Witches and Witnesses

by Lily Webb

  I landed hard on my side and bounced. The force knocked the wind out of me, and my wand skittered away across the tile floor, but I couldn’t breathe or think straight enough to worry about getting it back.

  I lay there choking and gasping while I tried to suck air into my screaming lungs, and when I’d finally gotten several hungry gulps down, I realized how eerily quiet the room had fallen.

  Though it took every fiber of will I had left, I rolled to my back and forced myself up into a sitting position. Thanks to the darkness, I couldn’t see much, but there was definitely someone on the ground nearby. After climbing onto my hands and knees, I crawled toward them and gasped when I realized it was Heath sprawled out on his back.

  “Heath! Heath, can you hear me?! Are you okay?!” I asked while I frantically shook him, but he didn’t respond. His hand still clutched his wand and his eyes were closed. If I didn’t know any better, I might’ve thought he’d passed out, but something didn’t seem right.

  I reached for his neck and rested my fingers just below his jaw to check for a pulse. Thankfully, blood still coursed through his veins. The breath I’d been holding shuddered out of me along with a wave of tears. I didn’t even want to contemplate what life would be like without Heath in it.

  “Zoe?” Mueller muttered, and I glanced over my shoulder to find him standing behind me. “Is he okay?”

  “I think so. He’s still breathing, and he’s got a pulse.”

  “We need to get him to a Healer.”

  “We can’t leave without the artifacts.”

  “Are you out of your mind? Those shadow things will kill us if we don’t get out of here. I can’t carry him by myself. I need your help. Now come on, we’re leaving.”

  “Not yet. Stay here with him,” I said and crawled through the darkness toward Tate’s abandoned body, using one hand to feel out in front of me for him.

  “Zoe! What are you doing?!” Mueller hissed, but I ignored him. I didn’t know why Hendrik needed Merlin’s artifacts — or what he intended to do with them if they ended up in his undead hands — but I knew I had to keep them from him no matter what for the sake of everyone in Moon Grove.

  I jumped when my fingers grazed Tate’s shoe, but hurried to his upper body to pat it for the necklace and bracelet. Thankfully, they weren’t hard to find, but getting them off Tate would be another story. I tried not to think about the sores covering his body as I lifted his hand and pulled the bracelet off his wrist. As soon as I slid it over my own, the magical energy that always coursed through without me noticing changed, and a mob of thousands of whispers echoed in my mind.

  Though their incessant, incomprehensible words threatened to drive me insane, I fought through the static and moved on to the necklace. Tate’s head was heavier than a bag of bowling balls, but I still lifted it and pried the necklace off him. Similar to the bracelet, the necklace sent a surge of energy coursing through me as it clinked against the one from Grandma that I already wore.

  “Zoe, he’s waking up!” Mueller called, and though the room spun around me because of the intense injection of foreign, powerful magic coursing through my body, I made it back to the two of them. Heath groaned and stirred but didn’t open his eyes.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Mueller asked.

  “I dunno, but I got the artifacts. Let’s get him out of here before Hendrik or his little shadows come back for us. I’ll take his legs, you get the upper half,” I said and reached for Heath’s wand to put it in my robes and prevent it breaking or getting lost — but his arm jerked out of my reach and his eyelids flew open, revealing glowing orange coals where his eyes had been before. I yelped and jumped away from him.

  “I have to say, brother, you’re a much better host than my last,” Heath — or Hendrik — said as he tightened his grip on his wand. “And the power I feel, it’s unbelievable. I should’ve thought of taking you sooner. Or is this the wand’s power I feel?”

  I scurried away from him, desperate to keep the other artifacts out of his hands, but not fast enough.

  “And where do you think you’re going?” Hendrik asked. He thrust Heath’s wand out at me. “Devoco!” he shouted, and as if a massive invisible fist had closed around me, my hands snapped to my sides and I flew off the ground toward Heath. At the last second, he held his hand out in front of himself and I jerked to a halt less than a foot away from him. My feet dangled, kicking desperately at nothing.

