Page 7 of My Dark Obsession

‘Dark Witch-Tenebris Pythonissam’

Amaya

Cool air greeted me. Misty droplets settled on my skin and a slight breeze blew my hair from my face. I was walking on water. All sound was muffled as if I had my hands covering my ears.

Two steps were all it took before my feet settled on hard ground.

Opening my eyes, I gasped. All around me hung wisteria trees.

Their long drooping clusters of purple petals dangling created a shelter from the beaming sun, the leaves a feathered lace that resembled a fern.

There were so many, hundreds in fact. I’d never seen such beauty.

A cool breeze blew through their swaying delicate blades causing the fallen petals to gather together on the stone floor.

Birds sung in the distance, harmonising with the leaves when they brushed against each other in the wind, so gentle, so serene.

Something within me had unfurled and stretched.

My eyes closed against the breathtaking sight before me as I inhaled the fragrant air.

The trees' honeysuckle and Rí’s mixture of sweet and smoky surrounded my senses.

I didn't know what this feeling was, but I could almost say it was what peace felt like.

“These ones are called a Black Dragon Wisteria.” Rí had stepped through the portal and stood with his hands tucked into his pockets. Watching me closely as always.

The air was different here; it didn’t slap you in the face with a sweltering heat and choke you, its cool breeze was heavenly on my face.

How was it possible to walk through a blur and end up somewhere so beautiful with entirely different climate zones?

Magic. It was all magic.

There was something about those trees, something important in their magnificent structure.

“Wisteria, is that where the name comes from?” I asked as I ran my hand through a cluster, their petals soft and ticklish on my palm.

“Yes, the First supernatural found this realm, and all tha’ was here was land and one Wisteria tree.

Their Circle embraced its magic and the realm grew, more supernaturals gathered and the population expanded.

” He hadn’t moved from his spot by the portal.

His hands were still tucked in his pockets as he tracked me walking from tree to tree, touching, smelling and exploring the beauty.

Nothing had ever drawn my attention like that before.

When a tree's roots dug into the ground and held on with all its might and it grew and expanded, its branches reaching far and wide and its leaves and petals vibrant and strong, it was a sign of life.

A sign of a past, a present and its future.

It had time. It had viability. Its essence was creation itself.

I hated that.

Hated its freedom to grow.

Hated its healthy future.

Was I jealous of a tree's ability to set roots and grow?

Maybe.

Snatching my hand away from the petals I muttered, “Where do we go now?”

He gestured to a small path covered in fallen purple petals. We walked under the Wisteria in silence. I had no urge to fill the quiet and neither did he.

We didn't walk for long before Rí lifted one dangling full branch and nodded for me to duck under. We entered a small hidden clearing. A circle of trees surrounded us, the floor covered in its petals and a small empty wooden crate rested against a large protruding root.

“He’ll be here soon. He’s usually late.” He grumbled and nudged the crate with a shake of his head, his brown messy hair flopping onto his deep furrowed brow.

Something about this giant of a man called to me, with his bright eyes that followed me everywhere and softened whenever they settled upon my face.

It was unnerving the way my stomach summersaulted with feelings I was unused too .

I gritted my teeth at my own emotions.

“What is this ‘Cole’ able to do to help me exactly?”

Sighing, he scratched at his beard before turning those glowing red eyes my way.

“Cole is a White witch, a good one,” sneering as if it pained him to admit that he carried on. “He can work out how ye’ got here, and if there is a way back. He’ll also know what ye’ are.”

And what was that exactly? What was I? I had thought I was human. Yes, I was peculiar, I couldn't deny that. My morbid fantasies and my tendency to become obsessed with people, well let’s just say I'm not normal. But to be told I was something else entirely?

“Why did you seem shocked before, when I said I was human?”

“Because no humans can live in Wisteria.”

No humans? So everyone in that busy street we had just left was supernatural. Including that overly happy coffee lady, Bri.

Rí’s firewood scent grew stronger as he stepped closer to me. He towered over me with his broad shoulders and tree trunk thighs. “What are ye’ thinking Wee one?” He rumbled.

I don't know why I answered. I don't know why I kept giving in to his questions and his touches, but I found myself blurting out, “If I’m not human, then what the hell else could I be? I definitely don’t shift into an animal.”

