Shade
Once all the remnants of the dark magic had left the room, I conjured a light and sent it up to the ceiling. It was a soft light, but it lit up the room enough for me to find her, curled into a ball, lying on the ground.
I wasn't sure what came over me, but worry instantly flooded me. I ran to her side without a thought, bending down and lifting her into my arms. I held her against me tightly, feeling something warm against my fingers.
"Thorne, shine a light over here."
Thorne conjured small floating orbs of light and sent them circling over our heads. I narrowed my eyes, rubbing my fingers together as I stared at the large gash on her shoulder. Deep, red human blood seeped from the cut. Everything I thought I knew about that woman was wrong. She wasn't Willa. She wasn't a Fae. She was just a human.
Thorne came closer, his brow furrowed. "I don't understand. How could a human break out of our compound? She was sensed as a Fae from the moment we brought her here. Now, I don't sense that. In fact, I can still sense whatever that creature was we walked in on."
Looking down at her, I moved the fake pink hair out of her face, seeing the bruises on her cheeks. She may have been human, but she was no ordinary human. There was something about her and I had known it from the start. What she was escaped me though. I had no idea how she could possibly manage to conjure that kind of magic yet not be recognizable as any of our kind. The Fae did not bleed like humans. Even witches were different, but she was neither of those. Her body was human, but her essence was something else.
As I stared down at her, trying to figure it out, her eyes fluttered halfway open. She looked up at the lights rolling around us. Her eyes slowly shifted toward mine and she looked at me almost confused for a moment. She lifted her hand, setting it against my cheek. Suddenly, all of my confusion, my fears, my worries slipped away, and an incredible calm washed over me. My mind was clear and my thoughts perfect. It was as if I could see everything that the anger inside of me was shadowing.
She blinked and pulled her hand away. I thought she would bring it back to her side, but instead, she reared back and slapped me as hard as she could. It jolted me, and she narrowed her eyes, poking her finger hard against my chest. Her dry lips parted and she furled her brow as best she could. "This… Is starting to get… Confusing. I was kidnapped, rescued and then kidnapped, broke free, and then kidnapped, then rescued and kidnapped again…"
"Bring me my purse… I'll get the mace. Maybe I'll kidnap you." Her eyes began to droop, and her body became heavy in my arms as she mumbled a few more words and then passed out.
Her finger bent against my chest and fell back to her stomach. I looked up at Thorne in confusion. He lifted both eyebrows. "Wow. She's half dead and she's still planning your murder. I like her."
I gave a half chuckle, realizing that Thorne hadn't seen the effects she had on me when she touched my face. It was a good thing. I didn't understand it myself, and I definitely didn't have it in me to try to explain it to him. I did know, for a brief moment, there was a connection between the two of us. It was something more than just her hand against my cheek. There was a connection like magic, but how could that be? She wasn't magic… or at least I didn't know how she was.
The Tracker hobbled through the doorway and looked around, her eyes back to normal. I walked over to her and she put her hand against the woman's face. A woman whose name, I just realized, I didn't even know. "Will she be okay?"
The old woman hovered her hands up and down her body and then shifted her eyes up to me. "I think I can fix her. Bring her to my shop. Come through the back door. Cloak yourself so no one can see you. It's the busy hours on the street. I'll meet you there."
I nodded and sent several of my men with her to protect her while Thorne and I cloaked ourselves, making sure that we were invisible to everyone else as we shimmied and moved around the crowd to the back door of the apothecary. As we walked up, the Tracker opened the door and held it for us as we hurried the woman inside. She closed the door and locked it, motioning to the cleared off table in the back. "Lay her there. And then step back and be quiet. I need to concentrate on this. She's not a witch, but I have healed many who are not. No matter what happens, do not intervene."
I gave a stout nod and stepped to the side, standing next to Thorne. My men had surrounded the building, keeping us safe as the Tracker witch began her magic, healing with a white sparkling light that rolled from her fingertips unlike anything I'd seen before. The Tracker had been our father's, and our grandfather's. In fact, none of us really knew how old she truly was but she was, in essence, more powerful than any witch that I knew. It was a good thing, because from the way that the human looked, she was going to need a lot of magic to survive.
Callie
Just like my understanding of the current situation, my consciousness wavered in and out as I laid on the cold table, pain seeping through me.
With each bout of consciousness, I'd opened my eyes, gripping the sides of the table to keep from screaming, watching the old woman who I assumed was a witch, roll her hands over me, pulling at the darkness. I hadn't just been touched by it, parts of it had latched on to me. I could feel them, stuck to my insides like a cotton sweater in a briar patch.
