Witch's Reign

by Shannon Mayer

  The light around us disappeared completely as the sun finally dipped below the horizon. I watched as my father stood waiting, still as a statue.

  Bryce moved up beside him. “Do you think he will come?”

  He . . . the Jinn that everyone feared the most. Marsum. His name meant pain, and he seemed to take it like a calling he would not shirk.

  The lions of my pride barely moved as they waited. Patience was taught at a young age—both for hunting and for reprimanding one another. Silence fell over the Oasis, the birds of the night going still, and a heavy mist crawled over the water like a living thing. I clamped my mouth shut and just stared at what I knew in my belly was the Jinn’s arrival.

  Only it wasn’t just Marsum.

  Seven Jinn flowed into existence. They looked like men after a fashion, if larger than the average man. They seemed to float above the ground, the mist spilling out around them and making it look like they had no legs. But Bryce claimed he’d injured a Jinn once, slashing its legs.

  Now, I wasn’t so sure he’d been telling the truth. My eyes shot to my father. He hadn’t moved.

  “Marsum. You came to speak of a peace accord. Yet you bring all your friends,” my father said, his voice a deep rumble.

  Marsum flowed toward him. His body was the biggest of the Jinn, broad across the chest and belly, but far from fat. He was thick all over but his face was surprisingly pleasant. Soft, like a child’s that had never seen the sun. It was his voice, though, that struck me, melodic and singsong and lovely.

  “Ahh, Dirk. You came, and you brought your friends. Why could I not bring mine?” He smiled and his face stretched with it.

  “What is this peace accord you wish to discuss?” my father asked, still not moving from his position at the water’s edge.

  “The offer is simple. We are the rulers here, not you. We were set in place by the emperor to hold this wall, not you.”

  “We do not want to hold the wall,” Bryce snarled.

  “We are aware of that,” Marsum drawled. He brushed his hands over his body and stared down at the lions. “Which is why we asked you to be here. There have been too many problems. We would like to rectify that now. No more fighting.”

  He snapped his fingers and the other Jinn floated forward, surrounding the members of my pride, of my family. My skin prickled with warning.

  “Kill them,” Marsum said.

  The Jinn flew at the lions, and my family reacted with speed and violence that had been honed in the desert for generations. I stared, unable to move. Knowing that I would be of no help.

  Or would I?

  The battle raged with the roars of my pride, and they would not go down easily. But what if I could get to Marsum? He was the leader; if he was killed or injured, perhaps the others would falter. I was small enough, I could leap on his back and bite through his neck. That’s what I believed. That’s what I’d been trained to believe I could do.

  I shot out of from under the cover of the bushes and raced around the edge of the battle. I kept my eyes locked on my prey, ignoring the cries as my pride went down, one by one, their pain echoing through me. Blood sprayed across my face, blinding me for a split instant before it cleared once more. Marsum had his back to me and he’d lowered himself closer to the ground. I took a breath, bunched my muscles and leapt straight up, easily taking ten feet in height in that one bound. I landed on the back of his neck and dug my claws in. He screamed and I went straight for his vertebrae. My teeth sunk in and he roared with anger.

  I think I heard Bryce. I think he called my name. “Zamira, no!”

  But this was my family. I wasn’t going to let them go down without any effort to help them. We were a pride. We lived together, we would die together.

  I bit harder and shook my head, doing all I could to snap his spine to kill him. I knew that it would be the only way, even at that young age, that Marsum would just keep coming. He had to die.

  A hand dropped onto my back and I was torn from my prey, hissing and spitting, slashing at the air with my claws extended. “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you!” I screeched the words as a strange sort of mania spilled over me.

  Because I knew this was the end. I was dead. He’d kill me now. Marsum drew me close to his face, so he was just out of reach of my claws. “You . . . belong to this pride?”

