9
The Witch

 

 

 

The healers were tending to the wounded, which consisted of all of us who had come out of the jungle. I had blood all over me—mostly that of my enemies. Kaara insisted on checking on me, but I brushed her off.

“You’re no better off, Kaara,” I said. “Take care of yourself first.”

“I’m fine. Marrok blocked most of the blunt hits for me,” she said grimly, darting her eyes between the gray wolf and me.

He was regenerating, crouching under his mate’s feet, his eyes closed, and I wondered why the planet was preventing the Angel from healing his broken wings. I should have taken care of him when I’d had the chance.

At the thought of Gabriel, pain seared through me. Yet I stood regally, keeping an icy mask on my face. But I couldn’t stay any longer in the hall with all of them. I headed toward the exit.

“Do not disturb me for the next hour or so, unless it’s an emergency,” I said to no one in particular.

I climbed the stairs with difficulty until I finally reached my chamber at the top of the tower. I pushed the door open, shut it immediately, and collapsed against it. 

I couldn’t allow myself to pass out. If I did, I would forget Gabriel. I would forget what happened today.

I took a few more moments to collect myself before I moved to the glassless window covered by thick drapes. Gabriel had always climbed up through this window to my chamber. I pictured how he had looked when he’d perched on the windowsill with his massive wings.

My gaze lifted to the burning far sky.

Let it burn. Let the whole city burn.

That’s irresponsible, a voice seemed to say in the back of my mind.

I sat down on the floor, my legs crossed.

Gradually, I felt the trace of my ice, storm, and darkness. I kept searching inside me and dug deep, waiting—and finally a spark of flame emerged. My heart pounded; a sob caught in my throat. My TimeFire was still mine.

The flame summoned, and my other magic answered and gathered around it. Together they forged into a ring of fire, ice, storm, and darkness.

With their return, all I wanted was to charge back into the jungle to get Gabriel, but I knew I was in no shape to do so while my magic was still recharging.

“Defender!” I called, and my ice spear materialized in my hand.

I turned its sharp tip and pierced my thumb.

A drop of blood fell from my cut, but it didn’t splash onto the floor. It hovered in the air. My powerful blood had the color of sun and firestorm.

I put my thumb into my mouth, licked the wound, and sealed the cut. 

Every drop of blood leaving my body consumed me.

And today, Akem had bled me and tossed me in the air like a rag doll.

I must practice and perfect my TimeFire. I would burn the entity’s foul darkness and make him scream for what he’d done to Gabriel and me.

I dipped my blood in the air and drew a sequence of runes until they glowed and dashed toward my vulnerable spot—the hollow under my throat. They settled, but it was like a hot blade stabbing into my windpipe. I almost threw up at the agony, but I didn’t bend over. I just sat there and let the pain pass.

I had used the last space on my skin to make myself remember Gabriel. 

I would come for him.

 

~

 

A couple of hours later, I returned to the Assembly Hall, icy light radiating on my skin and darkness trailing behind me quietly.

As I entered, the wounded soldiers tried to suppress their groans of pain. The wolves had also gathered in the hall, since my ward was stronger here.

Vampires might come to besiege us at any time.

I scanned the room. 

Many of the guards I’d seen in the morning hadn’t returned. They’d died for me, and because of me.

Ice magic arose from me, turning into an icy gust and slamming into everyone.

All of those present froze, fear in their eyes.

What had I done to them in the past to conjure such fear?

Then I remembered that I was the Wickedest Witch.

“Fia?” Kaara called in alarm, and the gray wolf growled, standing before his mate to shield her from me.

“Shush,” Kaara chided the wolf as she curved a hand around his neck. “Lady Fiammetta will never harm me.”

“I put a healing spell in my ice magic,” I said to no one particularly. “I can’t cure you faster since I haven’t fully recovered, but the spell will prevent you from having infection.”

That was my new invention, and it had cost me two drops of blood.

I felt different after having unveiled my core magic. I was much more powerful, and I didn’t have the need to display my menace anymore.

The wolves and my guards relaxed, slumping back to their former poses. Some of them murmured thanks, yet no one held my gaze.

My eyes found the massive white wolf. Severely wounded, he was still regenerating. A young woman with strawberry-golden hair was fussing over him. She had to be his mate. I hadn’t seen her this morning, so she must have just arrived from the wolves’ compound at the news of our defeat and escape.

They had all united with their mates, but I’d lost mine—and I had just started to believe Gabriel was my destined mate after his refusal to step into the portal alone.

When Gabriel had cut down the vampires’ pursuit and given us an opening to flee, the white wolf had fought beside him.

The wolf general had returned, but Gabriel hadn’t.

I stalked toward the white wolf. Kaara and her mate followed me.

“Fia,” Kaara whispered behind me, grief in her voice, as if she felt my pain.

She had no idea how the hurt was tearing me up inside, but I was careful not to show my emotion.

I stopped in front of the white wolf and his mate.

“Lady Fiammetta,” his mate greeted me. “It’s good to see you.”

I nodded.

“You helped Bella when the Dark Prince turned her, Lady Fiammetta,” Kaara said beside me, offering me a clue. “We’re forever grateful.”

