Page 59 of The Fearless Witch

‘Are you crazy? She won’t jump from up there! No sane person would!’ I snarled as I drew closer to the serpent, looking for a way up. The other two birds had returned, moving above her in circles like they could already foresee her demise.

‘She’s… not exactly sane,’ Cyrus chuckled nervously, his fear palpable. ‘She’s out of time! Do something!’

“Fuck!” I cursed again, running around the boulder that blocked my way. “RED!” I screamed and her head snapped in my direction. I raised my arms toward her. “JUMP!”

Her lips parted and horror flooded her gaze, but then one of the demons shrieked and she was suddenly running toward the edge. Despite telling her to jump, I still stared in shock as she kicked her feet off, soaring into the air for a moment before free-falling toward the ground. The terrified scream that tore from her pierced all the way to my black soul, and in the next instance, I was running alongside my shadows and positioning myself in her trajectory. It felt like an eternity passed while she fell, then all of a sudden, her body smashed into mine and I was left breathless again.

With the last of my sound mind, I translocated.

Our landing was hard and painful—for me at least, since it was my head bouncing off the stone floor and her body crashing on top of me. I tried to stay conscious, but even when I felt her move, I couldn’t do anything but lie there and wait for my magic to heal me. Once my gaze finally started working, I found her leaning over, her long hair tickling my face while her lips formed words I couldn’t understand.

“Beleth!” I heard her shout when my ears eventually popped. “Are you alright? Did you—”

“Get off me, you idiot,” I snarled, pushing her away, so I had room to breathe. She dropped on her ass beside me, wincing in pain and glaring at me like any of this was my fault. “I shouldn’t have listened to you! This whole idea was insane! You are making me insane!”

I sat up, or at least tried to, but my head was still spinning, so I fell back down, landing almost in her lap. Her arms came around me as if she was trying to hug me and I pushed her off again, skidding away from her. Once I had a solid hold on the edge of the table, I rose to my feet.

By the time I could face her without the ceiling falling, she was up and glaring. Dust covered her from head to toe with several holes burned into her clothes and bruises and scratches healing all over her pale skin.

Her hair had slipped out of her braid and there was dry blood smeared across her cheek, but she was in one piece. Unlike me. I felt like I fought with all seven princes and none of them held back their punches. I couldn’t even pinpoint all the places I was bleeding from because of her.

“I need to have some fucking strength left when I reach the prince, not die before fucking passing the first two trials!” I snarled. “You are not only not helping, you are making it worse! You’re weak and useless!”

“Oh, fuck off!” she snapped. “We passed the first challenge in five minutes because of me! Those trees or whatever they were, they responded to my magic, and they led us out!” She glowered, then quickly looked away, but not before I noticed the shift in her expression, something almost like pain.

I looked her over again, searching her body for any wound that would explain the reaction, but found none. Was it internal bleeding? Concussion? What the fuck was wrong with her?

“If you had to pass through them alone, it would have taken you hours!” she continued to shout. “And I bet that those eyes we saw weren’t just a figment of my imagination!”

Her words drew my attention back to her face, my anger returning.

“It doesn’t matter!” I yelled, taking a step toward her. She straightened up, jutting her chin out in defiance. “None of it matters if we can’t pass the second trial and you are too fucking slow!” She gasped in indignation. “You can’t fight those creatures with brute strength and I can’t fight and protect you at the same time! I have better chances alone!”

“You’ll never beat the prince if you’ve spent all your power before that!” she hissed, balling her hands into fists. I raised an eyebrow, daring her to use those, but she just took a deep breath. When she released it, her face was calm. “We’ll figure out a way.”

I shook my head. “No, we won’t! Because I’m not taking that risk anymore! It’s done!” Anger flared in her eyes, but again, she looked away, her entire body stiffening. “It was a… decent idea, but it didn’t work. You’re staying here until I figure this out.” She opened her mouth, but I raised a finger in warning. “Do not push me right now, Red.”

Her good sense seemed to prevail because she said nothing as I ran my hand over the back of my throbbing head. Pain shot through the wound and when I withdrew my fingers, they came back smeared in red.

“Shit,” I hissed, striding to the basin with the water I prepared.

‘She is trying to help,’ Cyrus said pointedly.

‘I can’t risk her dying. This would defeat the whole purpose of winning the trial,’ I replied as I set the bowl on the table, ignoring the liquid that sloshed over my fingers.

‘I know, but she’s right. You can figure this out together. She found a way to pass the first test without using a single ounce of your power. What if she can find a way through the second trial too? You’d be facing a prince at your strongest and that has never happened!’

I grumbled in response, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of making a fair point.

The first time we went to check out the trial, we never made it past the forest because we couldn’t figure out how to avoid the beasts lurking in there. Getting lost inside would have been a death warrant, and I wasn’t risking her life for the fucking first test. But she had figured it out—she had begged me to take her again and she had gotten us through that forest in less than five minutes. I would have been impressed if it wasn’t for the abysmal way we failed the second test just now.

‘It’s too risky,’ I murmured, more to myself than to him. Turning around in search of something to clean the blood with, I didn’t realize Celeste had moved until I found myself face-to-face with her. Her expression was dark and unfriendly, but she held a rag like a peace offering. Except when I tried to take it, she pulled her hand away.

“I’ll do it. Sit,” she said, nodding toward the chair. I sneered at the command, trying to snatch the rag from her hand again, but she avoided me with surprising ease. “Stop acting like a child. The wound is on the back of your head, you can’t clean it properly yourself. Now sit your ass down!” When I didn’t, she shifted her weight to one leg, giving me an exasperated look. “Look, I don’t particularly want to touch you either, but I need you in one piece if I want to get out of here.”

I was just considering storming out of the room when Cyrus muttered, ‘You will just prove her right,’ and I stopped, grinding my teeth in frustration. Taking a step back, I dropped heavily into my seat, trying to ignore her as best as I could.

Her touch was light and gentle, and before I knew it, my body was relaxing under her ministrations. The water quickly turned red, and she had to change the cloth twice before applying the paste I pointed her to. To my utmost shock, she did it all without saying a single word.

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