Blood Prophecy (Witch Fairy) (19 page)

Oh, that’s why she was so eager to hold him.  Though, I do think part of it was because she truly loves children.  “Thank you.”

“We must be going now,” Tabbris says and the tone of her voice suggests that the other two shouldn’t argue.

“Can I ask one more question?”

“Certainly,” Voleol says.

“I’m pretty sure that Kallen knows that Grandma is a fallen Angel.  How would he know that?”  I’m assuming they don’t go around announcing that they’re fallen Angels when they’re in our realms.

Tabbris answers me.  “As I mentioned, there have been times that we have asked other magical creatures for assistance in helping the humans.  The Sheehogue Fairies have been among those.  We have a pact with them that they will do their best to help humans on our behalf, but this agreement states that they will not impose their wills upon humans, either.  Nor may they cause unnecessary harm to other humans, Fairies, or Witches.  In return, we have made them more powerful than their counterparts in order to follow through with their agreement.”

“So, they’re more powerful than the Pooka Fairies because of you.”

“Yes.  They are also sworn to secrecy concerning our existence and the magic we have extended to them.  If they make it known that we have this pact, they will lose their magic completely.”  Oh, that explains why Kallen didn’t say anything.  Yeah, I would have kept my mouth shut, too.  Looking at Urim and Voloel, she says, “We really must be going.”

“Can I ask one more question?”

Tabbris looks annoyed again but she says, “One more.”

“Is it because Mom’s part Angel that she’s been able to hold her and Dad in our realm?”

Voloel answers.  “Oh, silly girl, you are holding them, not your mother.”

Pretty sure they can see my tonsils again.  “I’m holding them here?”

She nods.  “Yes.  Even though your mother has Angel blood, she is still not strong enough to hold them both.  It is the powerful mixture within you that makes it possible for them to exist as they are.  Spirits who remain are not usually the same as they were in life.”

I’m half proud and half terrified.  “Is it okay that I’m doing that?”

“As long as it is what they desire,” Tabbris says.  “Right now, it is their choice to remain.  When the time comes that they are ready to move on, you will have to release them.  If you don’t, you will be taking away their free will.”  And I suspect she would have something to say about it if that happened.  “Because your hold on them is so strong, you are the only one who can release them to what lies beyond,” she says meaningfully.  “Now, there is no more time for questions.”

Urim nods in acknowledgement.  “Then we shall take our leave.”  Turning to me, he says, “Xandra, it has truly been a pleasure.  I wish you the best and I know that you will live up to the prophecy set before you.”

I wish I was that sure.  It still sounds like an impossible task.  I can’t see my biological father forgiving and forgetting, let alone agreeing to live in harmony.  “How do I get back?”

“As soon as we leave, you will be returned to your realm and time.”

I’m not sure if I’m ready for that but I guess I can’t put it off forever.  “Thanks for everything.  I hope I see you again under better circumstances.”

“As do we.  Good bye, Xandra.”  And then they’re gone.

Chapter 16

Zac is back in my arms and I am back in my own realm and time.  The fighting has stopped as everyone turns to stare at me and my new wings.  Depending on whose eyes I meet, there is either awe or fear in them.  Grandma seems the most surprised of all.

“What is going on?” Grandpa demands to no one in particular.  “Where did those wings come from?”

“It doesn’t matter, it’s just more proof that she’s not meant to be,” Maeva growls but that doesn’t get rid of the fear I’ve already seen in her eyes.

“Oh, shut up,” I say and her mouth closes.  She’s making some weird mumbling noises but she can no longer speak.  Turning to Fatin, I say, “You will release my father.”

His confidence from earlier is shaken but he rallies pretty well.  “I hold the cards here.  I am seconds away from sending him to the hereafter.”

I roll my eyes.  “Really?  Because I’m the only one that can release him from this plane of existence, so your threat isn’t really a threat.  It’s wishful thinking on your part.”

Fatin obviously doesn’t believe me because he begins to say the exorcism spell.  “Spirit in unrest, soul in pain, come to me, find peace again.  Leave this world of longing and woe, sorrow filled days no longer you’ll know…”

“Xandra, make him stop!” Mom cries.

