11. Amelie #2
She was quick to explain the history of the Fae in the Forest. “Poppy is sunshine personified. Her entire family is. They’re good people.
Naida is terribly shy, but still as sweet as fresh jam.
Fae are innately trusting creatures, they defy almost everything physical about them.
Small, vulnerable creatures who would ride into battle in a second for anyone.
Naida, though, carries a different love in her heart. ”
“What about Naida’s family?”
Ethel straightened her tunic down her stomach and crossed one ankle over each other, leaning back on her palms. “No one knows.” My friend’s nose crinkled, tears rimmed in her eyes but she swallowed them down.
“What do you mean?”
“She showed up a little over two hundred years ago. My husband found her near the creek. Couldn’t remember anything, she couldn’t even fly.
Her poor wings needed so much care before they worked right.
She’s never said much. Luckily, she took to Poppy quickly, but she always seems to be preparing for a wicked storm. Always on edge, that girl.”
Naida reminded me of parts of myself. The piece that used to live in fear and did what had to be done to keep moving forward. Between Naida and Poppy, it felt like there were two little pieces of my soul flitting around the Forest. The old Amelie, and the new one.
“Why was Poppy’s touch on my skin so… tingly?”
Ethel let her head fall back, letting the sun soak her cheeks. “The Fae, for the most part, are very good. They are the secret movers of the Forest. If you watch closely, they’re everywhere, all the time,” Ethel explained.
I took a moment to look around the Forest, they were everywhere. The little floating things I had been seeing weren’t all pollen or the sparkling essence of the wind, they were Fae.
Ethel righted herself and watched the frogs float by.
“Most of their magic comes from the dark side. They are unnatural beings. They’ve never lived that way though, they defy the laws of magic by using Black Magic for good.
However, their only means of protection is that little tingle.
If Poppy wanted to, she could immobilize you completely with her touch alone.
It is the only way they can protect themselves, so when they are in danger that tingle becomes lethal.
It stops the blood flow of the person on the other end of it. ”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up. “Jesus.”
“Yeah. Jesus . But neither of those girls would ever do that. Especially to you.”
“Why especially to me ?” Ethel had a knack for giving enough information to pique my interest but never giving enough away to feel any resolution.
She eyed me with an endearing twinkle in her eye, the words she spoke when Frea sent her the message replayed in my mind.
“You’re special to us. To the Forest. It hasn’t always been safe here. I have two daughters somewhere out there that I haven’t seen in years because it wasn’t safe for them,” Ethel finally said. My heart warmed at the sentiment but I still didn’t understand why .
“And that’s because…”
“Some things are better to learn for yourself, dear.”
I mulled that over, feeling a pang of guilt that she hadn’t mentioned having daughters before, but I also hadn’t asked. “What were their names?”
Ethel’s hazel eyes were glossy, she wouldn’t look at me but she smiled as she said, “June and Delilah.”
I put my arm around her small frame and pulled her into my side. She swallowed back the tears and cleared her throat as if they got stuck there.
“Would you like to come to dinner one of these evenings with your husband? Fern is an excellent host, and Kiaran is hard up for company these days,” I asked, changing the subject.
Ethel gave me a smile, leaning into my body gently. “Edgar and I would enjoy that very much, Amelie. Thank you.”
We enjoyed the silence for a moment. While Fern and Kiaran were my friends because they kind of had to be, I thought Ethel might be my friend because she wanted to be.
“How is it going with the boy? We’ve worried over him since he’s been here.” Ethel’s anxious tone that she had the day at the campsite was present in her question.
“He’s okay. I’m hoping after tonight he’ll be even better.”
Ethel’s head whipped to mine and she arched a disapproving brow.
“Oh my god, not like that! Sorry.” Shaking off the embarrassment, I asked, “Why has no one ever visited him?”
Ethel laughed at the thought. “I believe the night you arrived in the Forest was only the second or third time we’ve ever been able to even see the cottage, let alone visit him.”
“What do you mean?”
“That boy has had that cottage veiled in invisibility since he got here. Your home used to be the cutest in all the Forest. So homey and full of life, the woman who lived there was special.”
I smiled at the thought of Fern taking pride in her structure, even when she was alone.
“Then, one day, it vanished. Myself and the rest of the dwarves take different parts of the Forest to clean up. Branches, algae, overgrown bushes and vines, and when we came here, my goodness, nearly two hundred years ago, it was gone.”
“I would’ve thought I’d gone mad. How did you know it was just invisible then? That it was still here?”
Ethel’s face fell suddenly. She chewed on her lip and leaned up to play with her fingers.
“It was some time after it disappeared. I’d startled out of my sleep to pained screams and thought a human had scared themselves silly.
I ran and ran until I was close enough to see.
Through the trees, I saw the cottage again, overgrown and unkempt, with a man on all fours in the doorway.
He was in agony, crying for his mother and shouting so loud I know any mother would’ve heard it.
