Chapter 27
Hazel walked through the mist swirling above the ground, Rubin followed carefully in her footsteps. The mist glowed of reddish gray witch trail. Bad magic, dark and ugly. Some little witch had been very, very naughty. Some little witch needed a spanking.
The putrid trail dropped through hedges, ran up bramble covered hills, and did sickening slides down cliffs to the river below. The little witch had been busy but sloppy. Her first mistake was to leave a trail. Her second and last mistake, was to mess with the people Hazel loved.
It wasn’t just a stealth potion. Someone, a traitor in the pack, had helped the stupid cunt spy on her people.
How dare they act so stupidly. This pack, the Blood Moon Pack, was one of the strongest in the Realm of Ashling.
One of the eight divided realms, once united under the long history of the Lycan Kings and Queens.
Hazel’s sisters had been stupid to repress the Lycans for the sins of the few.
The sins of the wolves outnumbered those few Lycans like grains of sand pressed up against a few rocks.
Most of her sister had come to recognize that mistake.
Their recklessness had not only caused the suffering of wolf kind.
So many sisters had been tortured and killed, too.
So much knowledge that had helped the people of all eight realms was now lost.
This little witch had chosen the wrong path.
She didn’t pay heed to their history. Gain for the working of evil was always a two edged sword.
The Moon Goddess never let an opportunity go to waste when a witch needed punishment.
Of all the creatures in the realms, she was the harshest with Hazel’s sisters.
They were too powerful to dabble lightly in the affairs of others.
Only a witch could keep another witch in check.
Jaxom could complain all he wanted about Hazel’s ‘whammies’, as he called them, but he needed the guidance. He was male after all. His heart was pure and his courage was strong. All the Moon Goddess had needed was a push from Hazel for Jaxom to go in the right directions. And, he had.
The realms needed the Lycan Kings and Queen back. This realm, the Realm of Ashling, dreams and visions, was on the edge of collapse. It wasn’t just the bad crops, or the excessive number of rogues. It was the corruption of the magic.
This trail of putrid reddish gray power was proof of that.
While this trail led to one little witch, the bigger trail led to the Dlya Vokodlaka.
The twenty four members now dead save one.
Men and women supposedly for the wolves, hadn’t been for the wolves at all.
They’d been for themselves. That meant subverting the will of the Moon Goddess at every chance they got.
Their work always showed up as blood. They were dead but the Moon Goddess only knew if others would take up their banner.
That trail of blood led straight to the heart of Ashling, the thrown of the Alpha King.
A man dripping in the blood of others, including his own parents.
While his mother was still alive, she was wilting day by day, drained by her son to keep Luna power holding the throne together. The man was horrifying.
The witches knew the truth. They had all felt the magic start to crumble when Alpha King Silas was killed.
A natural death would have kept the magic flowing strong.
Never as strong as when the Lycans ruled.
Those creatures were meant to harness the power and send it gently into the world.
Wolves could only stand in the stream and let the power rush through them.
A tidal wave of destruction was coming. Only the Lycans held the possibility to stop it. It was already cresting.
The partial trail slowly started to merge with another trail of sickly yellow.
Blood and fear. Two witches working under duress.
Guilty, nonetheless. The symbols in the mist started to let Hazel see them.
A warning. A trap was up ahead. Hazel was her families’ protection and she took that very seriously.
Clarity and purpose. The hint was interesting. A knife prick on a fingertip, a drop of blood. Runes rose up, wagging their tongues about a trap.
Magic hated to be abused. Bad magic always rebelled against its master, longing to be cherished and loved. Hazel cried over its pain, weakening the chains holding it to evil acts.
The stupid little witches hadn’t set up alarms. They’d stupidly assumed she wouldn’t find them, but she had. Magic happily ran over her hands like a child safe in its mother’s embrace once again. It tripped over itself in its haste to get her to their abuser’s door.
Hazel sat in the shelter of Rubin’s arms, watching stupid little witches make moronic little plans to stop the Lycans.
He was silent like the breath before dawn.
A solid support she’d never known she needed.
He didn’t stop her, he bolstered her. The security of his presence made hunting enjoyable.
He allowed her to touch the depth of his power to enhance her own.
Giving. She did what she could to return the favor.
Maimed ravens carried messages to distant masters. The ravens were no longer swift but were obedient to their masters. Web's kept them captive. Webs had been spun to watch her family. Ravens struggled to deliver against the maelstrom forming, threatening to kill them all.
Stupid little witches were going to die at sunrise. They were beyond redemption.
Hazel called one of the poor ravens to her. Its chest bled from feathers forcefully plucked out. It shivered in the predawn chill.
