“We’ve talked about it,” Sagely admitted, biting back a smile.
Willow grabbed her arm, her green eyes shining. “That’s so exciting. I can’t wait. We’ll really be like sisters.” Her face fell then. “If you want, I mean. Most of the others don’t want to be friends with me. Faery and all. I just thought maybe, since you’re part faerie, too…”
“Of course we’ll be like sisters,” Sagely assured her. It was strange, to have someone want to be part of her family so badly.
“My element is air,” Willow said, ducking her head again. “You should know that, in case…you know. If that changes your mind.”
“What’s wrong with air?”
“It’s just pretty lame,” Willow said. “Earth is what our earth mother is made of. Fire is powerful and fierce, and it powers the spark of magic inside all witches. Water is healing and gentle. Air? It’s useless. That’s why Quill didn’t ask me to go on your trip to town.”
“I’m sure it’s not that,” Sagely said. “He wouldn’t want to put you in danger. And honestly? I don’t really care what element you have. My magic is the magic of nothingness. Annihilation. We probably make a good pair.”
“I drank the brew,” Willow said after a minute. “I just wanted you to know, because you left before everyone did. I’m sworn to protect you now. And if you ever want to experiment…try something out…maybe I could help. You could teach me. Or I could be your helper.”
“I better learn to control it first,” Sagely told her. God, her skin was so creamy, she just want to touch it. How did faeries keep from mating like bunnies all day long if they were this attracted to each other?
“I’m glad we’re friends,” Willow said, standing. “I’ll leave you alone now.”
“Me, too.” Sagely watched her float to the door, her filmy white dress dancing around her like feathers. When she reached the wall, Sagely spoke. “Wait. Who else drank?”
“I’ll make you a list,” Willow said.
“Did Raina?”
Willow hesitated a long moment, her fingers disappearing through the rock face. It still unnerved Sagely to see someone sinking into stone. “No.”
Sagely swallowed hard. She should have expected that. If she wasn’t her sworn protector, she was pretty much her sworn enemy. If she hadn’t been already.
“Did your brother?”
Willow studied the wall in front of her feet for a long moment before answering. “No.”
Great. Even Sagely’s boyfriend thought she was tainted.
Twenty-Eight
Over the next month, Sagely dove fully into her new life. During the day, she learned magic, at first with Majori Ory, who was as kind and encouraging as she expected. After a few weeks, she moved up a level with lots of praise from Ory about how quickly she mastered the basics. Really, she thought he just felt bad for her, training with a group of witches ten years younger than her.
At the the next level, she moved on to Majori Romero. He was hard on her, as she expected, sometimes pushing her to tears. But he was also fair, and under him, she learned to control the initial wave of magic that pulsed through her when she had a flash of terror or fury.
There were older witches and warlocks in this class, though most were still younger than Sagely. Willow and Ingrid were both in the class, and Sagely took to spending time with them, trying to teach Willow to use the trace of void magic she’d given her in the brew. Despite her love of teaching, she made zero progress in helping her with void magic.
One day, as she sat alone on the porch, attempting to move a plant’s leaves with mental magic, Quill stepped out of the cabin.
“Hey,” he said, sitting down on the step. “Want to get out of here a while? Maybe go swimming?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, and she laughed. They’d spent at least half their nights together, but true to his word, he had let her set the pace for getting physical. It wasn’t that she’d never had a boyfriend. But she’d never really trusted people since her parents died, so she’d always put up a barrier, both emotionally and physically. She wanted to do it right this time, to tell him when she needed to pull back instead of putting up a wall between them.
“Okay,” she said. “I could use a break. Moving stuff with your mind takes a lot more energy than just picking it up with your hands and doing it the easy way.”
“Blasphemy,” he said, standing and holding out a hand to her. Laughing, she took his hand and let him pull her up. They ran into the woods and sprang up, grabbing the vines. Now she could feel their magic, the magic of the entire forest coursing through the trees around her, the air, and her own blood. When they arrived at the pool, it was much smaller than in early summer. Mosquitoes buzzed around it, but they jumped in anyway. The water was still cold, though the waterfall was barely more than a trickle now.