  “Let her go!” Bryce snarled and then there was a horrific crunch. I twisted around as he fell, a Jinn on top of him. A Jinn who held a spear that had been driven deep into my brother’s back, snapping his spine. Dropping him instantly. His eyes were still on mine, even as the light faded from them.

  My big brother, my hero, my protector. I lost my mind screeching and flailing, twisting around to bite Marsum’s wrist, slashing at him with my back feet. He flung me away with a snarl, out into the deep water of the Oasis where I sunk to the bottom.

  With a ragged breath, I pulled myself out of a memory I’d not revisited in years. “Why . . . would you do that to me?”

  “To remind you of who you are. To remind you that you are not weak the way you’ve been allowed to believe, that the fight inside you is a burning ember ready to be flamed to life once more.” Merlin hadn’t moved.

  Lila flew in front of me, back and forth in her version of pacing. I held a hand up, swaying where I stood.

  “I know who I am.” I breathed the words out.

  He smiled. “I’m not so sure you do anymore. But that’s what I’m here for.”

  “What do you mean she doesn’t know who she is?” Lila snapped. “She’s Zamira, and she’s a good supe. There is nothing else she needs.”

  Merlin continued to smile. “You have it in you to bring this wall down, Zamira. It is in your blood to be a protector, the same as your family. I would like to point you in that direction.”

  Lila snorted. “She’s cursed, you know that?”

  “Yes, I do,” he said, his face sobering. “And that is why she is the perfect supernatural to take on this challenge. Everyone underestimates you, don’t they? You have many strikes against you.” He lifted his hands and began ticking off his fingers with each point. “You’re a woman, you’re small in both forms, your shifting ability is to a mere house cat, you have no magical abilities as far as I can tell, and you’ve been cursed by the Jinn. All these things are held against you which allows you to be ignored to a degree. But I believe they could also be your greatest strengths.”

  I stared at him hard, my opinion of him shifting and changing as he spoke. There had been no magic in his hands, but there was something in his words that was moving me in a direction I wasn’t sure I liked. “You really are the Merlin who made the wall?”

  He tipped his head to one side. “Yes. And as I believe I’ve mentioned, I’m trying to rectify what I did in the past. I can’t do it on my own. The spell holding the wall together locks me out from doing anything to bring it down directly.” His eyes dipped, looking away from me. There were lies in with the truth he was tossing around.

  I snorted. “Sucks to be you, huh?” I needed to find ground that I felt safe on again. Sarcastic, snarky, stronger than him ground. Because the memory he’d forced me to relive had rocked me along with his assessment of my abilities. I wasn’t the strongest supe out there. I wasn’t even close. That was not news to me. But the idea that I could be strong enough to do the impossible . . . I won’t lie, that drew me. To be the hero for once was a pull I couldn’t deny.

  “No more than it sucks to be the last living dark lion from your mother’s line, cursed by the Jinn, and set to wandering the world alone.” His words were as sharp as any knife.

  “She is not alone. She has Maks,” Lila said. “And she has me.”

  “Ah, yes, Lila the Gnat. That is what the other dragons call you, isn’t it?” He lifted an eyebrow at her. She flew to my shoulder and hissed at him. He went on. “Cast out because of your size. Because you have no flame to call your own, because like Zamira here,” he stood and went to the table and picked a few thi
ngs to eat, I don’t even know what because his words had me so mesmerized, “you are considered weak. Small. Female. Terrible combination in the supe world, isn’t it? Especially as the daughter of someone important.” I wasn’t sure if that last bit was about me or Lila.

  She cringed with each word until her head was tucked under her wing. “You trying to be an asshole, or does it just come naturally?” I said.

  “Pointing out that you two are very much alike. Driven to be strong, but not given the tools as others have been.” His eyes softened. “I knew a girl not long ago. She was dying and she took on becoming a supernatural in order to save her life. She hated it. Hated being a ‘super duper’ as she called it.”