She never came though.” Ethel’s eyes rimmed with tears again, this time she let them fall.
“I wanted to wrap him up and tell him it would be okay. We’d never been privy to his occupancy in the Forest. He didn’t let us see him, let alone know the pain his heart was in.
” She took a quivering breath in and tried to shake away the memory from her mind.
“What happened after that?”
Ethel sighed and rested her hands in her lap.
“I watched him for a while. I asked Frea to bring his mother to him, tried to speak to him between our minds, but when he finally gathered himself, he stepped out of the cottage.”
My breath hitched, knowing exactly what he was trying to do.
“His body contorted, the sound of his bones snapping bounced off the branches where I stood. He screamed so loud it rumbled through the sturdy trees.”
Ethel and I were both rigid, her for reliving the memory and me for knowing that Kiaran was trying to end it all.
“But then, something took him inside. I couldn’t see anything physically doing it, but it dragged him by his boots back into the cottage and the soft cries he let out faded as the sun began to rise.
It was years and years before we saw him again. ”
Sitting in silence once again, I looked to the cozy home Kiaran and I shared and felt a force pulling me to him. I noticed him crossing the small window in the attic, taking a glance at Ethel and I every time he did.
As I was palming the ground to stand, Ethel started again, asking about the past week.
“I learned how to make elixirs and potions,” I told her excitedly, sitting back down and watching the attic window.
“Kiaran says I’m a natural. That even the Witches who’d studied their whole lives weren’t so quick to the craft as me.
” I couldn’t explain it, but every time the smoke toppled over the lip of the cauldron, energy thrummed through me.
The relentless sea that raged outside the castle in my dreams had menacing waves that took away the view of the sharp rocks that guarded the cliff’s edge.
That was how the spells made me feel. Like the sharp edges of my soul were being covered by something so much bigger than me.
“I told you that you have the magic of gold in your eyes, girl. I’m not sure why you’re surprised,” she replied off-handedly, as if successfully casting spells into elixirs was normal for someone like me.
“What does that mean?”
She mentioned that when we walked back from the campsite and I hadn’t stopped wondering what that meant.
“When you’re working with the elixirs, can you feel the energy pouring out of you?
Like a lit fire in your eyes trying to cover the world in embers?
” Again, Ethel wasn’t going to tell me. Only ask what I was already aware of.
Though she was spot on with that description.
It wasn’t a wave, it was fire. A dangerous one.
“My eyes feel heavy over the cauldron, but I just assumed it was from the smoke.”
I recalled the feeling that took over as the elixirs came to fruition. Like a match sparking on a strike pad.
“Amelie, do you know your mother’s maiden name?” Hope danced gracefully through her hazel eyes.
“Morgenstern.”
Ethel’s lips rolled together, her eyes filling tears again.
“Do you have time for a story?”
“Always.” I couldn’t take my gaze off the piercing eyes staring at me from the attic window. Kiaran was standing in the frame like a painting. Without knowing what Ethel was about to tell me, I cleared my mind to keep it between only her and I.
“Long, long ago, a family of Witches was sent to the Forest on orders from their High Priestess. The Morgenstern sisters. Ophelia, Adella, and Evari–with your heart, I know that your lineage starts with Evari.”
Evari .
“Anyway, Ophelia and Adella were hard at work, tainting the minds of those who dwelled in the Forest. It was easy to see that those two were under a delusion of some kind. The things they would spew made no sense. The reaping, the wicked stars, the almighty power of the High Priestess. They were completely mad. Evari, though, knew something was off about the orders the sisters were given. She and I became good friends, she was so incredibly kind. And brave, like you. Nothing was going to stop her from finding out the truth about why they were there.”
That feeling was taking over my eyes, the fire began to roll through the rivers.
“Did she figure it out?” I gritted out through clenched teeth, my head feeling heavy and weightless all at once.
Ethel nodded. “This Forest was their final resting grounds. The Morgensterns were so powerful, their High Priestess wanted it rid from every realm, for good.”
“What happened to Evari?”
Ethel’s pursed her lips, battling with what to tell me. “She’s safe. I cannot tell you more than that.”
My attention was keen on my Dwarven friend. When she looked to me, though, I saw fear. She feared what she saw. Placing her hand over mine, she sent calming thoughts to me. Much like Kiaran does, but different. Like her words were only meant to caress the outer peaks and valleys of my mind.
Breathe.
Don’t let it consume you.
Somewhere inside of me fought to contain the raging fire that was daring to escape. My chest heaved, my breath fanning the flames within. My skin tingled, and the knots in my stomach were twisting together haphazardly.
Ethel gave me an assuring nod. “Amelie, you’re a Morgenstern Witch .”
She proceeded to tell me what it meant, the magic, the golden rivers that streaked my eyes. When she hugged me goodbye, I had a heavy, unsettled heart. Years of rage festering from the marrow of my bones. I wanted revenge.