The Burning Witch 3: A Humorous Romantic Fantasy

CHAPTER 52 LOST LOVE

Aradia dropped the devil beside Likon’s unconscious body and sheathed the dagger.

She didn’t need to worry about subduing her brother given that they happened to be in a large, drafty abandoned building containing a stone golem, an imp, and a sirin.

Pulling out her watch, she clicked it again, and time resumed its usual course.

Sam jolted in alarm and instantly sprang to his feet while looking around frantically.

Aradia chuckled. “I haven’t seen you this flustered since that time I got you stuck in a tree leagues up in the sky.”

“What magic was that? That wasn’t witchcraft.” The devil breathed, then startled into stillness once more when he laid eyes on the ancient beasts that stood behind his sister.

“Tak?!” he stared up into the glowing eyes of the golem before dropping his astounded face to the sirin. “Hafey … and … Viellen.” The devil fell into a brief shock as he gaped at the imp in particular. “Viellen, it’s been … How are … Why are …”

The imp shook his head sadly. “We just want you to come home.”

The devil’s right hand quivered. “You … You really opted to work with Aradia?! After she told our parents you should just return to the Forest of the Afterlife?! This world was supposed to be yours! She betrayed you!” Sam was becoming more emotional than he had been in years.

“Not anymore.” Viellen the imp’s eyes lowered sadly, his pupils only spinning once. “This world is corrupting you, master. Mistress is right.”

Sam stalked up to his former friend and didn’t stop until his nose nearly bumped into the imp’s chest. “You really are going to let these horrid creatures win this world? After you created the waterways of Lobahl’s capital? After you crafted the infamous waterfall outside of Sorlia in Daxaria? Those were things of beauty for our kin to enjoy! Not to let the humans ruin!”

“Master, it is the will of the Gods that this place be left to the humans.”

“NO!” Sam roared and whirled around to stalk up to the golem. “Tak, you were as furious as I was! You helped bind Aradia! I know you do not change easily or surrender your grudges! What has she done to you?!”

“I didn’t do anything, Sam. Why didn’t you just have faith in our parents that there was a better place for them somewhere?” Aradia spoke to her brother’s back quietly.

Sam rounded on her and moved quickly back to seethe down into her face while seizing the front of her tunic. “Then what? The Gods create some new creature that cannot control its selfishness and greed, and they are chased out again?”

“You are thinking of this all wrong.” Aradia reached up and gently wrapped her hand around her brother’s wrist. “I already know humans aren’t as worthy as our kin. That is why the beasts were asked to leave. To punish the humans. Without the golems, earthquakes have decimated their cities and sinkholes have swallowed their homes. Without the sirins, thousands of ships have sunk, and the weather is difficult for humans to predict because they can’t read the winds. Without the imps, there have been floods, tsunamis, and so, so much more. Lastly, they do not have the wisdom and warmth the dragons could provide … Humans are suffering. ”

“They don’t even see their absence as a punishment! They see it as a war won!”

“You could’ve helped them to see the truth and conquer their fears. But you chose to push them deeper into their chaotic anxiety,” Aradia bit back, her eyes turning hard.

“Humankind was a lost cause long before the ancient beasts retreated. You should already know this though.”

“Following your logic, was your recent loyal follower, Leo, a disgusting being who you loathed and had no faith in?”

The devil snarled terrifyingly. “He was prone to violence and greed. He was prideful, arrogant, and—”

“He loved you like a brother. Just like generations of your other followers have loved you as a son, nephew, uncle, and even husband. Oh, yes. I know all about your two marriages. Were those people disgusting and undeserving too?”

“That first marriage, she left me. The second—”

“He died. Hardly some large betrayal,” Aradia finished while boring down on her brother. And sure enough, his grip on her tunic weakened …

“He—Kalwen—was an addict. He was selfish.” Sam’s eyes narrowed, but he wasn’t able to properly glare …

“You could have helped him, but instead you let him kill himself slowly.”