“Mom, trust me.  Nothing’s going to happen.”

“…your soul I release and you shall rest in peace.”

And like I said, nothing happens.  Fatin looks really ruffled now.  He begins to say the spell again, more forcefully, “Spirit in unrest, soul in pain…”

“Oh, zip it.” Now he’s gagged as well.

“I demand to know where those wings came from!” Grandpa shouts at me. 

I give him my sweetest smile.  “That’s nice.  Thanks for sharing.”  Then I turn my back on him.

Grandma finds her voice and asks with a slight tremor, “Xandra, are you…”  Her words trail off.

“Dead?  Nope.  I’m very much alive.”  Relief shows in the eyes of everyone on my side.  Disappointment in the rest.  “And as for you?  You are not to do anything that will jeopardize your future.”  I’m pretty sure that she knows what I mean because she gives me a slight nod, and then she visibly tries to subdue her anger with deep breaths and closed eyes.

“Athear, what is she talking about?” Grandpa practically growls.  “Is she threatening you?”

I have to laugh at that.  “The only ones here who are threatening her are you and your disgusting menagerie of followers.  Though, if we’re all going to be honest,” I look each member of the Witan in the eye, “you are actually the follower, not the followed.  I suspect your mind hasn’t been your own for a long time.”  There is some slight shuffling of discomfort among the Witan.

“What nonsense is this?  I’m King; of course my mind is my own.”

I shake my head.  “Think again.  I bet every thought you have feels like it’s been planted by someone else.”

Grandpa looks like he’s going to get all blustery again but doubt is creeping over his face like a caterpillar, leaving its sticky little foot prints all over him.  Instead of speaking to me, he turns to Louhi.  “Is this true?”

“Of course not,” he says indignantly. 

I laugh.  “As if you could be trusted to tell the truth.  I doubt your twisted little mind even knows what that is anymore.”

“I’ve heard enough out of you, little girl,” he hisses.  Oh, that’s a sound that’s going to haunt my nightmares.  He should try his luck in Hollywood.  I’m sure he’d get a lot of roles as a villain, and they wouldn’t even have to put make up on him.  “Say the spell again,” he tells the others.

I shake my head.  “It didn’t work the first time, what makes you think it’s going to work this time?”

“You are not omnipotent.  You can be brought down and we’re going to be the ones to do it.”

“Okay.  Go ahead then.”  I wave my hand in a hurry up gesture.

He looks surprised.  What, I’m supposed to be begging at his feet?  I don’t think so.  “What?”

I say my words slowly as if he’s new to the English language.  “O. Kay. Go. A. Head. Then.”

That earns a big time glare from him and his eyes narrow into little slits like slots for demon coins.  Could the man get any creepier looking?  Forget I asked that, I really don’t want to know.

As if following my thoughts, Louhi snarls, “A pair of demon wings doesn’t scare us.”

Hmm.  I turn around to look at Kallen.  “Do demons have wings?”

He shakes his head.  “No, they do not.”

“That’s what I thought.”  Turning back to Louhi, I say, “Could you please keep your insults to things that really exist instead of making crap up?”

Wow, he’s really pissed now.  Between gritted teeth, he says to the others, “Say the spell again.”

“Now hold up one minute.  I want to give you guys a sporting chance.”

“We have all the advantage we need.”

“Oh, it’s so cute how you get so mean and tough when you’re angry.”

“Xandra, be careful,” Mom says quietly behind me.  Okay, maybe that was a bit much.  I might be practically indestructible but no one else is.  I don’t need him taking out his anger towards me on my family or Kallen.

“Fine,” I say.  “Tell you what.  I’m going to make this fair.  It’ll just be me and the eight of you.  I won’t ask for help from anyone else.”  Except my wings, of course, but they’re a part of me now.

Maeva looks at me for a long moment.  “Why would you do such a thing?”

I shrug.  “It’s not them that you want, it’s me.  I don’t want them to get hurt in the crossfire.”

