Page 45 of The Bones of the Cursed

I shrug, remembering the words that mean school kids threw at me every day. “They always made fun of me for not knowing my real mother. Said that if she didn’t want me, no one would. They started rumors that I was a Witch, which in the Caselian Realm is illegal. I was just the freak who liked to draw and be alone. The rumors were harmless at first, but then unexplained things happened and they became more real, which put everyone in danger. It’s funny thinking of it now, at least. They always used to say I had the mark of evil, and I tried to ignore it, but maybe they were right.”

Malakai’s fists are clenched so tightly—his whole body is, really. I’m scared he’s going to burst a blood vessel from the tension radiating through him.

“What mark?”

I suddenly feel self-conscious, but I slowly move my hair offmy neck to show him the mark just behind my left ear, talking the whole time to cover my nerves. “My family always said it looked like the moon covered by shadow, but the kids just saw an ugly dark spot and said I was cursed.”

I hear him suck in a breath as he runs his fingers over the mark. His touch is feather-light, causing tingles to shoot through my body. “Shadow Vale,” he whispers so quietly I almost miss it.

“What?”

He ignores my question. “What did you draw?”

The question catches me off guard, so I answer without second guessing or having anxiety that he too will think I’m weird. “A lot of stuff, really. Mostly symbols I just made up. They never meant anything that I know of…” I trail off. “They would just come to my brain and I felt like I had to get them down on paper or else I would lose my mind. Almost like the pull I had to this realm; both were overwhelming sensations that I couldn’t ignore.”

His hand drops from my neck, leaving me feeling cold. “Alanis…”

My heart lurches. He’s going to leave now, too. I showed him all my brokenness and crazy. What did I expect? Stupid, stupid, stupid. I mentally slap myself.

He gets up and I drop my chin to my chest. I should be used to this by now. I was reminded they always leave just days ago, and here I am picking the scab off my past.

But he takes me by surprise when he kneels in front of me, pinching my chin between his fingers, forcing my eyes up to meet his.

“I am not leaving. I don’t think you are weird. And you are definitely not stupid.”

My eyes grow wide. How the hell did he know what I was thinking? Kailu controlled water, can he read minds?

He gives me a small smile. “I can read your emotions like anopen book.”

My brow furrows.

“Alanis, I think I might know why you never found your mother.”

My eyes snap to his. “What do you mean?”

His eyes flick to my left ear, just for a moment. “That’s no ordinary birthmark. It’s the symbol for the Shadow Vale Witches. Each Witch is born with that mark.”

My mouth drops open without my consent. “What are you saying?”

Sharp silver eyes stare at me intently, as if trying to see into my soul. “What I’m saying, Alanis, is that I think there is a strong possibility that they were right. Not that you’re a freak, or that you’re evil, but that you might be a Witch.”

My laughter surprises even me, loud and abrasive and hard enough to hurt. I laugh so hard I can feel the tears leaking down my face. I can’t even remember the last time I laughed this hard. It’s only when Malakai doesn’t join in that I wipe the tears from my face and look towards him, shocked that someone so serious could crack a joke like that. And yet his face shows no signs of amusement.

“Wait, you’re serious?”

Nodding, he starts back towards camp. I follow after him like a lost puppy, wondering if he’s going to explain further.

“The Shadow Vale Coven resides in the Onyx Territory in the Rorane Mountains,” he begins when I’ve caught up. “There are multiple covens all over the realm, but they are the most well-known and powerful. Their matriarch has strong fire-wielding powers. The entire coven has powers that are strong, but if united together they could be unstoppable. One of their most famous Witches was Odessa Grim, as she was one of the only Witches in their history to master multiple elemental powers.”

He pauses, as if aware the words need a moment to sink in asmy brain flits back to the ice that formed that fateful day in the medical tent.

“Odessa left the coven when she fell in love with a Fae soldier,” he continues. “That has to be about a hundred years ago by now. No one knows where they went, but eventually they left the realm. As you can imagine, this infuriated the coven, especially the matriarch. They haven’t worked as a united team since. One could speculate that Odessa might have had a baby at some point, may have even ended up in the Caselian Realm.”

My breaths grow shallow. We stop walking, but I can see the tents in the darkness.

At last, I manage to ask, “You’re saying you think my mother is a Witch and my father is Fae?”

He looks into my eyes with such intensity that my cheeks heat. “The matriarch of the coven would know,”

---