Witch Unbound by Debbie Cassidy

Chapter Seventeen

Ilooked out at the grove from my perch on the stone platform above the brook. Wren and Rune sat on the blossoms surrounded by even more tiny orbs, and Bramble was perched on a mushroom, talking to Minerva. I couldn’t see her face, but her posture was stiff, almost confrontational. The fae, pixie, whatever she was, had asked for Bramble to hear her out as payment for saving her life. It was a private conversation, but damn, what I’d give to eavesdrop just a little.

Movement drew my attention away from the pair and to Lauris, bounding across the steppingstones to get to me. After how angry he’d been with me, I was a little surprised to find him seeking me out.

“I’m sorry.” Lauris lowered himself beside me on the rock platform above the brook. “I shouldn’t have been so hard on you.”

Was he serious? Bramble had died because of a decision I made. That was a fact. She was alive by luck, by chance, whatever. He’d every right to be upset, but he was looking at me with an earnest, almost sheepish expression, silver eyes gleaming with sincerity.

“Lauris, you have no need to be sorry. You had every right to be upset. I acted rashly. Maybe if we’d waited a little, the outcome would have been different.”

“No, it wouldn’t have.” He pressed his lips together for a moment. “Minerva says the dead forest feeds on flesh and blood. It would have held Bramble in its grip and slowly devoured her. You forced it to make her death quick. What you did was a mercy.”

The pressure around my chest eased with his words. I hadn’t fucked up. I hadn’t been wrong. “And now she’s alive. She’s okay.”

He looked over at Bramble and his expression went all soft and gooey.

Oh boy. “How long have you been in love with her?”

He tucked in his chin and smiled wryly. “I don’t know. I only just realized I was.”

“Are you going to tell her?”

“And risk getting my nose broken?” He snorted. “No thank you.”

I chuckled. “She’s not that bad.”

“Are we talking about the same pixie?”

He had a point, but, “I think she likes you too, Lauris.”

He looked sharply my way. “You do?”

“Yeah, so when this is over, why not take a risk?”

He gave me a half smile. “Why not?” His attention traveled back to her, and this time she looked up at him, as if sensing his regard.

She smiled sweetly and then gave him the finger.

Lauris let out a bark of laughter. “Yeah, why not?”

I looked down at the brooch on my chest. Still gold. Still unmarred. “We can’t stay here much longer. We need to find this tower.”

“It looks like Bramble’s finished talking with Minerva,” Lauris said.

Curiosity nibbled at me, but if Bramble wanted to share what Minerva had told her, she would. I hoped she did.

Right now, we had a tower to find.

I hopped off the ledge and onto the steppingstones before making my way nimbly across the brook and back to Rune.

He took my hand as I stepped onto the grass and drew me close to press a soft kiss on my forehead. “Wren’s confident he can get us to the tower from here.” He spoke against my skin, lingering for a moment.

I leaned in and wrapped my arms around him. “Good. I just want to get this over with and get home before anyone else gets hurt.”

Wren was frolicking in the blossoms with loads of little pixie lights. He looked carefree and happy, totally the opposite of his bossy guide mode. It felt like a shame to pull him out of this happy place, but we had a job to do. Ursula and her team needed our help and there were children who needed saving.

“Wren, buddy, we have to get going.”

The lights racing around my mogwai buddy came to halt to allow him to focus on me.

“Wren find the tower, Cora.” He padded over. “We go now?”

“Yes.”

“Wait.” Minerva joined us with Bramble in tow. “The journey from here to the tower is fraught with danger.” Her gaze slid to Bramble. “A warping could occur at any moment and you’d be lost.”

Bramble made a sound of exasperation. “We don’t have a choice. Innocent lives are at stake.”

Minerva pressed her lips together and nodded. “Yes. I understand that. Which is why your journey must be instantaneous. You will use my mirror.” She waved a hand toward the brook and the water began to bubble faster. Something gilded and golden broke the surface. The frame to a mirror. It was four feet wide and over six feet tall, surface gleaming silver and showing no reflection. “This is our doorway to Faerie. Our window to our dying world. We watch and we wait.”

“Is this how you saw us?” Lauris asked.

“Yes.” Minerva’s smile was almost sly, and a shiver ran down my spine. “It was fate that I was scrying at that very moment. I saw your party.” She looked at Bramble, who smiled thinly. I recognized that smile. It was her get-me-the-fuck-out-of-here smile. “And I knew we had to help.”

Who was this woman really, and what was her relation to Bramble, because there was obviously something there. Whatever it was, Bramble didn’t seem too keen on it.

Minerva stepped up to the water’s edge and waved her hand in the air. The mirror flickered to life and images began to scroll across its surface, like a projector gone berserk. The dead forest, a lake so still it looked iced over, a mountain wreathed in inky fog, cracked gray land that seemed to stretch for miles, and finally a forbidding black tower with turrets jutting left and right off the top. The mirror stopped scrolling.

“That is where you wish to go,” Minerva said. “A dark place that has been taken over by outside forces.” Her tone dropped. “It’s a bad place.”

Outside forces? “What do you mean?”

She blinked as if coming out of a daze. “Forces not of Faerie and filled with a different sickness to the one that plagues our land. Something else lurks within those walls. I sense it. Yet it does not show itself. Only emissaries come and go. The lesser fae, the darklings who do their bidding.”

