Noctifer witch a paranor.., p.42
Noctifer Witch: A Paranormal Romance, page 42
Hudson’s words bring the memories of Forsythia rocking the merfolk boy’s body and of the sight of all the other bodies she didn’t notice flooding to the front of my mind. If I had any question about the level of corruption within this being, he just answered it with an unwavering totality.
The air begins to stir, and the light begins to dim. I know without looking that a false eclipse is starting.
The look on Hudson’s face when he looks up at the sky, is nothing short of pure glee. “Ah! There she is. I am so glad you have come out to play, my dear. Let’s have a rematch, shall we??” His tone has become frantic, and his eyes are wild.
“Let’s see if you are fast enough to save her this time.” He holds Cordelia up by her hair in one hand.
Everything happens so fast and yet so slowly all at once.
I watch, frozen in my fear, as Forsythia dashes toward them.
Cordelia reaches up and yanks the cloth from her mouth. Her eyes meet mine, and she mouths the words she only ever spoke to me once as a child, showing she cared more with her actions than her words. ‘I love you’.
Tears pool in my eyes and run in rivers down my cheeks as I repeat the gesture. Mouthing the words back, “‘I love you always.”
Forsythia is only halfway there when Hudson raises his other hand and uses a finger to trace a circle around his own head.
The spell is immediate, and I watch in horror as Cordelia’s body crumples to the ground, with her head still hanging from Hudson’s hand.
Iwatch in horror as Cordelia’s head is severed from her body.
I wasn’t fast enough.
Why the fuck wasn’t I fast enough?!
A heat like an inferno unfurls in my belly as I let out a blood-curdling shriek, and my wings carry me toward two of the men. Without touching the one, I squeeze and twist my hand, tapping into a magick that I hadn’t felt before. Black ink-like blood begins to ooze from every orifice of his body. He makes a choking sound that suggests he is drowning in it, and the sound brings a demented smile to my face.
When his idiotic buddy tries to offer some help, I turn my attention to him. I inhale sharply and continue to inhale until I’m pulling all of the oxygen from his body. After only a few moments, both bodies crumple to the ground. I click my fingers, and they ignite instantly, burning hot and reducing to ash in seconds.
I turn in time to see Lucian and Orobas teaming up on the third lackey.
Hudson throws the severed head at Blake, who seems completely frozen. I use the distraction of both men to sneak up behind Hudson, but he anticipates that move and turns to hurl a fireball at me.
I don’t try to deflect it. Instead, I let my instinct guide me through this, simply reaching out my hand and grabbing it. The cocky smile immediately falls from Hudson’s face.
Holding the fireball in my hand and watching the flames lick at my fingers, I have a sudden urge. Acting on the impulse, I pull the magick from the ball into myself and watch as it dissipates. Realization flickers over Hudson’s face, and his lips curl into a snarl that shows off his blackened gums.
He continues to lob his ineffectual little fireballs at me. I don’t bother to catch them this time. When they hit me, my body absorbs the magick greedily. Which allows me to direct my focus on pulling at the earth around his feet, covering them, and holding him firmly in place.
He continues to spew words at me, but I don’t hear them. I think someone is calling my name, but I’m far too enraptured in my task to pay them any attention. I only care about one thing…
The absolute suffering of this being before me.
I want to feel his pain and agony. I want to feel the hot sticky black blood leave his body. I want to watch as his pathetic life essence leave his body, and I want to eat it whole.
After a few more unsuccessful tries, the being finally decides to change his tactic.
With me closing the distance between us, he tries for a distraction by turning as far as he can, and tossing magick at my father and my mates. His angle is awkward, and they are easily able to avoid being hit.
I’m an arm’s length from him when he chooses a last-ditch effort to cause destruction by pouring his magick into his hand, fueling a curse I have become personally familiar with.
After all, it’s kind of hard not to recognize the very curse that killed you.
