14. Kiaran #2
I knocked on her door, I left tea outside of it, I asked Fern to put flowers in her room, I even slept on the washroom floor the second night hoping she would need to use it and be forced to share space with me but to avail, four full days had passed.
Tonight, though, I had a plan that I was almost sure would work. I heard her say her goodnights to the frogs and fish and I was strumming my fingers on my thigh while I waited for her to come back inside. The door opened softly and the first thing she was forced to see was me.
“Hi, pretty girl,” I started, she looked deep into my eyes and went to sidestep me. Moving with her, she crashed into my chest.
“Move, Kiaran.” She tried to push my chest but I didn’t budge. Best part of immortality was a mortal’s touch felt like a butterfly’s breath on my skin.
“That voice of yours is so damn sweet. I’ve missed it.” I grabbed her chin and forced her to look at me.
“Move!” Her palms pushed at my chest again, but I was stone. Effortlessly using my strength to not waver from the force in the slightest. I often forgot in Amelie’s presence that I was the powerful one.
“I want to try the veil tonight.” The words felt like poison on my tongue. I didn’t want to do that at all, but I knew the opportunity would entice my girl.
“Is that so?” she said as she popped a hip and crossed her arms.
“Yup. Let’s do it, no time to waste. The guys invited me back the first time, it would be rude to not oblige.”
She arched a brow at me, waiting for me to retreat from the one thing I told her I couldn’t do again.
“Okay. I have one more vial ready from the last batch.” Her tone had less bite and a lot more I-Don’t-Give-A-Fuck-What-You-Do. Didn’t love that but I’d take what I could get for now.
Following behind her as she beelined for the cabinet, I braced myself on the counter, closing her in. She remained unperturbed by the advance and held up a vial over her shoulder. “Take this first.”
“What’s this now?” I was suddenly reluctant to consume anything new from the woman who was irate with me.
“It should retain your magic while you’re out.” She may not have been speaking to me the last few days but she was still trying to perfect the spell. To work on something nice for me. Or maybe she just wanted me out of the house, either way she was thinking of me and I’m taking that as a win.
Tossing back the first vial, I felt nothing. A stark difference to the feeling I was about to have. She turned and held the second vial to my lips.
I stopped her, grabbing her hand. Her gaze flew to the touch. “Wait, go lie down first.” She rolled her eyes but knew I was right. The elixir worked the instant the first drop hits my tongue, and I didn’t need her to be mad for the bruises she’d acquire from a spill on the floor.
She ducked under my arms and went to lay in her respective position on the couch.
I grabbed the quilt, covered her, then knelt down and leaned in close enough to share her air.
Her eyes seemed sad, the rivers of gold were flowing but they weren’t sparkling like they did when she was happy or raging fire when she was mad.
Indifference. A pang shot through my heart.
“Everything okay?”
She studied my features, landing on my lips. They seemed to remind her that she was upset with me for not using them on her, and her eyes were back to fire. Good.
“Everything’s great.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “I hope you find a woman who hasn’t been used up for you there.”
“Amelie, for fuck’s sak-” She shut me up by putting the vial to my mouth and tipping it back.
Before I could reply, the life in her eyes was gone entirely .
If she would’ve woken up that next morning and told me to take her, I would have.
It just didn’t feel fated to write our first kiss in the story of her admitting to her fears of never being wanted by a good man.
I wanted her so badly, every part of her from her crazy hair, barbaric table manners, and conversations with the frogs to her body and soul.
I wanted all of her, but until she told me that, she wasn’t mine to take. Especially knowing now that she’d never had a say in who had her. The teary eyes she gave me when she told me made me want to tie each of those fucking guards up to a post and set them on fire.
I had no plans of actually leaving tonight but now I needed to clear my head. If the first elixir I took worked, I could be back within the hour. Then, after I returned, I’d resume with my original endeavor.
“Fern, I’ll be back in an hour tops.” The candlelight glowed brighter for a moment and then the door creaked opened for me.
As practiced, I tested the door frame before stepping fully onto the porch.
If Amelie met the alchemists at home, they would put her brain in a glass case and study it.
No one had ever perfected this spell as well as she had aside from the High Priestess herself.
Even her books warned heavily against it because of the inconsistency.
Amelie mixed elixirs as if she were making a family recipe for cake.
The next test was my magic. I decided to skip the wolves, it wasn’t a sure thing that they would honor me with a ride as they did Amelie.
So I focused on my intended destination, remembered the sound of crackling fire, laughter rumbling and the smell of ash in the air.
The voices of many men filled my ears before I opened my eyes.
Damn, she was good . I was sure the first elixir was filled with poison, but alas, my magic was intact beneath her veil.
Scanning for the group I’d met last time, my eyes caught on the hue of the flames bouncing off a bald head. Hearing the crunching under my boots on my approach, Al turned to meet me.
“You came back,” he said in a flat, unaffected tone.
“You said it was my turn to tell my story.”
Al almost smiled, I swore it. But he schooled his features quickly. He waved over Niklaus, Friedrich, and Josef. Josef grabbed a second large mug before joining us.