And that's when I realised, he hadn’t been completely honest with me. The red of his eyes dulled slightly, his jaw clenched shut and he avoided looking into my eyes.

That bastard knew something and hadn't told me.

“Tell me,” I growled.

For the first time since I saw him in that burnt out village, the giant turned away from me. It pissed me off more.

“What aren't you telling me?” I snarled again. He had me hiding my eyes, had shut down Bri when she saw them, and now had us hidden in this clearing. He was definitely hiding something.

“I have my theories of what ye’ are. But I can’t be certain.” Turning back to me he ran both hands through his hair and gripped it at the top. His huge arms bulged, and I had to drag my eyes away.

He definitely ate his protein.

I gave him my death stare. The one I reserved for those I created my dark fantasies about. If he didn’t start giving me honest answers, I was going to have to put him on my list. And that was a damn shame.

“Ye’ might be a Dark Witch Mo Chridhe, not that it’s an issue with me. Ye’re my Mate no matter what ye’ are.” A Dark Witch.

Weren't we meeting a White witch? What was the issue with dark ones?

“Why do I need to hide my eyes?”

“Only the Dark Witches have Ye’ eyes. Purple eyes.”

“Right, so why do I need to hide them?” I asked firmly as I stepped closer to him. I poked his hard chest and pretended it didn't hurt like a bitch. The man was solid.

He wrapped his large hand around mine and held it to his chest. Trapping me to his warmth.

I held my breath.

There it was again, that warm tingle in my core.

“As I said, It’s no’ an issue to me. But the Dark Witches, they…they started the war. Killed thousands and shut the portals. Trapping all tha’ were in this realm on Wisteria. Cutting off everything from the other realms.”

Oh. Okay so I could potentially be hated by all and frowned upon. Same shit, different day.

Pulling my hand from his grasp, I rolled my eyes.

“Okay, so I may be hated so on and so forth. How am I a Dark Witch in the first place?”

“Ye’ said ye’ had a foster father, so you have birth parents somewhere. The question is, where? There aren't any Dark Witches alive. Well, except ye’ maybe.”

I had never known my birth parents and Lyal had never mentioned them. I could only remember Lyal and his stench. So were my birth parents’ Dark Witches?

“If that’s so, how was I in the human rea–”

“Human realm? That's not possible.” A tight voice behind me said.

I spun around and there stood a tall man, with a lean build and neatly styled white-blond hair.

His blue eyes were cold as he sneered at me.

He crossed his arms, impressing me with how he managed to not create a single crease in his perfectly pressed white shirt.

He was handsome in a way that you hated him. He knew he looked good; he knew he smelled divine with his fresh minty scent, and he knew he was powerful.

What a dick.

He walked further into the clearing, watching me closely, assessing me.

The closer he got, the more details I could see, like the slightly smudged under eyes, the tight pull of his lips, the five o'clock shadow along his jaw even though it was still before noon. This man was tired.

“Cole,” Rí rumbled, inclining his head.

“Rí,” the man, Cole, nodded back.

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

“If you guys are done, I'd like some answers now.”

“As would I. How are you here?” Cole sneered at me once more. I didn't like this man.

“That's why you're here asshat,” I sneered back.

He went to take a step towards me but Rí’s tan hand on his chest stopped him. I found how quickly Rí moved in front of me quite impressive.

“I called ye’ for a reason. We need this discreet.”

“And you thought I would play along in your secrets because..” This man was going to be a problem, I just knew it. Why the hell did Rí think this man was going to help us?

His low rumbling growl caused Cole to step back further. His lip curled at him before he said, “tell me what I need to know.”

“Amaya appeared in the Dead village. She was passed out in the human realm. She was...beaten” Rí’s voice lowered another notch, his jaw ticked as he took a slow breath and continued.

“She has no idea how, no power has emerged, no animal. Only her eyes. They were brown. Now they are changing. More and more as the day draws on.”

At the mention of my eyes the sneering man snapped his head to me and stared at me in shock.

“Thats not possible.”

Obviously was if I was stood there .

“We need to know for sure, and we need to know how she got here.”

Cole looked irritated yet intrigued. He walked towards a pile of fallen petals before pulling a glass vial with orange looking liquid out and poured it onto the pile. Steam rose as he started to mutter to himself quietly.

Why was Cole muttering to himself over a pile of steaming petals? Rí didn't seem bothered.