Page 21 of Heart of a Witch
I pursed my lips, placing the snakes in my deep pocket. I understood. Truly. I’d lost mine to the same man, but we couldn’t, and it broke my heart to say it. “It’s her or us.” The words came out colder than I’d wanted, but they were true and harsh yet necessary. We couldn’t risk it. I could send a letter, but it would be too late, and we all knew it. If we tried going there, to warn them, we’d be walking into a trap, or be captured shortly after.
After tonight, when he’d find no sign of us, he’d follow the Amberwood name to our mother’s maiden name, Vineroot, which would lead him to our aunt and cousins. I tried not to picture what would be waiting for us if we returned. “I’m going for a bath,” I said. “Try to sleep. Cas and I will take the sofas in the living area, and you two can take the bed. I’ll tell you the plan in the morning.”
I didn’t wait for their replies. I slinked quickly into the bathing room and locked the door behind me before anyone could say anything.
Once inside, I breathed.
One. Two. Three. Steady, careful not to let anything out. I couldn’t afford to feel things, to stop and allow them to surface.
I stole a glance at my reflection in the mirror. My bloodshot eyes looked back. My painted crimson lips had faded to pink, my cheeks red from constantly wiping them, as if some semblance of blood may still be there.
I took a deep breath, then turned on the taps, watching it slowly pool with clear water, steam billowing up in an illusory dance to nothing.
I slid Ebony and Buttercup out of my pocket and plugged the drain before placing them in the sink. “Stay in here,” I whispered.
I undressed, careful not to let out the sob quaking softly behind my closed lips. If I started crying, I was afraid I wouldn’t stop. I stepped into the hot water, letting it comfort me as it relaxed my muscles. I thumbed out an ache from my shoulder, then the top of my arm, working my way over to the back of my neck. Ember was always the one who’d give me massages. My shoulders were always tight and tense, or so she’d say. My throat closed over when I thought about her. I felt myself slipping away, into memories and emptiness, where I’d stay forever.
No. I had to hold onto something. A tether. Anything. I couldn’t focus on her being… no. Then I would be dead, because I couldn’t live with that kind of grief.
I closed my eyes. I pushed Ember from my mind, filling it instead with the witch hunter. The townspeople. The club owners, but they were already dead. A quick fate, really. For centuries, witches had been demonized, but like humans, there was good and bad in all of us, and Ember was good. She trusted humans. She gave to charity and tried to do and say the right thing. She danced around people’s feelings, careful not to hurt them. She and I couldn’t have been more different, but I loved her for it. She was the light I didn’t have, but they’d killed her. They had squashed her light as if it were nothing, and they had been left only with darkness. Me.
I gripped the edges of the sunken bathtub. Fury clouded my vision, and my nostrils flared as every injustice suddenly felt like a mountain collapsing on top of me. I’d let too much slide over the years, and it had cost us everything. I let what happened to our cousin go. I hadn’t fought back. I’d never fought against the hunters or anyone who demonized us.
If humans wanted to believe us evil, then I would become precisely that. If they wanted darkness, I’d shroud them in it until they choked. If the hunter wanted another reason to hate witches, I would be that, for him, because in his vengeance against us, he’d turned me into his own personal poison.
I sat in the bathtub, plotting, planning until the water turned cold and pale-blue light filtered through the window.
I wouldn’t kill him straight away like he had her. Instead, I’d destroy him from the inside out. Death was going to come for him eventually, but I wanted to ensure he’d be begging for it when it did.
***
None of us slept well. Morning stole the night from us too soon. I wasn’t prepared for the world to continue moving, as if the worst thing hadn’t happened. My stomach ached, a growl rippling through my torso, reminding me I still required food.
Mother was awake already, though she pretended otherwise. Her bloodshot eyes flickered open every couple of minutes before they closed again. I wondered what was going on inside her head. Out of all of us, only Alex was still snoring.
Cas didn’t even try to appear as if he were sleeping. He stood at the window, staring out of it blankly. I dropped my arms at my sides and cleared my throat. Mother’s eyes opened, and Alex stirred. Cas didn’t turn around.
“Family meeting in ten.” I gestured toward the adjoining living area from the bedroom in our suite. “We’ll need to leave soon.”
Cas checked his pocket watch, his voice raspy when he spoke. “We should decide on where to go next.”
“That’s what this meeting is for.” I leaned over the bed, then nudged Alex’s arm. “Wake up, sister.”
Once everyone was sitting on the sofas, I explained my plan. “We can’t run forever.”
Alex nodded in agreement. “Should we go to Istinia?”
I winced. “You can go if you’d like, with Mother. You’d need to cross the mountains. It’s dangerous.”
“What about you?”
Cas leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “Yes, what about you?”
“I’m staying. I’m moving to Redforest.”
His eyebrows shot upward on his forehead. “Where the hunter lives? Have you lost your mind?”
Alex’s tone softened. “We will understand if you have.”