I prepare myself for the hit, knowing that I can survive it easily. At the last possible second, he shifts his body and tosses the curse straight at my father.
Thinking as quickly as I can, I toss an air shield around us both that I sincerely hope stopped the curse or at least gave Orobas plenty of time to get out of the way.
I close the distance between us and grip my hand tightly around Hudson’s throat. One quick squeeze, and I can end this. But no, that would be much more mercy than he deserves.
When the Gods created me, they didn’t just give me a full wheelhouse of powers & magickal abilities. They made me the judge, jury, and executioner for beings like this.
I can feel the rightness of that deep in my soul.
Did they intend for me to do what I’m about to?
Probably not.
But then maybe they shouldn’t have made me quite so passionate because this time, my passion is my rage.
Holding Hudson’s throat firmly with my left hand, I lift my right and watch as my fingernails extend slowly into small claws. I thrust my hand forward and punch it right through Hudson’s chest.
He screams, and I find the sound infuriating. I snarl and lean close to his face, gently squeezing the organ that’s keeping him alive.
“You will take my fury and my disgust, and you will choke on them with your very last breath.” I squeeze his heart a little more. “Do you have any last words before I end your pathetic existence?” I release my grip just slightly on his throat.
He stays true to his evil core and chuckles. Black fetid blood dribbles from his lips. “We have already won... The Creatori... is no longer bound by an insatiable hunger for magick essences... Now... it is simply a ruthless killer... And its beacon lies... with your precious humans... It will destroy them all... and cleanse the earth of their putrid filth...”
He means to frighten me with his words, but with how the creature left the merfolk village, I think that we all had to assume something like this had happened.
I smile at him, and that response drains all emotion from his face except fear. “I will find your precious beast, and I will kill it with my own two hands. Now do me a favor and just die.”
At the last of my words, I clench my fist around his heart and squeeze until it pops like a ripe berry.
I remove my hand from his chest as his body falls to the ground. I pull down the air shield and intend on charring his remains like the others when screaming makes its way to my ears.
When I realize it’s my father, panic dissipates my hold on the false eclipse, and my powers snap back into me in a rush that nearly knocks me over.
I run to him. Fear washing over me with each step at the thought that I may lose my father before I have even gotten a chance to know him truly. But when I close the distance, I realize that he was the one calling for me and that there is another body lying on the ground.
I fall to my knees beside the body and lift my fingers to run them across Lucian’s chest, but I can’t tell what’s wrong with him. There are no wounds or anything. My father’s voice invades my thoughts.
“I am so sorry, Forsythia. I would never have gotten out of the way in time, but I would never ask one of your mates to sacrifice themselves.”
The curse.
I thought–no, I had hoped–that it would have dissipated in the air shield.
The moments leading to Ori’s death flash quickly through my mind.
I failed to protect my familiar, just as I have failed to protect my mate. I have lost my mother and Cordelia.
Yet again, I was not fast enough.
“Lucian,” I say his name gently and stroke my hand across his cheek. But he doesn’t respond. He releases another exhale, but this time there is no inhale that follows.
He’s dead.
Being the Noctifer Witch is not a gift from the Gods. It’s a fucking curse.
Why else would everyone I love die?
“Quick! Freeze his body!” Blake yells. I’m confused by his demand, but he is already working hard to preserve my mate, so I move to Lucian’s feet and mimic Blake’s actions, covering the body in a thick shield of ice.
Once Lucian’s body is completely covered, Blake wipes a bit of sweat from his brow. “That should hold for a little while... I don’t know if it is true, but in my studies, I learned that drys return to the earth instantly after death... Becoming one with it the moment their life essence leaves their body... I figured it would be hard to get his essence back from the Ether... if he had no vessel to carry it...”
My brain takes a moment but slowly begins catching up. The nightmares. It wasn’t Blake in the ice like I thought. No, it was Lucian.