  Heath stepped forward wearing a chilling smile and rested the tip of his wand on my chin. His red eyes shifted like fresh magma as they raked over me. “You’ve been quite the little splinter in my wand hand, haven’t you?” He moved the wand tip down my throat and chest and let it rest on my swollen bellybutton. “There’s great magic in you, I can feel it radiating. Perhaps you and your children would make a better host.”

  “No! Stay away from me!” I shouted, but as bound as I was and without my wand, there wasn’t anything I could do to make him.

  Heath laughed and tapped my stomach with his wand. “No need to worry. I have everything I need right here,” he said and reached for the bracelet on my left wrist. Though I kicked my legs as hard as I could, my hands refused to move, and Heath removed the bracelet as easily as if I’d taken it off and handed it to him myself.

  Once he’d slipped it over his wrist, he reached for the necklace, but a roar stopped him. He whirled, but not fast enough to stop Mueller as he tackled Heath at the waist and sent both of them rolling across the floor. The attack broke Heath’s hold on me, and I thudded to my hands and knees.

  I had to find my wand and fast because I didn’t think Mueller could keep Heath occupied for long. My hands slapped against the tile as I felt around blindly for it, but continued to come up empty. “Come on, come on! Where are you?” I groaned and tried to reach out mentally for some magical signal from it to clue me in to where it was — but got nothing.

  Mueller howled and a second later the sound of shelving crashing to the ground filled the room, making me jump. I hoped against hope that that didn’t mean what I feared it did.

  “Now, where were we? I believe you still have a necklace of mine,” Heath said, and I glanced over my shoulder to find his haunting eyes floating through the darkness toward me. He flicked his wand and I rocketed off the floor and through the air toward him for a few moments until again I jolted to a stop with my back to him.

  I closed my eyes and whimpered when I heard him stepping closer, but the fear was nothing compared to when I felt his fingers loop through my hair to part it in search of the necklace. His breath on my bare skin gave me chills, and a wave of tears swept over me as the weight of the necklace vanished.

  I listened in terror as Heath slipped it over his neck and let out an accomplished sigh. “At last, the artifacts are all mine,” he whispered, his voice dripping with glee. I heard his wand zip through the darkness, and suddenly my body whirled to face him. His otherworldly eyes twinkled.

  “You know, I have to commend you, Zoe. If it weren’t for you, I never would’ve gotten here. In fact, I wish I didn’t have to kill you, but I know better than to leave powerful loose ends.”

  As he raised his wand to end me for good, all I could think of was Beau and Grandma and the heartbreak they’d go through after they learned of my death. Images of the children I’d never get to know flashed through my mind so quickly that I could barely process them.

  “I love you,” I whispered to all of them, knowing they’d never hear it.

  “Love won’t save you, Zoe. Interficio!” Heath shouted, and I screamed and braced myself for the pain as the blinding light of the killing curse hurtled toward me — but my scream kept going until my throat was raw and I ran out of breath. Another took its place, one that wasn’t mine, anguished and animalistic.

  My eyes snapped open and I found Heath howling on his hands and knees. A moment later, the magic holding me in place broke and I fell to the ground less than a foot away from Heath. His head snapped up, revealing
a face of roiling shadows and raging eyes. “What did you do?! Auuugghh!” he shrieked. Without thinking, I reached for the wand still clutched in his hand, and as my fingers grazed his, he recoiled and let out another ear drum-shattering scream.

  Heath’s body twisted and writhed on the floor as if it were violently rejecting an infection, and reality seemed to split in front of me as I watched a shadowy mass lifting out of his body in some magical exorcism.

  Something searing hot in the center of my chest stole my attention away, and I glanced down to find the necklace Grandma had made for me charred, cracked, and smoking against my robes. Instinctively, I yanked it off by its band and flung it away. I couldn’t explain how or why, but the charm had saved me from Hendrik’s killing curse.