“How’s your training?” Quill asked when he surfaced, his blonde hair slicked down over his skull. “I can’t wait until you move up a level and I get to start telling you what to do.”
“As if.”
“Trust me, I’m a good teacher,” he said, a smile twisting the corner of his lips. He reached for her, but she slid away in the water. Though it was hard for her, too, a part of her liked making him wait. She wanted to make him prove he would always respect her boundaries, but she also liked having the power to command the most powerful warlock in Arkansas.
“Can I ask you something?” she said, treading water in the shallow pool. She swallowed hard before asking. She didn’t know why it was hard. She could have asked any time. But it had been on her mind, the one thing she hadn’t shared with him. “How come you didn’t drink the brew that had my blood in it the night of my initiation?”
“We share enough magic,” he said easily. “I didn’t think it would make a difference.”
“Are you sure you’re not scared of my dark, unpredictable magic?”
“I’m not scared of you,” he assured her, swimming over to her. He caught her hand and pulled her closer. She could feel the heat of his body in the cold water as it drew near. “I wanted you to keep something for yourself, something that’s not mine. I wouldn’t have let anyone have it if I could’ve avoided it, but it was the only way to connect you with the coven and keep you safe. But it’s your gift, Sagely. I don’t want to take any of it away from you.”
She slid closer, until the water between them vibrated with electrical current. Their eyes met, and he arched one eyebrow, asking permission. She slipped her arms around his neck. Their warm bodies entangled under the cold water, and a bolt of lightning electrified her. There was nothing between them. Maybe this would be the day she couldn’t hold back. A part of her was tired of holding back, and that part was growing more impatient every day. She pressed her lips to his, and he cradled the back of her head in his hand.
“You are too damn sexy,” he said, pulling away at last.
A little charge zipped up her arms, as if a shock from static cling had found them even in the water. Quill’s body stiffened, and he broke away, swimming towards the shore and pulling her with him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Danger in the coven,” he said, running up the bank. He grabbed his clothes and tugged on his shorts. “We need to get back there. Now.”
She pulled her cotton dress over her head, glad that she’d worn something simple today in the heat. Shoving her feet into her red cowboy boots, she took off after him.
“When we get back, go straight to your room and wait for someone to come tell you it’s safe,” Quill said over his shoulder.
“Not gonna happen,” she told him, running to catch up. This time, they raced through the woods, swinging on the vines at a breakneck, terrifying speed. As they drew closer to the coven, a crawling, panicky feeling overtook her. She could feel the wrongness in the air, but she didn’t know what it was. Not until they raced into the clearing in front of the cabin that hid the entrance to the school.
She skidded to a stop behind Quill, who threw ou
t an arm to hold her back. A handful of students were on the porch, and a few more in the yard. Majori Yordine was standing at the bottom of the steps, her hands held out in a supplicating gesture to the tiny woman with shimmering emerald hair standing at the edge of the clearing. The woman held Willow in a headlock.
Damn. Sagely knew she should have been teaching the witches Tae Kwon Do. Then Willow would know how to break out of the faery’s hold, even with her ornate silver blade pressed to her throat. The faerie woman held it in her free hand as if she might puncture Willow’s jugular at any moment.
Pulses of blind, red fury ricocheted off Quill. He tensed to spring, but Sagely put a calming hand on his arm.
“Getting mad is not going to help,” she whispered, repeating something Romero often told his students.
The faery turned towards them, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth. She looked like a hummingbird, tiny and fragile, with that shimmering dark green hair. But Sagely knew she was stronger than she looked. “I knew you’d come,” the faery crowed. “And here you are.”
After their last faerie encounter, Sagely knew to avoid her eyes. Willow had told her that, so she wouldn’t fall prey to their seductive influence again. And now she was hanging in the faery’s grip, clutching on with both hands to keep the faery’s arm from tightening and choking her. When Sagely saw the terrified expression on her lovely face, rage boiled inside her, too.
