Page 35 of Vow of Magic
I pointed into the thick trees where the worn path disappeared. Alric scrunched his nose. “You think you have subjects in there?”
I shrugged. “The magic is pushing me that way and I don’t think we have much of a choice.”
Reva openly shivered but didn’t voice her opinion on the matter. My boots crunched on the ice until we entered the woods. Everything changed before our eyes. The sun that hung heavy in the sky completely disappeared with the wide branches above our heads. I thought it was cold back at the castle, it was even colder under the canopy of thick trees and vines. The little hairs on my arms stood to attention but we didn’t stop. We walked and walked and walked until I thought for sure my feet were going to fall off.
I kept my hands tucked inside the pockets of my cloak but I would have felt more comfortable with them close to a weapon. The longer we walked, the more I realized that we hadn’t ever been to this part of the woods before. The first subjects I was going to meet lived in the deepest, darkest part of this forest. It didn’t take me long to figure out who we were going to meet.
The Witch of the Woods.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
JUNIPER
“Well, well, well,” A voice floated around us on the wind and I hated myself for this journey already. “Look who it is. The queen that was prophesied to us. I didn’t think you would ever come into your power, even though I could feel it. I could taste it.”
“Do you still have my dagger?” I asked and surprisingly enough, my voice was steady.
A flash of silver shot through the woods and a cackling laugh met my ears. I was proud of Reva for not drawing her sword, but from the corner of my eyes, I could see her fingers twitching. She would be ready if she needed to be, if I needed her. But I had a feeling I wouldn’t.
“Such an innocent question filled with so much pain,” the wood witch’s voice purred and I wanted nothing more than to react to it. I wanted to hurt her back as much as I was hurting but somehow I didn’t. Somehow I kept my hands loose and my face unreadable. “You’ve learned a lot since the last time we saw each other.”
The wood witch, the attendant to these woods, didn’t wait a second longer to emerge from the shadows between the trees. She continued to talk and waved a slightly green hand around as she did so. “I must admit, this is a bit of a surprise. Why haveyou come to see me today, queen?” The title wasn’t formal but instead mocking, Alric sneered at her but she ignored him.
“I was recently informed that you are one of my subjects,” my voice was steady, my heart didn’t feel like it was going to come out of my chest, and I felt better than I would have before.
She leaned against the tree, her body still hidden in the shadows. “Ah, the meddling gods wanted you to come make peace with me, did they?”
“Peace?”
She took a step out of the shadows and I could see her in all of her glory, thankfully her mouth remained closed as we looked each other over. Her skin on the rest of her body still had that sickly green tinge to it and the thick vines that made up her hair dragged the ground behind her. Her slanted, slitted eyes reminded me of a cat as she watched me unblinking. “Yes,” she spat. “Peace. Peace for what they did to me or rather the last Mage Queen that is.”
“I don’t understand,” Alric tensed up at my honesty, which was to be expected. He loved his secrets and they gave him the power. Me admitting that I had no power here was going to bother him.
One foot in front of the other, she drew closer to us. Her gaze didn’t move from mine. “They would forget to leave that out, wouldn’t they? The last Mage Queen killed my partner in cold blood right in front of me. Didn’t give her the chance to show that we were no threat to her reign. But unfortunately, she saw us as monsters, as a part of the blight that curses this land. She didn’t realize that we were here long before the dark magic and we will be here long after. This world was nothing but ash when we were created. It will be nothing but ash when it is ended and we will see it happen. We live in this land. We feel your magic healing, touching, and exploring. We aren’t sure if we like it or not yet.”
My heart ached for her. I couldn’t imagine watching Ryven be killed in front of me. It was enough to witness Ash’s death. It was enough to know that they were both gone. I couldn’t imagine reliving losing him over and over again. Reliving all of the other moments was difficult enough.
“There are more of you?” I asked, carefully.
Her top lip lifted with a growl. “That’s what you chose to take from this?”
Reva’s hand twitched and Alric moved in closer to me. I held my hand up to stay them both. “I was merely asking so the question didn’t get lost in the conversation to be had.”
She lifted her pointed chin and nodded. “Yes, there are more of us wood witches.”
“Is that not your title?” Alric asked.
She didn’t bother with looking at him as she shrugged. “There have been many names for my people, though none of them we made for ourselves. We are the attendants of the woods. We have been here since the beginning of time.”
“Do you have a name?” If she wasn’t just the wood witch and there were more of them then she had to be identified somehow.
She blinked long and slow. “El. It is the closest you will get to being able to speak my ancient tongue.”
“It is nice to meet you El. You are the leader of your people then?”
She nodded.
“As much as I wish I could bring peace between us, I don’t know how I can write the wrongs of someone else’s doing. I do know how painful it is to lose the one you love, the one your heart beats for. I’m sure it still feels like yesterday for you, as it does for me. I want nothing more than to have him back but I know that fate is a fickle mistress. My heart goes out to you and all the pain you have endured. If I could fix it, if I could bring her back to you, I would.” I untucked my hands from my cloakand spread them before me. “I am not the last Mage Queen, besides owning her clothing, I know nothing of her. I don’t know her name or how she changed things. I don’t know much of the history, unfortunately. But I am not here to be her. I wasn’t chosen to walk in her footsteps. I was chosen to forge my own path with this blight and this magic. She failed. I do not intend to. Everything that will happen going forward will be of my own decisions and some of the magic and the gods but mostly me.”
