A Visit from an Old Friend #2
Violet opened her eyes, looking around at the space she’d so lovingly crafted.
Her gardens at Shadowfade Castle had always felt like her safe place, a respite from the chaos and the constant infighting among Shadowfade’s other minions.
But at the end of the day, they’d always belonged to him.
She’d only been able to grow them on his good graces, and more than once he’d burned her hard work to the ground in retaliation for a job that hadn’t gone as expected or, in the end, for saying no to a job in the first place.
Guy’s love, when betrayed, soured quickly, but still, he’d allowed her to grow, to flourish, to build as she pleased in those gardens, and it was more than she’d ever had before.
Until now.
She’d crafted this shop not just of magic but of hard work. She’d sought out the space, planned the layout, strategized her business plan, given it a name, grown to know and appreciate her customers…
Rough Around the Hedges was a love letter to the person Violet was trying to become, one who’d left the Thornwitch behind and grown into something new.
Change, she was beginning to discover, grew like a seed.
Its roots began to sprout beneath the surface long before the leaves burst through the soil.
But how would she ever blossom if she had to continually uproot herself?
As she left her spot by the door, Violet knew she would be unable to try this again.
Wherever she ended up next, she’d lie low, find some other way to make a living.
Flowers were too close to the Thornwitch’s magic, and she couldn’t risk someone from her past finding her again.
Wherever she went next, she’d…cut her hair or pay an alchemist to change her eye color perhaps.
Maybe she’d give up magic altogether, as much as the thought felt like plucking out a vital organ.
But it had been too close a call with Sedgwick.
She couldn’t possibly start over while her past kept looking her in the face.
Still, her heart tore at the seams as she remembered Nathaniel’s words in the street. Stay here with me, he’d said as she cried nonsense into his shirt.
How she wished she could.
It was with this thought that Violet registered the knock on her door. Who else could it be but Nathaniel, probably here to berate her and maybe—hopefully?—kiss her again? She was surprised at the jolt in her pulse, the sudden drumming in her heart that begged her, please, just once more.
“Perhaps I owe him another truth before I leave,” she whispered to Peri, but the rock goblin had already scampered upstairs to bed.
She swept to the front of the shop and opened the door, only to find Tristan Sedgwick leaning against the jamb.
“Hello, Thornwitch,” he said, smirking at her. “I thought that might have been you.”
So. She’d been recognized after all.
“Sedgwick,” she replied, schooling her face into an expression she hadn’t worn since she’d left Shadowfade Castle. “I was hoping I’d been mistaken.”
He laughed, low and unpleasant. “Thought I’d check in, make sure our plans don’t interfere with each other.”
“My plan is for you to leave,” said Violet darkly.
He perused her wares, flicking a potted springleaf and watching it twist into a tightly bunched coil as a response. Violet felt the same, a tensely wound spring that could release its unpredictable force at any moment. She breathed through her fear, keeping her magic at bay, but just barely.
Deep breaths, Violet, she thought in a voice that sounded curiously like Nathaniel’s from earlier.
“Leave?” He tutted. “Not likely. This town is ripe with fear, just waiting for someone to pluck it from the vine. Better you or me than, say, Cannibal Craig or the Bone Hag.” She repressed a shudder at the mention of two of Guy’s nastiest associates, though her heart sank at the implication.
Dragon’s Rest was unprotected, and once she left…
“But they’re not here,” she said firmly, feigning more confidence than she felt. “I am. Now get out, Sedgwick. Find somewhere else to terrorize.”
“We could work together, Thornwitch. As partners.”
Her skin prickled at the name.
“Absolutely not,” she hissed, and was surprised to see a flash of real emotion in his expression.
Was he disappointed? Could it be he truly wanted to work with her?
She wouldn’t believe it of him. For the first time in weeks, Violet allowed dark magic to flood her body, her eyes burning with sinister light as she glared at him. “This place is mine.”
She hoped the display was enough to make him think she was still the Thornwitch, that she was working on something big and dangerous here.
But Sedgwick only smirked. “For now.”
Her voice dropped to a growl. “What?”
“Oh, don’t play dumb.” Sedgwick narrowed his eyes. “I know you’re looking for it too. Why else would you settle yourself here, in this miserable shit stain of a town? Why else would you ingratiate yourself with these peasants if not to find it?”
Find what?
Violet hid her surprise beneath her meanest mask of disdain and clutched the disguise of the Thornwitch around her like a cloak against the hard wind of winter.
“Don’t deign to pretend you understand my plans,” she said haughtily.
“Unless you have information you’d like to share.
You’ve always bragged about your connections, haven’t you, Tristan? ”
“Remind me,” he said slyly, studying her. “How did those connections pan out last time? I’ve only ever told you the truth and you know it.”
