Page 30

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A t first, the person in front of us didn’t seem to be a threat.

It was a tall, slender man…or was it a woman?

I honestly couldn’t tell. Anyway, he or she was wearing a long, emerald green robe and had long red hair and delicate, androgynous features.

The person also had mesmerizing green eyes…

or were they purple? I blinked. No, they were blue. The color kept changing…

“Don’t look into their eyes,” Rath rumbled in my ear. “Don’t let them mesmerize you.”

“Huh?” I blinked and somehow dragged my eyes away. But they kept wanting to return.

“Who are you and why are you in our path?” Rath asked the person standing in the woods in front of us.

“We are but a simple messenger.” The voice was also soft and androgynous. “You do not wish to seek this path—you should return to your home where it is safe and warm and dry.”

Somehow the words sounded extremely reasonable and true. Despite my new winter coat and Rath’s body heat radiating against me, I was shivering with cold. Being warm and dry sounded really good right now.

“You know, maybe they’re right,” I said to Rath.

“Maybe…” he rumbled in a deep, dreamy voice. Then he shook himself. “No—don’t listen, Sarah!” He looked at me fiercely. “I’m going to walk past them—put your fingers in your ears and don’t look at them.”

I tried to do as he said, but the wooly gloves I was wearing kept me from really plugging my ears. I could still hear the person in the green robe speaking, even though I did my best not to look at them.

“Come now,” they said coaxingly even as Rath moved right towards them, a determined expression on his face. “Come now—this is no time to be out in the elements! Why do you not go back to your home where you can find comfort and warmth?”

Again, the words sounded eminently practical and true.

I wasn’t built for snow and ice—I was a Florida girl, I reasoned to myself.

It really was so much nicer back at my Grandma’s house with a fire going in the fireplace…

maybe some hot chocolate with marshmallows melting on top and Sebastian purring as he snuggled against my side…

“You do not wish to seek Baba Yaga,” the person murmured.

And as Rath got closer to them, their voice seemed to weave around me, like an enticing melody.

“You do not wish to bother Grandmother Witch. She is an old woman…a poor old woman who only wants to be left alone. Why would you torment her with your presence?”

Suddenly I felt really bad. What was wrong with us, going to bother a poor old woman who just wanted to be left alone?

I knew exactly how she felt—it was the same way I felt anytime a stranger came to my door or the phone rang with an unknown number.

The social anxiety was awful—it was cruel and wrong of us to put her through such agony!

“They’re right,” I said to Rath again. “I know how hard it is to deal with people sometimes. We shouldn’t be forcing ourselves on Baba Yaga like this.”

“It does kind of make me feel like an asshole,” he admitted, looking ashamed. “Makes me feel almost as bad as I did after chasing you through your backyard that first day you were here.”

“I know I hate it when strangers bother me,” I said. “Maybe we’d better go back. We can snuggle on the couch in front of the fireplace and I’ll make us some hot chocolate.”

“ Mmm , that does sound nice—especially the ‘snuggling’ part,” he rumbled. He started to turn around…then stopped.

“Rath?” I asked, frowning at him. “Are we going home or not?”

He shook his head, like someone trying to clear their mind.

“No, we’re not,” he growled. “This is just a trick—they’re telling us lies! Don’t listen to them!”

I looked at the person in the green robe and saw their color-shifting eyes turn a pale, menacing yellow. Yet, the sweet, androgynous voice stayed soft and lilting.

“You do not wish to visit Baba Yaga,” they began again.

Even before they gave a reason, I felt the seductive melody of their voice weaving around me like a poison rope.

A spell—they’re casting a spell on us. Telling us lies and making us believe them ! I thought. We need some way to stop them—to stop the spell. But how?

I suddenly remembered my last minute preparations in the kitchen. I didn’t know if what I had packed would help, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

Reaching into my coat, I dug into the inside pocket and pulled out a small glass jar. I had found it in the basement and transferred the jelly it had held into another container. Now it sloshed with viscous purple liquid—the remains of the potion I’d made the night before.

I had been keeping it close to my body so it wouldn’t freeze. Now I threw it at the person in the green robe as hard as I could.

I had been aiming right at them, but luckily I have shitty aim. So instead of hitting the person in the abdomen and bouncing off into a drift, the glass jar hit the snow dusted rock they were standing on and burst into a million glass shards.

The potion sprayed up, splattering the person’s robe and making a sticky, purple mess. Some even spattered on their cheeks and mouth.

“Ugh!” The pretty, androgynous face wrinkled in disgust and they tried to brush the potion off their robe. Then they brought their hands to their face. “What is this stuff—what is that smell?” They licked their lips. “We have it on our mouth too! Disgusting!”

I had noticed when I poured the rest of the potion into a jar that it seemed to have gotten much stronger—maybe from sitting out all night.

Anyway, it didn’t take much of it to take effect on the person in the green robe.

They began writhing in an alarming way—it almost looked like they were trying to tear themselves apart.

And then they did tear apart—into two separate people. One was clearly a beautiful woman with long red hair and the other was a tall, handsome man with shorter hair and flashing eyes. Both of them were wearing identical green robes.

“Who are you?” Rath demanded again, and this time the person—who had now become two people—answered truthfully.

“We are the Dual Natured—we serve Baba Yaga!” the woman declared.

“She sent us to weave our spell of persuasion and turn you back,” the man added.

“That’s what I thought,” Rath growled. “Now get the fuck out of the way and let us pass!”

But the two people who had called themselves “the Dual Natured” were too busy to answer.

They were looking at each other with what could only be described as extreme longing…

which abruptly turned into lust. Suddenly they were kissing each other and tearing at the green robes they were both somehow wearing.

Before Rath and I could even get past them, they were lying on the snowy ground, going at it as fast and hard as possible.

“Wow,” I muttered, glancing back at them as we left them behind. “That gives a whole new meaning to the words, ‘go fuck yourself!’”

Rath snorted laughter and looked at me.

“I guess it was the tincture you brewed that you threw at them? The one that was a truth serum and a lust potion in one?”

I nodded.

“I thought it might come in handy.”

“You were right. We never would have gotten past them if you hadn’t been so quick thinking.”

“Well, I might not be able to lift a giant hammer, but I do my best.” I grinned at him and he grinned back.

“Oh, getting full of yourself now, huh?”

“I wouldn’t say that exactly,” I began. But then the words died in my mouth. I pointed with a shaking finger at the trees ahead of us. “Rath, what’s that?”

He looked where I was pointing and his face went grim.

“That is our third challenge and I’ll need to face it by myself.” He had been carrying me all this time but now he set me down on the snowy ground. “Get away, baby,” he growled softly, his eyes never leaving the threat. “Run and hide like you promised. I have to deal with this alone.”