Page 7 of The Silent Mountain (Under the Werewolf Crown #2)

seven

A Witch for the Silent Mountain

*FAVIAN*

I didn’t expect Stefan to find help so fast. It doesn’t even take him a week before he informs me that he’s found a witch who might fit my demands for our clan. He claims she is completely different to any witch I’ve ever met and probably won’t awaken any antipathy from my clan.

I also make sure that Alana is around when he arrives with said witch. Alana has experience with witches, and I trust her intuition. If I’m being honest with myself, part of me hopes this works out because Alana, Ludwig and Barbara stumbled over a dead bird recently. They have further researched it and found another dead albatross. We still don’t know the cause of their deaths. On top of that, Alana is still struggling with her nightmares.

I have a bad feeling about it, about all of it.

If the witch proves to be trustworthy, I would like to take her to the shore so that she can take a look at what’s going on.

“It’s going to be alright,” Alana tells me when we head to my meeting room after breakfast. “Please don’t worry so much. I won’t allow any threat to enter this kingdom.”

“Is my tension that obvious?”

She takes my hand. “I think I feel it through the mate bond,” she admits. “But even if I didn’t, it’s still pretty evident on your face.” She pauses. “How have you been sleeping recently? With the scented candles and the tea that we tried.”

I look at her, not able to lie straight to her face. “It’s the usual.”

She looks shocked. “You didn’t sleep at all?”

“The tea helped me relax,” I admit. “But I subconsciously battled its effects.”

Alana looks worried now, but nothing about her indicates that she is ready to give up. Since her first nightmare, when she found out about my insomnia, she has provided me with one idea after another to try and help me sleep. “Alright, I will think of something new for tonight.”

I’m curious to see what she has planned now. She is like an endless pit of ideas and creativity, something I truly love about her. But there is no time for further discussion, because Stefan and his witch are already waiting for us. Once I step into my meeting room, my eyes land on Stefan first, who bows and greets me politely, then I spot the young woman next to him. She is of small height, has the wildest locks I’ve ever seen, and a cute button nose. She is rather small and curvy.

“Your Highness,” Stefan says politely. “I’ve summoned the witch just as you requested.”

My attention turns from him to the young woman next to him once more. “She is the witch?”

“Yes, sir,” she says with a bright smile. “I mean, yes, King Fabi.”

“Favian,” Stefan corrects her.

“Oops,” she blushes. “King Favian.”

I stare at her in disbelief. I’m not sure what I expected, but she doesn’t look like any witch I’ve ever met or heard of before. Next to me, I can feel Alana’s surprise, and her curiosity too. “You are a witch?”

“Yes, a white witch, I only use magic I can extract from nature, like healing spells or defensive ones,” she says. “I know a bit about curses as well.”

That doesn’t sound too bad, but still… “So, you can heal?”

“I… I guess I can try?” she offers.

Which is it now? I am starting to feel a tad annoyed. So far, I’ve tried to use the mind link as little as possible. Our links get more stable as we grow together as a clan. As the king, I can link any one of my dragon shifters at any time, but they are all still healing and collecting the pieces of their former life. Their minds are still resting, and so are their dragons, which is why I barely link them.

But I feel like now is a good time to make an exception. Is this a joke? I ask Stefan.

She is a witch unlike any other, he says.

I stare at him. I wanted an unusual witch, yes, but not a useless one!

Allow me to show you something, my king.

I nod at him.

“Cassie,” he starts. “Are you happy to be here? You must be honored to serve the Dragon King.”

“Of course I am,” she beams, smiling brightly at us.

My annoyance starts to return as I try to figure out what Stefan wants to prove with this fake little question and her fake little answer. That’s when I see it. Blue dots are starting to spread on her skin.

Alana and I exchange a surprised look.

“You are turning blue,” I mutter.

“Oh no,” she whines, rubbing her face. “No, no, no, stop it! Okay, okay, I’m honored, but I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to serve the dragons, but I have no other choice!”

The dots on her face start to disappear. When I exchange a look with Stefan, his lips curl into the hint of a smirk.

“So, why don’t you have a choice?”

She lets her arms hang down. “My coven kicked me out.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s a fun story, really,” she says. “I was trying to make potions, and sometimes things go awry when I do that, as happens to everyone occasionally. Well, to me it happens more often.”

I am not particularly fond of what she just said. Am I truly supposed to let this chaotic witch brew potions to heal my dragon shifters?

“So, I was minding my own business,” she continues, not even sensing my discomfort. “Our leader, a strong witch, had just chosen her forever mate. They were on the floor right above mine, and they were about to do“—she blushes again—“what two adults in love do,” she whispers. “It’s a very important ritual that binds them together. Well, at that moment, my potion exploded, and everything started burning. There was a lot of fog everywhere, and-“

“It disrupted them?” I finish.

“And their ritual,” she whines. “So, instead of a beautiful rune on their arms, they now have a symbol of an exploding bottle and fog around it. She… was not amused.”

“I found her in one of the villages of the werewolves,” Stefan explains. “They allowed her to stay.”

“I really tried to help the villagers with their harvest,” she says. “But one of my potions-“

“Went wrong?” Alana finishes.

“Yes, their carrots grew four times their size overnight, and some of their horses ate from it and grew too.”

“Fantastic,” I mutter. “And what’s with the blue dots?”

