“How do you manage to get through life with such positivity and joy?” I asked sweetly.
He sighed and didn’t deign to answer.
I opened the gate, and we walked to the front door. A cast iron bell hung beside the door. I pulled the string before Kael could start banging on the door. The resulting clang echoed around us, seeming to bounce off the hills themselves.
The door opened, revealing a woman with dark curly hair and blue eyes. She glanced behind us curiously, then swept her gaze to me.
“Can I help you?”
“Are you Aileen?” I asked.
“Yes.” The witch shifted her weight. “I’m sorry, but you have to reserve a stay here. I’m not scheduled to receive visitors for a couple more months.”
“We aren’t here to stay in your lovely…what I mean is, we came here to speak with you.”
Aileen’s eyes narrowed past me and toward Kael. Her nostrils flared, a sharp glint in her eye. Could she sense he was a shifter?
“No,” she said. “I don’t think so.” Just as she started to close the door, a cat slipped out. “Nutmeg, get back here!”
The cat trotted right over to Kael, peering up at him with her striped face.
He crouched and scooped up the cat. It instantly started purring as Kael scratched it behind the ears and under the chin. Her head bumped against his cheek, tiny claws digging into his jacket as she climbed farther onto his shoulder.
Both me and Aileen gaped at Kael. The man was snuggling a cat.
“Nutmeg,” Aileen started, “is a great judge of character. I suppose if she likes you, then you may come in for a short visit.”
The witch let us in and showed us to a quaint and cozy living room with fat chairs and sofas spilling with small pillows and throw blankets. She gestured for us to sit in a pair of plain wooden chairs. Clearly, she didn’t want us getting too comfortable. She settled on a pale green sofa across from us.
“What do you want with me?”
“We were sent here by Cordelia.”
A slight widening of eyes was the only effect my words seemed to have on Aileen. She waited quietly.
“We are here for a relic,” Kael explained. “A key, to be specific.”
Aileen went very, very still.
My wrists pulled down to the arms of the chair and my ankles pressed back against the wooden legs. I pulled but there was no use .
What was going on?
Beside me, Kael’s chair groaned as he wiggled and jerked against his own invisible bonds.
Aileen didn’t break her stare. The room grew darker, shadows creeping out of the corners and out from under the furniture. My breath rose in wisps, goosebumps prickling across my skin.
Something broke from the darkness behind me and another from behind Kael. The shadowy forms stopped beside Aileen, and when they turned around, I saw they were women. Their faces were cool, void of emotion.
“What is this, sister?” the woman on the left asked. “Have you invited thieves into our midst?”
Chapter 17
I was tied to a chair in a house in Scotland under the hard, unwavering gazes of a trio of witches, while a shifter rumbled beside me. When this whole thing was over, I’d never take a mysterious relic from a ruin again.
I ground the lie between my teeth.
Aileen didn’t break her stare from me as she spoke to her sisters. “This girl claims they came here seeking a key.”
Girl? I scoffed. I wasn’t a girl . I was a strong, capable woman, and I would not remain restrained in this chair for long.
“I assure you we have good intentions,” I said. I spoke calmly, though anger buzzed inside of me. They had no right to treat us like this.
Kael, strangely, seemed to have stopped struggling. He was watching the witches with his head cocked, as if trying to figure out a puzzle.
“The world has stumbled many times in the hands of people with good intentions,” said the sister on the right. Her hair was black as ink and her eyes a startling blue, frozen and carved from ice. I could almost feel the cool touch of her gaze on my skin. “Besides, we know nothing of the key you seek. ”
So, that was how they were going to play it? “I think you do know what key it is we are seeking, and if you would rather it not end up in the hands of a dark mage, you should probably tell us where to find it.”
Aileen narrowed her eyes. “What mage would that be, child?”
I sighed. I was growing tired of repeating the same story over and over, of telling other people of my failure. Kael was silent beside me as I repeated the recent events, though his shoulders stiffened and jaw clenched when I spoke of taking the key out of the ruins.
Was he more angry at me, or at himself?
As I spoke of the mage, a glance passed between the trio of witches. It wasn’t a question that sparked in their eyes. With slight nods between them, I knew they already had knowledge of the mage.
“So, he already has one key,” I finished. “We have been told the second key may be able to help us track him down, so we can recover the first.”
“How do we know what you say is true?” asked the third sister. She was a mirror image of her black-haired sister, except her eyes were a rich brown. Perhaps they were twins.
“Cordelia is the one who told us about you. She sent us here. Call and ask her.”
Aileen shook her head. “We don’t use phones. Besides, Cordelia hasn’t set a toe in these lands for a very long time. For all we know, her allegiances have changed. She could be a traitor.”
Show them your magic . Cordelia’s words flitted back to my mind. They, too, will be able to sense its ancient breath .
“I can prove it to you.” I struggled against the invisible bonds. They chafed and itched against my skin, as if they were twined with coarse rope. “Can you turn me loose? I promise I won’t hurt you.”
Aileen sniffed. She was obviously seriously doubtful that I could harm her or her sisters. Good. Perhaps if they thought of me as no threat to them, as a “child,” they would let me loose. She looked at Kael, her lips pressing into a thin line.
“You don’t have to untie him yet. Just me so I can show you.”
The witch turned to her sisters. The way they stared at each other made me wonder if they could silently communicate through their minds.
Aileen nodded. “Very well.”
The pressure fell from my arms and ankles. I massaged my wrists and got slowly to my feet. If I made a wrong move, I had no doubt these witches could destroy me where I stood. I pulled in a breath and tried to focus. There was a window behind Aileen, and I peered through it, losing myself in the wild hills and gray skies. I closed my eyes.
Magic whispered across my soul. I pulled at it, bringing it to the surface. My skin warmed, and my fingers tingled. I knew my magic was there on display, but I didn’t open my eyes. I didn’t want to break my concentration. I was afraid to let it out of control, even if my magic was screaming to be let loose.
It was a horrible and gratifying feeling to sense the power swirling within me. I could blow the roof right off this place, crack the rafters, and scatter the stones across the cold fields outside like a jar of upturned marbles.
Something bumped against my leg, and I jumped. I opened my eyes as the magic shrank back into myself. On the floor beside me was Aileen’s cat, back arching against me for attention.