Page 34 of The Witch's Spell
Urging my sore leg to move faster, I push through the snow and withered bushes and low-hanging oak branches.And when I emerge on the other side, Aurora somewhere behind me, I find all manner of fairy creatures gathered about, gesturing and exclaiming to one another.
When they see me, they all go silent. Even the slight breeze seems to hold its breath.
In comparison, Aurora is loud behind me, breathing hard as her boots crunch through the ice and snow. Her cloak makes soft scratching noises as she pushes through the bushes and into the hollow. And then she, too, goes quiet.
Immediately, the creatures vanish. They don’t run or hide so much as disguise themselves, using their glamours to blend seamlessly with the snowy landscape.
But Aurora already saw them.
Her hand finds my arm, the touch sending a jolt through me, and she whispers, “Did... Did you see them too?”
I consider lying to her—I’ve not exactly been forthrightsince arriving here—but if something went wrong with the portal, as I fear, I may need her help figuring it out, and if she’s the only witch in the village, she’ll be my only hope.
So, turning my gaze to her, I say loudly enough that my voice carries through the hollow, “You can come out. She won’t harm you.”
Slowly, like stars appearing one by one in the night sky, the creatures let their glamours drop, revealing themselves once more.
Aurora’s grip on my arm tightens, and she draws a small breath.
My pulse quickens at the sound, at the casual touch she so easily bestows upon me. Will she touch me so openly once shelearns what I am?
“What...? How...?” Her eyes find mine. They’re wide and green and sparkling in the sun reflecting off the snow. “What is this?”
“Do you know this place?” I ask. Gently pulling away from her, I step deeper into the hollow. The creatures move around me like ripples from a stone cast into a pond. Sinking to one knee, and trying not to wince in the process, I hold out a hand. One of the small creatures, a pixie with green skin and yellow wings, alights upon my palm.
“I...” Aurora whispers behind me. “I do. My auntie showed me this place. It’s where she taught me to leave offerings for the fairies.”
My heart leaps in my chest. So, Aurora knows of the fairies, leaves offerings for them. That might make this easier.
“Does she leave you offerings?” I ask of the tiny creature still cradled in my palm.
It nods and makes a twinkling noise. But when Aurora approaches from behind me, it startles and flies up into a nearby tree, where it hides behind a bare branch to peer down at us from a safe distance.
Some of the other creatures scamper off into the woods as well, though they don’t go far. And once Aurora has settled onto her knees beside me, breath steaming in the cold air, the woodland fairies begin to emerge slowly once more, eyes blinking with curiosity.
One, a hedgehog-type fairy wearing a tiny knit hat and scarf about its neck, approaches Aurora first, whiskers and ears twitching as it sniffs her hand. When it’s determined she’s safe, it sits back upon its hind legs and makes a gentlepurring sound, which prompts the others to come back out as well.
“Are these... fairies?” Aurora asks, not taking her eyes off the creatures starting to slowly surround us.
Kneeling like this is causing discomfort in my knee and hip, so I drag my cloak around and take a seat on it with a sigh, using the thick material to keep me dry. “Yes. You’ve never seen them before?”
Aurora shakes her head. “No. I’ve been coming here and leaving offerings since I was young. I hear them sometimes, laughing and playing in the trees, but I’ve never seen them.” She giggles when a pixie lands atop her head and begins tugging at a strand of hair. “Why did they reveal themselves to you? And how did you even know of this place? I thought it was my and Auntie’s little secret.”
I prop one knee up and drape an arm over top of it, leaving my cane abandoned in the snow beside me. “The veil between our realms is thin here. It’s like a door, a thoroughfare for fairies to pass through.”
Aurora has stopped giggling and is watching me closely now. I can feel her steady gaze on the side of my face. I turn slowly to meet her verdant eyes.
“You’re one of them,” she says. The words send her breath steaming in the small space between us. Upon coming to her own conclusion, her eyes widen. “You’re a fairy.”
Well, now that she knows . . .
I let out a gentle sigh, and with it, my glamour falls away.
Chapter 20
Aurora
AS I STARE AT THORNE, he starts to shimmer gently, so gently I may have missed it were I not looking right at him. Light shines from him as if he has a tiny sun glowing just beneath his skin. And when the shimmering stops, I can do little but draw a breath.
