Chapter 8 #3
I was so proud of myself that I didn’t roll my eyes, didn’t groan, kept my feelings about “dark arts” to myself, because, as a witch, you either did the best for others and yourself with your magic or you did not.
Hard to romanticize causing pain with your power.
“I can feel magic in others. It’s one of the blessings I received from my lord Arawn. ”
She scoffed. “You would have done better to belong to a god like Agrona, who is fearsome in battle and drinks the blood of her enemies.”
“Are you pledged to this goddess?”
“I am her disciple.”
“And have you spoken to your lady?”
She laughed. “You pledge yourself and your practice, Xander, and receive blessings, but you don’t speak to whom you worship.”
I didn’t say a word.
“Giles says Arawn rides over Corvus, but I know he means that the land is sacred to him. We do not see gods or goddesses.”
“And in the realm you came from, you didn’t see them there either?”
“My realm is older, wilder, and where all manner of monsters roam.”
The way she said it, I could hear the wistfulness. “Why do you want to be a hedge-rider?”
“To learn all the secrets of the universe.”
I squinted at her. “Try again.”
She stared at me.
“Why not say? You can’t honestly think I’ll live much longer.”
“That is true.”
“What’s the harm, then?”
Long exhale, and I knew she’d been holding the truth in for some time. “I want to be a hedge-rider, the kind Giles is, so that I may return to my realm and take back what was stolen from me.”
“Who stole it?”
“My mother died, you see, and my father married a cunning woman who had a son.”
“Did she kill your father?”
The pain in her eyes was fleeting, but it was there. “She killed a great man and then put her son on the throne.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Giles saved me from death, and I am thankful, but I must return and put things right.”
“Have you considered that time moves differently in every realm? Those you seek revenge on may be dust by now.”
“I could still regain my place.”
“But you have to think, if it’s been ages, then you’re waging war on people who never did you any harm.”
She scoffed. “You think like someone who craves peace, and I was raised that only blood solves disputes.”
“You would end up slaughtering innocent people.”
“How could they be innocent if they are from the line of a son who usurped me?”
I could tell from the set of her jaw, her flat gaze, and the chill in her voice that her course had been set ages ago.
I was wasting my breath. And yes, what happened to her parents was terrible, but she needed to forge a new path.
They wouldn’t have wanted her dead, or to cause death to undeserving souls.
Or I was wrong. She had been raised to believe in violence rather than peace after all.
The silence dragged on, but I was always good with being quiet.
“Speak,” she ordered.
“What if Giles can’t make you into a hedge-rider like him, but into a skilled master who could move from realm to realm, astrally, and all the while learning?”
“Then he lied to me, and he will die.”
“If you just want to go back to your realm, have him return you there.”
“I need to be stronger than I am now, Xander, to retake what was lost.”
“I see. How do you plan to kill him? He’s very powerful.”
“If he lied, I will find a way.”
“Did you put a spell on the mirrors so he couldn’t see he was aging?”
Quick nod.
“Because if he’s weaker, and you find out he lied, you can kill him.”
“You’re far smarter than Giles gave you credit for.”
“Story of my life. I get underestimated all the time.”
I got a smile from her then and realized she really was stunning. “I didn’t want MacBain for anything but a soldier,” she told me. “I wanted him under my influence so if I needed to kill Giles, he could help me.”
“How would you influence him?”
“Now suddenly I think I gave you that compliment too soon,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “I tried to bespell him, and next I would have seduced him to bind him to me.”
“And you believe you could do this?”
She scoffed again. “My conquests are legend, Xander Corey.”
Of course they were.
“You don’t believe I could take him from you? A man is an easy thing to take and have. They are as changeable as the wind, and only very few are loyal and good.”
“Like your father.”
“Yes.”
“Which is why he needs to be avenged.”
“You sound like you understand.”
“Okay, then, let me keep MacBain and I will be your ally.”
“Oh?”
“If Giles has lied to you, I will help you dispatch him.”
“Why?”
“He’s done great damage to me and to Corvus. I want my own revenge.”
“And yet, he’s a member of your family.”
“You of all people understand there are greater concerns.”
“I do.”
“And really, I would make a better soldier than MacBain. I’m a witch, after all.”
“I don’t know that I can trust you, Xander Corey.”
“Trust that I don’t want you to take Lorne from me.”
She nodded, because that she understood. “Take me to the graveyard of your ancestors, as that is where Giles will go.”
“Certainly.”
Moments later, we left the path we’d been on, and I forged ahead, taking us in the most roundabout way possible back to where we’d started.
If everything had righted itself, then the cottage should be where the mansion was, just a bit back from the road.
But because the road had been altered as well, I wanted to give everything time to reform before I showed up.
Most of all, I was hoping that everything would be as it had always been when we arrived, and that Lorne would see me coming up the path and would rush out the front door and onto the porch. I wanted that desperately.
I crossed my fingers inside my mittens.