“Xandra, I will not leave you to fight them alone.”  Kallen’s voice is full of emotion and I turn to smile at him.

“I know it’ll be hard for you, but it’s for the best.  I need to do this alone.”

“Xandra, this is suicide,” Mom says.  “We are all going to fight right along next to you.”

I look at her unyielding face for several heartbeats.  “Mom, please.”

She shakes her head.  “No, we are staying right here with you.”

I sigh heavily.  What I’m about to do is going to make her really mad at me.  I’ll probably be grounded for a year.  I close my eyes for just a second to collect my thoughts.  When I open them, Kallen, Mom, Dad, Zac, Aunt Barb and Grandma are being propelled backwards towards the house.

“Xandra, don’t do this,” Kallen says.  “You don’t have to do this alone.”

“But I do,” I whisper more to myself than him.  When they are all safely in the house, I throw up a wall that divides the house from where I’m standing with the Witan.  I know it’s sturdy enough that neither side will be able to get through it unless I take it down.

Now, it’s time to deal with the Witan.

Chapter 17

“You are a stupid child,” Davina says speaking up for the first time.  She has the look of pity around her.  That’s okay.  If they expect little from me, they’ll be even more surprised.

“It must take a lot magic to keep a wall like that in place,” Midar says.  He lumbers up next to Maeva after finally leaving his spot behind one of the cars where he had been hiding. 

I shrug.  “Not really.”

His eyebrows rise in skepticism.  “We are all seasoned Witches here.  We know better than you how much magic things like that,” he points at my wall, “take.”

I offer him a simpering expression.  “You know how much it takes of
your
magic.  Not mine.”

Maeva waves her hand in the air as if to brush away my comment.  “Magic is magic.”

“True,” I acknowledge.  “But the power behind it is what’s most important.”

Louhi sneers at me.  “You believe your power to wield magic is greater than ours?  All eight of ours?  The world will be a better place with one less fool in it.”

Hey, he just called me a fool.  That’s not very nice.  But I guess it’s better than some of the names that have been going through my head for him.  “Can we just get on with this?  I could use a nice hot shower.  Here, I’ll even take off all these talisman and amulets.”  Anything to hurry this along.  My clothes are still a little wet and cold and I don’t have a coat on. 

Beren’s eyebrows are nearly at his hairline.  “Are you that confident or that eager to die?”

I pretend to think about it a minute.  “I’m going to go with confident.”

Grandpa’s standing off to the side now and he looks a bit befuddled.  He keeps glancing at these people who are supposed to be his most trusted council and friends.  That seed of doubt I planted in his head seems to have taken root.  I don’t think he knows whose side he’s on now.

“I’ll tell you what else I’m going to do.  Let’s take turns.  You guys do a spell and then I do one.  Kind of like Russian Roulette.”  The Witan look at each other.  I think the thought ‘she’s crazy’ is going through all of their minds.

Finally, Fatin shrugs.  “As the saying goes, it is your funeral.  Shall we speak the spell again together?” he asks the others.  He gets several curt nods.  I notice he didn’t get one from Grandpa.

Seven voices ring out clearly as they say the spell to kill me again.  Grandpa stays quiet.  “From ancient times of rhymes and runes, these witches call upon the power of the moon to scourge the earth of magic black, and within its womb to take mercifully back, this one born in heresy and shame, and those who’ve shielded her also to blame, swallow their guilt and show us their pain.  All this we ask in the goddess’s name.”

I count to ten and then say, “My turn?”

There are a couple of nervous glances exchanged before Louhi collects himself from the shock of me still standing and sneers, “Go ahead.  We can take whatever you dish out.”

And they think I’m cocky?  “I’m afraid I’m not very good with spells, so you’ll have to bear with me as I do my own thing, okay?”  Louhi laughs cruelly.

Oh, he is so my first target.  Pulling magic from the earth, I barely have time to feel it inside of me before I’m pushing it out.  Half a millisecond later, Louhi is on his knees gasping in pain. 

“What are you doing to him?” Davina demands. 

“Significantly less than what you want to do to me,” I say acerbically.