  “Well, that’s a stupid name for us to start with,” Lila muttered. I put a hand over her head to shut her up because this story of Merlin’s felt important. Like a scent in the air that would lead to food, water, or safety.

  “What about her?” I asked.

  “She finally embraced what she was, learned to use it to her advantage and managed to take down a wall.” His eyes went to mine. “I believe you have that potential in you, Zamira. I would not be here if I didn’t.”

  His words tugged at me, made me want to believe them. Made me want to think it was possible. That I could be the hero my father had wanted me to be.

  I snorted. “You are as big a fool as your namesake. There are no walls down.”

  “There were more places that had supernaturals than here. For a long time, the world believed you all resided here. But it became known that they had spread, like a virus.”

  “We are not a virus!” Lila snapped, her head snaking around.

  He held his hands up, palms out. “No. I agree. But the humans have always been afraid of what they don’t understand. That is nothing new.” He frowned as he popped a chunk of cheese into his mouth and chewed.

  I stared at him, his words nothing but lies to my ears. “You’re going to help Maks?”

  “I already have.” Merlin nodded, speaking around a mouthful of cheese.

  I looked at the door, then back to Maks. “Then we go. Darcy is waiting for us.”

  “Ahh, but don’t you want to know what Maks is?” Merlin grinned, cheese stuck in his teeth here and there.

  “He’s human,” Lila said. “Even I can tell that. I can smell the normal on him.”

  Laughter flowed out of Merlin. “Fine. Fine. Tell yourselves that. I think it will be a fun surprise when the truth finally comes out.”

  His laughter seemed to stir Maks.

  I moved sideways to stand next to him. “Maks, you ready to go?”

  “Where are we?” he mumbled as he wobbled to a sitting position. I looked at his leg, and made myself run a hand over the calf and ankle, checking for the wound that had looked like it would cost him his foot. He flinched under my touch and I gritted my teeth while Merlin continued to laugh softly at me. At us.

  “Can you stand?” I held a hand out, but Maks didn’t take it.

  He pushed himself up and then took a step, then another and another, testing his balance. “Let’s go.” He glanced at Merlin with something akin to . . . hatred. But what did he have to hate Merlin for? He’d just saved Maks’s life, and leg.

  Just what in the sand dunes of hell was going on here?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Merlin watched us leave the shack, gather the horses, and take off at a trot, but he said nothing more. It was the weight of his eyes that I couldn’t shake. He didn’t have to say anything really, because his smile said it all. He’d stirred shit up, just the way warlocks had been stirring shit up for a thousand years. He’d made me relive memories I thought were dead. He’d made me question the truth from both my companions and wonder if I could be strong enough to change the world.

  That last bit was the most ridiculous of them all.

  Wasn’t it?

  The sun was low and we would have to find another place to stay, to hold off the night’s killing chill. But where to stay, was the question.

  No. That wasn’t the question. The question really was about what Merlin had said, if it was true, if it was false. Did it matter? No, we were going after Darcy and that was what mattered. The Jinn were coming for her, and I would not let that happen to someone I loved, not again.

  Which brought up another question.

  “Do you love her?” I blurted the question at Maks, suddenly needing to know if that was really why he was here. Or if it was something else, the way Merlin was implying.

  He startled in his saddle like I’d smacked him in the head rather than asked a question. “Love who?”

  I stared hard at him, frowning because his reaction set off warning lights inside my head. “Darcy. Do you love her? Is that why you’re helping me get her back?”

  And it was only in that moment I realized that a question so important should have been asked a long time ago. In fact, it was a question that had started to form many times but I’d never managed to spit it out, like it slid away from me when I went to ask. Water through my fingers. I frowned, wondering if my brain was addled by the cold. Or if something else had been holding me back.

  “I . . . care for Darcy.” His skin flushed and he wouldn’t make eye contact. “She’s a friend and she was kind to me, which was more than most in the Stockyards.”

  Right, of course, she was. Darcy was nice to everyone. A little too nice in some areas.