Violet clenched her fists and tried to appear unaffected. Don’t think about Silbourne. Don’t think about Silbourne. She scoffed to rid herself of the knot in her throat. “Of course. You’re incredibly trustworthy.” Her words dripped with sarcasm.
Guy’s voice came back to her in a rush. Wield your cunning not as you would a sword, petal, but like coin. Watch them slip it into their purse for an even trade—and be gone from their sight before they realize it is counterfeit.
Right. She needed to be smart about this.
Sedgwick had always been a talker. She could use that now, so long as he believed she was still the monster he thought her to be.
“Tell me what you know and you’ll be rewarded,” she said, her magic crackling and echoing through her voice with the ill intent it was made for.
But someone had apparently taught Sedgwick some sense since she’d last seen him because he shook his head with a teasing smile.
“Ah-ah, nice try, Thornwitch. What could you have to offer me without Shadowfade standing behind you?” His words were too close to the fears that endlessly circled her mind in Guy’s voice.
Sedgwick continued. “If you want information, find it yourself. And once I’ve found it and you’re the one working for me, you’ll wish you’d taken my offer.
You might have been Shadowfade’s favorite pet, but you’re nothing alone. ”
Thorns bristled inside Violet’s skin, and for once she didn’t stop them, letting him see the way her natural defenses itched to remove him as her problem, reminding him who held the real power here.
She felt her body change, twisted thorns bursting from her temples like horns, vines creeping from her back, itching to bind, to strangle.
Even if she knew he was toying with her, being the Thornwitch again was seductive.
Breaking the dam of her dark magic and letting it flow slaked a wicked thirst she hadn’t realized had grown so severe.
Her body soaked it up like rain in the desert, her limbs crackling with power that pushed for release.
There was no sting, no ache, only the dazzling current of magic.
Oh, but she’d forgotten how wonderful this felt.
Sedgwick knew who she was, what she’d done, what she was capable of, and for the first time in weeks, Violet allowed herself to be that monster.
“You have no idea what I am,” she warned.
Her voice, her stance, the soft threats and veiled displays of her power—it was as comfortable as slipping on a broken-in pair of shoes, perfectly molded to her feet and well suited to planting a kick between his sorry legs. “You have no idea what I could be.”
He cowered for only a moment, his surprise quickly tempered by arrogance.
“I think you’re a sad, scared little girl who has lazed so long on the arm of Shadowfade’s throne that she doesn’t know what happens now that he’s gone,” he taunted.
“But let me tell you something, Thornwitch—you will find out. And I’ll be glad to teach you the lesson. ”
She whipped out a hand to grab his arm, and he yelped when she let her thorns pierce his skin.
“Try it, you pitiful excuse for a man,” she hissed. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
He jerked his hand back, cradling his bloody wrist against his chest. “And neither do you,” he spat, but backed toward the door, his narrowed eyes glued to her like she might pounce at any moment.
She wasn’t positive that she wouldn’t, if she was being honest with herself.
“I’ll get to the bottom of the legend before you do, Thornwitch. Your magic won’t help you.”
She gathered her bravado and shot him a haughty look. “We’ll see.”
It was only once he was gone and the door locked behind him that Violet allowed herself to sink to the ground.
Unbidden, the floor became cushioned with soft petals as she shed her Thornwitch guise, letting her unused power dissipate around the shop as it pleased.
The lilies on the shelf behind her burst into bloom, and a potted ivy grew about three feet to weave through her hair and wrap comfortingly around her shoulders like a shawl.
She felt nauseous as she came back to herself, banishing the Thornwitch to the farthest reaches of her consciousness.
You’re nothing alone, Sedgwick had said, and Violet feared he was right. Without Shadowfade to tell her who to be, she was flailing. Karina the Tempest had misplaced her faith; Violet wasn’t good, she was a bloody coward.
She could still leave; she should still leave. Start a new life far from Dragon’s Rest where Sedgwick could never find her.
But it didn’t seem like the smart option it had been earlier that night, when Sedgwick recognizing her had felt like the worst thing that could happen. It had happened, and she’d held her own, and now she knew he was looking for something.
Something he could only find in Dragon’s Rest.
Violet knew it must be something that would give him power—Sedgwick was a deviously talented alchemist, yes, but he would never dare to try to stake a claim over Shadowfade’s former territory unless he knew he could maintain it.
Whatever he was looking for, he thought it would allow him to hold his own against the Thornwitch and probably much more.
And he’d mentioned a legend.
Violet could find it first. When she thought about Nathaniel and Pru and Quinn and (Good) Guy and all her new friends and neighbors living under the rule of someone like Sedgwick, she knew she couldn’t leave this place unprotected.
Running away was out of the question now.
She had no choice. Violet had to stop him.