“He made me swear not to use my abilities on him. He chose to struggle and die alone and leave me!” the devil roared, his shout ringing around the large empty space.

Aradia merely tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.

“He wanted you to feel equal to him and not like a caretaker. He did his best until the end. For you. How is it I can’t feel love and yet you can’t see that?”

Sam was silent as he stared hatefully at his sister, who remained infuriatingly calm.

“I’m really going to kill you this time.”

“No, brother. You won’t. You’re going home. You’re going to let our mother and father take care of you. I am going to fix the mess you made with these humans, and even though I don’t have your abilities, I know they can be better than they are. I’m going to take power from the witches of Daxaria to avoid them disrupting the balance, and Troivack will progress without any witches as it could’ve done years ago if it weren’t for your meddling and turning it into an oppressive land.”

“Are you saying you intend to kill thousands because you think you can save the world?” Sam studied his sister’s unnervingly unemotional face. “You think you can act as a sort of demigod to them and fix it all? Is this for control? For you to feel powerful again? Who are you to say they should be anything than what they are?”

Aradia raised her eyebrow, and then with an expert hit and kick sent her brother sprawling onto his back.

She stared down at him dispassionately. “I’m going to make the world and you better.”

“That …” the devil wheezed, his back aching. “Is a load of fucking nonsense. You just miss … being the golden child of the Gods. You can’t even feel love anymore. You can’t possibly want anything good for others.”

Aradia crouched down, noticing out of the corner of her eye the imp flinch and look away from the scene.

“That’s where you’re wrong. I see the benefits of a kinder, more balanced world for everyone involved. A cruel world is destined to eat itself until there is nothing left. I don’t need feelings to know that. I just need to not be an idiot blinded by pain like you.”

Kat sat in the corridor on a chest with her left hand pressing a mound of gauze to her wound with Eric at her right side, his elbows braced against his knees, his eyes gazing blindly ahead.

Lady Rebecca stood staring at the closed chamber door belonging to the king and queen with her hands clasped in front of herself in silence.

Meanwhile, Lady Kezia was reunited with Prince Henry and her son, Elio, elsewhere in the castle, and Lady Sarah was resting in her chamber with her father, who was still recovering from the shock of Kat’s earlier magical outburst.

Faucher, Mage Sebastian, and Mr. Kraft had all excused themselves to go make further preparations for the attack that was to come, following the carefully laid plans that had been set by Brendan …

Presently, the king was in the chamber with the court physician, along with Duchess Annika Ashowan, who had been summoned by the queen between gasps …

None of the trio that waited outside could tear their minds away from what was happening to Alina, despite the time for battle nearing.

For once, Rebecca Devark didn’t hide the genuine fear and worry in her face as she awaited news of the fate of her daughter-in-law and grandchild.

As time drifted on, nighttime crept across the windows, prompting the servants to light the torches as they passed through the halls. Many of them cast concerned glances at the quiet chamber as they moved.

Word was traveling quickly through the castle that there had been an attack from a rebel group. According to the news, Lady Katarina was injured trying to protect the monarchs, but the queen was in a precarious state with the unborn prince or princess as a result …

It was a partially fabricated rumor made up by Faucher to ensure no one blamed Kat or learned that the children of the Gods themselves had been present.

His plan seemed to be working too, as servants bowed reverently toward Kat when they passed and carried on their duties quietly.

When smells of dinner started wafting through the castle, Kat’s stomach let out a faint gurgle.

“You should eat something. Do you mind if I summon Lady Kezia to take you?” Eric asked softly, his darkened hazel eyes gentling when he turned to his wife.

She sat up as straight as her fresh stitches would allow, her gaze defiant. “I’m staying right here until I hear everything is alright.”

A pained knowingness filled Eric’s face as he shook his head and reached out to grasp Kat’s hand.

“It isn’t alright, Kat. It only takes this long when … when the babe needs to come out,” he finished with a rasp.

Rebecca’s head snapped to stare at the prince, tears filling her eyes, but she still didn’t say anything.

