the smile disappeared from her face.
“I don’t think this is such a good idea,” Natalie shook her head, inadvertently slowing the pace of her mare.
“It’s safer here than in a town,” Amira assured her. All true. Venlordians, just like witch-hunters rarely ventured into this forest, while every town except Trinton had stakes ready for the burning.
Somewhat comforted by her words, Natalie followed, but her reluctance was still evident in the way she flinched at the smallest sound, nervous of every quivering shadow.
The further they rode, the stiffer her cousin’s posture became. Amira caught her glancing up more and more often, as if searching for the light through the murky dense branches. Or maybe even praying.
This cringing every two seconds was getting on her nerves; and to top it all, Amira sensed Ciaran and Logan swiftly closing on them. Not good, she sighed, and drew reins. She petted her horse’s mane and placed both hands over the creature’s eyes—the energy sizzled as it exploded from her fingers. The air vibrated with magic. It was a simple command for their horses to halt.
“What did you do?” Natalie gasped. Even as unpracticed a witch as she was, she could still taste the power emanating from Amira.
“Eliminated further distractions,” she said, knowing she had a date with destiny, and time was running short.
Chapter 2
“Can we rest here?”
Amira looked around and nodded. The small clearing they stood in was sunny and quiet. No shadow-laced branches, no chilling wind arias to browbeat Natalie, no brothers in hot pursuit. Just a beautiful meadow, and a streamlet slithering out of the forest. A spirited flow actually—dangerous and cold. But cold was exactly what she needed.
Amira dipped her fingers in the water and splashed her face. She bathed her neck, and sighed with pleasure. This was heaven. Or as close to heaven as she’d ever get. She considered this corner to be her own. A place where she almost felt at home. A place she always ran to. A place her cousins knew and would definitely come to check. She was not worried, though. Thanks to the little trick she had performed, they would arrive too late. Which reminded her how precious time was. Before she was captured, she wanted one last taste of freedom.
Amira stood up, and using her powers, unbuttoned the dress, letting it fall down and pool around her legs in a soft blue cloud of muslin. She stepped over it and jumped into the water, determined to make the most of what could be the last moments of her life.
“Are you crazy?” Natalie shrieked, pulling the shawl on her shoulders tighter, as if she was the one naked and exposed to the world.
Amira swam around for a few minutes, not caring about anything, and when it became obvious peace and quiet wasn’t meant for her, she answered, “you should try sometimes.”
“I beg your pardon?” Natalie sounded horrified, “if this is how you think you’ll teach me, then I … I …” her words trailed off, and Amira couldn’t help but arch her brows, daring the girl to utter another ultimatum.
“Still not undressing,” her cousin muttered and turned around.
Amira sighed at the rem
inder of how little her latest family knew her. Dancing under the moonlight in her birth costume—yeah right! It was right there next to painting her body in animal blood and seducing some poor sap on the forest floor. Even in her previous lives, when she’d been required to perform all those things to unleash her powers, she’d refused. And now, all she had to do was form an image of what she wanted in her mind.
There were risks, of course. Serious magic tended to separate mind and body, forcing them to walk in different worlds. The threat of losing oneself was great. Something all the witches were susceptible to, whenever they tried something they could not handle. For Amira the risks were even greater since she didn’t use spells, potions, or sacred marks. Her magic came from within, not from learning dozens of incantations and mixing herbs.
Truth be told, she hated making potions, especially since some ingredients were disgusting and acquiring them involved killing. She’d seen plenty of death in her time—had no use for more. She preferred channeling her energy.
“Can we go home now?” Natalie’s trembling voice interrupted her thoughts.
Stop scaring her, Amira told herself, not even considering the request. She would not be going home anytime soon; and Natalie—well, since she was already here, she could learn something useful for once.
Slowly, she rose from the water, all of her nerve endings tingling in awareness. Strange, she thought, brushing the sensation away, when she didn’t detect anything threatening about it. On the contrary, it felt nice, as if someone was caressing her.
