Page 12 of The Witch & the Wolf

“Do you like movies, Arlo? Maybe we can see one sometime.”

He sipped his coffee carefully as it was still steaming hot. “I’m not really into movies, but I think it could be a cool thing for us to do if you want.”

“Why not? Or we can go into one of the gardens…”

“I don’t really care as long as it’s something I get to do with you,” he said, intending it to be casual, but her reaction suggested this came across as a little more than just casual. Her movements became a little awkward, her voice shyer.

“Oh, well. That settles things, then.”

“And, well, I do remember you saying that you wanted to bring your friends, but you didn’t. Why did you change your mind?”

“Oh.” Some of her hair fell in front of her face. “To be honest, I wanted to spend the time with you. I just got… nervous that it might seem really weird, so that’s why I said I’d bring some friends. But really, I wanted it just to be us hanging out.”

“I see. Thanks for telling me.” A part of him wanted to reach over and brush the hair out of her face so he could better see her expression to gauge what might be going on behind those eyes. However, that seemed a little invasive, so he instead kept a respectful distance, as he said, “I was hoping to spend some time alone with you. It’s fun to see the world through your eyes with your background with this type of magic.”

“Ha. I bet my mother would love you,” she said, grinning as she sipped her coffee. “Maybe we can arrange a video call at some point if you want to have a tarot reading. Because she absolutely will want to do that.”

“Huh. It works even over a call?”

“Yep.”

Wow, that actually sounded intriguing. However, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to meet her parents just yet. “I’ll consider it. Though, of course, I wouldn’t say no if you wanted to try to do a reading yourself.”

They continued to chatter, walking from one end of the village to the other, and along this section was a spread of farms and homesteads, with some of the fields directly merging into enchanted woodland and magical hot spots beyond.

On a whim, the two of them took a small detour, jumping over a fence and making their way through a field toward a glowing woods. The soil shimmered in a strange rainbow of colors, and they soon came upon what looked like an old well with a broken bucket and swollen rope wrapped around a bar above it.

They wanted to examine the shimmering woodland without actually stepping into it. They weren’t completely insane.

Footprints in the soft loam indicated that plenty of other people had had the same idea. There were even a few that had trekked right into the woods themselves – though Arlo didn’t think that would be wise, at least not before knowing exactly what types of supernatural creatures might lurk within.

“Look! I think I know that one!” Holly exclaimed, pointing toward a flickering light within the trees. “That’s a will-o’-the-wisp, isn’t it? Those phantom lights that appear in woods sometimes?”

He squinted, crouching slightly to match her vantage point. He thought he could make something out: faint, green, almost a trick of the light. “I’ve heard of those, too. Best not to follow them. It doesn’t usually end well for the follower.”

She unconsciously clung to his arm, fingers splayed over the bare skin where he’d rolled up his shirt sleeves and buttoned them up. A faint shiver of electricity rippled through the little hairs on his arm, coursing deeper into his bloodstream, causing him to hold his breath for a second.

That feeling intensified. At first, he thought he might be having some strange reaction to Holly, maybe even to her magic. The lingering sensation, however, continued even when they broke apart. It seemed he wasn’t the only one who noticed something.

“Do you feel it?” she whispered, now rubbing her arms, looking away from the woods and at him. “What is that?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered back, though he wasn’t sure why they were whispering. “There’s something… different.”

They stared at each other. Then, still following the odd, tingling pull, they turned their gazes to the well near the border of the woods.

Chapter Five – Holly

“No way,” Holly said. She hovered with Arlo by the lip of the well. “We’re just imagining things.”

“Yeah,” he said, sounding as unconvinced as she was. The tingling – the light press of an otherworldly presence in the air had led them to the well. Now, she stared down the depths, but it was too dark to see anything of significance. Both of them knew instinctively, however, that something was up.

The ground around the well had been picked clean of pebbles with which to test the depth, most likely by students, but Holly managed to pry one pebble loose from the soil and tentatively drop it in. There was no sound, at least not to her ears.

“It’s landed,” Arlo said, now leaning over the well. “There was a faint plop. There’s still water in the well.”

Holly looked at the rusted bucket and frayed rope. Neither looked as if they’d been used for quite some time.

Just then, two students — a man and a woman — emerged from the woods, giggling to themselves. The woman, still giggling, brushed a leaf out of the man’s hair.

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