Chapter One

 

 

 

 

The slow burn of fire never promises an end. But the end does come. The licking flames that consume all matter until it ceases to exist, extinguishing into tendrils of smoke and soot, Evangeline never tired of watching it. It was hypnotic, calming with the crackle and snap it produced−a snake dance to pull one in and perish with one embrace. This was what she was, and she knew it. The poisonous venom of death, disguised in warmth and light.

Evangeline and her sister, Jade, were unique. She’d never met any other fire elemental witches before. Yet, Evie, as her sister had called her since toddlerhood instead of fumbling with her long name, was just that much different. Her faery blood fed her elemental fire powers and amplified them in every way.

With these powers came the effects of life in a human city. Iron poisoning. It made her bones ache and her head spin. The nauseating stench of it swirled around the buildings, cars and the streets near her home. Every place. Even the house she’d grown up in was laced with the endless poison adrift in every breath. Jade wasn’t part faery, she was all human, even with her fire elemental magic, the iron did not bother her at all.

Evie didn’t really care, but she’d felt the twinge of envy curl into her mind, at times, right before she swiftly swatted it away. She loved her sister. They were two lights in the vast dark of the world.

“Is it helping?” Jade’s voice broke into her thoughts. Evie turned, gave her a weak smile before gazing back across the yard. The forest was calling her tonight. Its power whispered promises more like a lover would deep into her mind. It beckoned her from the confines of her childhood home. She wondered if Jade felt it too. Something told her, unfortunately, Jade’s full human heritage didn’t allow for this.

“Yes, it helps a lot. It takes the edge off, for sure.” Evie sighed. The headaches were bad lately. Her glamour magic, which kept the iron from affecting her, wavered when the headaches came. Only the power of the forest in the Land of Faerie nearby and her sister’s magical drinks, which were laced with whatever spells she had concocted and perfected to keep the iron sickness at bay, made it better. As she got older, it was getting harder to stave off. She rubbed her temples and pushed back her long black hair, wondering why that was.

“If mom were here, she’d know what to do about that.” Jade slumped into the creaky, old rocking chair, which sighed when she let it rock under her weight. Evie swayed in the porch swing, hoping the fresh air would calm the raging pain in her head.

“She might’ve, but I doubt it.” Grumbling the last part made her resent her faery heritage just a bit. Jade didn’t worry about iron sickness, she was just a year older than her but had a different father. Though he had not stuck around after their mother found out she was pregnant, neither had Evie’s supernatural father. It had made the three women thick as thieves. Their mother’s death had come suddenly and left Jade, barely eighteen, Evie’s guardian. Nothing could have prepared them for that. Nothing filled the void that their mother had left behind.

“Maybe we should go there then.”

Evie tilted her head up towards her sister. Jade’s chocolate eyes twinkled with the knowledge of a person older than their years. The color matched her own, even though they were different in many ways.

They had both excelled in fire manipulation and elemental witch magic which their mother had made sure to mentor them in. But, Jade had excelled in the fire magic and elemental powers of the world around her−far more than Evie ever could. The only thing that had saved Evie from being a miserable failure was the faery blood that amplified the elemental magic she possessed. Only by this miracle had she managed to fumble through the lessons enough to satisfy their drill sergeant of a mother. Jade was more powerful than her, even with mortal blood.

“Go where?” Evie replied. She didn’t want to hear the answer. She knew what was coming next. Though Evie wanted it more than anything else, the danger Jade could face joining her in Land of Faerie made her shove the desire so deep inside her and into the crevices of her deepest thoughts. No, she couldn’t take Jade into Faerie. It might eat her alive. Even though Evie was a faery, it’d already taking nips and bits of her already.

Jade wrinkled her lips into a semi frown, knowing full well her sister was pretending to not know what she meant. “You know where, into the forest. You need it. It’s like a life force for you.” Jade paused as she glanced out across the expanse of trees and shrubs swaying with the push of the wind. The far off roar of the leaves vibrating with the air rumbled in her ears as she contemplated how it would go if they did venture in. Their mother had warned them of the dangers and malice that filled the Land of Faerie. They’d heeded her until now. Yet, Evie could no longer resist the call of the land anymore, and Jade had to help her. She was, after all, her only living relative.

Evie shrugged, trying to look apathetic.

“I dunno. Maybe.”

“You should accept it, it’s part of you. You need to be where you belong. Mom said….”

“I know what mom said.” Evie stood up abruptly and stormed into the house. She wasn’t angry at Jade, she wasn’t even angry at their mother anymore for dying. She didn’t know what she was angry about, but it ate at her like a cancer. She knew what she had to do, but she didn’t necessarily want to do it.

In the meantime, Evie would wait. Wait for the right moment to come to make a move. Then, and only then would she follow the pull to the endless lands of Faerie, where the magic was boundless and dangerous at best. She could feel the time approaching, whispering to her that the time was now. But, she’d wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow was a better choice.