Page 36 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
She told me how the Mist had burned and she’d felt like she was losing herself in it. I recalled Wolf’s description of pain with horror. He’d told me how it was impossible to flee from the Mist’s bonds, describing a pain unlike any I’d ever experienced. Which was exactly why I struggled to believe him, because I’d never felt it, so it didn’t seem real. But did my experience mean I knew what it was like for others? Or could we be in the same boat yet sailing through different storms?
Julie had tried to flee, only to be hunted by some of the beasts. Then Locke had appeared, killed a fenriswulf that was about to make Julie its next meal, and then brought her here. It was almost uncanny, the similarities to my own plight and rescue. Without Wolf, I could have been victim to another fenriswulf. I wondered if the one Locke had killed was the twin brother Wolf had mentioned.
Now that I had Julie’s word to add to his, Wolf’s version rang truer. Was everything I believed wrong? What if my truth was the lie?
“It’s really that bad?” My voice was a whisper.
Julie’s eyes were pitying. “It wasn't just as bad as everyone says. It was indescribably worse.”
My foundation cracked. The ground I’d stood firm on for years was shifting, and I didn’t know what to do about it.
Worrying at my bottom lip with my teeth, I dreaded how much more Wolf had told me might be true. “Julie, have you heard of the Ruby Witch?”
“So you do know about the curse. Everyone knows the Ruby Witch’s name. She doomed our whole world.”
The food in my stomach turned to stone. I didn't want to believe it, but why would Julie lie to me? Grandma was a witch.
“Why do you look like you just swallowed a fly?” she asked.
“I…I need you to tell me everything you know about gemstone witches.”
“What? Why?”
“Just...please?”
The woman was too smart to avoid reaching the obvious conclusion. "Emi. Are you a witch?"
“No, I'm not, I swear. I have no magic, and…” I swallowed hard. “And even if I did, I would never hurt you.” It was as close as I’d come to admitting the possibility.
Her gaze was shrewd. Eventually, she nodded.
It turned out Julie knew a lot about gemstone witches. “For reasons I don’t want to get into, I spent a long time after my mother’s death researching magic and witches.”
As the lantern over the table sent flickering light dancing up the walls, she spoke of how witches are named for gemstones based on an affinity determined at birth, and how that stone will be their best magic conduit later. Julie explained how witches awaken their magic with a wish; the first wish they ever make determines what magic they will have.
I finally understood what Wolf had meant about wishing him dead.
There! That was proof I couldn’t be a witch. Surely I’d made wishes before. Not that I could think of any just then, but no one could have reached my age without wishing for…something.
“The Ruby Witch is infamous because her magic is curse magic, and powerful,” Julie explained.
While she finished, I racked my memories for a wish I’d made. It must have happened. I’d been sad about not feeling love from my father and not being interesting enough for Jade, but I’d always just pushed those sorrows down. There was nopoint wishing for something that wouldn’t change, so I hadn’t. Feeling sorry for myself wasn’t the same as wishing things were different. What would have been the point in that? That would have been like wishing my mother hadn’t left us, or that the townspeople would magically like me the way they did Jade. It seemed absurd to think anything so simple as a wish could change anything, so I’d never tried.
Something small, then. Surely I’d made an accidental wish somewhere along the way. Hadn’t I?
Chapter 17
Emi
My arm ached with fatigue from holding up the long sword, and Julie’d sworn it was her lightest blade when she selected it for me. The moment I’d seen the wall of gleaming swords in the smithy, I’d asked Julie to train me. I’d begged with treacle pie.
“You’ll get used to it,” the blonde warrior told me while moving through the sequence she’d shown me with the grace of a soaring bird. “But it takes time.”
I tried it again and felt like a lumbering pack-lorcan on three legs. “Did you learn all this in Anterra?”
“Definitely not,” she snorted, then put on a prim voice. “A lady does not play with swords.”
“A lady? Or aLady?” I arched an eyebrow at her rare revelation, causing her to pause with her sword elevated.
