Page 69 of Sett and his King
Drew turned to me and huffed.
"It's time I paid a real visit to Mother Red Cap," he said.
Drew
She would know.
She had to.
She was the oldest witch in town. Granted she wasn’t as old as Sett or Horus, but she’d been around. She’d seen things. My knowledge paled in comparison to hers.
And this time I could ask her for what I truly wanted. When I was here a few days ago—or was it yesterday? With all this time resetting itself things were starting to get complicated on that front, but when I was here before I couldn’t ask her to free me of Horus. It wasn’t allowed. It wasn’t even a thought that crossed my mind. Surely Horus’s intricate work on my already fragile mind.
But this time?
My mind was clear as day.
We took the path under Camden Lock bridge and I stood to the side, leaning against the railing that overlooked the canal. I took a deep breath and dug through my pocket as I stared at the stone wall in front of me and the faded Minoru on Tour poster stuck on it.
Even that reminded me of Gene. He was a Minoru Minion through and through. He’d spent more than reasonable for a ticket in the arena in hopes he’d get up close and personal with the young singer. But I didn’t care. If that was what made him happy I’d spend a million on a ticket. I’d spend our whole fortune, do a hundred bad jobs to fund it. As long as he was around. Alive and around to hear him sing “Love me like a unicorn” and drive us all nuts with the earworm.
I took a red gemstone, a fire spell, out of my pocket and threw it into the water. It bubbled and boiled on impact and with a simple, but magicalwhoosh, the stone wall parted to allow us access into Mother Red Cap’s lair.
“Clever witch,” Sett mumbled as we walked into the tunnel.
I shrugged.
I didn’t know if she was clever. She was a survivor, like most of us these days. I couldn’t blame her for using every precaution to keep people away, I was just grateful she’d accepted my simple spell.
Seeing as I didn’t often deal in spells, I didn’t have any precious gemstones lying around. I wondered if she’d accept a potion for entry. Would that mean she’d only give me a potion in return? As if I didn’t know how to make any potion known to man.
No.
I wasn’t looking to exchange a spell or a potion for another. I was here looking for information.
She was sitting at the fire pit in the center of the room as soon as we walked into the main chamber and she barely lifted her head to greet us. Instead she pinned us both with her emerald gaze as if we weren’t welcome.
“You’re not, in fact, welcome. But you’re back so soon,” she said and rose to her feet, “I simply had to know what could possibly have gone wrong.”
I stopped dead on my tracks and stared at the old witch.
Fuck!
I’d forgotten my Apokryphon Elixir.
“Fuck indeed,” Mother Red Cap said and I felt a chill down my spine.
She could hear my thoughts. She could hear everything. Just like Horus.
Mother Red Cap smirked. “And I can hear your deception. Isn’t that what you’re worried about?”
I didn’t nod. I didn’t move. I couldn’t. Not anymore.
“You came into my home, tricked me into summoning a god for you all so you use him for your master’s nefarious purposes. Isn’t that right?”
It was hard to swallow, I could have choked on nothing.
How the hell did she know all that? Could she wade through every single thought and memory and pull at strings to read me like an open book?