“Let him go and I’ll take my turn,” Midar says in that fake English accent.  He sounds so stupid.  Why haven’t his friends ever told him that?  Then again, he doesn’t seem like the type who would listen, anyway.

I shrug.  “Okay.”  I pull back my magic and Louhi falls forward, catching himself with his hands before he goes face first into the snow.  He looks like he’s about to have a heart attack.  He glowers up at me as he tries to get his breathing under control. 

“There is no hope, only sorrow.  Blackness fills your every tomorrow.  This life of yours isn’t worth living, if you always take but are never giving.  Put an end to the misery and pain, the circle of life comes around again.  Each day will be a trip through hell under this Witch’s darkness spell, until at last, you can take no more, then end your days miserable and poor.”

As the magic from his spell comes towards me, wanting to wrap me in its dark cocoon, my wings shift.  They fan out to the sides as far as they can, and then gently begin to curve in, creating a sort of shield.  Apparently, it’s a good shield because Midar’s magic, which I can barely see, stops its forward progression.  In a flash, it is heading back towards him.  Too fast for him to shield himself or form a circle.  As it hits him, his rotund body slips to the ground in a heap, his eyes become unfocused and he begins to drool.  It’s really hard to look at the pathetic mess he’s just become as he finally gets a taste of his own magic. 

Now, he’s crying so hard that a big stream of snot is coming out his nose.  “Can we throw a blanket over him or something; that’s disgusting.”

Fatin cringes as he looks at him and then turns away in repulsion.  “He has always been a weak mind.”  And I thought all these guys liked each other.

I drag my eyes from the blob that is Midar.  “My turn?”

Fatin waves a hand in front of him in a ‘be my guest’ gesture.  But I’m torn, other than Louhi, who I abhor, I hate the rest of them the same.  So, who do I go for now? 

“Today would be nice,” Maeva says snidely.  Well, that settles that dilemma.

“Alright.  Maybe I will try my hand at a spell.  I do need the practice and I’ve only blown up the house twice today.  You don’t mind, Maeva, do you?  Third time’s a charm, right?”  A vein on the side of her head starts to spasm as if all her blood is rushing to her head to try to convince her to run.  Her eyes dart back and forth to her cohorts; probably looking for a sign that they’re going to come to her aid.  They don’t.  Weasels.  They don’t care about each other, only themselves. 

The words for a spell pop into my head as if they’ve been eagerly waiting for me to call on them.  I wonder if my wings are feeding them to me.  “It’s a simple spell, but we all have to start small, right?”  I give her a sweet smile and I walk towards her.  She looks nervous but she holds her ground – even when I lay my hand on her shoulder.  “You tell me if I get this right, okay?”  I drag my hand across her shoulder and back as I walk around her in a circle.  “Identities stolen, wrong skin worn, built from trickery and unchecked scorn.  Strip away these magical lies; never again deceive one’s eyes.  Magic abused, power out of control, I strip these now from your wicked soul.  Witch no more shall you be, no spells, no evil trickery.  Your magic has been set free.”

Maeva’s arms spread out to the side, her eyes roll back and her face looks towards the sky.  A silent scream is torn from her as all of her magical abilities are scrubbed out of her – down to her very DNA.  It looks really, really painful.  Glad I’m on the casting side of the spell and not the receiving side.  On a positive note, I didn’t blow her up.

Davina gasps and rushes to Maeva’s side as her silent screams are shouted to the sky.  When the very last soundless syllable is stolen from her mouth, she collapses into the other woman’s arms.  I think she’s unconscious.  Beren opens one of the car doors and helps Davina lay Maeva on the back seat.

A woman who’s been standing back towards the trees walks forward.  I know who she is even though she’s kept her face hidden from me.  I’ve seen her work.  She’s the one that made the ugly doll that was supposed to be me.  Maybe she should have taken a few sculpture classes over the years.

