We came to the higher level, and she made a rough sound. Tipping her head back to roll huge, terrified eyes sideways at me. Trying to tell me something. “She’s worried she has no clothes.” Mathis interjected as I gazed back at her helplessly. I felt a fool for not guessing that was the issue. Wouldn’t I be worrying about the same thing? Walking out into the night, naked? “A foolish thing to worry about really.” Mathis grumbled from behind us. But there was a brief glimmer of white light and then Triana sighed in relief. I glanced down her limping figure and saw that she now wore a long, plain, cream colored linen gown. He gave her clothes. “Have you empathy now?” I queried. He hadn’t done that for Bethanie. “Not in the least. I just have no need to fight Lithuane in order to let her go.” Lithuane? That must be the ogre’s name. I aimed for the door. “Where the devil do you think you’re going?” Mathis’ harsh voice made me jerk to a stop. “What do you mean?” I looked over m
“I don’t want her to come back. Her home is Kirkin. Take her there and leave her. But you...You come back to me tomorrow night. And I’ll give you another.” Kirkin... Though it was a shorter distance then Beddinton had been, it was rougher terrain. And I’m already exhausted. Then the full weight of his demand registered with me. My brows lowered and I felt my face harden with hatred. His dark lashes lifted as he opened his eyes, hitching his chin in challenge to stare down his nose at me. “Tell me no, Saria. See if you can leave the wraiths and save yourself. See how the nights treat you when you wonder what is happening to those that are left...Knowing you have the power to save them all.” I glared at him. My gaze roving a face which was so handsome, yet so capable of cruelty. “Here. Perhaps this will help you decide.” He swept his hand through the air and water from the bottom of the basin floated up to hover above h
I looked over at Triana and saw another spirit working on her. Waving a graceful hand over her body and seeming to make Triana’s body lurch upward and back. Bones cracking and tiny things realigning. It looked incredibly painful. Triana was gasping for air. I reached out to her. Objecting. “I thought he healed her!” Veline shook her head in the negative. “He only healed what could be seen.” She gave me a meaningful look. “Not all the things broken inside.” Those words made my stomach sink. Wondering how many broken bones, and torn muscles Triana had suffered. Or Bethanie for that matter. I have to get Udora out of there... Before she is as broken as these girls. *** “How long has he been damaging women?” “So long…” Veline answered. Her eyes becoming sad. “But I hope you will be the end to all that…” “I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do. He’s so po
Timothy nodded slowly at what his boy had said. Timothy, the tanner, looked as evil as I thought he was. With thinning brown hair which hung around his face in greasy strands. And small beady eyes which seemed sunk into his thin face. His jaw led to a pointed chin and his lips were thin. He constantly licked them as if nervous all the time. He was short and thin and always smelled of onions. He was looking from me to Triana then back and forth. He suddenly stalked toward us, and we both tensed. He caught Triana’s arm and dragged her further into the trees, pulling her behind a wide trunk and talking to her in a hushed voice. “What’s happening.” I looked at Uriah. “He’s finding out if she’s a witch!” Uriah said. Sitting on the log. “Pa can tell. He questions them and then he knows if we should go tell Mathis, we has witches.” “Why are you in these woods at night?” I asked him. “Looking for witches.” He asserted confident
Timothy’s charges were utterly ridiculous. I twisted to look over my shoulder at him. Appalled that he’d taken his lies so far. “The only filthy act of intercourse was you forcing your way into Triana’s mouth!” I shrieked furiously. When I turned my head back to Mathis. His hands were instantly along my cheeks, catching my head in a hypnotic grip. “Tell me what happened.” He said in that oddly echoey voice. “We were washing for me to take her home to Kirkin. They were spying on us.” I gestured behind me limply. “They accused us. Then Timothy took Triana. He was making her suck on him.” I nodded downward to make my meaning clear. “So, I pelted him with a rock.” Mathis’ face was unreadable. “I bet you did.” I couldn’t tell if that was disapproval or admiration. It was too dark, and his voice was too flat to give away anything. He doesn’t believe me. He’s going to take us back. “Ma
More of a chance of what? I wondered. Resisting him? I couldn’t imagine being so weak that I’d return to him for his torturing pleasure. But I could admit in some tiny place in the back of my mind that Mathis’ control over me was growing. That my yearning to see him again was evolving. And that something in how I viewed him, was changing. In ways that are entirely unsettling. Just as we went to leave the edge of the woods, Veline appeared in the path. Nearly startling me out of my skin. “Veline?” I asked. Studying the hazy outline of her lovely blonde hair and vivacious blue eyes. Seeing there was a near-panicked urgency written over her. She reached as if to urgently catch me by the shoulder, but instead her hand floated through me. “What happened with Mathis?” Back at WitchFall? It dawned on me that she must’ve just seen the interaction with Timothy the Tanner or caught some part of it.
Having no pocket to hold the vial in, but feeling that it was gravely important I not lose the precious fluid, I dropped it into the bodice of my dress. Knowing that the cinched waist would firmly hold it in place. For now, anyway. As we emerged through the village, Triana pointed toward Kirkin. Patting my shoulder reassuringly. She wants to go alone? “You don’t want me to go with you?” Triana lifted her hands and shook them in a dissuading way. “Very kind.” She touched the top of my chest lightly. “But very tired.” I was tired. Beyond exhausted really. “I can’t let you go alone. What if someone else like Timothy came along?” I worried. Still walking through the empty early morning booths of the village. Walking a bit faster as I realized that the sun would be coming up soon and early risers might be wandering out with their goods. She gave a sad shake of her head to indicate she didn’
My brows shot up. “Him, who?” “Mathis.” You are Mathis. But at the same time, he wasn’t. He was entirely different. Softer. With kinder eyes. Maybe not… I frowned. Eyeing him warily. “And who are you?” “Jonas.” I was trying to put the pieces together to puzzle this out, but my numbed brain was struggling. “Are you trying to convince me, you aren’t Mathis?” “I’m not.” He said flatly. His voice breathy and hollow. “In a weak moment, I invited in a monster. And he’s walked in my skin ever since.” “In your skin?” “My body...” He said slowly. “You’re saying Mathis is the thing possessing that body up there?” “My body.” He nodded. As if he thinks I’m stupid. “If he’s possessing your body, how are you here?” “Because of you.” I gave him an impatient glare. Lowering my head in warning. He waved his hands before him. “Here