by Jayne Hawke
Ethan’s grin became sharper, toothier. His muscular forearms tensed as he made a small hand gesture, challenging me to try it.
Reflexively I reached out with my mind and yanked on the threads of life magic running through the nearby plants. Unlike the heavy, viscous god magic, everything about this witch magic was light and delicate. The life magic crumbled beneath my mental fingertips, and I found myself growing in frustration. His blood would make everything easier, better. Just one little drop...
Ethan came to me and gently cupped my cheek in his hand. His eyes contained such gentle affection that I found my darker urges slipping away, leaving me exhausted as the witch magic faded.
“Come on, you’ve done enough for today,” he said gently.
I stretched up onto my tiptoes and brushed my lips over his, needing to feel that tenderness against my skin.
“I will never be scared of you,” he whispered.
He should have been.
FORTY-FIVE
To Ethan’s irritation, Matt and I returned to our home after dinner. It was a bittersweet moment walking through the front door. Everything seemed so dim and dull as I looked around the small space. When I looked at the kitchen, I could remember mum helping to bake cookies and dad sitting at the table reading an old leather-bound tome. When I looked away, I also remembered the moment we realised we were alone. Dad wasn’t coming back.
“I start the alchemy training next week,” Matt said brightly.
“Ethan knows what I am. He had me practise with my magic,” I said.
Matt turned around and looked at me with those large cat eyes. His ears pointed a little at the very tips, and he tugged at the hem of his old blue sweater.
“What does that mean for us? Do we need to run?” he asked softly.
“He considers us pack. He said nothing will harm us while we remain that way,” I said.
Matt visibly relaxed and began to smile.
“Kerry gave me her number so we can hang out. She has the most awesome collection of movies and games. She said that when I have some spare time from my apprenticeship she’ll teach me some of her cool computer stuff, too. I know a bit of coding, but she is out of this world,” he said.
He was so happy to be around his own kind. We had always loved him as though he was our own blood, but he wasn’t. We weren’t fae. We couldn’t give him whatever extra spark a cait sidhe needed.
Matt pulled me into a hug.
“I’ll always love you, you’re my sister, but damn it felt so good to be around fae. They liked me, and we just clicked,” he said.
I understood his loneliness. Friends weren’t something I’d really been able to take a risk on. Jake was a good guy, but it wasn’t as though we had a regular pizza night or anything. He hadn’t even responded to my request for information on the case, come to that.
“Just be careful, we don’t know how much older than you she is,” I said gently.
He rolled his eyes.
“Come on, Ethan’s probably millennia old. He’s the son of the Morrigan, there’s no way he’s under two thousand. If you can manage a two-thousand-year gap, I think I manage a century or two,” he said.
“You were supposed to say, ‘We’re just friends,’” I teased.
He grinned at me.
“Maybe we are. It’s more fun to poke at you like this though.”
He turned to go upstairs before he looked back at me.
“Just... don’t run away. Not yet. Give them a chance. Ethan looks at you as though you put the sun in the sky. We could have happiness, and maybe even a good life.”
I nodded. He wasn’t wrong, and I desperately wanted to give him that.
The cupboards and fridge were still overflowing with food. I wandered around the tiny kitchen checking everything. It was a soothing act that reminded me we were ok.
I settled down on the couch and began idly pulling on my witch magic. The threads felt almost crystalline when I ran my mental fingers over them. Closing my eyes, I reached out and felt the magic in the flowers outside. There was the expected life magic, but there was something new blossoming in the ones that the local witches stole on the full moon. It felt like small droplets of dew, but there was a fizzing sensation that I craved. I wondered what it could do, felt drawn to pull it out and play with it. Was this how witches felt all of the time?
My dreams that night had been full of childhood memories. Mum had always worn the most brilliant smile and loved bold daring colours. No one would have guessed that she was a dark witch, something to be feared. I’d certainly never thought she was anything but a human. Dad had an intensity that sat behind his easy grin. There was a metallic edge to his slate grey eyes, which I now knew to be his magic. The liquid metal cried out for war, and I was only a half blood.
Matt practically bounced around the living room when his alchemy textbooks arrived. The grin on his face was contagious. This was what I had dreamt of for him. No more worrying about our next meal, no more fear over the hounds, just a happy normal life. Ethan and his pack were dangling it right in front of us.
I swore that I’d kill him if this was a game. No one was going to take that smile from my brother’s face and survive.
FORTY-SIX
Everyone was gathered in the pack house kitchen. Kerry was perched up on the kitchen counter in her black leather pants and blood-red cami. Her short hair had been lightly spiked, giving her a rougher edge. Dean leaned against the fridge. His usual dark jeans and plaid shirt with the rolled-up sleeves were starting to become comfortable and familiar. Cade was in yet another black t-shirt with a weird sigil-style image in electric blue on the front and pale blue jeans with stomping boots.
All eyes were on Ethan. Even in his long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans, he looked like a commander. He stood with his back straight and a fire in his golden eyes.