Shit. “Minerva, what have you seen. Did you see people go in there recently? They would have been suited up in uniform. Not fae. Witches.”

She nodded slowly. “Three were taken in a day and night ago. They did not go willingly and not all will have survived. Two were severely wounded.”

“How?”

She looked down, blinking rapidly. “They had been fed on.”

Wait, had I heard her right? “What? What do you mean?”

“There were limbs missing. The darklings feast on flesh and prefer to keep their prey alive, taking what they need a little at a time.”

Oh, God. I was gonna be sick. “We need to get them out. Now.”

“And how will you escape their clutches?” she asked.

Fuck. I hadn’t thought that far. “The rift we came through is gone. Do you know of a rift close to the tower?”

“No, but you can open one with the right key.” She fixed her attention on Lauris and once again a sly look crossed her face.

He frowned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Wait…A key. Shady Lane. “Lauris, your key to Shady Lane.”

He frowned. “What has that got to do with anything?”

“I can sense its power,” Minerva said. “It opens doors that are not there.”

“Not to Faerie…” Lauris trailed off. “I mean, Shady Lane is…”

“A place in between,” Bramble finished for him. “It could be a pocket of Faerie.”

Lauris reached in his pants pocket and pulled out the key. “You say this can open a rift out of Faerie?” He didn’t look convinced.

“Does it get you to and from this Shady Lane place?” Minerva asked.

“Yes.”

“Then it will work,” she said with confidence.

“We should test it,” Rune said. “To be sure.”

“You can’t open a rift here,” Minerva said quickly. “This place is protected; opening a rift will damage that. I’m sorry, I won’t allow you to do that.”

The lights buzzed closer, surrounding us in a mildly threatening manner. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to protect her haven.

“We won’t do that.” I gave Lauris a pointed look, and he sighed and tucked the key away. “But we do need to test the key before we go into that tower.”

“The mirror will transport you close enough to the tower for you to avoid the perilous journey, but not so close as to be detected by those within. You can test your key before you venture forth. But remember, the rift you open won’t remain so indefinitely.”

And if it didn’t work, we’d be stuck. Could I jump us away from the tower? It hadn’t worked earlier, but maybe that was the forest’s doing. Even if I managed to make a jump, I had no directional references when it came to this world and no people I could anchor to. Coming back here would disrupt their boundaries. Fuck. We’d have to cross that bridge when we came to it. There was no way I was leaving now that we were so close to our goal.

Minerva turned to Bramble. “I implore you once again to remain here with us. You must not risk your life on this quest when there are bigger battles for you to fight.”

Bramble’s brow furrowed in annoyance. “And I told you, I don’t abandon my friends.”

Minerva took a shuddering breath. “Your loyalties are skewed.”

“And you’re expecting too much.” Bramble stepped away. “Thanks for saving my life. You asked me to hear you out and I’ve done that. Now I have a mission to complete.”

There were witches and children to save, darklings to slaughter, not to mention this other force. Yeah, it was time to find out who was pulling the strings with this changeling operation.

Wren climbed up my leg and onto my back. The others flanked me as I approached the mirror.

I closed my eyes and stepped through the glass.

* * *

We materialized behind a grassy knoll.Thunder rumbled in a stormy gray sky, and icy air snapped at my skin. This was a different side of Faerie. A side unafraid to vent its rage. The atmosphere was electrically charged, raising the hair on my body.

Rune clambered up the hill. “I see the tower. It’s a ten-minute hike, if that.”

“Lauris.” I lifted my chin, urging him to act.

He pulled the key from his pocket and then looked unsure. “What do I do? I mean, there’s usually a lock to slot it into or a pillar to press it against.”

“Try the knoll,” Bramble suggested.

“Good call.” Lauris strode over to the hill as Rune climbed back down. “Here goes nothing.” He pressed the key to the earth and held it there. “I feel kinda stupid.”

Nothing happened.

“Yep, stupid.” His shoulders slumped and he was about to pull away when a glowing crack opened in the hill. “Shit, it worked.” He pulled the key back and the rift remained.

“What now?” Bramble asked.

I adjusted Wren on my hip. “We get our friends out of the tower and we use this rift to get home. We can’t risk opening one in the tower. We don’t want the darklings to have an easy way into our world.”

“Minerva said the rift wouldn’t stay open indefinitely,” Rune reminded us. “We need to work fast and we need a plan.”

This was why I’d been sent, because my power worked here in ways the witches’ power didn’t. I hadn’t been able to burn the branches with it, and I may not have been able to jump while the world warped, but maybe I could jump now. I focused on Bramble and made the jump to her side.

“Fecking hell, woman!” She glared at me. “Why’d ya do that?”

I grinned at her in relief. “Testing. Need to make sure I can jump if needed.”

“The forest must have been interfering with your power,” Lauris said.

It seemed that way. “Okay, so the plan is that Rune and I will go in and get a lay of the land. If I go in light, I can transport more people out if need be.”

“What do you want us to do?” Lauris asked. “Just wait here?”

“I need you to guard the rift.”

His lips thinned in displeasure, but he nodded. “Fine.”

“Wren come with Cora,” Wren said.

I nodded. “Yeah, buddy, if shit goes wrong, I could do with some monster Wren help.”

I held my hand out to Rune but focused on the tower, on finding a spot that was safe and secure. The pressure of his fingers registered as they grasped mine, and then I made the jump, hoping to the powers that be that I landed somewhere safe.