  Light flickered in the room as Heath continued to shriek, until finally everything illuminated, and Heath went still. I kept his wand pointed at him as I stepped cautiously forward, not at all sure I could even use it if I needed. He rolled to his side as a fit of coughing seized him. He hacked so hard I worried he might break a rib, but with one last heavy cough, a snake-shaped shadow flew from his mouth to the floor beside him.

  I jumped away from it, terrified of what power it might still have, and watched as it shifted and changed shape into what looked like Heath’s own shadow. It wheezed like it was on its last breath, and when it turned to look at me, its glowing red eyes had dimmed.

  “What… Did… You… Do?!” It rasped as its eyes flickered.

  Heath sputtered awake, saw me and the shadow beside him, and hurried toward me to take the wand from my hand.

  “Is that him? Is that what’s left of Hendrik?” I asked, gesturing at the ragged and thin but unmistakably man-shaped shadow in front of us.

  Heath nodded and pointed his wand at the corrupted remnants of his brother. He rubbed his throat as if it were sore. “This is the cost of splitting one’s soul from their body,” he said hoarsely. “Dark magic like this corrupts everything it touches. Hendrik’s soul can’t continue to live outside a host.” The shadow on the ground in front of us continued to shrink, and its eyes further dimmed. “He’s dying. The necklace your grandmother made for you only sped it up by reflecting the killing curse back at him.”

  “You saw all that?”

  Heath grimaced and nodded. “Everything. I tried to resist him, but I couldn’t. It was like killing you myself.”

  Despite the shudder that powered through me, I turned back to Hendrik. “What do we do now?”

  Heath’s gaze followed mine. “We end this — for good. Goodbye, Hendrik. I hope you find peace,” he said, and I looked away as Heath aimed Merlin’s Wand at the twisted shadow that was his brother and made good on his promise.

  Chapter Fifteen

  With me holding him up, Heath and I stumbled around the room until we found Mueller sitting on the floor and massaging a knot that’d begun forming on the back of his head. Piles of objects surrounded him, from books to pieces of piping and everything between.

  “Is it over?” he asked, somewhat dazed, as he tried to stand.

  “It is,” Heath said.

  “You saved my life, Mueller,” I said and let Heath stand on his own feet so I could throw my arms around the chief. “I can’t thank you enough for that. You could’ve gotten yourself killed, but you did it anyway.”

  Mueller chuckled. “I’m here to serve and protect, as always. It was the least I could do after all the help you’ve given us.” He held me out at arm’s length and looked down at my stomach. “Besides, you’ve got more left to live for than an old mutt like me does. Everything okay with you and the kids?”

  I shrugged and massaged my stomach. “Yeah, as far as I can tell. I’ll probably find a few cuts and bruises in the shower later, but things could’ve been much worse.”

  “Yeah…” Mueller agreed as he looked over his shoulder.

  “What is it?”

  “Some of us weren’t so lucky,” he said and pointed across the room at a collection of silver chains resting in a pile of fresh ash.

  “Valentine,” I whispered, surprised by the emotion that swept over me at the realization he’d given his life to save ours. It wasn’t something I would’ve expected the vampire to do — in fact, it seemed the polar opposite — but maybe he’d realized what we were up against and how badly we needed his help. Or maybe his time in prison had changed him. We’d probably never know.

  “It was one heck of a way to redeem himself,” Mueller said. “I didn’t think the guy had it in him.”

  Heath sighed. “If only Hendrik could’ve had a similar change of heart in his final act.”

  As complicated as Heath’s relationship with Hendrik must’ve been, it didn’t change the fact they were brothers — twins, no less — so I couldn’t fathom the thoughts and feelings surely roaring in Heath now that the brother he’d entered the world with had left him alone in it; yet another in a growing list of Heath’s family members who’d passed.

  “I’m so sorry, Heath,” I said and hugged him. He sniffled, quietly enough that I was the only one who noticed, and it broke my heart. Even in one of his darkest moments, he forced himself to be strong for everyone around him. Normally, that quality of his was one I admired and respected, but in that moment, I found it tragic. Heath needed to grieve, and I hoped once he was alone again he’d give himself permission to do it.

