Page 55 of Autumn of the Witch

“Before she said that about me leaving, she said she didn’t come to see us when I was sick. That she never came to our house.” Viv started walking again, looking at her feet. “Why would she tell such an obvious lie? But if she was telling the truth…”

“Someone else was at the door,” Sasha said. Viv suppressed a chill.

“Every time? Every single time I’ve been sick since I’ve lived with you?”

Sasha shrugged. “I don’t know. Who would want to do that? Someone your mom doesn’t like? Someone who doesn’t like you? That’d be a short list, baby. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like you.”

“Thanks, Sasha. But I can name one. We just met her.” She groaned. “I don’t get it.”

“Let’s go home and have some of Micah’s witch tea, and maybe it’ll make more sense.” Sasha took her hand again. “And then you can use your magic on me. Or teach him, so you can shock my nipples, right, and he can shock my ass, and then you can get the briar flogger.”

Viv snorted. “Making you cry sounds a lot more appealing than trying to figure out what Mother meant.”

“See? That’s what I bring to the table,” Sasha said, gesturing to himself. “Perspective.”

He had her laughing by the time they made it up the steps out of the Compound, and Viv was wondering if he didn’t deserve another night of torment for turning a miserable situation around. He was whistling as they made their way slowly across the field, taking time to stop when Viv needed a rest. The wind stirred Sasha’s hair and made Viv’s cloak billow, and it wasn’t until Viv smelled burning moss and green wood that she suspected anything was wrong.

She saw Micah before he saw them. He was standing in front of the entrance to their cave, a ball of magical fire in his hands, staring at the woods. When Sasha called out to him, the fire disappeared, and Micah ran for them, grabbing at Viv’s cloak.

“Get inside.” His voice was frantic, more so than Viv had ever heard before. “Get inside now. It’s out here. The thing with your face, Viv, it’s back.”

Sasha didn’t hesitate. He grabbed Viv, who was used to him hauling her around, and Micah, who squawked indignantly as he was slung over Sasha’s shoulder, and ran down the steps to the door. They tumbled inside, and Sasha slammed the door shut, locked it, and shoved a board across it before Viv could even speak.

Then he flicked a rude gesture at the door for good measure, which would have made Viv laugh if she weren’t sitting on the floor next to a terrified, panting Micah. She turned to him and lay a gentle hand on his chest, and he looked at her, eyes wide.

“Tell me what happened.”

It came out in a rush. When Micah explained how the thing tried to climb him—wanted to eat him—Sasha actually growled, but Viv’s mind kept circling back to what it had said to him when he was questioning it.

“It said it had babies,” Viv said. “It called me by name.”

“And it wanted us to open the door,” Micah added. “So, I mean, if we keep the door shut…”

“We’ll starve,” Sasha said, voice hard. “We’re not done preparing for winter. If you can set it on fire, I wonder if I can beat it to death.”

“It’ll come back,” Micah said. They were still sitting in front of the door, and Micah’s breathing hadn’t slowed. “It was in the woods. You can kill it, but it comes back.”

“It wasn’t me,” Viv said. Sasha and Micah turned to look at her. “That thing, it wasn’t me. It wasn’t wearing my face.”

“What do you mean?” Sasha asked.

“It’s my mother.” Viv shuddered. “That thing is wearing my mother’s face, not mine. It probably had my mother’s voice. You said the voice was wrong, didn’t you, Micah? That’s because it was hers. Her voice. The voice we hear every time I’m sick.”

“The voice asking you to open the door,” Sasha said, too quiet.

“And Mother said not to open the door to her anymore, when I spoke to her just now. She said it wasn’t her coming here.” Viv felt cold, distant from her own body. “She knew. She knew it was out there. She knew what it was. What it wanted.”

“But how?” Micah reached for her, and Viv leaned against his chest. She started kicking off her boots, and Sasha took them off the rest of the way for her.

Viv thought of her mother. The way she’d always locked the doors when Viv was sick, keeping her in her room as if she were something ugly that had to be pushed out of sight. How tense she’d been when Viv began using magic, how she’d tried to discourage her, told her it was dangerous, unlucky. But then…

“When I was ten, I made a fire in the kitchen,” Viv said. “Out of that… violet light I give off, sometimes.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s the best, Micah.”

“Hush,” Viv said, poking Sasha with a foot. “When the fire was out, she said that I needed to keep it in a circle next time. I used to think she knew to tell me that because she had relatives who were witches, but…” Viv didn’t want to say it. “But maybe I was wrong. Maybe that thing out there… it’s hers.”

“You mean she’s a witch?” Sasha scowled. “After she gave you so much shit for it?”

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