Page 27 of Royally Hacked Belle & Flame
Odessa is the best with horses, having been riding most of her life, so we let her take the reins. Aurelia sits beside her, still waving her arms to keep the snow away, and I sit in the back seat feeling a little guilty that I can’t do more to help.
Admittedly, if I weren’t so anxious I would probably enjoy the sleigh ride.
Snow pelts the sleigh like tiny fists, but I don’t feel the cold wind—just a gentle warmth radiating from where Aurelia’s fingertips trace invisible patterns in the air. Twin lanterns cast yellow pools that bounce and sway ahead of us, barely penetrating the darkness. Every time we pass over a snow drift, the horses’ bridle bells jingle merrily.
We ride in silence for a while but don’t see any sign of the guys or any missing kids. Finally, I voice the thing I can’t stop thinking about since Nerine put it in my head: “Okay, I know this sounds stupid, but I just have to ask. Is there really a Yule witch?”
Aurelia gnaws on her lip. “I mean, technically anything is possible. You can’t prove she doesn’t exist.”
“Yes you can. I’m telling you there’s no witch,” Dessa says flatly. “Fae don’t have that many kids. If we really lost children every single Yule there wouldn’t be any left. Anyway, the word ‘witch’ doesn’t even describe the creature in the stories.”
“How so?” I ask.
“‘Witch’ is a human word,” Aurelia explains. “Witch, sorceress, enchantress…they’re all words we use to describe humans who have magic but no Fae ancestry.”
“I’ve heard you called a sorceress before,” I point out.
“My mother was one, but I’m not. I have Fae magic and trained to use it just like any other Fae.”
My brow furrows. I’m certainly not the expert on Fae anything, even after living here for two years, but it’s always been clear to me that Aurelia had different magic than Daemon or Kastian. I want to ask her more about it, but Dessa cuts in before I can.
“The ‘Yule witch’ is just a legend,” Dessa insists. “But even if she was real, the creature in the stories sounds like something else to me. A shapeshifter maybe? Or some kind of hag…not that I believe she really exists.”
I laugh darkly. “That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“Don’t worry,” Aurelia says. “Wouldn’t you both know if Daemon or Kastian were really in trouble? You’d feel it, right? I don’t feel anything, so they’re all probably fine.”
“Why wouldyoufeel anything?” Dessa asks with a shrewd smile.
Aurelia looks startled and for a second I feel a real gust of winter air as her temperature spell falters. “I wouldn’t! Not like that…I just mean I’m really good at reading people.”
Dessa and I look at each other, sharing an identical suspicious look.
“Okay, that’s some bullshit,” I blurt out. “What did you really mean?”
Before Aurelia can answer, Dessa abruptly pulls back on the reins and the entire sleigh leaps, nearly toppling all of us into the snow.
“—the fuck!” I yell.
“Sorry!” Dessa exclaims. “I thought I saw something.”
I catch myself on the side of the sleigh and peer in the direction she’s pointing.
For several long moments I don’t see anything except endless snow drifts and half buried trees. Then, something moves along the ground, disrupting the snow.
I gasp and reel back. Something is barreling straight at us, moving with surprising speed and utter disregard for its own safety. For one completely ridiculous second, I think it’s a wolf; or worse, the witch. Then, a heavy gray blur launches itself at me.
“Sushi?” I yelp, half in disbelief, half in horror.
Nana’s enormous gray cat hurls himself at the sleigh and misses entirely, rolling into a snowdrift before he lets out a yowl of such stunning volume that even the horses flinch.
“What the—” Odessa starts, but I’m already jumping off the sleigh, ignoring the way my boots fill instantly with freezing snow. I scoop up Sushi, who is, as usual, ungrateful and claws my arm for the effort.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I scold the cat, “Go home. Go back to Nana. Why are you even here?”
The cat blinks at me with glacial, bottomless contempt in his yellow eyes. Then, like he’s just remembered somewhere he needs to be, he jumps out of my grasp and bolts straight into the trees.
“God fucking dammit!”