“Yasmine, the Hecate witch, has been spotted. We’re pretty sure this is a trap. Be prepared to get into a fight with the hounds. I want everyone in their armoured gear with extra weapons on you. Kerry will be handing out vials of health potion. Keep them on your person.” He looked around the small gathered group. “Matt will be remaining here. He’s continuing Kerry’s digging and will alert us the second he finds anything important. Be aware that Kit will be using her magic. She has not had time to practise or gain full control. Any help you can offer her will be appreciated.”
Heat spread across my cheeks. I felt like such an amateur.
“We leave in five minutes,” Ethan barked.
The pack ran up the stairs to gather their things. I was already in my light-armoured fighting leathers, courtesy of Ethan. Matt was tapping on a laptop at the table with a look of deep concentration on his face. I was glad that Ethan had left him out of the main fight. It would break my heart to see him hurt.
Ethan returned with a pair of sheathes on his thighs. The dark brown leather straps fit ever so tight around his muscular thigh. I found myself looking a little too closely and wondering what it would feel like to run my hands over his powerful legs.
The cu sith grinned at me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“You’re one of us,” he said firmly.
I’d never been one of anything before. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to fall into the pack and their lives.
He stroked my cheek with the back of his hand, a slow and soft gesture that brought a warmth to my core.
“Do not fear the hounds. You’re a capable fighter and you can use your magic. We will not lose this fight,” he said.
I shrugged and wanted to say a witty one liner, but my mind was completely blank.
“We’re expecting there to be at least one Aphrodite god touched. You already know how to kick their asses. I believe there may be a Zeus god touched involved, but I’m still digging. Watch out for the lightning with them. They can run out of lightning bolts, which leaves them vulnerable,” Matt said.
“Don’t get struck by lightning, got it,” I said.
; Kerry, Cade, and Dean all returned, each wearing exactly what they had been before. Now I could feel the threads of magic wrapped around them offering a lightweight protection. Kerry grinned at me. Her blood-red lipstick seemed particularly fitting. The guys had strapped blades to their hips, and Dean carried a long sword casually at his side.
“It’s difficult to sit in a car with a sword strapped to your back,” he said with an easy smile.
“Move out,” Ethan said.
I followed the fae out of the door and mentally prepared myself for the worst. Fighting the hounds had been my nightmare for over a decade now, and I was walking right into it.
Everyone was remarkably relaxed as we drove across the moors. A light mist clung to the grey heather, giving it an eerie appearance like a pale ghostly sea.
“I’m thinking lasagne for dinner tonight,” Cade said.
“Yes! I haven’t had your garlic bread in far too long,” Kerry said.
“No mushrooms, though. Why would anyone add mushrooms to lasagne? And I want extra ricotta,” Dean said.
“Mushrooms add flavour,” Kerry said.
“Flavour for flavour’s sake isn’t a good thing. Lasagne is not supposed to taste like fungus,” Dean said.
I bit back a laugh. The expression on his face was so serious.
“Did Ethan tell you about the time he kicked the ass of a pair of hounds a few years back?” Cade asked me.
“No...? I didn’t think you’d been up against them before,” I said.
“It’s not frequent. They usually have too much sense to screw with the fae. So, there was Ethan, by himself, no weapons on him because he’d been stuck in some tedious business meeting all day. Some of those businessmen get really uptight if you walk into a meeting with a couple of knives. Anyway! There he was, in his suit out to get some last second coffee when a pair of hounds rocked up. Ethan ignored them at first, because there was no way they were stupid enough to go after him.”
“Then one of them tries to tell him to come in peacefully. Of course Ethan laughed, and well, there wasn’t much left of them by the end. I think they had to identify one of them by his remaining arm, the rest was flung around the street in unrecognisable lumps. The first one was tossed in the river for the dobhar chu to enjoy,” Cade said.
I looked over at Ethan.
“You literally tore him into lumps?” I asked.
Ethan shrugged.
“He refused to back off or die.”
I suddenly felt a little better about the trap we were walking into.
FORTY-SEVEN
Ethan pulled up in front of a worn-down gamekeeper’s cottage. It was small with greying walls and vines growing up along the corners and over the roof. The small windows were dark, and long grass grew where the front garden should have been. The driveway down to it was entirely open with nothing but moorland on either side of it. More moorland stretched out around the cottage. Not too far in the distance, a thin copse could be seen where I assumed game had once been kept.
Movement caught my attention inside. I felt it as much as saw it. We piled out of the car and split into two groups without a word. Kerry and Dean took the back, Ethan, Cade and I rushed the front door. Ethan kicked the rattling old door down, and we burst into a narrow hallway.
Patchy paint covered the walls, paler areas showing where paintings or something had been quite recently. The carpet was threadbare and revealed the old floorboards beneath in some places. Ethan ducked his head into the room on our right before he went inside. Cade peeled off and searched the room on the left. I tested the bottom step of the stairs with the warped wood and jogged up them to look at the upper floor.
