Chapter 29
Spirit
It would be six days after the incident with Alchemy, the children, and the shadow, that the rapture would come for us.
Part of me wanted to deny it. With each passing hour that blue fog did not creep forward, I wanted to tell myself it had passed over us.
That my healing spells weren’t too grand to sound the alarm.
Our hiding places were solid, the wards on the Malefic home would hold, it would all be enough combined to protect us.
I didn’t have that luxury.
Ignorance existed for fools.
Oh, how I wished for the comfort of being a fool.
On the second night after the incident, I sat at the round kitchen table, writing a letter to Ophidia Viper, when Alchemy joined me after tucking the girls in bed. “You’re so beautiful there in the firelight,” she said.
“That’s what you’re thinking of now? When the worst may befall us at any moment?” I neatly folded the paper.
“Your beauty, your name, your love, will be my final thought. It has been my every thought until now. Why would I change it?” Alchemy took my hand and pulled me up before taking my seat and tugging me to sit in her lap. I obliged, wrapping my arms around her.
I rested my head on her shoulder. “I’m sorry I couldn’t buy us more time.”
“I am thankful for the time we’ve had.”
“So am I, my love.” I kissed my wife’s cheek. “I just hope that what we’ve done has been enough to protect the girls.”
“They are shielded by the same magic that searches for them. I feel that is something Asunder does not anticipate.”
“They’re so young… Rumor already takes on too much, too many matters and worries beyond her years. Prism is already meek and shy. If we leave them…” Tears choked in my throat. “Who will guide them?”
“Our children will find their way. We’ve managed to hide Prism’s gifts and cull Rumor’s. That in itself is remarkable to have done undetected.”
I sat up, looking at my wife, memorizing the dark curls framing her face. “How are you so calm?”
“With who we are, where we’re from, the charms, the hexes, the curses…
our lives, this family, is testament to witchcraft of the highest order.
I find myself here, at the end of it all, proud of what we’ve built.
I believe our children will carry it on.
I believe someday they will find their mates who will help them in that quest, as well, as you and I have helped each other. ”
“I hope you’re right.”
Prism called out, “Matri! You promised us a story!”
Alchemy squeezed my middle. “The princess beckons and I must answer.”
A smile of warmth and sorrow followed after my wife. Standing, minding the spots on the hardwood floors I knew to creak, I tiptoed closer to the ajar bedroom door.
“This is a story that you will both forget,” Alchemy said softly. “I’ll tell it beginning to end, then end to beginning. You will be asleep by the last of it, yet you won’t remember many things when you wake up.”
My heart cracked in my chest. She was weaving a forgetful spell under the guise of a bedtime story. Brilliant, untraceable… my wife was a crafty sea witch, of course she’d thought of everything.
“But why?” Rumor protested. “I don’t want to forget anything.”
“Because, little one, it will keep you safer. There are magics that prowl, feeding off thoughts, feasting on memories. You won’t recall what happened yesterday in the garden. You won’t remember the shadow man or the black thorns.”
“I am okay with forgetting the shadow man,” Prism said with her quiet, delicate voice. “He was scary… he smelled nice, though.”
“You’re weird, Prism,” Rumor teased.
“You’re weirder!” Prism retorted with great offense.
Alchemy continued lowly, “Close your eyes and listen. ‘Once upon a beginning of the end…’”
My heart couldn’t bear it any longer. I tiptoed back out and slipped on my boots, knowing this was my only chance to leave undetected.
Under the waning moon’s light, I shuffled through my garden.
It would serve to feed them well long after I was gone.
Not only that, but each bounty was blessed.
Every crop they gathered and consumed would give them health, clarity, and peace.
In a small way, I’d still be feeding them, offering them warm meals, even if I weren’t present.
I hoped they’d still feel that. I hoped they’d know it with every berry, every soup, every October pumpkin.
I passed my scrying stone and hesitated by the back gate. Glancing over my shoulder, my gaze lingered on the warm light filtering from the back window. Taking a deep breath, I pushed through and followed the dark path into the woods.
It was the path that Prism took.
The path the shadow had lured her on.
I could feel its magic like the lick of icy, harsh wind, beating against my exposed skin.
Past a certain point in the woods at night, all goes silent.
No cricket chirps, no crunch of leaves or twigs.
Birds don’t call, owls don’t hoot, and squirrels don’t scurry.
The forest knows evil. Even the trees wait and watch for it. All of nature recognizes a predator.
Finally, as I fought the sinking feeling in my gut, I reached the cluster of black thorns.
I knew these thorns.
I knew where they came from.
Closing my eyes, I summoned a spell and chanted. The thorns furled away like paper lit ablaze as I stepped forward. Once I reached the tree stump, I summoned him.
In the silence of the forest, I waited.
I did not need to wait long.
Frigid air encircled me. When I opened my eyes, it was an effort not to scream, and the long shadow stretched out in front of me.
It’s voice haunted forward on a pale beam of moonlight. “Why have you summoned me, witch? I see no offerings. I see no proof you intend to give what we are owed.”
My knowledge of the dark was a deep fountain of knowing. They had weak spots; they had temptations and inclinations like any mortal or immortal alike. It had worked before… I prayed to every goddess above and below that it would work again.
I sucked in a steadying breath. “I want to make a bargain.”