I nod at Blake and continue where he left off, trying to get a full grasp on what is happening right now. “The ice will stop his body from becoming grass or whatever. Right? Kind of freezing him in the moment?”
Blake nods.
Knowing that I can’t take either of them with me and that we will need someone to guard our vessels, that means I will be leaving them behind. Blake and my father will stay here while I venture into the Ether and bring Lucian back.
I lean up and kiss Blake passionately. When I pull back, he looks into my eyes.
“That had better be a ‘see you soon’ kiss, Sythia.”
I smile at him. “It was a ‘thank you for being a genius, and I will see you soon, Blake,’ type of kiss.”
Still unsure of the dynamic, I reach out and snag Orobas’s hand. I offer him a smile and a tiny squeeze before letting go. He nods at me, and I lay down beside my icicle mate.
Hunkcicle? Mate on the rocks?
I know, I know. Now is definitely not an appropriate time for jokes, but it’s a coping mechanism. Besides, if you hate it that much, get the fuck out of my head.
I close my eyes and steady my breathing.
Hold on, Lucian.
I may have been hesitant about a soul-bond mate at first, but now that I have you, you’re not getting away that easy.
You didn’t fight like hell to be free just to lose that fight over something as silly as a death curse.
Not when your mate is the Gods-touched Noctifer Witch.
I just hope Blake can keep his shit together while I leave my body and travel to another realm for a minute. Well, maybe more than a minute. I guess I was dead for three days the last time, but it’s not like that would happen again.
Right?
At least I didn’t die this time.
I just have to track down Lucian’s life essence in the vastness of the Ether, capture it, bring it back here and somehow force it back inside his body.
Easy peasy.
Right??
Oh, fuck me, I have no clue what I’m doing.
“You stubborn asshole mate! Where the fuck are you?!”
I scream into the nothingness.
Even though I’m not attached to my body, I can feel the sharp pangs in my heart and the labored breathing as my soul tries to panic. The pain of pure terror. I don’t want to lose him. Not when I just found him.
No…
I can’t lose him. If I had eyes, they would be sore and swollen from all of the crying right now. Not that crying ever solved anything, but damn… I’ve never felt a pain like this before.
My mind flashes back to the field where our bodies lay. I was so busy squeezing the pathetic life out of that disgusting piece of shit Hudson, that I didn’t hear Blake or Orobas screaming for me. When I rushed over, it was too late. Lucian was gone.
In that moment, all thoughts left my body and my veins turned to steel. Lucian and Blake make me feel whole. Without one of them… I’m only part of me.
Thankfully Blake was using his beautiful brain and jumped into action. We were able to encase his body in ice, preventing his drys genetics from trying to pull his physical body back into the earth. The rest is up to me.
Deep down, there is a piece of me that is missing, and I intend to find it. Even if I have to drag it back with me kicking and screaming. Although, that would mean that Lucian isn’t as keen on coming back with me. The thought pulls me to a stop and the sharp pain digs its nasty claws in deeper, squeezing painfully at my heart.
Fuck that. He doesn’t get to leave me. Not yet. Not when we have so much living to do.
I got here as quickly as I could, mere minutes after Lucian. I mean, there really is no way that he could have moved into the Ether so quickly, and he would never have left me so willingly…
Right?
To be fair, I’m not really sure how the Between, or the Ether passing, works for a fae. Fuck, I don’t even understand most of this enough to know what I’m doing. I’m just winging it.
Story of my life…
Pushing the shapeless ball of light that serves as my vessel here in the Between, I travel further along into the nothingness.
There is no concept of time here, so I have no clue how long I’ve actually been searching for Lucian. I only hope that Blake and Orobas– I mean, my father –are holding up ok.
We eliminated the Creatori followers, so they should be relatively safe. But I know that Blake is probably worrying himself sick.
At the thought of Blake, I feel a slight pull. I focus hard on the feeling, and with it brings the ebb and flow like waves, and the smell of the sea. That’s Blake’s tether. I try not to get frustrated, but I don’t need his tether right now.