Gabriel wasn’t the only one who knew about my amnesia. I figured out that Kaara had known about it for a while. She’d never betrayed me. She’d never abandoned me. I knew she and I had a special tie, but I didn’t know what it was. My magic markings had told me she was the only one I could trust. I could tell from how the Wolf King treated me that Kaara had kept my secrets even from him. 

Now I would trust Gabriel with my secrets and life as well.

I didn’t remember Bella or how I’d helped her. I’d told lots of people that they owed me a life debt, so she could be one of them.

“Wolf general,” I said. I didn’t remember his name.

The white wolf shifted in an instant, and suddenly a handsome but naked man was sitting there on the floor, leaning on the wall. Bella immediately covered his nakedness with a blanket. He grinned at her.

“Antonio,” Kaara said, “Lady Fiammetta has a few questions.”

“Of course,” Antonio said. “That’s why I shifted, for Lady Fiammetta’s convenience.”

I looked into Antonio’s eyes and asked. “He didn’t make it, did he?” My heart pounded painfully, and a sick, horrible feeling threatened to shred me. I stood still, out of sheer will, with an icy mask on my face. 

Antonio exhaled, sorrow and respect sparking in his blue eyes.

“We—the rest of the pack and I—couldn’t fight any longer. We were cut down. The Archangel ordered us to go. So, we left him behind.”

“If you’d stayed, you’d have died,” the Wolf King said. Somehow, he’d shifted as well, but he had clothes on. “You all would have died. And you have a new mate at home.”

Antonio swallowed. “We had to leave him. I’m sorry, Lady Fiammetta.”

“Was he alive when you left?” I asked softly, but all around me, my subjects shivered at my tone.

“Before I ran out of the jungle, I looked back once. They’d dragged him down, hundreds of them. And he still roared for us to get the fuck out. We didn’t go back for him.”

“You couldn’t,” Bella protested, fierce tears in her eyes. “You barely made it out. Next time, don’t you leave me behind! Where you go, I go. I can fight.”

Antonio touched his mate’s cheek gently, before he turned to me, holding my gaze. “Gabriel had a message for you, Lady Fiammetta.”

“What was it?”

“He said, ‘Tell my witch I’ll find her, in this life or next. No matter what happens, tell her not to come for me, or I’ll be royally pissed. When I’m furious, she won’t like it.’” 

I didn’t care if he’d be royally pissed or not. That was exactly what I would do next—go for him, as soon as I could.

If I didn’t get him back, the cold void inside me would open wider every day until it swallowed me.

My darkness twirled around me, hissing, and dimming the entire hall.

I laughed coldly as I heard fearful gasps. My guards and the wolves must have thought I’d finally gone mad, like most of the exiles who had been dumped on Pandemonium.

Bella threw herself at her mate to shield him, and Antonio grabbed her and tried to shove her behind him to block her from my sight. He was about to shift back to his warrior wolf form.

Marrok tensed beside his mate as well, despite Kaara’s frequent chiding that I would never hurt her. But it was hard to trust the Wickedest Witch.

Kaara moved closer to me, reaching for my darkness, and it caressed her violet hair like a dark wind. Marrok looked surprised, but he relaxed.

My magic liked only two persons—Archangel Gabriel and Kaara Nightshades.

My wind tugged her away until she was in Marrok’s arms, because my TimeFire was coming out. I couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t burn her, since my core magic was volatile.

My fire, the color of the sun and firestorm, materialized on my palms in the shape of thin twine, caressing my skin before entwining with my darkness, like day and night. Twines of fire and darkness flowed together toward the windows, doors, and every entrance, until they covered the entire tower.

Everyone in the room inhaled sharply in awe.

“That is the Wickedest Witch’s new ward of living fire and darkness,” I announced. “No enemies can get into the tower. Not even Akem himself.”

The wolves howled, and my guards cheered.

Tears welled up in Kaara’s eyes, and her lips quivered. “Your fire magic has returned, Fia.”

I was sure now that she’d come from my past. I would ask her about it later.

I withdrew my magic. My flame settled back in my magical well, and my darkness twirled at my feet in a small happiness.

I turned to Marrok. “Bring all the wolves here. City of Nine won’t last for more than three weeks. We need to leave before then. I’ve found the portal in the jungle.”

The room became deadly quiet, then sobs rose.

“You could have left, Lady Fiammetta,” Kaara said. “But you kept your promise and came back for us.”

“I won’t leave without Gabriel, either,” I said.

“We’ll come up with a rescue plan soon,” Marrok said. “If we leave, we all leave together.”

“We’ll leave together,” Kaara said resolutely, one of her hands clasping her mate’s, the other holding mine.

I didn’t pull away, though the Wickedest Witch wasn’t supposed to hug or hold hands with anyone. Gabriel had held mine as we’d walked into the jungle together.

And we had walked into an ambush.

But what happened between Gabriel and me this morning had changed me.

Would I be the same Wickedest Witch whom everyone feared when I woke up next morning? I couldn’t know, but I knew and dreaded that I’d forget everything and everyone.

Marrok howled, and the wolves in the room and outside patrolling my territory answered.

We would ride into battle soon.