The upstairs was an open-plan area with an opaque glass wall jutting out from the far wall some six feet to hide the toilet. A sagging bed hugged the wall to the right. The stained mattress had a couple of springs poking up from it. Brilliant yellow bedding was heaped in the corner beneath the small window. I could feel that there was no life up there. The threads of my magic spread out around me, searching for something to drink in and take, but the place was completely devoid of anything.
I lifted the mattress and checked for any interesting clues, books, weapons, anything. There was nothing but a cheap bed with rust along some of the slats. It was a sad state of affairs. I’d thought that Yasmine had money and could afford a nice little hideaway.
“Nothing,” I said as Cade popped his head up into the space.
“Her workspace is downstairs, but no sign of her,” he said.
I followed him down the stairs into the room on the right. Ethan nudged a bowl with black ooze in it with his toe. I crouched down near it. My instincts were telling me that I knew what that was. The witch magic itched beneath my skin eager to be freed. I was trying to keep things under control. To allow everything to run free would give me away to everyone in the area.
“Kit?” Ethan asked.
“I’m new to this magic thing,” I said.
“Trust your instincts,” he said.
My instincts were telling me to drain every scrap of life force and magic that I could.
I allowed a single thread of magic to edge towards the ooze. Images of rotting corpses at a crossroads filled my mind.
“I don’t know what it is. I’m seeing death, decay, and a crossroads,” I said.
Kerry curled her lip.
“She’s been screwing around with death magic and likely trying to cut a deal with someone,” Kerry said.
“The hounds?” I asked.
“Most likely,” Ethan growled.
I stood up and looked around the rest of the small room. A floral armchair had been shoved into the corner nearest the grimy window. The low-slung coffee table was covered in dried herbs, small bones, blood splatter, and sheaves of unused cream paper.
“There’s still food in the fridge. It looks like she left recently,” Dean reported.
Magic clung to the edges of everything in the room, but I had no idea what to do with that information. It was mostly dark and dusty threads with a greyish tinge to them. The threads of life magic in Ethan’s garden and been bright and easy to see, but this sagged and felt as though everything had seen better days. I had so much to learn about this magic stuff.
“Kerry, check for clues about where she went. We’ll look around outside,” Ethan said.
I followed them outside. I was drawn to the small straggly woodland a hundred or so feet away. The trees were thin with twisted limbs and dark bark. Most of the leaves had already fallen in preparation for a cold and bitter winter.
Ethan walked to me and followed my gaze.
There was movement. A quick sudden motion that made Ethan tense and bare his teeth.
“She’s in there.”
“She’s not alone,” I said.
I could feel magic like my father’s magic. It was viscous and liquid, a languid magic that resided within the being. Within the hound.
FORTY-EIGHT
We ran across the short yellowing grass and dense heather to try and reach the witch. Something was wrong. I felt the shift in magic. I was right at Ethan’s side when we ran through the first set of slender dark trees. A thick layer of fallen leaves coated the floor, telegraphing my movements to anyone hiding there.
The rest of the group moved silently.
I rolled my jaw and ignored the feeling of inferiority. There was no time for feeling sorry for myself. Yasmine and a hound were in there somewhere. The trees grew increasingly close together with thick tangles of brambles wrapped around the trunks and covering the floor.
There was no sign of her. The woods weren’t that big. I could just about see the cottage and the truck from where I stood, and there was no movement out there.
“They’re gone,” Ethan growled.
He was right. I had no idea how they did it, but I couldn’t feel their magical signatures anymore. Dean had circled around the back of the small woodland and now jogged towards us.
“There’s no si
gn of them having run through the back. No cars, no footprints,” he said.
“How?” I asked.
“If that was a Hecate-tied hound, there’s a small chance that he transported them both a short distance away. If he did, then he’ll be weak and exhausted right now,” Ethan said.
“An easy target,” I said.
He grinned at me.
“Exactly.”
We ran back to the car and headed out onto the road. The moorland offered very few hiding places. If they had transported somewhere nearby, we’d be able to see them. We watched out the window for movement across the gently undulating heather. A pair of crows circled around in the sky, but I couldn’t see anything that would draw them in. The heather was dense, but I didn’t think it was tall enough to hide a person.
After an hour of driving around and coming up with nothing, Ethan pulled into a small dirt layby and sighed.
“They’re toying with us,” he growled.
“Why? What are they getting out of this?” I asked.
My phone rang.
“Kit, I have something! Jake emailed you about a dealer who suddenly shot up through the ranks. This dealer was a nobody, and now he’s dealing in everything magical. I got into the security system of the shop next to his place and saw that Hecate witch you’re hunting walk in. I went back through their records, and she’s been there a few times this week. They’ve also spent a lot of time driving out to some ruins about forty minutes outside of the city. One of the parcels they threw in the back was wriggling last time they went out there,” Matt said with great enthusiasm.
“First of all, since when do you hack into security systems?” I felt like I’d missed so much with my brother, and that hurt. “Secondly, give us the address of those ruins.”
“I’ll send it over to Ethan’s phone, he has GPS. Be careful, I saw at least two hounds at the dealer’s place half an hour ago.”
“Be safe,” I said.