I need Lucian’s.
At that thought, a blinding pain makes me stop. I shouldn’t be able to feel pain here. I don’t have a body to feel pain. But it’s there. Sharp and nasty. Like a knife in my chest, twisting and twisting and–
Wait…
In my chest..
Where I feel my mates’ tethers. Maybe… maybe it’s Lucian?
With a renewed sense of purpose, I push as hard as I can through the sensation and focus on the pain. It intensifies, but not before I get a brief scent of moss… and an urge to turn right. Ignoring the pain and running on the excitement that I may actually be making headway, I push my light ball along in the vague direction I sensed and go as quickly as I can.
It doesn’t take long before I find… a tiny tree?
“Who is there?” the voice of a small boy calls out to me.
“Uhm, Forsythia? Are you lost? Do you need help?” I can’t bring myself to leave a child alone, even if I am trying to find the man I love. I just hope I can find where he belongs or get him some help quickly, because I need to find Lucian.
“Forsythia? That is the name of a flower bush. Are you a flower fae?”
Oh my Gods, how sweet. I can’t help but chuckle a little at the innocent question.
Sparing him the confusion of announcing myself as the Noctifer Witch, I respond simply. “No, I’m just a witch. Are you here alone?”
“I am waiting for someone… I think. I cannot remember much. It is all sort of jumbled.”
“That’s okay, sweetie. What is your name?”
“L– Lucian.”
Uhmm… excuse me, what?!
“Lucian? My Lucian?”
The tree– er, boy? Doesn’t respond.
Reaching in deep, I focus on my tether to Lucian. The pain blossoms quickly but then dulls almost as fast, and I get no indication of direction.
Of course, this can’t be easy.
Trying again, I push the little tree for a response. “Lucian, is that you? I’ve been searching for you. Why are you hiding?”
“I cannot let the elvish court to find me. If they find me, they will take me back. I will not go back.”
“But Lucian, it’s me. Not the elvish court. It’s Forsythia, your mate.”
At my words, the branches begin to shake before the tree slowly pulls into itself. Leaving a single leaf behind.
“Forsythia?”
Lucian’s gruff voice is a beautiful symphony of comfort to my ears. I would jump up and down, but you know… no body.
“Yes! It’s me, Lucian. I’m here.”
“You came for me.” His voice almost sounds awed at the idea. Of course, he would hold this fear so deeply when he has never known love before. At least, not a love like ours.
“Yes, Lucian. I am yours. I will always come for you.”
He doesn’t respond, but that’s okay. I don’t need him to. What I do need him to do is get his leafy butt in gear so we can get back to our bodies. Like now.
“Lucian, we have to get back.”
“I– I do not know the way.”
“It’s ok. That’s why I’m here. Just follow me.”
Now hopefully, I can remember which direction to actually go in, or this will be really fucking embarrassing.
Damn the Between and all it’s weird nothingness.
I’m pacing like a crazy fucker.
I can’t help it. I feel like this wound-up ball of energy and if I sit for too long, I start getting anxious. It’s been two fucking days.
Two of the longest days of my entire fucking life.
Half-way through day one, I had given up on the sweet encouraging shit I was whispering to her, and tried to just shake Forsythia awake.
It didn’t work of course.
When I slapped her an hour later to try and bring her out of it, Orobas forced me to take some space and go for a swim.
That didn’t help either.
So I resorted to gathering supplies. All the supplies. Random bits of shit I snatch up that we probably won’t need at all, but it helps fill the void of my hours. At least the bits between screaming at the Gods and demanding my mate and brother returned, and all the blade sharpening.
Although the blade sharpening might be what is making Orobas the most uncomfortable. As if I would ever do anything to my mate’s father. Alright, to be fair, I might have spent a little time threatening him because if my brother hadn’t saved his ass, then he and Forsythia would be here.