We circled around the fire, sitting on the hand crafted benches made from logs. Josef handed me the spare mug of ale, and I chugged every last drop as we reacquainted.
“Do you want to start with why you’ve only just started visiting us, or do you want to tell us about the girl?”
I brought the mug down from my lips slowly, feeling unmasked at the read from Al.
“You pick, I’m an open book right now.”
“Let’s hear about the girl,” Niklaus affirmed, his brown eyes glowing against the crackling fire.
“Well, there’s not much to say. That’s my fault, I suppose.
I’ve been alone in that cottage for two centuries.
She showed up about two months ago, and she’s been driving me crazy since.
” I took a deep breath and looked at Al.
He was really smiling now. It was horrifying.
Even when telling a story that had his comrades in shambles of laughter, he’d barely cracked a smile.
“My friend lived in that cottage for a long time, about as long as you, my boy. Her name was Orla.” Al leaned forward, like I was supposed to know something about said Orla.
Orla… Orla. Why was that familiar? I couldn’t place it.
“Is she here?” Assuming that all Lost Souls gathered here every night.
Al and Niklaus shared a sad, but fond look. “No, we haven’t seen her since about the time you showed up. We assumed you drove her away, but that’s obviously not the case.”
Confused, I tried to remember those first days in the cottage. It looked lived in. But I just assumed that was Fern’s decorating.
“Hope she left you some food when you got here. She was a phenomenal cook. She’d feed everyone, all the souls that found her home. Didn’t matter who or what ya’ were, everyone was welcome in her house. Just don’t piss her off, her bad side was a bad side.”
The men shared a nostalgic laugh, remembering their friend for a moment. I thought of Fern, how her spirit definitely gave homage to the previous occupant.
“It’s a lovely home, I haven’t been very appreciative of it since I’ve been here but Amelie’s changed that. The house is full of life again.”
Al and Friedrich were both looking at me like I’d grown a second head. I was halfway through the second mug and wondered if the enchanted ale had a side effect I didn’t know about.
“What?”
“What do you mean the house is full of life again?” Friedrich asked, Al leaned his elbows on his knees, anxiously awaiting my answer.
“The home is sentient, I call her Fern. You ask for anything and she’ll deliver. She cleans, decorates, cooks. You name it, Fern does it,” I told them matter-of-factly. We all lived in an enchanted Forest, so their confusion bled onto me.
“Houses can’t have magic, boy. People have magic.”
“Yeah, I’m a Witch. I know that.”
“And where you’re from, do a lot of houses cook and clean for you?”
I took a moment to search my brain, but they were right. Fern was the only house I’d ever known to be sentient. Not sure why it took me two hundred years to realize that, I always just assumed the cottage drew from my magic.
All four men were looking at one another, having a silent conversation that I wasn’t privy to. Niklaus’ eyes were twinkling under the moonlight. I couldn’t tell if the unshed tears that had formed were of sadness or hope. Friedrich was resting a firm hand on his shoulder.
“Could you bring something back to your cottage for us Kiaran?” Niklaus asked.
“Uh… sure?” Niklaus dug in his pocket and pulled out a gold necklace. He held it out for me as I finished the second mug of ale. Magically, it was refilled and I went back in for the rest. I had the spinning feeling beginning to twist in the center of my head, but I wasn’t drunk yet.
Al was watching me with mountains of curiosity in his eyes. Even though I wasn’t making direct eye contact with him, I felt the weight of his gaze all the same. I polished off the third mug and set it down next to me, then held out my hand to let Niklaus drop the necklace in my palm.
Zaps of energy pricked my skin, competing with the static of the veil. I quickly tucked it into my pocket. “Who’s necklace is this?” Feeling a little unnerved by the tension that had bubbled in our circle.
“It was my wife’s. She gave it to our daughter before she disappeared.”
I knew I wasn’t the best at being social, but these guys were all a little off. I liked that about them, so I didn’t really care why the necklace couldn’t stay with Niklaus. “Yeah, I’ll return it. No problem.” I got to my feet and started for the treeline, feeling more wobbly than I thought I’d be.
Al accompanied me in silence until we reached the trees. Then he turned to me, mulling over the right words to leave me with and making it really awkward. I probably looked like I was waiting for him to give me a goodnight kiss as I bobbed on my feet.
“What’s the girl’s name?” he asked carefully.
“Amelie.” My heart skipped a beat at the taste of her name on my tongue. I couldn’t wait to get back to her. Hopefully, she would forgive me when she saw what I had planned .
“I thought so.”
“What do you mean?” The territorial side of me was trying to push to the forefront.
“Would it be okay if we stopped by tomorrow night?” The dominant tone he normally took was gone with the November breeze. His question was sincere.
“Can you do that?”
“We can wander anywhere. We’re lost. We just choose to call here our home.” He motioned to the campsite. “Feels a little less tragic that way.” His eyes were soft, a longing that ran deep in the veins of all the souls here, clear as day now.
“Sure, Al. That sounds nice.”
The side of his mouth curved up into a half smile.
“We’d really like that.”