Witch Emerging (High Witch Book 2) (10 page)

On that they agreed, but Hallie had needed her parents’ love and support after everyone except Sean turned against her. But all her mother kept saying was how the whole town hated them but they couldn’t afford to leave, so they had to put up with the stares and the talk and the people telling them Hallie should be locked up.

It took years for that to die down, but Hallie never grew any closer to her mother. Her father was mostly silent and always had been, but it was her mother—and her judgment—that kept Hallie from visiting them. But her mother was sad about her not visiting? Really? She didn’t know what to think. It was too much to take in right now.

“I’ll think about it,” she finally said, “but let’s just take one day at a time. I have a fair amount of money saved up—I’ll be alright not working for a while. I just want to rest.”

“Me too,” Sean said. “I just want lie here and hold you. You feel so good in my arms, Hallie.”

She smiled, nearly purred, and nestled close to him. He ran his hand over her body, up and down her back and her side, then turned to face her and began to kiss her neck. She wondered where he got all his energy, but she barely had room for a coherent thought as he began to kiss her passionately. His hand rested in her hair, cupping the back of her head while he held her by the waist with the other. She began to grow excited, craving his touch all over her, wanting more of him, wanting all of him.

He didn’t disappoint her.

***

“Are you ready?” Brayden asked.

Ariel looked at him beside her on the bed in the dim light of evening. She took a deep breath, then nodded. “I’m ready. I know this will be strange, but it’s time.”

She took his hand, looked at him earnestly, and then shut her eyes. She was about to bind her baby’s powers. The spell the healer had explained to her was relatively simple: she just needed to take some of her power and use it to stop her baby from using magic. It would be as if her power would be confining her baby, binding her so she couldn’t release her magic. The thought broke Ariel’s heart, but she had no real choice.

When she cast the locating spell, her child’s power had joined with her own, making the spell amazingly strong. Ariel was convinced the spell wouldn’t have worked without the extra magic her child provided, but it also meant every spell she cast had the potential to be unstable. She couldn’t take that risk. When her child was transporting her across the house or making her feel some pain, she thought she could handle it, but she would be endangering other people if her spells became out of her control. She already had to be careful with her magic anyway, since her magic was so much more powerful than other people’s. She had to carefully control it and concentrate to make sure her spells didn’t overpower her, didn’t destroy things around her. But the power of
two
High Witches in a spell and no ability by her to control her baby’s magic? It was far too dangerous. So she finally agreed binding her baby’s powers was the right thing to do, though it broke her heart.

She squeezed Brayden’s hand as she finally cast the spell. It wasn’t difficult, and it was over in a matter of moments. Just focus on what she needed to do and it was done. But the
difference
.

“Ariel?” Brayden asked.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. She nearly couldn’t breathe. She chewed on her lip, wanting to explain what she was feeling. “I don’t feel… the same. I’m weakened.”

“Is the baby alright?” Brayden asked. “Are you okay?”

“The baby’s fine, as far as I can tell. But it’s me. The healer had said my power would be lessened because I would be using some of it to bind my child’s powers. I can feel it. I’m not as strong magically. The baby’s powers are bound, but I’m weakened too. It’s… strange. I’ve never felt like this before. I wonder if this is what an ordinary witch feels like?”

Brayden smiled a little. “Do you really think your power is lessened that much? I mean, you should still be able to do magic no ordinary witch or warlock can do. I imagine you feel weaker, but I still think you’re ten times as strong as anyone else. As opposed to twenty times.”

Ariel smiled, loving that Brayden was trying to reassure her. She found him so sweet, and he calmed her so much. She supposed it was just a shock, feeling so different. She should still be able to do what she needed.

She hoped.

***

Ariel and Brayden sat at the kitchen table eating dinner a short while later, not saying much. They’d packed a bag each for their trip to find the other High Witch. The girl lived in a country quite far away. They would have to travel for over three weeks by ship to get to her. Brayden had asked around all day and found a ship leaving in a few days going to their destination, and it was taking passengers. They would have to travel to two days by carriage to arrive at the port where the ship was departing, so they were going to leave tonight. Ariel was very nervous.

