Page 3 of The Unbound Witch
When I closed my eyes, he was there before me, reaching as the death spell took and took and took from me, until I thought I’d perish with him. And then I was here, banished to this land of sorrow. Grey wouldn’t look me in the face. Had taken active measures to avoid me altogether, it seemed. Kirsi was no better.
Eden Mossbrook had always been no more than a lingering story, something akin to a fairytale. The witch that had vanished in the night, taking the Moss Coven Grimoire with her. Endora, her mother, had condemned Bastian’s family for thirty years, proclaiming his father had killed Eden and hidden their Grimoire.
“What the fuck? You know where she is? Why wouldn’t your family have told the witches about her?” Kirsi asked the questions I couldn’t, always the more indomitable and brave between us.
“Because we’re protecting her.”
Kirsi moved in front of Grey, stopping him despite her vacant form. “Eden Mossbrook’s disappearance is half the reason the witches are mad at your royal family. Why would they let that go on?”
Grey simply sidestepped and kept moving. “You’re foolish if you think that’s true. Endora Mossbrook may use that as justification, but she has only ever had one goal, and it’s never been to liberate her daughter, who, by the way, ran away from her. Endora wants to see the end of the shifters in her lifetime, and she’ll stop at nothing to achieve that.”
I didn’t see the hole until it was too late. Twisting my ankle, I fell forward, squeezing my eyes shut to brace for impact. The wounds in my legs from Willow’s arrow and Onyx’s blood-bound knife screamed, though I wouldn’t make a peep about it.
But Grey’s arms were around me before I hit the ground. I stopped breathing. From pain or shock, I wasn’t sure. Our eyes met for the first time since the beach, when he’d been poised over the top of me, ready to take my life, as I’d taken his cousin’s.
Everything in the world stopped as he held me firm, something deep and mysterious within his lingering gaze. I opened my mouth to thank him, to say anything really, but the words didn’t come. He kept me there longer than needed, no doubt trying to work out his hatred for me. But Kirsi cleared her throat behind us, breaking the spell, and we flew apart.
“Thank you,” I muttered, my eyes dropping to the ground.
I’d killed two men. One I’d thought would be with me forever, and one that had hated me since I was a child. Irrevocably damaged, I couldn’t be trusted to understand anything about them anymore.
“We’ll see if we can find a passage back,” Grey said, pushing onward. “There’s a barrier in the sea. A division placed by the goddess to keep magic in the south. The storms along the border there are dangerous, and not all who attempt to cross make it out alive.”
Kir looked at me then, a deep question in her hollow eyes. I shook my head, content to keep my secrets to myself. But as I caught Grey’s curious glance, I surrendered. He’d never trust me again if he knew I was withholding something from him.
“That night in the castle… after Kirsi was murdered…” I held her stare as I spoke to him. “When it felt like I’d bring the whole castle down, throwing the shifters like scattered pebbles and racing for … Bastian.” His name was like a thousand needles upon my skin. Painful, but bringing me to life in a way I didn’t know I needed. “I cast those storms, moved the earth. When I was younger, maybe fifteen or sixteen, I started receiving magic most witches had never heard of. Powerful spells, though there wasn’t enough intensity for them to be more than a prick of magic.
“I could make it rain if I felt sad. I could slam doors. I could push a blanket off a bed. But something has been changing. The day we did the mind Trial, I think the coven leaders realized the depth of my power. I shook the room then, but when I fought against Onyx and Willow, I shook the world. I’m quite certain that with enough…provocation,I could burn it all. Maybe I could control those storms, crack this world.”
Kirsi stared at me, her eyes narrowed. I wasn’t sure if she could cry or feel anything beyond anger, but at least she knew now what her death had done to me.
“So, the coven leaders picked the most powerful witch they could find and gave her a spell that could slaughter, even though it broke the laws of magic. That’s fucking spectacular.” Grey’s words dripped in unhinged sarcasm.
I kept his pace as I continued, ignoring the tone. “Unfortunately, yes, but what they did, it was under the blood moon, a seance. They conjured Death into the receiving realm and sent me there. And now, I’ll never get another spell.” I pulled my tousled hair forward, letting my fingers twist it into a simple braid as my mind wandered. “Maybe I should just stay here, far, far away from them.”
Kirsi appeared before me in an instant. I wasn’t quick enough to stop and stepped right through her.Sorrow. So much aching sadness wracked my body the second we collided. Unsure if it was an amplification of my own feelings or the reality of hers, but either way, as I rushed away, shivers crawling down my spine, I immediately regretted my words.
“At least you have a choice.” She surged forward, vanishing over a hill in the distance.
“She’s not wrong,” Grey added, his words clipped. “Just because you can end lives now doesn’t mean you have to give up on your own.”
I paused, but he continued marching forward, trying to catch up to Kirsi. Nothing tied me to either of them anymore. But they had each other.
Afraid to be left behind, I hurried, hobbling on wounded legs, wondering when we’d find people in these lands. As I caught up, I found them immersed in a hushed conversation.
“So what? We’re going to—” Kirsi’s words were cut short as we crested a hill, bringing the little town in the valley below into sight.
“Better do that vanishing thing,” Grey said, taking a large stride forward, straight toward the cluster of buildings.
Kir huffed but disappeared as we descended the grassy slope with the sun setting to the west of the village, painting the sky in a variety of watercolor pastels. The air here was stale and dull, the colors less vibrant, the sounds slightly muffled. Our lands were a different world. As different as this place seemed, it could have been a million miles away, nestled in a different realm.
Grey lifted a shoulder to his ear and then shook his head twice before halting. “Knock it off, Kir.”
“I’m practicing,” she replied.
“Practicing what?” I asked.
“Touching.”