The woman leaned forward and whispered in my ear as she soothed the burning in my chest with her magic. "You are stronger than you think. I have never seen a human take that kind of magic and have even a breath afterward. It's latching on to you and to fight it, you have to release so that I can pull it from you."
I looked into her eyes as she stood up. "I'm afraid."
She shook her head and smiled. "Of what? Everything that is created in this realm comes from the natural order of things. And while you only understand the idea of magic, it too comes from the very base of what this realm has created. The same things that you are created from. You have seen magic work for you. Now it's time let it go."
My eyes shifted from hers, across the room to where Shade was standing, a worried look plastered across his face. I turned back to the witch and nodded my head. I closed my eyes tightly and laid there, focusing on the positive energy and magic she was pushing through me instead of letting the pain overwhelm me. I imagined each and every strand of light circulating through my body, completely dissolving the darkness. With each inhale, I focused in on one area of my body, and with each exhale, I felt relief.
Opening my eyes, I watched as the witch pulled the dark magic from my chest. With each passing moment I was beginning to feel stronger and more alert. I could sense everything in the room, especially Shade. It was strange how well I could sense him. Everything was ridiculous, I wasn't folding on that point, but lying there, under the care of someone using magic, I felt almost connected to it. I felt connected to Shade. I felt connected to the bracelet. I felt connected to the dark magic. But even more so, for the first time in my forty years of life, I felt connected to myself. I felt myself fighting, pushing to be better, to be stronger.
I could feel as the last bit of darkness that clutched to my soul released, pulling up through my chest. I opened my eyes and watched it as it dissipated into sparks above me. My entire body relaxed and I closed my eyes for a moment, a tear running down my cheek. The witch continued working on me, helping to heal the deep cuts marked into my skin.
After a few moments, she pulled her hands back and placed them in front of her. "You might have a bit of scarring, but I did my best. The darkness is gone, but remember something. Your soul now knows it, is familiar with it, and in the future, you'll become more susceptible to the lure of the darkness. Be careful."
I reached up and put my hand on hers, giving her a warm smile. "Thank you. For everything."
The look on her face was almost perplexed as if she had never heard a kind word before. The reality was, I was starting to understand that it wasn't that she hadn't heard a kind word, it was that she hadn't heard many from non-magical people like me. I grunted as I sat up, turning my body to dangle my feet over the edge of the table. Thorne and the older woman walked to the front of the shop while Shade came and sat next to me on the table.
I groaned, letting my head hang, knowing that now that I was back in a lucid state, everything would start all over again. I was exhausted. I was tired of proving who I was. I turned to Shade and shook my head. "I'm being honest. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not lying or using some hidden magic. My name is Callie, and I'm just a person who grew up in California, own a bookstore, and I never take chances on anything. Well, except orange paint… But that's a different story."
Shade wrinkled his brow for a moment and then nodded his head. "I know."
"You know? You know that I'm not who you think I am, or you know about the orange paint? Because if it's the latter, I never claimed to be an interior decorator."
He scratched his head and chuckled, which was the first time I had seen him do anything other than scowl. For as handsome as he was as a brooding goth man, he was even more attractive with a smile on his face.
He looked around the back room as he talked, acting as if he wasn't comfortable with non-angered conversation. "I know you're definitely human. I saw the blood on your arm, and the Tracker, the woman that helped you, she would've sensed anything strange or different about you. That being said, there is something…"
"What? I mean, what else? In the matter of forty-eight hours, I've discovered that there's magic, there's all kinds of different magic, and it's actually possible to be kidnapped by multiple people within a span of forty-eight hours. Not to mention this random trip to Rome. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about sightseeing, but this wasn't quite what I had in mind. I was thinking more of going to Rome and see the Coliseum, imagine people dressed in togas, and a whole bunch of wine."
Something fluttered in my chest, but I pushed it back.
"Well, you got the less traveled tourist views of Rome while you were here."
My mouth dropped open and I nudged him with my shoulder. "Did you just tell a joke? If I hadn't just been attacked by red beady-eyed demon that wanted to put me in some sort of collection, I would say that hell must be freezing over. But it may have already happened."
We both laughed, and he stared at me for a moment as if he wanted to say something but he was fighting with himself. Eventually he turned his eyes away and took a deep breath. "I guess I owe you an explanation."
I shrugged. "It would be nice. I have no idea what's happening."