“Oh,” she smiles sadly. “That’s a curse my former coven leader put on me so that everyone around me will be warned of my uselessness,” she explains. “I… I can’t lie.”

“What?” I ask, surprised.

“I always have to speak the truth, so everyone knows what they sign up for when they interact with me.”

A witch who can’t lie? It starts to sink in. That’s why Stefan brought her along. My people won’t be scared of her; they will find her amusing at best, or annoying or cute, but certainly not terrifying. And she can’t lie, which means she can’t betray us.

I see, I link Stefan.

I know she is not what you expected, my king, but would you have been able to accept a strong witch as one of our clan members?

He isn’t wrong, but still, I would have liked to have a more capable witch around.

“Where can I stay?” the witch asks.

“Your name is Cassie?” I ask her in return.

She clasps her cheeks. “I forgot to introduce myself! I’m such a dunce!” She straightens her back. “I’m Cassie, white witch of… the Silent Mountain, now I guess.”

Alana chuckles. “How old are you, Cassie?”

“Seventeen,” she says.

So young! She is pretty much Elio’s age, a bit older maybe. That’s why she looks so innocent. “What kind of coven kicks out a child!?” I ask in shock.

“I actually got kicked out when I turned sixteen,” she admits.

“Witches are said to be of age the moment they turn sixteen,” Alana explains quietly. “That doesn’t make it right though.”

I agree with her. It doesn’t make it right!

“My former coven is a very elitist one,” she admits. “They sometimes get hired by the Fae kingdom for help and are very proud of their heritage and strength. I was always the odd one out. They only kept me because my mom was a powerful witch and died for the coven.”

“I thought covens were like families,” I say.

“No, most of them are really more like an organization,” Cassie explains. “It’s not like a shifter pack.”

“It’s why a lot of witches like to join a pack,” Alana explains. “Many of them are also lone witches, like Aylin, the witch of the royal werewolf pack. Dark witches can get very old and often spend centuries roaming the lands and different countries before settling down. White witches are rather rooted to one place.”

“Okay, Cassie,” I frown. “Where can you stay? I think I have an idea.” I call one of my guards, having him bring Frederick to me. He appears only a couple of minutes later as he was just in the library, reading up on herbs.

“King Favian,” he says with a gentle smile. “How can I help you?”

With a few words, I describe Cassie’s situation, noticing how Frederick indeed looks at her sympathetically instead of fearfully. Stefan’s strategy might just work.

“As our current healer, do you think you could mentor and tutor her to learn more about healing?” I ask him.

“Of course,” he smiles at Cassie. “What do you think, little Miss Cassie?”

“I would love to!” she beams. “No one has ever tutored me before.”

“If you want, my king, she can stay in my house,” Frederick offers. “My mate and I are alone and wouldn’t mind the breath of fresh air.”

“She is slightly… chaotic,” I warn him.

“I noticed that from your explanation already,” he says with a smile. “It doesn’t matter.”

“What do you think, Cassie?” I ask her.

“I would like to stay with the nice old man,” she agrees, making Stefan and Alana grin.

Frederick doesn’t seem to mind being called old and instead just chuckles. “Then, allow me to show you the way.”

I watch them both leave, shaking my head slightly. “What do you think?” Alana asks me.

“It could work,” I admit. “The fact that she can’t lie could prove useful for us, but also become a danger.”

“I agree,” Stefan says. “If our enemies get her, then it might be dangerous. We can’t share any secrets with her.”

“Once she proves to be trustworthy,” Alana says. “We can find a way to lift the curse. She is only seventeen. I doubt her former coven leader put an unbreakable curse on her. I’d even go as far as to say that if she put some thinking into it, she probably could have already broken it.”

“I’m not sure if I should cry or laugh,” I say, but slowly my amusement wins over.

“I can keep an eye on her,” Alana offers.

I’m not sure how to feel about that. I know Alana is capable, but at the same time, I don’t want to deliberately put her at risk. She catches on to my troubled thoughts and looks at me, amused. “I’m capable of handling this young witch, and I have Barbara and Ludwig constantly with me.”

“I know,” I mutter. “Still, she poses a risk.”

“I will keep an eye on her too,” Stefan says. “It was me who brought her into our kingdom, so part of the responsibility lies on me.”

“See, we will share the babysitting,” Alana says.

I have nothing to complain about her offer now, so I just nod. “Thank you. Now, the only problem that remains is: Is she even useful?”

“She is chaotic and young,” Stefan explains. “But she comes from an elite coven, and she has learned a lot. She just doesn’t know what to do with her knowledge. Also, my contacts have told me that she has a good intuition.”

“Well, I guess we can try,” I say.

“What’s the plan for the rest of the day?” Alana asks. “You asked me to keep the whole day free.”

“I want to head to the shore,” I say. “And would like to take you with me.”

“Because of the two albatrosses?” she asks, instantly interested.

“Now that Cassie is here, it’s time to put her abilities to the test,” I say. “And her loyalty. Stefan, let her settle in with Frederick and his mate, then pick her up and fly her down to the shore. We will take off in a couple of hours.”

“We are flying?” Alana smiles.

“That is, unless you prefer walking?” I tease.

“Thank you,” she chuckles. “I know the path now. If I have the chance to fly, I will take it anytime.”

Inside, I can feel my dragon stirring contentedly. He is very pleased that she feels so comfortable with our dragon side.

You are doing well, Favia reassures me. She is slowly but steadily feeling more and more comfortable here.