Amira glanced around, confirming that they were alone, stepped into the dress, and with Natalie’s help buttoned it up. “Sit,” she told the girl, and quickly followed her.
Once they were seated on a patch of grassy ground, Amira untwined her loose, wet ribbon, and placed it on the ground between them.
“Give me your hands.” She stretched hers out, and waited for Natalie to close the circle. “Now concentrate on it and make it fly.”
Natalie closed her eyes. Her brows knitted in an attempt to concentrate, but the ribbon didn’t move an inch.
“I am trying, but it’s not working,” said Natalie, sounding as frustrated as she looked.
“Try harder,” Amira ordered.
After a few more minutes and a dozen attempts, Natalie still sat, eyes closed, arms stretched, her face furrowed with despair. Finally she lifted her long lashes, revealing an agonized look from beneath them.
“It’s useless.”
“Are you saying I’m wasting my time with you?” Amira gave her a warning glance. “You just need to master how to control energy.” She squeezed Natalie’s hands. “Do you feel that?”
Natalie gasped. “It’s so strong.” Amira squeezed even harder, enveloping her in an uncouth power which coursed through her veins whenever she took it inside of her.
“It’s not all mine,” Amira explained. It was everything around them. Water, earth, trees, air… The world was full of vigor, full of life. Sometimes she couldn’t understand how people didn’t see it, didn’t feel it. How could they have forgotten?
It was the reason why witches used herbs, animal parts, even water. It all gave life-force, helped to create a miracle. Dead things, however, could never match live ones, full of power, full of energy she could use to her own advantage. Neither potions nor incantations could ever touch it. The true magic lay everywhere; one just had to know how to tap into it.
“Let me show you.” Amira touched the ribbon with her fingers and it began levitating. “Don’t look at the ribbon,” she said, “only at the energy flowing through it”.
She clenched her arms behind her back, purposely showing she didn’t need to touch to command it. She simply needed to embrace the life force all around. Feel the magic in the veins of world. Feel the power.
“One ought not to see or touch, one ought to feel,” she finished, feeling cold steel pressed to her throat.
“Feel that, witch,” came a low, deep male voice from behind her.
The ribbon fell on soft ground.
Natalie screamed.
Chapter 3
The forest became eerily quiet, even the scream from Natalie fading into the background, as Amira slowly turned her head towards the cold steel threatening to end her current life. She lifted her chin to meet her enemy, letting her gaze travel from the muscular arm holding the weapon to his broad shoulders, calmly absorbing the width of them.
Despite the danger she faced, Amira wasn’t nervous or scared. With cold determination she continued taking in details about her captor and possible killer, her eyes immediately noticing an amulet underneath his leather coat. It looked like…
“Yes, the amulet of Arushna. So don’t you try anything, witch.” His voice sent unexpected chills down her spine, and it had nothing to do with the powerful charm all Venlordians carried for protection. A potent hatred washed over her like a wave of pure, unadulterated fire, scorching everything in its wake.
Amira couldn’t stifle the tremor caused by the mixture of heat coming from such abhorrence, and the coldness of the deadly weapon pressing into her throat. It was tearing something inside her asunder, and suddenly, she felt a desperate need to see the face of the man who had made her heart ache in unexpected anticipation.
Utterly taken aback by the strange emotion, she let her eyes climb higher, experiencing a new one—regret—as she was forced to squint against the brightness of the sun. She was at a disadvantage, seated on the ground with a huge shadow looming over her, and the sun preventing from seeing his face clearly. She blinked, and decided to take matters into her own hands.
It wasn’t enough for Amira to know that his dark eyes were burning into her. She stood up. Her gaze focused on the harsh planes of his face and the cadence of her heart gained momentum. The winds rose responding to her inner turmoil, stirring his thick black hair—he frowned at the sudden change of the weather and pinned her with his stare.