  He released me and mustered a mostly convincing smile. “We did what was right, and that’s all that matters. Moon Grove and the entire magical universe will be much safer places with Hendrik gone.”

  “What was he?” I asked. “What did he do to himself?”

  “I’m not sure, to be honest, but it’s clear to me now that I’ve had his spirit in my body that he’d been searching for a remedy for years. If I had to guess, I’d say your theory was right: Hendrik’s body died in whatever horrific accident occurred years ago, and the magic involved tore his soul into pieces.”

  “Is that what the shadow snakes were? Pieces of his soul?”

  “I think so, yes.”

  I shuddered. “He mentioned the only things that could save him were Merlin’s artifacts. What could they do for him?”

  “Some magic, particularly the darker variety, is volatile — and has irreversible effects. Hendrik must have believed Merlin’s artifacts were his only hope at undoing whatever awful magical things he’d done to himself.”

  “But there’s no guarantee it would’ve worked?”

  Heath smirked. “There are certain aspects of magic that even I don’t comprehend. It’s possible that the artifacts could’ve given Hendrik whatever knowledge and magic he needed to save himself, but it’s just as possible their power would’ve further corrupted him. Either way, the risk of him getting the artifacts was too great.”

  “Good thing they’re back where they belong then,” I said and flicked the necklace hanging over Heath’s chest. “But you know, you could’ve told me you had all three of them all along. If I’d known, I never would’ve let the gargoyles haul you off to jail. I’d ask why you kept it from me, but I already know the answer: ‘it’s too dangerous,’” I said in a mocking imitation of Heath’s regal voice.

  Heath laughed, and I hoped he wouldn’t forget how to do it in the wake Hendrik’s passing. “Exactly. That said, we should probably pay the Justices a visit to clear my name once and for all so we can put this horrible episode in Moon Grove’s history books where it belongs.”

  “Here, here. But first, let’s get you to Willowvale. I want to be sure you’re okay, especially after the way Hendrik took control of you.”

  “Great idea. It probably wouldn’t hurt to have them give you a look over either,” Heath said, and Mueller and I moved to help him walk out of the evidence room and toward the entrance. When we rounded the corner, the front door burst open and Barrett came stumbling inside. He took one look at the three of us and his mouth fell open. He tried to speak but never got the words out because Grandma, Beau, and Leif darted i
n after him.

  “Zoe! Oh, thank the Good Lord!” Grandma wailed and ran forward to smother me, but I didn’t dare rebuff her. Instead, I hugged her as tightly as my swollen stomach would allow — because things could’ve ended much differently if I hadn’t been wearing the necklace she made for me. “We were walkin’ down the street when Barrett noticed all the lights go out, and we tried to get back into the building, but the doors wouldn’t open and—”

  “Everything’s fine now, Gram,” I interrupted and stroked her back to soothe her.

  “Are you hurt? You look like you been dragged through the mud. What about the babies?”

  “I’m fine, we’re fine, everything’s fine, Grandma,” I laughed and pried myself out of her grip only to have Beau attack me next.

  “I was worried sick about you,” he said in my ear and the fear in his voice brought me to tears. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  “I have Grandma to thank for that.”

  Beau held me out to look me in the eye. “What do you mean?”

  I tapped the spot on my chest where the necklace she’d made me normally would’ve been hanging. A charred black circle on my robes replaced it. “Her necklace did what she said it would. It saved me and the twins.”

  Grandma’s eyes widened. “Are you serious? What the heck happened in there?”

  “It’s a long, dark story, but the short version is that Heath’s undead twin brother tried to murder me with a killing curse but the necklace reflected the spell back at him. You know, no big deal.”

  The color drained from her face and for a moment I worried she might be sick. “Well, uh, that’s good, ain’t it?”

  I burst out laughing and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Sure is. I wouldn’t be standing here right now if you hadn’t come home with that charmed jewelry. You must’ve turned into one hex of a witch while you were gone.”