CHAPTER ELEVEN #2
Their limbs extended before my eyes, creaking like branches pulled by the wind.
Once teeny, tiny things now towered over us.
Their hair trailed behind them as they stepped towards us with knobby, skeleton-thin legs wrapped in birch bark.
Their delicate clothing made of roots fell off them in tatters.
Their skin glowed even brighter now that it was hard to even look at them directly.
I cringed at their red-smeared mouths curling up into a smile, revealing rows of jagged teeth.
Sebastian let out a long sigh that seemed a bit incongruous with the current situation. I risked taking my eyes off the formidable creatures to glance back at him. He met my eyes with a look of annoyance, not a hint of fear shown on his clearly vexed features.
I jerked my head back to them as an uproar of snarls lurched suddenly close, only for them to freeze. In a flash of light they were back to their tiny forms, suspended in the air. Their giant eyes even wider as they were fully entranced, looking off at nothing, their little mouths hanging open.
We trotted past them as they remained bewitched by an invisible scene.
“What did you show them?” I asked quietly.
“A light show.”
I snickered. “Really?”
“Lucky guess.”
Just as we managed to lose the faeries, a slight tremble rolled beneath the ground like a wave seeking the shore.
Nyx grumbled discontentedly, shaking her head from side-to-side.
Sebastian managed to calm her until another tremble shook the earth.
We paused, combing the still breadth of fallen leaves and broken branches.
A pressure built up within my chest as I waited for some unknown horror to burst through the soil.
In the hollow silence of the woods, the rustling of decaying leaves was deafening as something slithered beneath them. My lungs halted, not daring to expand, to take in the air that housed what dug itself out of the ground. And that was exactly what happened.
A vast system of roots from hundreds of trees disentangled and broke free.
Nyx reared back from the disturbance that quaked below.
Sebastian wrapped his arm around me in a nearly bruising grip as he held on to her mane, keeping us from falling off.
Larger roots unwound themselves from the intricate webbing, lashing out with quick blows that narrowly missed us.
The air cracked as they whipped through the air.
Once Sebastian eased Nyx back down on all fours, he urged her into a gallop, and we took off. “We may just have to outrun this one,” he grunted.
I peeked around him, my eyes widening at the sight of unraveling destruction. The entire ground was upturned behind us, as if the woods itself clamored to swallow us up. I turned back around, leaning forward with him, clutching the horn as my life literally depended on it.
I shrieked as a root attempted to wrap itself around my ankle, not able to take purchase as we dashed away too fast. With an ease I could only hope to master, Sebastian wrapped his ankles around mine, scooting them up closer to Nyx’s side before securing his boots back in the stirrups, trapping my calves beneath his.
“We’re almost there, Nyx. You got this, just a little further,” he murmured, urging her on.
I could almost make out a clearing ahead as I winced at all the low-lying branches that we sped past. I didn’t know how Nyx was managing to find stable ground from all that crumbled apart around us.
As flailing roots continued to grasp for us, we broke through the clearing.
Nyx reared back again as Sebastian stopped her abruptly.
All at once, the roots fell back to the earth behind us, slithering back into their rightful place beneath the soil, spitting up leaves as if the ground had never been disturbed. The haunting silence returned once more.
We turned back to the clearing, a tranquil reprieve from what lurked behind us. I only hoped it wasn’t an illusion.
I didn’t quite know what I expected of the witch’s residence, but it was not a quaint, little cottage with trailing ivy along the walls and candles that glowed invitingly in the windows.
Her home was situated within the center of the clearing, the tree line surrounding it a near-perfect circle.
Untamed wild grass filled the open space, peppered with orange and yellow flowers.
Golden leaves coated the roof like a gilded blanket.
We paused several yards from her home, waiting for something else to materialize.
Sebastian dismounted, gesturing for me to do the same.
I hesitated a moment before I slid off rather ungracefully.
As he stood beside me, I eyed his waistcoat again.