He nodded and rubbed his hands slowly together, staring at the floor. "My name is Shade, and my father was the Witch King before he passed away. Now, my brother Vlad is the King of the witches and all of the covens around the world. My brother, he's a kind soul, and had never really wanted to be king, but it was what it was. He had no choice in the matter. So, I've done everything that I could to protect him. Four days ago, we woke up like any other day, but when we went to meet in chambers to discuss the usual things, everyday stuff, Vlad wasn't there. We searched everywhere for him, reviewed the cameras, everything, and we couldn't figure out the moment he disappeared."
A gasp escaped my throat and I covered my mouth, instantly understanding everything that had happened since he had taken me. I understood the anger and the emotion behind it. "And what did Willa have to do with all of this?"
"By now I'm sure you figured out that Willa is a Fae, and a princess. Her father is the Spring King, one of the four leaders of the Fae realm. She left the Fae a long time ago, not wanting to be a future Queen. She got out, blended in with the human population, and had a few people along with her to watch out for her. She was hiding from them and everyone else. As to why, I don't know. I don't know her that well. But I do know that she's incredibly important to their world. The witches and the Fae have not always gotten along. There were major wars between us but eventually an alliance was formed and a peace was agreed upon. It didn't mean that we got along, but we put down our swords."
"Or magic wands, raging viral mists…"
He chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, that as well. My brother has never angered anyone, not any of the magical creatures out there, and we haven't had any real confrontation in decades. There was literally no reason for any other creature to take my brother. However, leading up to his abduction, we had heard rumor of the Fae becoming restless, wanting to come back to this realm, tired of being forced to stay in their own. We don't go there and they don't come here unless it's sanctioned by our leaders. While we do have a peace agreement, it tends to work better if we practice caution."
"And you thought Willa took your brother?"
"No," he replied with a small grin. "Here, the Fae can't use their full powers and against witches and they would almost surely lose every time. But like us, they have their own magic and workarounds and I assumed that it was the Fae that had taken him. I knew that if I got their princess, I could trade her to the Fae in return for the Witch King."
I furled my brow, thinking back to the car ride. "But why would the Fae steal your brother when their own King was missing?"
I watched his face as it slowly unfurled, shock washing over him. "How do you know that?"
"Well, when I was kidnapped the first time, by those two big idiots, I heard them talking about it in the five to ten seconds before I happened to escape from the car."
He shook his head and stood up, pacing in front of me. "That doesn't make any sense. But then again, whatever took you off the street, it wasn't Fae."
"No, and it was talking about how I wasn't a King, but it still wanted to add me to his collection… Whatever the hell that means." I let out a sigh, looking down at my hands as I clenched my fists together. I wasn't angry, but I was definitely frustrated. I had been drawn into something, a world that I never expected, but I was in it, and there was no way I could walk away, especially with Willa being involved. "I'm trying VERY hard not to be THAT girl who argues logic in an illogical situation, but you do understand that all of this is bat shit crazy-hard to wrap my head around."
He looked up, and for just a second I could see empathy on his face. He quickly shook it away. "I know, but you better start, because outsiders are a huge no-no. No one outside the magic world knows of magic or is touched by magic or anything of that matter. I'd like to think that I can trust every single witch in my coven, but I know that's naïve. We need to get you back, before anyone finds out that you aren't Willa. If they do, I'm not sure that I can protect you."
I could feel the redness in my cheeks, but I shook it off, hopping from the table. "Look at you. Just yesterday you wanted to sell me to the Fae, thinking I was some magical tart trying to get one over on you. And now, you're worried about my health."
He laughed, but in the middle, his face suddenly went pale and his eyes shifted around the room. When they returned to me, he put out his hand. "Someone's arrived at the mansion. We have to go."
I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing he was giving me the opportunity to make the choice. I appreciated the offer, but I also knew I really didn't have one. Without him, I wouldn't survive. At least with him I might have a better chance. At least with him I might get home.
"Will you come with me? We can get you home and figure out what's happening. With this new dark entity, and the way that it…"
I sneered. "Touched me inappropriately?"
He wrinkled his forehead. "Yeah, something like that. I think you're definitely in danger at this point."
I glanced around at the back of the apothecary, thinking about heading back down to Rome all by myself, and it was the last thing I wanted to do. I shrugged and reached out, taking his hand. "For now. Besides, sleeping in that big bed seems a lot more comfortable then squished between two dumpsters in a back alley of Rome."
In other unsaid words, being alive as long as I could was much better than the thought of my body hanging from an X in some old beaten-down building.