“Perhaps a different kind of magic is called for,” she says.  From her coat pocket she pulls out a small doll.  Yup, it’s just as ugly as the first one.  Really, just one class probably would have helped.  She pulls a lighter from her pocket, one of those old silver ones that you have to put lighter fluid in, and holds the flame to the doll.  I refuse to say likeness because it looks nothing like me.  “I melt this wax as I melt your will.  Child of darkness, your body be still.  I bind these hands as I bind thee, a force unbreakable ties you to me.  Cast aside your desires, consumed by my fire, as I control your mind and bring justice to our time.  As I beckon, come to me, your will is no longer free.”

I double over and stumble towards her as if pulled by a rope that I’m trying to frantically free myself from.  I see the victory in her eyes as I move ever closer to her, one hand on my stomach, the other in front of me as if to stop the power of her spell.  I glance at the others who are practically jumping for joy at Annika’s success.

I have to walk around both cars to get to her, as she has tried to keep herself safe by hiding behind them when magic was flying.  She and Midar are a matched set in the bravery department, apparently.  When I am directly in front of her, I stand up.  And I snatch the doll out of her hand.  The look on her face was worth the minute and a half of pretending to be beaten by this worthless bunch. 

Giving my new wings a try, I think about where I want to be and next thing I know, I’m flying there.  I’m back to where I had been standing.  This is so cool but I’m a bit wobbly.  I hope I have them long enough today to practice some more.  I wonder how high I can go.

Giving Annika a smug smile, I say, “Don’t feel bad.  Grandpa tried that spell on me earlier and it didn’t work for him either.  But now it’s my turn again.”  I tap a finger of my hand not holding the doll against my chin.  “What shall I do?”

There are six Witches standing in front of me now who look a whole lot less confidant than they did fifteen minutes ago.  At the back of my brain, I can feel Kallen, Grandma and Mom joining forces to try to free themselves from the magic I’m using to keep them locked in the house.  It’s not going to work.  The added power I feel because of my wings makes me stronger than all three of them put together. 

“I know!” I say brightly which causes Annika to jump.  Which makes me laugh.  Turning to Louhi, I say, “Your theory as to why you have become this,” I wave my hand up and down to indicate I mean all of him, “is because of all those minds you are carrying around with you.  I think you’re right, I can’t imagine that you always looked like this.  I know we’re not supposed to judge people by their appearance, but you must scare small children with that face.  Hmm,” I say as I tap my chin again, “I’ll have to ask Zac that when he wakes up.  But anyway, I’m going to help you out with that.  Free up some clutter.”

These ideas are jumping into my head from nowhere and as soon as I think it, I know I can do it.  I think the Angels really did hold a little information back about these wings.  I think they not only protect me, but guide me as well.  Not that I mind.  I’m so new to this stuff, I can use the help.

I close my eyes and I’m pretty sure that Louhi is growling at me.  I can see him in my mind’s eye with his skinny little lips pulled up in a snarl like a rabid poodle.  A rabid, bald poodle.  Trying to ignore that, I send my magic out on its mission.  I feel when it hits Louhi’s protection circle – and I feel it when it crumbles it like nothing more than a cobweb in a dusty corner.  And then I’m in his mind and it’s just as dark and twisted as I thought it was going to be. 

It seems that he has been able to portion his mind off into sections.  There are dark pockets that are closed off from other parts of his mind.  It’s in these pockets where he keeps the minds he has stolen from others.  As if I’m a thief, I pick the locks and creep quietly inside these foreboding closets.  When I open them to the light, bolts of lightning spark around me as these minds awaken from their long slumber.  Louhi has quite a collection in here – and most of these minds I can tell are innocent.  Incarcerated and lobotomized because their opinions differed from that of the Witan.

There are a couple who truly have committed crimes and were probably rightfully imprisoned.  One had committed murder and other unspeakable things, while another had been abusive to his family and paralyzed his daughter.  I let Louhi keep these minds as I set the others free.  I lock the doors behind me so no one can get out, or in, and I pull myself from his mind.

When I open my eyes again, Louhi is holding his head as if he’s trying to keep those minds in place.  But it’s too late.  They’ve already escaped back to their rightful places, never to see the inside of Louhi’s mind again.