Their gazes locked, and Amira had to literally bite her tongue to stop herself from gasping as the last chains that had held her emotions snapped. She found herself fighting for every breath, hands trembling, legs in desperate need for support—all because she knew she had met her destiny, and it wasn’t smiling upon her.
She felt dizzy. Felt emotion after emotion being awakened from deep slumber. Her senses were flaring as she experienced a whole rainbow of feelings. She tried to breathe slowly, focusing on the air her lungs craved, yet didn’t seem to accept. Her thoughts, however, kept going back to the one question she had no answer to: was he the one to bring a long-foreseen death, or the one she had to help? Was he her lifeboat, or a sinker?
The look of those dark eyes, the stiffness of his body, didn’t offer much hope. Neither did her attempt to read him. All Amira’s concentrating on the sable of his eyes accomplished was a new wave of dizziness taking over her. She didn’t give up. It wasn’t in her. She delved deeper, swallowing this anxiety; but instead of knowing everything about him, she got carried someplace afar, and returned immediately with her senses shaken.
She couldn’t remember a human who had proved to be such a challenge. Thoughts, feelings—she was able to read everyone like an open book. Everyone but him, apparently. Hatred, anger and bits of emotion she suspected to be pain was all she could get from him.
If she could touch him, she thought—her hands already moving toward her goal to amplify her power—but she caught herself before her fingers reached his face. A muscle ticking in his jaw was all the warning she needed. She had to seem as harmless as possible. An ordinary witch not capable of laying him low even with a potion in her hands. A plan with a flaw the size of the Vortex of Shyau, Amira realized, once she was finally able to take her raging emotions under control and hear a silent sob from her frightened cousin.
What was she thinking of, taking Natalie here? Guilt stabbed Amira’s heart. She knew it would be dangerous, and yet she had chosen to expose the girl to danger she was not equipped to handle.
Herself, that was what she was thinking of. With that last thought her guilt intensified. And now, because of her selfishness, Amira had no other way but to expose the extent of her own witchcraft, disobey the goddess, earning punishment and probably risking her life. But of course, that was exactly what Hope wanted in the first place, wasn’t it?
She should have known it was a trap.
“Run,” Amira’s voice rang in a thousand tones, shaking Natalie out of her staggering fear.
“There will be none of that,” the man warned, before her cousin could even take a step.
“Natalie!” Amira chose not to pay any heed to him. If he plunged his sword, the vicious cycle would claim her again, and as collateral damage Natalie would be left in mortal danger. But if she disarmed him…
Damn it, Amira wanted to scream. Using her powers would not save her—it never had. Sometimes she wondered what was the use of having them in the first place. It brought her nothing but despair.
“Turn around and walk away,” she said, with a calm she didn’t feel. Amira made her decision. It was her fate. Hers alone. Natalie played no part in it.
Still, the girl hesitated.
“He won’t harm me,” she bluffed. “Go. Now.”
“Just wait a minute!” Raven found himself struggling against a strong urge to lay down his weapon. His grip on the sword tightened until his knuckles turned white, but the hypnotic effect her voice had on him refused to dissipate.
“She is not going anywhere,” he said, slowly emphasizing every word, trying his best to contain the fury boiling inside. He had plans. He couldn’t risk destroying everything he had fought for in a stupid moment of hatred. But feeling the tendrils of her witchcraft wrap around his throat wasn’t helping.
Worse again, he could not look at her and not remember the image of her stepping out of the water. She’d been a magnificent sight. Still was. She stood tall and beautiful. He even found her courageous, and the thought made a lump of bile rise in his throat. Witches were nothing but filthy monsters. He despised witches. Had dreamed of seeing one particular hag choking with fear for years. He didn’t expect to be affected by a witch’s deep bright-blue gaze, devoid of malice, threat, or fear.
Till Death And Beyond (Witch World) Page 2
