Page 16 of Hunted on Halloween

“The more I read it, the more I realized it must be talking about my life. But which part related to me and which part was someone else’s? I didn’t know.” Calista put the book on the coffee table with the page she was referring to open.

Then she walked over to Rylin and gave him a kiss on the cheek and told him, “It’s your turn, honey. It’s up to you now.”

“I have been resisting the urge to kill every All Hallows'. When that All Hallows' came, I knew I couldn’t resist any longer. When I got here, I couldn’t enjoy the feeling of being connected to the soil. I simply needed to kill.” He glanced at Calista, regret in his eyes. She hugged him tight, laying a deep kiss on him.

“As I was walking down the street looking for an easy victim,” Rylin said. “I could hear a heartbeat and breathing that weren’t inside of a building. I knew whoever it was was shaking because I could hear their clothes rubbing up against the bark of a tree. I scented the air, teeth dropping, mind filled with thoughts of my kill.” He ran his hand through Calista’s hair. She should be dead, but he was holding her and loving her.

“I moved towards her quickly, wanting this to be one and done. By the time I got to Calista, her scent enveloped me, and it did what nothing else could do. It brought me back to my right mind.” He looked up and smiled at Tia.

“There, standing before me, was this gorgeous female. She was thick and appealing with her creamy brown skin. Her beautiful eyes made me lose my heart and soul to her. I wanted her desperately.”

“Okay, stop, ew, ick, ugh. Could you not talk like that about my mother, please?” Calista started laughing.

“Oh my gosh, look who just implemented the ick protocol.”

Tia had to giggle, but come on, he was talking about her mom, her ride and die.

“What Rylin is trying to say is that we spent the night together and right before it was time for him to go back, we both read the prophecy. He asked me not only to wait for him, but to keep our child safe. He was sure we were going to have a baby girl. I wasn’t that sure, but I agreed.” Calista rubbed her head against Rylin’s chest. Tia had to admit she’d never seen her mother this happy or touchy feely.

“Six weeks later, I was throwing up. That’s when I knew that keeping your existence from the rulers of this world was the most important thing to do. The necrotechs were walking around, not just in this city, but all the cities, looking for anyone who may have become pregnant after the last Halloween. I hid my pregnancy and your birth and somehow got you recorded as being born one month earlier than you were. That kept both of us from coming under scrutiny of the necrotechs.”

“Mom, are you a witch?” Calista lowered her eyes and started fiddling with her hands.

“I’m the old-fashioned kind, the kind they call a white witch. They not only heal, but help their fellow man. That fell out of practice when science and black magic became one, and suddenly we didn’t have witches and scientists. We had necrotechs. If you weren’t one of them, no one wanted to hear what you had to say. Everyone said they wouldn’t hurt anyone who presented as a witch, but I knew better.”

“But they let you live,” Tia said, her face screwed up in confusion. They weren’t rich, but she hadn’t wanted for anything growing up.

“Tia, think. Before tonight, did you know I was a witch? Was I able to raise you up allowing you to practice what was inside of you? No, I hid everything that you could do. I made sure there was always a reasonable explanation if someone was around and saw something they weren’t supposed to see.” Calista took several deep breaths and snuggled into Rylin’s arms before looking her daughter straight in the eyes.

“We can talk about this later. If you want to be upset with me, be upset. But right now, you’re the one who said, not I, that we have a world to save. So, what are we going to do?” Calista asked.

“Read the book?” Tieran stood and picked up the book.

He scanned the prophecy and then read it in a loud and firm voice.“When the people of the Earth are tricked by the people in the mirror dimension, when Earth becomes the mirror and the mirror becomes Earth, the countdown to destruction will begin. One final, cataclysmic moment will bring destruction to both Earth and the mirror dimension.”He held out an arm, and she crossed the room to snuggle at his side.

“There is always a choice,” he continued to read. “They can do nothing and die or she who has the power within her but is too frightened to use it can choose to accept the one thing that scares her.” Tia looked at her mother, wondering what about her father (that was a kick in the gut) scared her mother.

“Together they will have one night of passion and many years of separation. Will she be able to protect what the two of them have created? The one who is one half of both worlds will be the only one who can stop the destruction. But only if she is willing to embrace the other world as much as she embraces her own. Together, if the two halves of that world are willing to walk together in peace, they can stop the spell. But first they must find where it is located and there are not many hours left. They must find a stronghold of the Necrotechs.”Tieran stopped reading to close his eyes and held Tia close. An old dusty bookwas asking the impossible. If he failed, he would lose his queen, his mate, whom he had just found.

“This journey will not be easy. What they are looking for will not be in beautiful houses or tall buildings. To find a stronghold, you must follow the magic that lives within you to lead you. Once you have found it, you must find a way to enter into the stronghold, and then you will see the curse. I cannot tell you how it will present because it presents to each person differently. Nor can I tell you how to destroy the curse because that power, that knowledge, lies within.”Tia nodded, ready to destroy a curse, but Tieran was still reading.

“That knowledge doesn’t lie within me. It lies within the only person who can destroy the curse. The witchling and the king must choose wisely, for only one can destroy it. If they make the wrong choice, the earth will end. The worlds will be destroyed.”

Chapter Eight

The memory of allthat she’d been through this night assailed her. Determination and despair were fighting within her. The last sentence of that prophecy rang in her mind.If they make the wrong choice, the earth will end. The worlds will be destroyed. Each time she thought about it, it grew a little bigger until a sense of hopelessness took her over.

They were wrong. She wasn’t the right person for this job. They had to find the woman who was part of the prophecy, or they were all going to die.

She trembled; tears she didn’t want to cry leaking from her eyes.

“I can’t, and you can’t ask me to do this. I’m not the person who was being talked about. We need to find her, and we must hurry because time is not our friend.” Tieran wrapped his arms around her, swaying. “I’m not her,” she whispered into his chest.

“I’m not the queen you were looking for, the savior of the world. I’m just Tia, a twenty-nine-year-old human female who has never done anything even halfway spectacular. It’s not fairto ask me to find a stronghold and figure out how to deactivate a curse that is a couple of hundred years old, in less than three hours.”

“You’re right,” Tieran said. “About most of it, anyway.” He picked her up bridal style and walked through the living room looking for some place where it would just be him and her. When he found her old bedroom that her mother had set up as a sewing room, he walked in and shut the door.

He placed Tia on her feet before pressing her against the wall. “Everything about this is unfair and we don’t have to try to save the world, either of them. Let them burn.” His smile melted her heart. “As long as you’re in my arms when the end comes, I won’t complain.” Tia laughed. It bordered on desperation, but it was a laugh.

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