“Release my sister,” Quill said, his voice low and deadly.
Sagely had never heard him use that tone before, but when she shot him a look, his eyes were locked on the faery.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” she said lightly.
Quill’s eyes narrowed, and his brows drew together in a murderous frown.
“Aren’t you going to ask why?” the faery taunted.
Quill’s arm flexed under Sagely’s hand, and she held him back again.
“What do you want?” Majori Yordine asked calmly.
“Stay out of this,” Quill growled without taking his eyes off the green-haired lady. “This is between me and the faery.”
Hearing the disdain in his voice, Sagely dropped her hand, stung. She was part faerie, too. So was his sister, for that matter.
“I’m glad you asked,” the faery said, as if she didn’t notice the tension. “I want the girl you have, you want the girl I have. It should be an easy exchange. No one has to get hurt.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Quill said, curling a protective arm around Sagely’s waist. His arm muscles felt like granite against her, and she held onto him in return, glad he was on her side.
“Then you’ll have to fight me for her,” the faery said. She took one step back, and suddenly, a dozen faeries materialized from the trees behind her, stepping silently onto the grass to flank her. Sagely shivered when she caught Fox’s hungry eyes on her, but she tore her gaze from his before his beautiful eyes could hypnotize her.
“You know witches don’t like to use our magic for fighting,” Majori Yordine said, her accented voice clipped. “But if you insist, then you’ll have to fight me and leave the children out of it.”
“No,” Quill said, releasing Sagely to step forward. “They’re here for what’s mine. This is my fight.”
“You’re not ready,” Yordine insisted.
“He looks ready to me,” the faery said, eyeing Quill’s broad shoulders, down his sculpted torso to his narrow hips. She grinned and ran a slightly pointed tongue along her sharp teeth.
“No,” Yordine said. “I forbid it. He’s still training.”
“He’s bigger than me,” the faery pointed out. “Are you afraid he’ll be hurt? I’m the the most powerful faery in the Three Valleys. The Queen. And I want to fight your most powerful witch. Is that you?”
“No,” Quill growled. “It’s me. And I’m a warlock, not a witch.”
Before the faery could answer, Quill leapt at her. Lightning fast, he slammed a ball of magic into her face and grabbed his sister.
“Get inside,” he yelled at all of them. But no one moved except Willow. She scurried across the lawn to where Sagely stood, her breath coming short as she gripped her arm. Raina stepped up on her other side, and Yordine fell back to join them, her jaw tense.
The faery recovered from Quill’s initial attack and leapt to her feet. He aimed a punch at her face, but she leapt five feet into the air, slamming her foot into his face. Sagely heard bones snapping as he roared in pain. But before the fae queen got in another kick, he grabbed her foot and slammed her to the ground. A heavy thud sounded, and the ground tremored beneath their feet.
Sagely squeezed her eyes closed for a second, not wanting to see her boyfriend beating up a woman, even if she was an evil faery. She opened them again when Raina nudged her, hard. “Watch,” she said. “If Quill needs your magic, you need to be ready to give it.”
For the first time, Sagely realized how serious this was. The strongest faery in the valley was fighting him. What if he didn’t win? What if he lost…and died? If the faerie queen killed Quill, what would happen to Sagely and the rest of the students? The entire coven? If their strongest warlock was out of the picture, they’d be open to all kinds of attacks. They should have been protecting Quill, not Sagely. He had all the magic.
Sagely would probably end up as a sex slave to these faeries, maybe by her own choice. But it wouldn’t be her choice, really, because she’d be under their spell.
“Send him positive energy,” Willow whispered, her nails digging into Sagely’s arm.
A month ago, Sagely might have scoffed at that idea as silly. But now she knew a little about how magic worked. She squared her shoulders and watched as the faery spun in the air like the Frisbee she’d been throwing around the first time she saw Quill.
The faerie queen moved so fast she was nothing but a blur. Quill chopped through the blur with a solid hit, though. The faery toppled to the ground but sprang back up and threw herself at Quill. Her arms and legs wrapped around him, and her teeth sank into his shoulder.
