Page 16 of The Unbound Witch
“But people died.”
“Bastian would send soldiers, or go in himself, to rescue the witches that’d been taken. He would save them by any means necessary, which sometimes meant a death. But it was never a massacre. Never what they made it out to be.”
I shook my head. “But people witnessed them.”
“No,” Raven said with a somber voice. “People only saw the aftermath. What the coven leaders did to those that lived but lost the other witches.”
“But you can’t possibly thinkeveryother coven leader is in on this. We met them. They weren’t all bad. Endora was an asshole, but all of them?”
Raven jerked to a stop, her hands twisting into the skirt of her black gown. “All five of those witches stood on the points of that star and forced death upon me. All five watched me writhe in pain and did nothing. Collectively, they saw your death through, knowing it would be the one thing that could have forced me to kill Bastian. And only when I refused with my own free will did they reveal their hidden plan. They are all guilty.”
I couldn’t believe the conviction in her voice as she spoke those vengeful words. Raven had always been the levelheaded one. The one that searched for reason and held her composure, even when the world around her shattered. She’d never condemn an innocent party. If her opinion was absolute, then so was mine.
* * *
“How long?”I asked, staring at the edge of the village in the distance.
The trees grew thicker here, further away from the sea. The village resembled one we’d find at home much more than the previous one. Quaint cottages were placed on an even grid of cobblestone streets. No stories to the homes, just simple wooden planks, deep green lawns and a plethora of scattered gardens. No wonder Eden had chosen to reside in this town.
“I wish I knew, Kir,” Grey said. “But we can’t take any chances with witch hunters again. Invisible or stay here.”
“I hate being a wraith,” I grumbled.
“Aw. Come on. It’s not so bad. Look at all the fun stuff you can do. You can be invisible whenever you want. You can walk through walls. Eavesdrop like a pro. And probably a bunch of other cool shit we don’t even know about.”
“You’re talking to me like a child right now, Firewing.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Is it working?”
“No!” I huffed, going invisible.
“When you two are done …” Raven cut in, her hands on her hips.
She tried to have a firm tone, but I’d been watching her closely. Her breathing had grown more labored, dark circles had formed under her eyes, her steps had become slower. She hadn’t once complained. Still, the evidence was clear. The human lands were rejecting her for some reason we couldn’t understand. If we stayed here, it was likely we’d be lighting her funeral pyre within a week.
Grey rubbed his hands together. “Okay, for the plan. I know Eden doesn’t live in that town. She’s somewhere around here, though, and I’m guessing if there are witch hunters, she’s lying low. She’s easy to identify. Half of her hair is black, and half is white. She has one light eye and one dark. So, she will be cloaked if she is in the village at all. But I think she’s going to be nestled into that forest on the side of the mountain. It’s similar enough to the Moss Coven, she’d feel at home there.”
“So, why do we need to go to the town?” I asked, still pissed about having to hide.
Grey shot me a look, his eyes shifting to Raven and back to me. “We need a horse. There’s no way we’re going to make it before dark otherwise.”
Of course. By we, he meant her. And he wasn’t wrong. She’d begun to sway as she walked, as if drunk and not sick. We carried on cautiously. Scarred from our previous experience. But as we approached, with still a good bit of daylight left, we walked through the town with a purpose.
“See the horse, darling?” Grey asked, speaking to me under the guise of a conversation with Raven.
He'd want me to spook it, chase it off to where he’d catch him. But the horse was tied up to a half-broken post outside the tavern and, spooked or not, it wasn’t going anywhere.
“Let me go investigate,” I whispered into his ear.
He nodded, glancing over to Raven with that same concern in his eyes. I didn’t wait around, dashing into the tavern through the wall and scouring the drunks inside. The room was full of unbathed men hunched over their tankards. My eyes followed the fat, tabby cat taking careful steps along the bar as its gaze landed on me. I shifted behind a pillar stained with vomit and ale, never more grateful that I couldn’t smell whatever the cesspool of an establishment might be leaking. Confident most of the men had spent their day’s wages on ale, it didn’t take long to find the only one with spurs on his boots and leather gloves tucked into his pocket. He was undoubtedly the one the horse belonged to. And lucky for us, based on his drooling, he was also the drunkest oaf in the bar. I smiled, concocting a simple plan of chaos.
Thinking of Raven and how desperately we needed to find safety, I concentrated with all my might as I shoved the oversized bloke into another man that was attempting to weave through the tightly packed tables. He fell directly off the wooden stool, his tankard crashing to the ground as hard as he did. Those sober enough to notice laughed as the barmaid left her post to grab a mop, grumbling.
While the two men began to bicker back and forth, one shoved the other, and before I could even stir more trouble, the whole place erupted into a brawl. Elbows flew, fists raged forward, and I was pretty sure I saw a tooth knocked out of a mouth.
Hatred bred tension, and in a town where half the population was crammed into a disease-ridden tavern just to escape reality, rocking the proverbial boat had been easier than I could have imagined. Thank the goddess.
“Take him,” I told Grey, who waited against the wall outside the back of the tavern. “No need to cause a scene. Just grab the reins, and let’s go. No one in there is going to notice.”