“There, there, my new darling. You no longer belong to them.” Hazel carefully untied the message and sent healing magic into the wounded bird. “Now, fly to my house where the rose meets the spire. You’ll be safe there, my little love. Tell the others I’ll be home soon.”
New black feathers were already sprouting on a little chest no long bleeding. The raven dipped off her hand and achieved flight that was much steadier than before.
Hazel unrolled the tiny message. “The doctor is ready to administer the killing dose. We await your permission.”
“A new target,” Rubin said in quiet satisfaction.
Hazel rose and slowly sauntered down the hill, treading through spiderwebs and stomping on rock runes. She could feel the power breaking under her feet. Her quarry could feel their doom, too. Rubin stayed on the mountainside, waiting to see if he was needed. Her wolf was always watching her back.
A bedraggled witch flung the door open and let loose a pathetic bolt in Hazel’s direction. She didn’t even need to duck as it took out an alter behind her.
Hazel raised her right hand and let green light fling the witch out of her house, blowing the door frame off it’s hinges, too. One bad little witch down, one to go.
“Leave here now or I’ll kill you,” a voice screeched from inside the cottage.
“Ah, the putrid yellow witch. How brave, hiding in the broken cottage,” Hazel laughed. She could feel the fear settling in the witch’s bosom. It was delicious. “Come out to me, little witch. You and I, we need to talk.”
“You have no power here!” the woman shrieked.
Hazel twisted her hand and let her fingers fly open. The woman landed hard at Hazel’s feet. Weak and spent from hours twisting magic, she’d gone from beauty to vomit.
“Tell me about our good doctor. Hmm? And go slow, I do love a good story.” Hazel hunkered down as the stupid witch started babbling. Then dawn blushed pink as she finally came to a halt, drained of every last word. Another useless life spilled out before the rise of the sun.
Hazel popped the lock on Alpha Steven’s office door. It was only seven in the morning and the man looked like he hadn’t slept. In fact, the man looked down right pissed. She could work with that.
“Whatcha doing?” Hazel asked Alpha Steve as she plopped down on a chair. Rubin leaned against the door frame. He smiled like everything she did was delightful. She felt the same way about her handsome green haired mate.
“Reading,” Alpha Steven said cryptically. The look he gave her was identical to his son’s. It just tickled Hazel’s heart to have such powerful men so wary of her. The look he threw at the delighted Rubin was pure irritation.
“Whatcha reading?” Hazel asked as he squeezed the arms of his chair.
“Is it important for you to know?”
“Yes.”
“Damnit.”
With a modicum of contained irritation, Alpha Steven handed Hazel five letters, all stacked in order of dates sent. Every letter caused a bigger fit of laughter. Little Kingling Renz was just as stupid as those little witches. He wasn’t long for this world either, not if Hazel had her say.
The papers felt slimy, like her fingertips couldn’t quite touch the pages.
Hazel flashed green power into the papers.
The pages responded with putrid gray runes rising up to talk to her.
They cried out about bad magic. The warning was another stone around Renz neck.
Guilty, guilty, guilty. There was nothing to do now about the bad magic.
The damage was already done and already healing.
She couldn’t stop a quiet chuckle at the stupidity of Renz.
He was careless and leaving clues to hold against him.
“You think this is funny?” Oh, the rage, the indignation was magnificent. And, necessary. Her family depended on this man to keep them safe.
“Renz is stupid. Forewarned is forearmed.”
“I’m aware of that,” Alpha Steven snapped.
“Good. Let Jaxom handle our little kingling. He will do the right thing so don’t give him too hard a time. Anyway, this wasn’t Jaxom’s fault,” she said as she put the papers back on his desk. “You have other business to attend to after you sleep. You look like death warmed over.”
“What do you mean this wasn’t Jaxom’s fault? He should have told me right away.”
“Renz has a stupid little witch working for him. Her time is very, very short. There is a potion on here that shut Jaxom up. Anyone handling these pages needs to wear gloves. Can’t have them continue to influence anyone’s thinking. Now, about the other issue.”
“Hazel, I don’t have time…”
“Yes, you do. Traitors are in our midst.” Hazel waved her hand.
A new stack of papers appeared on his desk.
“Two confessions from two very stupid witches. One was already dead but not so long gone she couldn’t talk.
The other is dead now, too. I thought you might like to take care of the rest of the traitors, starting with our bad little doctor after lunch. ”
“You’re a pain in my ass, Hazel.”
“Yes, well,” she said with an abundance of cheer, “this pain in your ass just saved your ass and the asses of your three sons.”