Page 31 of Curse of Immortality
Goodbye Old Friend
Throughout the morning Rose had kept to the town square, selling her fruits and vegetables. As always, she kept a low profile and only conversed with those that approached her.
James Lanchester didn’t arrive in town to buy anything. Being the biggest landowner in the area, he was the landlord of more than half of the houses in Lerwick. For the most part, he had employees who dealt with collecting rent and taking care of improvements on the houses. But his father had taught him to keep an eye on things and never let his people think they could get away with anything behind his back.
Ever since he was a boy, James had visited Lerwick with his father and learned to always stay on his horse as he rode through the streets of the town. Looking down at the tenants and townspeople reminded them that he was above them in both rank and fortune.
Normally, he would greet people, but today he ignored everyone who stepped aside for him to let his horse pass. He was in a bad mood because he couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened in the forest. As far as he was concerned, he had killed Maeve, but when he went back to make sure she was dead, her body had been gone. James was used to confrontations and drama in his life. People often accused him of being heartless when he put out families with young children who couldn’t pay their rent. That part didn’t concern him much, but his fight with Maeve was troubling because if she was truly a witch, she could be conspiring with the devil himself.
James didn’t like the idea that Lucifer might be targeting him to get revenge for his killing Maeve. As his horse reached the market square, he shot a glance around to see the tradesmen selling their products. A woman with curly brown hair pulled back in a braid caught his eye and made him bring his horse to a stop.
It took a mere moment for him to remember where he had seen her before and then he narrowed his eyes. Rose’s facial expression was soft and her tone kind as she spoke to a young woman. She looked very different from when she’d caught Maeve and James together, but even without her pale and shocked face, James recognized Rose. He didn’t have a talent for remembering names or faces, but he remembered thinking Rose was quite ugly and looked nothing like Maeve. He was angry and embarrassed to think that he’d been fooled by Maeve, who was most likely a hideous hag in real life.
James didn’t know that Althea and Rose had saved Maeve after he’d stabbed her, but Maeve had talked about having a sister and an aunt and he suspected that they were witches too. He always took pleasure in squashing his opponents and in this case, it was his civic duty and responsibility to protect people from the devil’s servants. Kicking his horse, he got it to move again and steered straight to the church. The local pastor, Mr. Bancroft, had long suspected that the devil had local allies and when James, the most powerful man in the area, came to ask for his help in the matter, he saw it as an opportunity to show everyone that he was a man of bravery and action.
Within an hour, Rose had been detained and confronted with a list of accusations. She denied having anything to do with the death of the hatter’s daughter or the sinking of the boat that went missing with two local fishermen. Rose denied being a witch, but James’ accusation weighed heavily and quickly convinced the townspeople.
Despite how kind Rose had been to her customers or how hard she’d tried to keep a low profile, she was doomed the moment the first bloodthirsty townsman shouted, “Burn the witch.”
Sending a message to Tobias, Rose let the horse know that he needed to run home and warn Althea and Maeve to leave immediately. She was smart enough to understand that they weren’t safe in these parts of the country anymore.
By the time Tobias got back to the cottage, he nearly collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
When Maeve looked into Tobias’s tired and fearful eyes, she recognized the faces he’d seen, and her heart felt like someone was squeezing it too tight when she saw James pointing towards Rose in Tobias’s memory.
Althea and Maeve didn’t follow Rose’s warnings to run away. With the new feeling of power running through them from the crystal, they were determined to free Rose from the awful humans detaining her. They ran toward the town as fast as their bare feet could carry them. And yet, it wasn’t fast enough.
The smell of smoke assaulted their nostrils as they got close to town and ran through the streets to the square. There, right in the middle, the last of a pyre was still burning, but few people were still around to see it. “You missed it all,” a teenage boy told Maeve with a grin that quickly disappeared when he saw the pain on her face.
“What happened?” Althea asked and stopped to stare. Her mind was searching for proof that Rose hadn’t been the victim of a witch-burning.
“They caught an ugly witch. Had you come half an hour ago you would have heard her scream and beg for her life.”
Althea’s hand went to her mouth and her eyes teared up as she stumbled closer to the stake. Her mind couldn’t comprehend that the charred pile was what was left of her beloved aunt.
Maeve’s shock quickly turned to anger. Spinning around she searched for James, but now that the execution was over, and Rose was dead, he and most of the people had already left.
While Althea fell to her knees and buried her head in her hands, sobbing with grief, Maeve stayed on her feet with a jaw so clenched it might’ve broken her teeth if she hadn’t taken the crystal. She couldn’t rip her gaze away from what was left of Rose’s dead body and her imagination kept showing her what agony her aunt had gone through. Like boiling water, the fuming bubbles intensified inside of Maeve. Rose wouldn’t have gone into the village today if Maeve hadn’t wanted to get her locket back from James. He wouldn’t have attacked Rose if he hadn’t recognized her from the run-in. Silent tears ran down Maeve’s cheeks as her inner voice screamed that this washer fault. She was the cause of her aunt’s death. Rose, the woman she loved like a mother and who loved her back unconditionally.
Maeve’s eyes narrowed when she spotted four young men kicking at some of the embers and laughing. Even though Maeve was the reason Rose had insisted on going to town, she wasn’t the one who had tied her aunt to a pole and set her on fire. Humans were the essence of evil, and Maeve had reached her limit. They betrayed, they lied, and they murdered for the fun of it. It wasn’t fair that Earthens had to flee into the woods for safety, while humans paraded around ruling the world. Fueled with anger Maeve decided that she was done bowing her neck and keeping a low profile. Zosia had chosen her because she had what it took to fight back. Her mother had been cold-hearted, and she would use that part of her to get back at every human who had hurt Rose.
Just like water boiling in a kettle, a loud howl escaped Maeve as she turned toward the teenagers, cursing all humans.
“Get away from her,” she ordered them, but they just stared in confusion.
Raising her hands, Maeve instinctively let her fury form balls of fire that she shot from her hands in their direction.
The boys jumped back with a loud outburst of surprise and even Maeve quivered in shock when she saw the size of the fire she had produced with her bare hands.
While some people screamed, others grabbed weapons and pointed fingers. “Another witch!”
Althea, who had been sobbing on the ground, managed to pull herself together. “Maeve, we have to go.” She got to her feet and pulled at Maeve’s hand. The square that had been sparse with people before suddenly filled up again as screams and sobbing alerted them that something was happening.
“There are two more witches,” a woman yelled as she marched in a group towards Maeve, who stood still and ignored Althea trying to pull her away.
“Maeve, come on,” Althea sobbed. She had been close to losing her sister once before and now she had lost her beloved aunt.
No matter how much Althea pulled at Maeve, her twin didn’t move.
