Page 33 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
“None of that, now.” Fawn smiled kindly, handing me a bowl of stew. “We knew you were out there doing your best for us, like you always do, Wolf.”
“I saw some of you, checking up on me.”
“Not checking up,” Lynx protested, “just worried about you. We saw the girl there.”
“That was Ruby’s granddaughter. She showed up the day after.”
There was a collective hiss of inhaled breaths. “Another witch?” Robin asked.
I snorted. “That’s what I assumed. But Emi hasn’t claimed her magic yet.”
“Obviously, or you’d be dead.” That was Fox, pointing out painfully obvious facts.
“She did try.” I huffed out a laugh. “But Emi was…is…different.”
Robin’s eyebrows shot up. “I think you should tell us everything, from the beginning.”
As we often did, we gathered around Fawn’s fire. She was our den mother, always feeding everyone, so seating had naturally grown around her little piece of the enclave.
Bear and Hawk sat on either side of me, lending reassuring support as I told the group everything since the prophecy and my departure. Even Fox listened closely without reproach.
“The witches said killing her would break the curse. They literally said ‘clear skies can soon reclaim these lands’. No more Mist. They must have lied, I just can’t figure out why.”
“Or the prophecy was wrong,” Lynx suggested.
Robin spoke up. “Impossible. Amber says the Diamond Witch's prophecies are infallible.”
“Well, this one wasn’t,” I muttered, wondering how she could say any witch's name so plainly, without contempt lacing her voice.
From across the fire, Fox cleared his throat. “What exactly did the prophecy say? The precise wording.”
I repeated it, verbatim.
“So not that the curse would break, but that you would gain the power to break it. That's not the same thing,” he said.
He was right, technically. “But nothing happened to me when she died. I didn't gain any kind of power, and all that’s happened since is the Mist got even thicker.”
“Then what?” Robin asked. “After you killed that Ruby bitch, what happened at the cottage?”
“I searched it. I hoped I'd find something I missed.”
”And?”
“There was nothing.” I didn't know why, but I didn't want to tell them all about Emi. I didn't want to talk about our time together. It was probably because we were all wary of witches, not because merely thinking Emi’s name opened the aching hole where my heart lived. “I stayed to search, but there's nothing there. I tore the whole place apart.“
Fox looked contemplative. “Maybe you should go back to the other witches.”
I expected a flare of hatred to burst to life at the idea, but all that happened was an image of Emi filled my mind with fondness. After so long hating all witches for what Ruby had done, now I couldn't help but see them as individuals. I didn’ttrust the Diamond Witch or her failed prophecy, but I could admit I didn’t feel the same malice from her as Ruby had always evoked in her scarlet hood. The Amber and Crystal Witches who’d delivered the prophecy with Diamond, weren’t terribly threatening either. Was it possible not all witches were terrible?
At the forest's edge, I surveyed the Yellow Plain. The Mist wasn’t solid beyond the bounds of Aglonbriar forest, but it was still thick enough to cloak the plain in an endless golden twilight. In the distance, the shadow of a tall beanstalk loomed high into the misty gloom, so high I'd heard it broke through the haze at the top to a true blue sky. It might as well have been a different world.
Even if I could climb it, I couldn't go that far from the woods. The curse bound us too tightly for that sort of distance, so I stood at the edge with solid tendrils wrapping my legs and tail in a gentle caress. Taking a deep breath, I lifted my head and howled to the yellow sky.
The Amber Witch was always nearby, watching over the plain from her beanstalk. Apparently, she’d planted it from a so-called magic bean her brother, Jacks, had obtained. Of course, the only real magic was Amber’s, her plant magic able to grow the legume to such an obscene size that she could weave its branches into a home and platforms from which she kept watch over travelers. My howls clawed at the gold-cast landscape, their echo lingering as I waited.
She strode out of the gloaming like a pale ghost in a floating gossamer gown. Dark hair framed her face, an unusual shade like Emi’s, which sent a pang through me. Amber wasotherworldly in the strange light, and apprehension tightened its fist in my chest.
It didn't escape my notice that I was standing very close to where Leo had lost his head to the sword wielded by Amber’s brother. Another stab of loneliness lanced me at the memory. I was so tired of doing this alone.
