Page 42 of Rise of the Witch
“You’ve done nothing but come between us.”
Silently rising from the table, I moved to stand next to Anthia at the open window, turning my back to the others to gaze out across the clearing that had been my home for the past few decades. I usually relocated more frequently, but something had called me to this location and urged me to stay. With a pang, I realized my arrival here was probably right around the same time these men were born—yet another sign of how inescapable my fate was.
“You can’t leave, Nox,” Asa blurted out, surprising me enough that I turned back around to face the group. “We need you here. Withus.”
Nox looked ready to argue when Anthia interrupted. “I can do a flyover of the Facility,” she curtly offered, placing a discreet hand on my arm to give me a reassuring squeeze. “See if there’s any information I can gather from a bird’s-eye-view. That way, you can stay with Vasi,where you belong.”She punctuated the last part with a withering glare in Nox’s direction that earned her one in return.
It felt like the entire room held a collective breath as we awaited his answer and, as the seconds ticked by, my fury reached a boiling point. My gaze was involuntarily drawn to the space over Nox’s head, where the faintest aura now flickered as if taunting me with its existence.
Black. Just like my mood.
Nox’s gaze rose to meet mine, openly acknowledging my presence for the first time that morning, although he quickly looked away with a grimace, rubbing the left side of his chest as if it pained him. “Very well,” he finally replied, to no one in particular. “I’ll at least see you through the move.”
The fact that this proclamation sent relief rushing through me was profoundly irritating. Spinning back to face the window with a huff, I noticed three visitors had appeared at the edge of the clearing. While despising the need to flee from my own home, I realized I should take the opportunity to put some distance between Nox and me, if only for my own sanity.
“Excuse me, ‘Thia,” I turned to my friend. “Luperca is here, and I have some questions I need to ask her. Please order whatever Tan and Asa want from that Amazon...thing.” I waved my fingers dismissively, as the sorcery of the internet still confused me. “Including whatever yoga pants you think are best.” Stalking out the door, I heard Anthia mention something about “butt lifting leggings” to a chorus of enthusiastic approvals.
As I approached, the three wolves shifted into their human forms—Luperca and her personal guard. Word spread whenever Baba Yaga was on the move, so I’d assumed their visit was about that, but something in the clan leader's cold gaze made me wary. My breath caught as she wordlessly opened her hand to reveal aMatryoshkadoll, exactly matching the one extracted from Misha but slightly smaller in size, a clear indication that Koschei was to blame for the wolf warrior’s unnatural death.
Why is Koschei leaving these dolls for us to find?
“This was discovered while preparing the body for burial,” she impassively stated, yellow eyes watching me, gauging my reaction. “And we heard about the bear dying inyourclearing with a similar wound…”
I nodded grimly before the implications of her words washed over me. “Do you believe this has something to do withme?”I hissed, eyes narrowing as the earth started to thrum beneath my feet in response to my already raw emotions.
You picked the wrong day, wolf.
The warriors on either side of her growled menacingly, but Luperca simply curled her wrinkled lip into a sneer. “Well, rumor has it, it wasyourbeauty that brought the deathless one out of his slumber all those centuries ago, Vasilisa.” I started to retort, but she silenced me with a calmly raised hand. “Coincidentally, it was only a little while after you first came to live in these woods that The Devouring began its path of destruction.”
Luperca’s claim so closely matched my own insecurities that I was stunned into silence, my mind racing as I thought of every tree, rock, and forest creature who I’d ever come in contact with. Misha had saved my life—taken me in when I had no one and convinced the Yaga to mentor me—and now he was dead. Other shifters were dying by Koschei’s hand, seemingly at random and with no apparent pattern. This forest was mine to protect, yet it was slowly being devoured and apparently had been since I arrived.
Is this all my fault?
“Don’t feel bad that you’ve only recently started to notice what’s been happening toourforest,” she crooned, although her words were not intended to reassure. “You were bornhumanand so are cursed with a human’s inability to see anything that doesn’t directly benefit your continued ignorance, especially when it comes to the health of the natural world, which your kind holds in such poor regard.”
Something snapped in me, and I clenched my fists at my side as I gritted out, “Was there anything else I can help you with, clan leader? We are extremely busy today as we prepare to relocate.”
Luperca’s sharp eyes caught on something over my shoulder. Turning, I saw Asa and Tan framed in the window, observing the four of us. Asa glowered at the shifters, his entire being pulsing with an angry red aura that made the blood in my veins eagerly hum in response. Tan was draped over him, emanating a soft, white glow as he blew me a saucy kiss, making me smile despite my annoyance.
Mine.
Steadied by my Riders’ presence, I turned back to Luperca and addressed her calmly, “When you lifted your warrior’s body from the ground, did the rapid decomposition immediately slow?”
Lifting an appraising eyebrow, she considered my question before thoughtfully nodding. “Yes, the oddly advanced state of decay did seem to slow once he was laid on the pyre. It stopped entirely once this was removed from his body.” She pinched the Russian doll between two fingers as if it disgusted her to touch it.
Reaching out my hand, I allowed her to drop theMatryoshkainto my palm, even though I didn’t trust any object associated with Koschei’s power. “I swear to you, I will find out what is happening toourforest,” I vehemently stated. “To fulfill my legacy, for both the benefit of its inhabitantsandthe humans who rely on its resources.’
Luperca scoffed as she motioned for her guard to shift back into wolf form. “Be careful you don’t associatetooclosely with humans, Yaga. There may come a day when you have to pick a side—sooner than you want to believe.” With that ominous and eerily familiar statement, she also shifted and disappeared into the silent depths of the forest alongside her warriors.
Chapter 35
Vasilisa
I’d forgotten how soothing it was to be rocked in myizbaas it ambled through the forest. I imagined it was similar to being aboard a ship at sea, but I’d only visited the ocean once, as a newlywed, and that was long ago. I remembered so little from my human life, and those years in the palace were particularly foggy. Sometimes, I could clearly recall my husband’s face—the proud way he’d looked at me before he saw me as ruined—but more often than not, I suspected that happy memory was one I’d invented to pretend I’d actually been happy.
The truth was, I'd been little more than a pretty prize in a gilded cage. While becoming the Tsarina was every peasant girl’s dream, the Tsar was only interested in a beautiful wife who would give him an heir. He never cared to know my deepest desires or understand my fears. The day he cast me out of the palace was the day I realized any hope for true, unconditional love died along with my mother.
I let my gaze drift from the trees passing by the window to the three men who’d so thoroughly enmeshed themselves in my life, for better or worse. Nox was seated across the cabin, sharpening an impressive collection of knives and very pointedly not looking at me. Neither of us had made much of an attempt to interact since our encounter in the grove two nights ago, but we would need to discuss what happened sooner or later. Preferably sooner, as I hadn’t thoroughly enjoyed the other men since, andeveryonewas feeling the strain of that particular deprivation.