  “Why are you asking me this now?”

  Lila answered before I could say anything. “Because you kissed her, and she’s wondering if it was just the plum liquor or real feelings.” She drawled the words along with a jaw-cracking yawn. Horror flickered through me like a bolt of lightning, and it made Balder jig sideways under me.

  “No, that . . . that is not why. I’m asking because you could have died back there. You’re human, but you’re facing pretty much the worst conditions you could face for a woman who even if you were an item, you weren’t for very long. So . . . I assumed that means you love her.” I cleared my throat. “I mean, she’s like a sister to me. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to get her out of there. And Bryce said you had a thing for her, but you’ve not talked about her at all while we’ve been on the move.”

  Maks shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe I have my own reasons for wanting to be here.”

  That was not good. Whatever trust I’d started to put in him slid away at a rapid rate. Yeah, that shit wasn’t going to fly. “Like what?”

  “None of your business,” he said softly.

  I wrestled with the implications of his words. He wasn’t here for Darcy, which meant he might abandon helping me at any point and potentially at an important crisis where I really needed him. “Okay, are you going to fuck off on me—I mean us—in the middle of a fight?”

  “What? No, of course not.” He shook his head. “I’m going to see you to the Witch’s castle.”

  “And then what?” Lila flew up between us and landed on the ridge of Batman’s neck so she could stare at Maks, her jeweled eyes narrowed to slits that seemed to be shooting daggers at the human. “What are you going to do then?”

  Thank you, Lila, I thought.

  Maks’s jawline twitched. “There is a boat that leaves once a month from the bay at Pojhola that goes around the northern part of the magic, far out into the ocean. It goes to the human side of the wall to pick up supplies. I plan to be on it.”

  I blinked a few times as his words sunk in. “You mean, you’re escaping. You’re leaving.”

  “Yes.” He rolled his shoulders. “I . . . you said it yourself. I don’t belong here. I’ll only cause more harm than good if I stay. I know that.”

  I blew out a slow breath, not liking the tightness in my chest, or the way my emotions were reacting to his lies. I’d never asked before. This was on me to have been the one to make him tell the truth. Pull it together, Zam.

  “But you’ll help me get Darcy out?” I asked him again.

  “I’ll help y
ou get to the castle, that was the goal all along. I will be no good to you once you are there. Too weak, too big and hard to hide, right?”

  I nodded, not liking the tug on my sentiments that I thought were somewhat dead when it came to men. “Then I’ll help you get to your boat after we get Darcy if I can. Deal?”

  He turned to face me, confusion racing over his features. “Why would you do that?”

  I shrugged and managed a smile. “Maybe you’re not the stupid, useless human I once thought. And you’re right, you’ll die if you stay here. That would be . . . a pity.”

  Maks laughed softly but there was something in that laughter that was forced. “Pretty words like that, I’ll think you’re trying to get in my pants.”

  I urged Balder to move faster because of the embarrassment that flooded my body and lit my face with a heat that should have had steam rolling off me. He was leaving, and that was for the best all the way around. This weird infatuation was nothing more than proof that I was ready to move on, that Steve no longer had a hold on me.

  Lila and Maks laughed at me as I rode ahead of them. Not leaving them behind like I’d done before, just putting a bit of space between us to hide what was a probably a bright red face that would have nothing to do with the cold.

  I thought about Darcy as I rode ahead of them, my head space my own for the first time in what felt like forever. I’d been worrying about taking Maks with me, then trying to survive the dragons, the cold, and deal with Merlin, the White Wolf, and all of that had pushed Darcy aside in a way.

  No matter what happened, she and I would be friends. I realized that somewhere in this journey, I’d finally forgiven her for what happened between her and Steve. I’d never forget, but the forgiveness felt good.

  And it was as if the thoughts of my friend coming to the surface brought me to the scene of the crime where she’d been stolen away.