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Anna
She dropped her bag on the cot and walked back out of her room.
The “Outpost” that the Coven had decided to erect near the portal was a small cluster of buildings. There were the sleeping quarters, kitchen and communal living area and a supply and storage shed. That was it, nothing more.
“What an absolute joke.”
“I’m sorry, Gen,” she said, apologizing to her friend. “I...I didn’t know that you would get swept up in this with me.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Two weeks, that’s it. I can handle two weeks out here.” Genna smiled bravely. “It’s the others you have to worry about.”
Anna nodded grimly, noting the other four witches, including one Initiate Bowen, who she just knew was going to be trouble before the two weeks were up. This had Master Loiner’s fingerprints all over it, and she wondered what the Master had planned.
“What about them?” Genna looked over Anna’s shoulder.
“I have no idea. I...I assume they’re sleeping in here with us,” Anna said uncomfortably, knowing who Genna meant.
Both Altair and Rane had joined the little expedition, assigned by the dragon leader Rokh to come with the witches to the outpost as backup, in case anything came through.
“So much for not fraternizing,” Genna muttered.
“Yeah. It’s okay, we’ll figure it out,” Anna said, patting her friend on the shoulder, trying to force a positive smile on her face.
“Did he come out to see you off?” Genna asked, using a quieter voice.
“No.”
Anna had been the last witch to depart from Winterspell, her wind steed launching itself after the others as Anna delayed as long as she possibly could. But there still had been no sign of Damien.
“I’ll find a way to send word back to you if he starts showing his face now you’re gone,” Genna said. “That sonofabitch, how dare he do this to you and then just avoid you like that.”
Anna smiled. She’d put a lot of thought into whether or not Damien was avoiding her, and she still didn’t have an answer, but it seemed more and more like he had been. After all, where else would he have been?
“I’m going to go for a walk,” she said. “Before that storm hits us.”
“Okay. Be safe.”
“I will,” she said, heading for the exit, pulling the hood of her robes up over her head.
On the way in, they had spotted dark clouds moving through the mountains, a clear warning that another winter storm was headed their way. Anna didn’t intend to get caught out in that weather on her own, but right then she just needed to be alone. By herself, with her own thoughts.
She walked outside, noting the portal itself, a shimmering oblong shape hovering four feet off the ground. Anna made a note to erect some sort of cordon around it, so that nobody would accidentally walk into it or get too close. They had no idea what the effects of that would be.
The portal. Her final task, and the only way she would ever get back to Winterspell.
How the hell am I supposed to figure out magic cast by dragons? This is ridiculous. I’m never going to be able to understand how they made this thing. It’s not at all like our own rifts.
Anna couldn’t even feel its presence when she quested out for it. None of the witches who’d tried could sense it. It was like, to their magic, it simply did not exist.
Her footsteps took her past the portal and out into the snow-covered trees. The portal and Outpost were sheltered on three sides, one by the bulk of the mountain, with two fingers of rock stretching out to create a dead zone in between. The buildings themselves were nestled back against the sheer wall of the cliff face, sheltering them from much of the wind. On the fourth side, the trees rose up and headed down the slope of the mountain to ground level.
It was into these forest giants that Anna headed, wanting to be alone with her premonitions of failure. With her staff at her side, she did not fear any of the predators that roamed the slopes. Her magic would protect her.
“Anna.”
She spun as a familiar basso rumble sounded from off to the side.
“You,” she hissed, straw-blond hair and brilliant blue eyes capturing her attention, and also her hatred.
“Hi,” Damien said calmly.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” she snapped, remembering at the last moment to keep her voice low. “Where have you been?”
“I had to come see you,” he said, spreading his hands wide, as if he’d expected her to know that. “I missed you.”
“You missed me?” she yelped, then covered her mouth as Damien hushed her. “Yes, yes, I know. Be quiet.”
“Of course, I missed you,” he said. “How could I not?”
