Page 7 of Witch Unexpected
A fresh prickle ran over my skin, and an icy hand gripped the back of my neck. I looked to Ursula. “You want us to go through there, don’t you?”
Ursula winced. “Actually, I needyouto go through. Alone.”
* * *
Now,I was no coward, but I also wasn’t a fool. “You want me to go into a wild, dangerous place where I’ll be defenseless, alone?”
Ursula gripped my hands and looked at me earnestly. “Do you honestly think I’d ask you to do this if I thought you’d be defenseless?”
“Okay, either I’m hearing things, or you’re chatting shit.”
“Witches can’t use their magic in the fae realm,” Ursula said. “Regular, normal witches…” She gave me a pointed look. “You’re no normal witch, Cora. I’ve seen you bypass wards, and your access to miasma needs no coven bond.”
The teacher’s gaze flicked up to mine in shock.
Yep, my existence wasn’t common knowledge. Neither were my abilities. Only a select few knew, and it looked like this independent witch was now amongst that number. Thanks, Urs.
“You’ll be able to use your power,” Ursula said. “I know you will.”
Yeah, I would, but not for the reasons she believed. My power didn’t have the same restrictions as theirs because it didn’t all come from miasma. The majority came from somewhere else, somewhere that only a handful of witches had access to. But I didn’t want to dwell on that, or the responsibilities that came along with it. I’d made a decision not to go down that road months ago.
“That isn’t normal,” the witch said.
Yeah, I was no normal anything. I was a tulpa with access to the miasma that witches used and something more. I was a witch created, not born. I was an anomaly, and there were children at risk that needed saving.
Time to don the cape.
I unclasped the amulet from around my neck and handed it to Ursula. I couldn’t afford for my power to be muted in the fae realm. “Keep this safe until I get back.”
It was time to head into the creepy rift.
Chapter Three
The rift winked at me, taunting me to come take a look-see, and the logistics of the task ran through my head.
“How big is this place, and how will I find the children?” I turned to Ursula. “I mean, it’s been two days. Whoever took them has a huge head start.”
“Time used to run faster in their realm,” Ursula said. “But something’s broken, and now their time runs parallel to ours. The children won’t have been taken too far. They’ll need time to adjust to the fae realm, so they’re probably camping out close to the rift.”
“Adjust?”
“They take babies and children because the young are mutable. The fae realm can literally alter them, but some reject the change, and in those cases, they’re returned to this side, mutated and unrecognizable.”
“You clear up the mess?”
“We haven’t had to for decades,” she said. “I mean, there was no way for us to save the children—not until now.”
Not until me. “I don’t understand why they’d take human children if they’re going to alter them anyway?”
“I don’t know,” Ursula said. “The fae realm has been a mystery to us for the longest time, and the fae that move to our world are pretty closed lipped about it.”
I knew what she meant. I’d tried talking to Leana about it a couple of times and bam, shut down. “And yet you seem to know a hell of a lot about it.”
She blushed. “I have a source.”
Wait. “Are you dating a fae?”
Ursula pulled a pouch from her pocket. “Drop one of these every few meters to mark your path and lead you back to the rift.”