The shadow’s voice vibrated around me like thunder. “You’ve made a bargain already, and I’ve come to collect.”
“I want to make another.”
The shadow man cocked his head at an eerie angle. Truly, I hated these foul beings. I thought for a moment he would deny me… but then he said, “What is your bargain?”
Immortals loved a deal.
The creepier the being—the more they loved it.
“You will forget my daughters.”
“That is impossible. They are a part of the realm and have a duty to it as they are made from its ether. Do you forget, witch, that you bargained to have them? To bear them, carry them in your womb, as your own? They were never yours to begin with. They were always ours. The Malefics must stand as guardians, keepers, of the Underworld.”
“They’re children. What good are children to the Underworld?”
“They are enchanted by darkness. Forged from two parts of the Underworld sewn together. It is time they take their place amongst it. Pay your debt or allow the rapture to come.”
“Malefics must stand as guardians?”
“Yes,” the shadow answered lowly.
“Then, I amend my bargain.” I stepped forward, looking up at the shadow. “Forget the children and—”
“That is impossible. An arm cannot forget a leg. The sun cannot forget the sky. They are a part of the ether.”
“Then forget them until they are called by it. Allow them to grow up, find love, or whatever they want to pursue. It will call to them. Let them come to the Underworld of their own accord.”
The shadow considered. “What would Asunder receive in exchange?”
“Me.” My palms trembled at my sides. “A Malefic must be a guardian? I will do so.”
“Both of you. Two for two,” the shadow responded.
I swallowed. I didn’t want to wager my wife’s life; however, I already knew what she’d say. “Both of us then.”
“You will die,” the shadow said plainly.
“I know.”
“Your souls will be parted. On opposite sides of the Underworld.” The shadow gestured his long arm. “Day… and night.”
Tears filled my eyes. If I did this, I would lose both my girls, and my wife.
However, the price of not doing it meant Rumor and Prism had no chance at normal lives.
At normal loves and purposes. If Alchemy and I were killed, our souls would find each other; however…
if we guarded the Underworld… we’d never see each other again.
The shadow man knew that.
He seemed to like the heavy weight of the wager.
Darkness loved high prices, even better if sorrow and heartache accompanied it. This was the perfect bet to entice Asunder.
Love lost, lives in ruin, souls forever damned to wander apart… an irresistible combination of pain.
I reiterated, “In return, you forget them, you don’t come looking unless they call for you or come to you on their own.”
Alchemy was in bed with a forgetful story enchantment she told our girls, while I wove my own forgetful spell in the forest with the shadows of the Underworld. Only I dared do it with the most powerful beings themselves.
The tall, lanky abyss reached out a hand. “You have a bargain, Spirit Malefic.”
My palm met with the darkness.
The shadow flipped my hand over and pricked my thumb. A small droplet of blood appeared before it evaporated, taken by the being.
Blood shed and the bargain struck.
“Spirit?” Alchemy’s voice called from outside the thorn patch. “What are you doing?”
With a heavy heart, I walked past the shadow, through the parted path of thorns. “The same thing you did, my love. Making them forget.”
“And what will it cost us this time?” Alchemy’s jaw hardened as she held my arms. Her eyes searched mine beneath the light of the moon as if she already knew the answer.
“What else do we have to give but everything?” I said, resting my forehead on my wife’s chest. “I’m sorry.”
Alchemy stroked my hair and kissed the top of my head. The silent moment enough, more than enough, as the gloomy trees watched on.
Four days later, the blue fog came.
Alchemy thought she’d heard withers in the woods during the first thorn incident. Maybe this was coming all along. Nevertheless, their fog stretched out, searching.
We kissed our girls goodnight for the last time and stepped onto our front porch.
Screams screeched in the distance as Willowspire slowly comprehended the horror of what was happening, of what had finally come. Though this night, it didn’t prowl for errant magic users. On that night, it came to collect. The rapture came to make good on a bargain or two.
I’d never see my wife again.
I gripped her hand tight.
“I love you,” I whispered.
We stepped down the porch steps.
The fog crept closer.
“I love you, too,” Alchemy said. “I’ll find you. Somehow, some way, in some life or some realm. In magic, or in memory, I will find you.”
Tears dripped down my face. “I’ll eagerly await that day.”
Our fingers interlocked as we walked into the fog.
To pay our debt.
To return to our obligations.
To protect our daughters.
I hoped I’d worded the spell correctly. I’d thought I’d crafted it well enough to outsmart Asunder. When they come searching for you. Forget them until they come looking and choose it. The bargain rolled around in my mind.
That with the shielding charms already placed on them.
The instruction to marry Vipers for further invisibility… a solution the boys’ mother suggested herself when I confided in her of our plight. She never told me exactly what they were… but I had a few guesses. As unsettling as they may be, they would offer another layer of invisibility.
As the fog twisted around our ankles like chains, I felt at peace knowing I’d done all I could to keep Rumor and Prism safe.
My terms were excellent. Why would either of them seek out the dark? If they ever did… they’d be bound by it. Though, that should never happen.
After all, what could ever compel either of them to choose to go to the Underworld?
The fog enveloped us.
It pulled us apart.
I lost grip of my wife’s hand.
We lost our lives.
On to our next adventure.