Anna worked her jaw to find the right words to express her incredulity at both his presence and the words he was uttering. “You do realize, somewhere underneath that thick skull of yours, that you had two days to come find me. Two days that I spent packing and preparing to come out here, where you weren’t around. Two days I spent thinking you didn’t want anything more to do with me.”
Damien frowned. “Anna, I couldn’t. But don’t think it’s not been driving me mad not being able to see you. That I haven’t been thinking of you.”
“What are you talking about?” she said, pulling back her hood to better glare at him. “You avoided me. You got what you wanted from me and then you just left. Like all men. I should have listened to Circe the first time. She warned me you would do something like this.”
“What on earth are you talking about, Anna? “Got what I wanted”? What does that mean?” Damien was looking at her with consternation in his eyes, brow wrinkling more and more with every passing second.
She tried to meet his gaze, but the longer she stared, the more her mind started to tell her she’d misjudged his actions.
“I...I thought that once you’d, um, had me, that you, didn’t need me.”
“You mean that since we slept together, I was over you and wanted to move on to the next? That’s what you mean, isn’t it? You thought I was just using you to have your body. That I wasn’t interested in anything else about you.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I guess.”
“You’re wrong,” he rumbled. “I hope you realize that.”
“Then where the hell were you?” she cried. “You had days to come see me. To send a note. To communicate at all. But you didn’t.”
“I had to leave, Anna. To leave Winterspell.”
Anna rocked backward. That wasn’t the answer she’d expected at all. “What? Why?”
“I passed out in the barn after you left. When I woke up, Rane was there. He’d found me and told me about your punishment. I had a split-second decision to make. Go accept my punishment from Rokh, and likely never leave Winterspell, or run away. Hide out in the mountains, and—”
“And when I came here, you could come find me without worrying,” she finished.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Damien said apologetically. “I wanted to. But it needed to look real. If Rane had told you I was out here waiting, you wouldn’t have acted the same. People would have known what was up. It...it had to be real.”
“I’m still upset, but if you’re serious, then I’ll get over it,” she said. “But it’ll take time for my emotions to calm.”
“I understand,” Damien said. “I’m not happy about it, but I am happy to see you again. The idea of never being able to see you again. To be near you, I couldn’t stomach that. I had to do whatever it took, so that we could be together, at least somehow, some way. I...”
She bit her lip as he faltered, his emotions showing through the normally stoic exterior.
“Anna, there’s something I need to tell you,” he said, looking up suddenly, eyes focused on her, and only her. “Something I’ve been thinking about, that I want you to know.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “I’m listening.”
“Anna, I—”
A blast of black energy slammed into Damien from the side and flung him out into the depths of the forest, smashing him through at least one sapling along the way.
Anna spun to see where the attack had come from. Initiate Bowen stood off to the left, wand raised. The magical weapon swung from where it had been aimed at Damien, to point at Anna.
“Initiate Sturgis, under the authority given to me by Master Loiner of Winterspell Academy, I hereby arrest you on charges of treason. Resist, and I will incinerate you.”
Anger blossomed in Anna, but she kept herself under control. In a straight-up magical fight, she didn’t stand a chance against Bowen. The other Initiate would be able to follow through on her promise with fair ease.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” she snapped, looking out into the forest, trying to see where Damien had gone.
“We figured you would continue scheming with that rogue dragon. You’re probably trying to figure out how to open the portal to admit more of his kind. But we’re not going to do that. Now, you will come with me at once.”
Anna rolled her eyes. “You are an absolute idiot!” she shouted. “You couldn’t be more wrong if you tried to be. Why I—”
The wind picked up and a giant ethereal hand reached down to swat Bowen aside.
Damien stalked back into the little clearing, twigs and brush still embedded in his clothing and clinging to his skin.
“You just made a big mistake,” he growled as Bowen’s magic sliced through the barely visible wind-hand, dispelling it.
“Time to teach you a lesson.”