Raina sucked in a breath.
He’s got this, he’s going to win, Sagely chanted inside her head.
“Don’t worry, we practice how to fend off attackers in my classes,” Majori Yordine muttered. “Quill is a skilled fighter.”
“I thought witches were all about that ‘I’m a lover, not a fighter’ mantra.”
“Quill has an abundance of magic,” Yordine said as he ripped the faery loose from his shoulder. She came away with a chunk of his flesh, and blood spurted from his wound.
Sagely swallowed hard so she wouldn’t puke. But she didn’t close her eyes. “Enough magic to heal that?”
“Water witches are the best healers,” Raina said smugly.
Sagely’s eyes were riveted to the scene in front of her, to the delicate, beautiful faery with her sharp teeth streaked with gore, her chin dripping blood. Quill’s blood.
“He has the means to protect his magic,” Yordine said. “His strength as a warlock is not matched by a faery.”
Sagely wanted to ask if she was sure about that. But she knew better than to put those thoughts out into the world. Voicing them made them stronger, so they might come true more easily.
Quill pinned the faery to the ground and knelt above her, his hands flat on her shoulders as he chanted under his breath. Sagely felt his magic swelling as he worked his spell on the faerie queen. She started to relax.
But just when she thought he had won, the faery’s hands flew up and gripped his neck. Her nails punctured his skin, sinking into his flesh. Blood began to seep from the holes her fingers made. Sagely tried not to gag as she saw the faery’s delicate fingers burrowing into his flesh, up to the first joint. Blood trickled down her clenched, claw-like hand.
His magic wavered inside Sagely, growing cloudy and then ebbing.
“What’s happening?” she whispered, grabbing Majori Yordine.
“The faerie bite,” Willow said, her hands flying to her mouth. �
�It’s poisoning him. I need to get out the venom.”
“Should I go get his familiar?” Sagely asked, turning to run.
But before she took a step, Raina grabbed her arm. “You can’t leave him,” she hissed. “He’ll see you go and think you gave up on him, and he’ll give up. Besides, there’s no time.”
“How’s it happening so fast?” Sagely asked, remembering that the last time, Willow had heeled his bite days after the attack.
“They can bite without injecting venom,” Willow said. “Like a snake. This time, she injected venom.”
Twenty-Nine
Quill’s magic flickered inside Sagely like a candle about to sputter out. His eyes caught hers, and his panicked, bewildered expression ripped her heart in two.
“Return his magic,” Yordine said. For the first time since they’d met, Yordine sounds flustered.
“What? How?”
“You have his magic,” the Majori said. “Don’t give him yours. You can’t do that without endangering him. But his own magic is familiar to him and can flow back easily.”
“Tell me how,” Sagely yelled, grabbing her shoulders with both hands.
“Open yourself and release it,” Yordine said, clutching her forearms and staring hard into her eyes. “Breathe deeply in, and when you breathe out, feel it leaving your body. It knows where it belongs. It will return to him.”
Sagely tried to breathe, but she was hyperventilating. Eli slipped up beside her and put his arm around her waist, and she saw his eyes signal to Willow. She got into position at Sagely’s other side.
“Close your eyes now, and open the channel between you,” Raina said, coming up behind her and putting her hands on Sagely’s shoulders.
Sagely tensed under Raina’s touch, not liking her enemy behind her, where Sagely couldn’t see her. “You’re my sister,” Raina said softly. “I’d never hurt you. And I won’t take the magic you release. No one will. It’s only for Quill. Let it go.”
Sagely’s body began to relax as she stared into Yordine’s wise brown eyes. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and felt the magic humming inside her at a fever pitch, as if it already knew it was needed elsewhere. It was trying to get out, to go to Quill’s rescue. She pursed her lips and let it out in a long stream. When she opened her eyes, she saw a silvery vapor curling in a long spiral from her lips across the grass to Quill. He inhaled deeply, his shoulders rising and his chest expanding.
Magic of the Void: A Reverse Harem Witch Series (Winslow Witch Chronicles Book 1) Page 14