He wore another black suit comprised of fitted black trousers, a black tailcoat, and this time his waistcoat beneath was also black, which matched my black gown and cloak.
I rolled my eyes slightly. He had dressed after I had.
He was about to say something when the door to the cottage flew open. We both stiffened as we waited for what would come through the shadowed doorway.
She stepped into the light. She wore a flowing, white gown with several golden necklaces and bracelets that matched her golden hair, a wild entanglement of tight curls.
She was the embodiment of the sun itself.
And she was breathtakingly beautiful. Her deep bronzed skin radiated an ethereal glow, and her face was so .
.. kind. I expected bunnies to bound out from the cottage after her and her path to be paved in glittering sunshine.
“Persistent things, you are.” Her voice rang of an angelic trill with a slight sharpness to it.
She raised a perfect brow as she frowned at me. “You’re human,” she said with an edge of disappointment. “Humans shouldn’t be allowed through the ward. I suppose I am intrigued now. What have you come for?”
“Seraphine, I apologize for coming unannounced. We have come to seek your assistance in closing the portal,” Sebastian answered.
“And because you all believed we opened it, you think we can close it too?” Now her tone harbored a bitter edge.
“I know who opened it, and it was not you or any witch. But I don’t know how to close it.
And my knowledge on portals is limited. We don’t know much about it in Svealin.
” She didn’t seem surprised or bothered that he was a vampire.
I supposed she already knew given she could somehow tell he was not human.
“Very well. You may enter.” She disappeared through the door.
I hesitated to oblige, fearing another trap waiting to strike behind her door. Though I could hardly blame her for protecting herself and her home. Witches may have had bad reputations where I was from, but there were two sides to every story as I was quickly learning.
I trailed after Sebastian, hiding within his shadow.
As we entered her cottage, I breathed in a delightful scent.
It was sweet, smoky, and woody. Bundles of dried herbs and flowers hung from the ceiling.
Tattered, colorful rugs littered the floor.
And a giant, wooden table sat at the center of the room before a crackling hearth.
It seemed she was in the middle of something as opened jars surrounded a cast iron bowl, along with books strewn about, some opened, some upturned.
Candles burned between it all, wax dripping over and melding to the wood.
She brought us over to a sitting room off to the side before a large window.
Leaves drifted down from trees in the distance like falling embers, and the wildflowers stirred every now and then.
Apart from the heavy silence, it was quite peaceful here, and her home wrapped me up in warmth.
I nearly forgot the tales of witches that prodded themselves back into my head.
And she compelled the man to burn his village to the ground.
They followed the rotted roots back to the witch’s home, where the plague reached out.
Winged beasts fell from purple skies, attacking all but her.
I gasped as her touch pulled me from my muddled thoughts. She only touched me for a mere second, but I snatched my hand away, cradling it up to my chest.
“You have been touched by silver.” She eyed me curiously.
I frowned at her for a moment, until I realized. “The exorcisms?”
“They cannot remove what is a part of you.”
“What do you mean?”
She continued on as if I had said nothing. “That must be why the ward could not detect you. And something else, something roams within your blood.”
I glanced over to Sebastian. “Alaric’s blood?”
“Yes, though not exactly,” she answered as if she already knew what I was talking about.
Sebastian eyed me suspiciously. His face remained placid and blank as ever, though the slightest crinkle furrowed his brow.
“A drop of your blood and I can see what the silver tries to take.”
I leaned back in my chair physically repulsed by the idea. I specifically did not want any blood to leave my body. We didn’t even come for this. We came for information on the portal. Though a part of me wondered, and she caught it just as it fled across my face.
“Just a single drop,” she pressed.
I looked over to Sebastian. He was a vampire.
She was a witch. I was in the Hushed Woods, what I once believed only existed in folklore, along with everything else I had seen today.
I was not well-versed in any of this. Was it wise to give a witch my blood?
I looked to him for approval. He nodded once.
“Okay.”