“I hope we don’t get seasick,” Brayden asked. “Although we’ll never know until we get on the ship. It’s weird, both of us having never been on a boat before.”

“I never had a need to,” Ariel said softly. “I never went anywhere. My whole life was just school and living with my uncle. I feel bad about that, though.”

“You wish you’d traveled?”

“No, I mean just staying with my uncle like that. I should have found work after school finished when I was fourteen, but I didn’t know what to do and my uncle was wealthy enough to support us. I suppose he always expected me to get married and move out, but I didn’t. Nine years of disappointing him. I just never met anyone, and didn’t know what to do. I did work for my uncle, like I told you, helping him with his work as an accountant, but he didn’t pay me and I was just stuck. It was my own fault, though. I guess I expected I’d get married too, but it just wasn’t happening. I was worried I’d be a spinster forever.” Ariel looked at her plate, feeling embarrassed.

Brayden reached his arm across the small table and took her hand. “You know you’re lovely, don’t you? Any man would be mad not to want you. But you know what? I’m glad you were a spinster, or else you couldn’t have been with me.”

Ariel giggled. “You were the first man who looked at me twice.”

“I find that hard to believe. Ariel, you’re beautiful. Don’t you know that?”

She smiled crookedly, her eyes becoming moist. “Did you think that when you first saw me? I was a mess that day. I was always a mess, Brayden. I’m not beautiful. I was always plain, ordinary, and never made myself pretty. It’s no wonder every man ignored me.” She sniffed, feeling overcome with emotion.

Brayden rose and moved towards her, their food forgotten, and took her arm to make her stand. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair as she nestled close to him. She felt him sigh. “Ariel I couldn’t stop thinking about you from the moment I saw you, and it wasn’t just about the dreams I’d been having. You looked so beautiful to me, so pretty, so sensual, and there was just something about you I craved. You being alone wasn’t about you not being good enough. Maybe it was about you
believing
you weren’t good enough, not even seeing when a man noticed you. Because I’m sure they did. You’re wonderful and sweet, and I love you. As selfish as it sounds, I’m glad you never found someone. The thought of you with someone else…”

Brayden became slightly tense, and Ariel lifted her head to look at him. “You’d have been jealous if I’d been with someone else?”

Brayden gazed at her closely. “Yes. I’d want to reach into your past and wipe the guy out.” He moved his mouth to her ear. “I’m glad I was your first,” he whispered. “I wouldn’t want anyone touching you that way but me.”

She felt a quiver run through her, and she gently kissed him. He didn’t release her; instead, he deepened the kiss, holding her tighter, moving his tongue with hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, delighting in his touch, in the way he knew just how to kiss her to make her tremble all over. He’d been her first kiss; he’d be her last. He was her everything. She sighed a little, and she heard him groan. He kept kissing her, and she felt herself become aroused, but they had no time for that.

Well, maybe they had a little time. They were still newlyweds, after all.

***

Thomas looked over at his new patient, lying on one of the small beds in the room where all his patients stayed. There were various sounds coming from the people on the eight beds—complaints, groans, whimpers—but this man was silent. He lay unconscious in the sparse room.

Thomas ran a hand through his grey hair and turned to his young assistant, Ethan. “It’s astonishing the way he’s burned, as if he was tightly holding something on fire. But how could that be? The wounds cover his chest and the inside of his arms, which are burned at such a level I’m amazed he’s surviving it. There’s only one thing which explains it.”

Thomas paused, then finished his thought. “I think he’s a warlock, with the power to control fire and water. I’ve heard his kind can create flames out of nothing, can touch fire and not be wounded. He’s certainly wounded, but he’s
not
dying—in fact, he’s improving already. He won’t be out of here for weeks and he’ll be badly scarred, but he’ll make it. He
must
be a warlock. An ordinary man would be dead.”

