Page 5 of Witch's Exile
2
ASHTAROTH
Deja blinked and shielded her eyes from the late-morning sunlight, but the positive effects were instant and unmistakable.
Her skin glowed. She lifted her head as we walked outside, her footsteps becoming surer and more confident. Her golden eyes brightened like two suns themselves. Surrounded by untouched forest and life growing freely, we were quite literally in her element.
"I feel better already," she breathed softly, her voice already stronger over the crunching of our shoes on pine needles. My grip on her hand tightened, as did my heart when she said that.
"Being out in nature strengthens your earth magic," I said. "You'll find yourself even stronger out here than you ever were in the city."
She paused to touch a tree, running her soft fingers over the gnarled bark. A green glow surrounded her as she absorbed its magic, then it gently faded into the darkness of her aura.
"What about the other elements?" she asked as we continued on our walk. "I can feel water and fire in me almost as strongly as the earth."
"You are the Mother of Witches," I reminded her. "All the elements, including their shadow sides are at your fingertips. It's like learning to ride a bicycle. You know all of them instinctually even after all these years of not using them. When you pass magic on to your children, they randomly inherit one more strongly over the others."
"And that element gets passed down through the generations?"
"That's where it gets a bit complicated," I chuckled. "Magic is kind of like passing on physical traits but different. You know how some traits are dominant and others are recessive?"
"I think so. Like both parents need to pass on the blue-eyed gene for the child to have blue eyes."
"Right. If two parents carry the same non-dominant magic and pass that onto their child, that will become the kid's dominant element."
We continued walking in peaceful silence before she spoke up again.
"Why don't I remember anything about the elements? Everything from lifetimes before, I see it in my head as just magic but not with earth, fire or anything attached to it."
"The classification of elemental magic is fairly new," I explained. "Witches came up with it a few hundred years ago. Demons don't really go by it, since we work the shadows of basically everything."
"Makes sense," she mused. "It's like the two sides of a coin. Opposite but equal, creating balance."
"Yes, it's true." I ran a hand across her lower belly where she grew our future. "Our power comes from death. Yours comes from life."
She smiled, lacing her fingers through mine at her stomach. "How far along do you think I am?"
I stopped walking and sent faint pulses of energy though my palm, just enough to get a sense of the size of our little witch growing inside her.
"Very early," I said. "Only four or five weeks." A grin spread on my face as joy surged through me. "I hope it's mine."
"What?! She's all of ours!" Deja smacked my hand playfully as we continued our walk.
"I know, love. I'm teasing." I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed the side of her head. "And you're sure it's a she already?"
Her footsteps slowed and her eyes lowered to the ground.
"In that nightmare, I'm full-term. I keep calling her our daughter, feeling like I have to save her. I just... feel like I know it's a girl."
I stopped our walk abruptly and pulled her tightly against my chest. Our hearts hammered against each other, beating in opposite rhythms as she wrapped her hands around my back. My hands squeezed into fists at her shoulders. She didn't know it yet but those witches would pay for making her feel like this. No one deserved to feel powerless and afraid of their own mind.
I didn't even care much that they betrayed her. Of course I hated that she was hurt, but humans backstabbed each other all the time. She'd remember that soon enough. But planting these nightmares was next-level torturous and cruel, even by demon standards. If they really wanted to see how fucked up demons were, they were about to find out.
"Those dreams are not the future," I murmured against her forehead. "They're not real. They will not happen. Believe me on that, love."
She didn't look convinced but nodded, tucking her head under my chin. "Thank you, angel. You're always saving me."
"Other way around, my love." I pressed my fingers into the tightest knots in her back. "It was you that saved me."
