Page 39 of Malcolm

Robert nodded and placed a light hand on his shoulder. “Just a year, just enough for me to be able to breathe.”

“Fine, but only until we get this settled.” Pulling away, Malcolm went to leave, only to stop at the door. “I’ll meet with the elders later today.”

“Aye, I will let them know,” Robert agreed.

With that, Malcolm left the study and made his way towards the exit. His heart is heavy with his choice of action; he’d spent so many years swinging between hate and shame. He would do this one thing for his uncle, and then he’d leave and figure out how to build a life with Eliza.

A Witch's Past

Eliza

She should never have told Morgan she wanted to stay busy. The woman had told anyone and everyone that she was looking to be kept busy, so she was watching the ladies laugh as they pulled clean sheets from the creak. The water was clearer than anything she’d ever seen.

She hefted the heavy basket she held, filled with freshly cleaned pillowcases, up the slight slope to the three clothing hanging bars. Apparently, even with modern humanconveniences, many of the older women still enjoyed washing their sheets in the creak and hanging them under the sun to dry.

She sighed heavily, and it was abundantly clear that she was weaker than the woman around her. If it wasn’t for the lightning spell she’d whispered, she’d already have tapped out, but the manual labor actually helped her think.

She wiped the sweat from her brow, looking down to where a few kids were playing in the water. They were dressed this time, which she was grateful for. The whole scene reminded her of a fairy tale novel.

The air was almost too sweat; she’d gotten accustomed to the air filled with the city's smog and smoke.

The continuous sound of early morning traffic that she used to wake up to wasn’t anywhere to be found. She’d spent so much of her life among a crowd of people who didn’t even know her name. Now men, who looked to be headed to do some building, with shovels and long pieces of wood, waved out to her with a hello.

Lowering her hand, she got to work grabbing one of the pillowcases. She held it out in front of her and gave it two hard shakes before she hung it on the bar above. She continued this till the entire basket was empty. She’d hoped to sneak away at some point, but she’d gotten too caught up with the camaraderie of the others.

Their joking and playful teasing of each other reminded her so much of the Shade that she felt her heart squeeze. She missed her friends and the people who’d changed her life in so many ways. She hugged herself; she wanted to be in her home and in her own bed.

“The books are gone.”

She turned her back to the women below,“Yes, what do we do now? Was it the only way to reverse the bonding spell?”

“There are other ways, but the host is likely to suffer more for it.”

She bit her lip, “Then can the caster be found? They never used—” She swallowed, as memories of being tied down to an iron table and having a small sheet of paper placed on her bellow and the sensation of black, red liquid being poured on her body. “The casting rings were always pre-written before they cast their spell.”

“We must go back once more and look; I was upset and did not explore the library fully. There are some books who would hide in the presence of those who are not their kind.”

She muttered, “Find, let’s do that.”

She glanced over her shoulder, and seeing that Morgan was busy, she quickly made her way to the forest edge. She had just reached it when Malcolm spotted her. Her long brown braid swung as she entered the forest once more.Confused, he quickly ran down, eager to catch up with her.

The wind was cool as it brushed her arms, and the crunch of leaves under her feet were a few of the sounds that followed her as she walked deeper into the woods. Her ears open for the sound of someone following her. Eliza hadn’t expected the woods to be so quiet.

The sound of the women’s laughter had faded away, and the dark wood was dense. The tree trunks were thicker than she’d ever seen them. As she walked along, she kept an eye out for any raised roots to avoid falling.

Hearing something like a branch crack, she whipped around. She rolled her wrist, a fiery ball of pure energy crackling in her hand. She narrowed her eyes, turning fully, she waited to see if anything moved, but nothing, not even the branches of the scattered bushes. After a beat of silence, she evaporated the ball and began her search once more.

Eventually she arrived at the edge of an empty clearing. “You said that the entrance was too far. Where is it, then?”

Her skin pebbled as a clear smoke escaped her body, twisting and forming into a female shape.“It’s here; the Anti-Barrier has a hole in it,”the figure said, lifting its hand. Light poured from it, slamming into the ground. As it spilled forth, it covered the ground around and beneath Eliza’s feet. Runic letters began to light up, with the magical circle slowly beginning to glow.

Watching the letters peel from the forest floor and fill the air. Eliza couldn’t help the fascination that took over her expression. She’d spent so much of her days pretending not to care that she didn’t have strong magic. It was at these moments, she wished she did.

When she felt its power and watched how it warped and changed the world so easily, the world wavered before her, as the light continued to brighten until suddenly, the entire place encompassed by the magic circle was plunged into darkness.

Her breath caught as the sun became the moon, and the wind became warm.

The figure, made of smoke, stood before her flesh in a red gown. Her pale skin was nearly luminous, and her black hair spilled around her shoulder like midnight liquid. Her red lips stretched as she glanced around before facing Eliza, “This place is where we came last night; during the day,it is hidden from the human and being’s eyes.”She turned around and walked over to the high stone that held a crude carving of a Celtic knot.“This world, and the others, have points of connection. I did not explain well last night; I took one of these points where the other worlds and this connect and made it my place of knowledge.”She lightly placed her hand on the stone and took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. A flash of red occurred before she placed her hand against the stone. “No oneshould have found this place unless they were skilled in the lost tongue.”

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