Thomas looked at Ethan, the blond boy staring at the patient with wide eyes. They hadn’t encountered a person of magic in a while, those people preferring to go to healer of their own kind. It made sense—they’d know how to treat them better and have knowledge non-magical people wouldn’t have.

The man’s neighbors had heard him screaming in agony and went into his house to find him lying on the ground, his torso badly burned. He’d somehow doused the flames, but he was in excruciating pain. By the time he’d arrived at Thomas’ workplace, he was unconscious. The man’s neighbors didn’t even know his name.

Thomas didn’t want any trouble.

He guessed this man was trouble.

Chapter 14

It was a strange month for Hallie. She sent word to her employer that she needed some time off. She didn’t know if her job would be waiting for her, but there was no way she could concentrate on work when Nicholas was still out there. Her mind and heart were filled with dozens of questions and the overwhelming sensation that she was just waiting for something. Ariel finding her? Nicholas returning? She didn’t know what it was, but there was something looming on the horizon. She could feel it in her bones. She couldn’t go about her days like normal with this ominous feeling hovering over her.

And then there was Sean.

He had brought his things to her home and had been staying with her. It was awkward at first, being around each other so much, having been intimate but still needing to grow closer emotionally. They needed to catch up on the lost years, needed to rebuild the friendship that had bonded them together for nearly their whole lives. At first they perpetually became distracted by kissing, touching, and making love. Hallie craved his touch, and Sean was only too eager to satisfy her. It was so overwhelming, consuming, heated—she’d never experienced anything like it. She loved growing close to him that way, but as the days went on, they did talk. About everything.

Sean told her about his time at sea, about the difficulty of living aboard a ship, and all the places he’d traveled to. He hadn’t liked being at sea but said he’d learned a lot from his uncle. Hallie felt a sense of admiration for him for going through so much. Her heart ached over one question, though: why hadn’t he written to her while he was away? Complete silence for two years? She broached the question to him one night in bed.

He’d held her hand as they sat beside each other, remaining silent for a long time. Finally he’d looked at her with sadness in his eyes.

She’d felt her heart sink, waiting for his answer. It wasn’t what she expected.

“I wanted to… I actually did write to you, long letters about everything I was thinking and feeling. But I could never send them. I didn’t know what you were doing, if you were still thinking of me. But it wasn’t just that… how could you learn to be strong without me if I was always holding you up? How could you learn to survive completely on your own if I was always there for you? I didn’t want to be separated from you—you were my closest friend.
Are
my closest friend. But I couldn’t hold on to you. I had to let you go. And just hope with all my heart that one day we could be together again.”

Hallie had felt sadness at his words, at the hurt he must have been feeling, but knew deep down he’d done the right thing. She
was
stronger now. She’d branched out, did things which made her uncomfortable, only to become a better, more secure person for it. She didn’t need to hide behind Sean anymore—she could defend herself. She could take care of herself. But, oh, how she’d missed him.

She’d told Sean about leaving home, about the independence and joy she’d felt moving somewhere where people didn’t know about her past and weren’t constantly judging her. She hadn’t really made many friends, but people respected her in her town, thought of her as intelligent and a hard worker, and always treated her well. Until she’d met Nicholas, no one even knew she was a witch, something she had been sure to keep hidden.

Apart from getting to know each other, Hallie and Sean were focused on trying to learn all they could about Nicholas. They’d asked around their town, trying to find out who the man was, where he was from, and about his past. Anything that could help them fight him. Anything to prepare them for whatever he would do next.

Hallie was at home waiting for Sean to return from trying to find out more information. She was in the kitchen preparing their dinner on the warm summer night when she heard him come through the front door. She went to meet him, dismayed at the scowl on his face. “Nothing?” she asked as he walked to the table.

He sat, leaned back in his chair, and sighed. “Just a dead end. You’d think after a month of asking around, we’d come across someone who knows something. All we know is he’s rich, not from around here, and the most
secretive
son of a….”