Page 7 of Deceived By a Warrior

Eva Maas

“Your long lost love is waiting for you. Find him.Now.”Eva Maas dramatically flung her hands in the air, putting on quite an impressive show for her latest customer - another human desperately pleading for her fortune to be told.

Around her, the overbearing scent of lavender overloaded Eva’s senses, as it always did. When she first started her psychic business, she didn’t believe she’d ever grow accustomed to that apparently soothingsmell her customers loved so much.

She was right. She never did. Though she did learn to endure it, day in and day out.

When the hipster-like woman in front of her didn’t move, as if wanting more, Eva shooed her away. “That’s all I have.”

Naturally, Eva lied to the woman. There was no long lost love waiting for her.

Did Eva have the ability to see into the future? Absolutely. Did anyone enjoy hearing about theiractualfuture? Never. Especially not humans. Statistically, humans didn’t live to see a day over eighty. When Eva looked into their futures, she often saw tragedy.Theirtragedy.

Yeah, she made a business out of manipulating her customers. So what? A girl on the run had to live.

To her credit, she would give an accurate fortune once in a blue moon, but only when she thought it was worthwhile. For instance, several years ago a young freckled girl approached her, desperately looking formorein her life. Eva was astonished to find this sad human would one day find thatmoreshe was looking for. In fact, she was destined to find the love of her life and become a sorceress - becoming the same species as Eva.

Unable to contain her excitement, she gave that woman a glimpse into her future by telling her,‘You’ll find your future in the green mountains’.Vague, but true.

Eva wondered if that girl had yet met her fate. If she did, then maybe Eva had another sister. Maybe she had one whodidn’thate her.

That girl was destined to kill a sorceress to become one herself. Shehasto hate sorceresses,Eva thought. If that was the case, she’dloveEva. “I hate them all too,” she whispered to herself.

“What?” The woman in the gray beanie, who wasstillsitting in front of her, asked. Somehow, Eva completely forgot that the woman was there.

Try not to zone out so much on the job, yeah? Money doesn’t grow on trees.

“I told you your fortune.” Eva wasn’t in the mood to deal with a customer pestering her formore information,which happened far too often. “My assistant will hand you the bill.” She waved her hand toward the whimsical lilac curtains that separated this room from the one in the front.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Eva’s eyes went wide. “It’s Miss.” Evaknewshe didn’t look like a ma’am - having been frozen into her immortality at the age of twenty-four.

The woman nervously nodded, pushing back her chair and walking out.

Eva sighed, her thoughts centering on the cruel sorceress community she was born into. It was no wonder every sorceress despised her. Sorceresses weren’t born - they were made.

Eva was the exception.

Over a millennia ago, women living on an island off the coast of Norway were threatened by invading pirates. Those pirates killed every man on the island, prepared to take the women for themselves.

Thankfully, a witch from the unnatural world lived among them and grew a life shattering connection with those women - so life shattering that she took her own life to protect those women from the cruel pirates who had taken them as their own. That witch enacted a spell so powerful it wouldn’t work unless she gave her own life, which she did without hesitation.

After the witch died, the women of that island were given their freedom by each being given three powers - unique to each individual woman. The strength of the pirates was nothing compared to the incredible power of these women, women who had been gifted with not only unnatural powers, but immortality as well.

All the sorceresses were given one additional power, thanks to the witch’s life sacrifice.A life for a life. Any sorceress could give her life to save another. That was a power none of those selfish bitches would even think about using.

Granted, Eva wouldn’t use it either.

After killing off every last pirate, life went on for these women. It didn’t take long for them to learn that their abilities and immortality would never pass onto their offspring. A sorceresses’ power could only be passed on to another when murdered by a woman - the murderess soon possessing all the abilities of the sorceress that she killed.

That was the way of the sorceresses. Until Eva was born almost two hundred years ago, that is.

Eva was the product of a sorceress and a human, her birth going against the laws of the unnatural world. Eva wasn’t born a mortal as her father was, as she wassupposedto be born.

No, she was born a sorceress.

Unfortunately, she was only given one special ability - the ability to see the future. Everyone despised her for that ability. It turned out that everyone’s future was much more sobering than anyone wanted it to be.

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