The prince met the former queen’s gaze somberly. “I remember it with my mother well enough.” He swallowed. “No, what we are waiting to hear … is whether Alina is fine and can make a full recovery.”

Kat felt a lump harden in her throat before she looked at the door, grief rising in her chest …

Which was when the chamber door opened and out stepped Brendan wearing a loosened black tunic and pants, his face ashen, his dark eyes fixed on the floor and looking suspiciously red.

“Your Majesty.” Rebecca reached toward her son. But without looking at his mother, Brendan’s hand clenched into a fist, stopping her.

“The physician needs privacy with Her Majesty. I’ll be back in a moment.”

“Is Alina alright?” Kat insisted while pushing to her feet, though the movement made her vision temporarily spin.

Brendan’s eyes fluttered. He swayed as though he were about to walk away without bothering to respond, but in the final moment decided that his wife’s brother and best friend deserved to know. “She … will recover. Eventually. I’ll see to the burial rites in the morning.”

Then he strode away, incapable of saying anything else.

“Gods … Alina …” Kat faced the door and reached for the handle.

“Give her time,” Eric called out, though his words sounded strangled. Tears fell from his eyes and ran down his nose until they fell to the corridor floor. Kat looked to Rebecca, but she was staring after her son while she, too, openly wept.

She then left in the same direction Brendan had headed.

Kat felt her lip quiver as she cried in the heartbreaking silence.

Without knowing what else there was to say, Eric covered his face with his hand and mourned his sister’s loss.

In all her life, Kat had never experienced sadness or grief as poignant as what she felt in that moment. She stared helplessly at the door, wanting to be with her friend more than anything …

She instead sat down and pulled her husband to her, and the two grieved together, wishing that the fates didn’t have to be so cruel to someone they loved so much … or to the innocent life that they had loved unconditionally without having ever met in this lifetime.

Rebecca found her son staring out a window at the starry night, his hands braced against the window ledge.

She watched him. Her heart felt as though it were being clawed to pieces in her chest as she sensed the devastation of her eldest son. Her entire being ached with restrained emotions that she had no idea how to express with words.

“Alina didn’t want to know … if it was a daughter or a son,” the king said without turning to face his mother.

“She may wish to know later,” Rebecca supplied softly.

“It was a son.”

The former queen flinched at the roughness in Brendan’s voice, instantly recognizing that he was succumbing to tears of his own.

“It … was … my son. Our son …”

Rebecca barely managed to take in a shuddering breath.

And then Brendan, the child king who had grown to be a man so stoic, so strong and steady, that he was compared to mountains … crumbled.

The heels of his palms came to his eyes as he crouched down and surrendered to his broken heart.

Rebecca, before she could think of what may or may not be proper, had him in her arms.

She hadn’t done anything motherly toward him in two decades … but none of that mattered.

Not when her child, who had done everything right in his life, had been beaten so mercilessly.

“Brendan,” she whispered while she held him, her voice thin and weak as it never was.

“I’m so sorry.”

The two remained in the corridor, undisturbed, attempting to find comfort for a wound that was deeper than any physical or emotional one that could be dealt.

There never was anything but pain and silence after the loss of a child.

Brendan did his best not to collapse when he knew he needed to return to his wife, whom he had left muffling her screams into the shoulder of Annika Ashowan as the physician herded him out to give both him and the queen a moment apart to grieve.

Alina had cried and bit down on their bed linens to stop herself from causing a breathing attack, all the while asking the Gods why they would do such a thing … And yet no answer had come.

Nor would it ever.

All that would come of it was her ravaged heart that would never be the same again and the barbed memory of another loss she would never fully recover from.

Why did she have to lose a life she was prepared to love wholly? Why, when she had done all she could, been all she could … Why did she have to pay such a price in exchange for a hole in her soul?

It was an injustice she knew countless other women felt, and yet despite knowing she was far from alone in experiencing it, it still changed her and broke her in a way she never could have imagined.