CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO #2
The sensation only grew stronger when they reached the spring.
If Nyssa closed her eyes, she could see her grandma kneeling down beside the water, her hands cupped as she thanked the spring for its offering.
The urge to follow in her footsteps had Nyssa kneeling at the edge of the small, bubbling pool and staring down into the crystal-clear water below.
The forest floor here was mossy and spongy against Nyssa’s knees, and the leaves on the trees surrounding the circular spring were still lush and green despite the season.
Fireflies danced across its surface, their light reflected in the water like a dozen tiny, golden stars.
‘The earth here is powerful,’ Elowen commented, lowering to her knees beside Nyssa and pressing her palms to the ground. The moss seemed to shimmer at her touch, its hue somehow becoming even brighter as the elf closed her eyes and asked, ‘Do you feel it?’
Nyssa did. Not just in the earth, but in the air. And she knew even before she dipped her hands into the spring that she’d feel it in the water, too.
Her own magic felt different just from being here. More awake. More alive. Nyssa bowed her head towards the spring’s surface, and although she wouldn’t be taking a sample today, she whispered a small thank you to it anyway.
She was just about to pull her hands out of the water when something moved beneath the surface. The faintest ripple, followed by a blur of green, white and grey moving towards the spring’s edge.
The selkie.
Its head emerged a half-second after Nyssa removed her hands, only stopping when the water reached its chin. Green, seaweed-like strands of hair floated around an angular face with skin that shimmered, scale-like, and its wide, pupilless black eyes stared unblinkingly at Nyssa.
‘Hello, kin of Lisabeth.’ Its voice was childlike and somehow held the faintest echo, a slight refraction like the glint of sunlight on a stream. Beside Nyssa, Elowen let out a small, awed breath.
‘Hello, kin of water.’ Nyssa had never met a selkie before, but she knew from her grandmother’s teachings that they were a member of the fae, and that treating them with politeness and respect was of utmost importance.
‘She is no longer with you,’ the selkie said, gaze drifting to a spot just over Nyssa’s shoulder, ‘at least, not in body.’
Nyssa swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat and resisted the urge to look where the selkie was. Even if she did, she’d never see the same thing the creature did. ‘No, she’s not.’
Elowen’s arm pressed against hers in a silent show of support. The selkie tracked the movement, her gaze fixing on the elf. ‘I have sensed your presence in this forest before; you are a child of the natural world, are you not?’
‘I am,’ Elowen answered calmly.
‘And yet you walk a different path than most of your kin. But do not fret: their path is not yours to follow. And yours, kin of Lisabeth, has yet to be decided.’ The selkie’s dark eyes seemed to shimmer. ‘There are trials ahead. Trials that will influence the path you take.’
It felt like there were dozens of ants crawling along Nyssa’s skin. ‘Will we succeed?’
‘The future is … foggy,’ the selkie admitted, a dimple forming between where their eyebrows should have been. ‘But there is a chance, if you trust in those you hold dear. If you trust in yourself. And remember, kin of Lisabeth, what lays beneath the surface may be the solution you seek.’
Nyssa’s brow furrowed as she tried to work out what the selkie meant, and was about to ask the creature for a clearer explanation when her grandmother’s voice floated into her mind. The fae are proud of their wisdom, but they do not take kindly to it being questioned.
Nyssa decided it was best to avoid offending the selkie, so instead she bowed her head graciously. ‘Thank you for your wisdom.’
The selkie blinked, their dark eyes shimmering again. ‘You must go now,’ they said, before disappearing once more beneath the water’s surface.
A panicked shout cut through the air a second later. Nyssa’s heart plummeted as she turned towards the space where Elowen had been kneeling just a few minutes before. A space that was now empty.
Nyssa scrambled to her feet and ran towards the sound, boots slipping in the moss. Every second felt like an eternity. If she was too late—
‘Nyssa, stay back!’
Elowen stood in the centre of the trail they’d taken to the spring, a shield of vines raised before her.
And on the other side of it, their fangs bared, were the largest bear and wolf Nyssa had ever seen.
At least three times the size of their regular counterparts, the fur of each was darker and more mottled, their claws and fangs elongated and slightly curved; there was a wildness to them that Nyssa had never seen in the natural world.
Nyssa instantly recognized them as the animals from Familiars.
It wasn’t just their size; they shared the same too-sharp features the owl had.
The same glistening, yellow eyes. And if Nyssa concentrated hard enough, she could sense the same heavy, oppressive magic that accompanied the strange fog hanging over them like a shroud.
Nyssa didn’t give her growing panic a chance to settle before she began chanting a slightly adapted version of the same spell she’d used to return the owl to the game.
‘I beseech the ancestors to entwine,
And will this magic to—Ah!’
Nyssa fell to her knees as a sharp, stabbing pain pierced through her chest, stealing the breath from her lungs and causing the world around her to blur.
There was a noise in her head, shrill like the warning alarm that went off whenever someone tried to breach her coven’s wards.
But worse than that was the voice slowly rising above it.
A voice that Nyssa never wanted to hear again.
Hello, little witch.
Morven. How?
His laugh, dark and rich, echoed through her head.
It seems you have underestimated me twice now, Hawthorne. I am not as trapped as you believe, and your pathetic plan to ensure I remain in this place for ever is going to fail. No matter what you try, we shall prevail.
We? The thought rose in the back of Nyssa’s mind, cutting through the piercing noise.
Another echoing laugh was Morven’s only response.
Through it, Nyssa could faintly hear Elowen calling her name.
But Morven’s voice, his power, was stronger.
The world was slowly slipping away from her, and Nyssa knew that if she lost consciousness now, with Morven still inside her head, he’d never let her wake again.
And if that happened, Nighthaven wouldn’t stand a chance against him.
Nyssa thought of the town’s beauty the first night she’d returned.
Of how welcoming everyone had been, and of all she was starting to build here.
And just as she felt that the darkness was going to overtake her, Nyssa thought of the first time her grandmother had welcomed her to Nighthaven.
This is my home, and one day, perhaps it can be yours.
It was a memory that Nyssa had forgotten, but now that it had returned, it was as vivid as if her grandmother were right beside her, whispering the words over and over in her ear. This is my home … it can also be yours.
And just as she had done when she’d reached the spring, Nyssa could feel her grandmother’s presence. Could smell the gentle aroma of honeyed apples and the rich, almost bitter bite of her own magic mixing together into a new scent.
The wind around Nyssa began to pick up as she focused all of her energy into that power, willing it to surge towards the space Morven occupied in her head with as much force as possible. There was a moment of blinding light cutting through the dark, of Morven cursing her out, and then – silence.
Nyssa’s eyes blinked open. Elowen stood a few feet away, her hair matted around her now bruised jaw and her eyes wild and desperate as she used her magic to enchant whatever bits of the forest she could to fend off the wolf and bear.
Vines to curl around their large paws. Branches and stones to block the swipe of their claws.
But Elowen was starting to fade, the light of her magic dimming.
A few more attacks, and the elf would be doomed.
No.
Nyssa’s power surged again, and the words of the binding spell tumbled out of her mouth in a voice she barely recognized as her own.
That blinding, white light flashed once more as the creatures shrank back into their figurine forms, and then Elowen was at Nyssa’s side, her hand cupping her cheek as the world finally slipped away.