Chapter 84

**MAE POV**

Something is wrong, we have been walking for hours, and whilst I know that the cabin is a hike from the mansion, it shouldn’t be taking this long. A witch has trapped us in the forest. It has to be one, I can feel the gun of magic like a thick blanket wrapped around the air, making it hard to breathe.
My father and Mihai haven’t noticed, they continue to walk like everything is normal, but it isn’t. Nothing is as it should be, and what’s worrying me most is I cannot even speak about it.
Every time I open my mouth to tell them, my throat goes dry and the words die on my tongue. We are trapped, and in grave danger and I cannot even warn them.
I cannot even save them.
I look around cautiously as we continue to hike through the uneven grounds of the wood, silent anger coursing through my veins like black ice, slippery and cold. I’m going to kill whoever is messing with us, and I am going to make it fucking painful. How dare one of them attack us.
Don’t we have enough on our plate figuring the hunter’s council? We don’t need witches gunning for us as well. I don’t need to be fighting on two fronts. We’d be stretched too far. We’d lose.
The witch tribes are supposed to have a truce with the Nati, they mostly just leave each other alone on the promise that the Nati won’t feed from them as long as the witches stay away. They aren’t allowed to interfere.
But whoever has trapped us in this loop is interfering, and they’re going to be in big fucking trouble. If not from me, then from the vampire lords. And they aren’t known for their forgiveness to any race, let alone the witch tribes.
I stop walking, ignoring the pushing inside of me to keep going, that is the magic talking, it wants me to keep moving. It wants me to walk until I can no longer move my legs.
Are they trying to kill us? It’s a very rough way to go, starving to death in the middle of a woodland.
I wonder why they are here, so they have a vendetta against Mihai? Or my father? Do they have one against me?
Why have they chosen this place to exact their unusual torture?
I feel the breeze quicken and my blood runs cold, whoever it is is closer now, they are watching me, perhaps they are as confused as I am. I shouldn’t be able to fight the magic, but I am.
I should be blinded to it like Mihai and Luthor, but I’m not. I can feel it just as I can feel the blood rushing through me. It somehow feels natural. It feels warmer. It’s as though it is chasing away the cold of approaching winter.
I watch Luthor and Mihai continue to walk, oblivious to the fact I have stopped, they can’t speak, they can’t turn back. I doubt they can even see me. They are blinded by the magic. And they have one goal; walk until death.
I have to stop this. I have to make whoever cast the spell reverse it. Otherwise I will lose them, and I may be struck here until the end of time, wandering the woods alone.
“Stop this.” I shout at the wind, frantically searching the trees. “I know that you can hear me, and I demand that you stop whatever it is you are doing to us.”
A laugh travels on the wind, swirling around me like a fire that has blazed out of control, it’s trying to consume me. But it won’t. It’s just a warning.
Clearly my threats will not work.
I have to try something else.
“Please.” I say, softening my voice. “I have never halted a witch, let us go.”
Again, a laugh travels towards me on the wind, though it is no longer a cackle of a mad woman, it’s softer, gentler.
And for some reason, I know whoever it is, they are listening to what I have to say.
“If we have trespassed on your land then I apologise, it was not our intention, we are just trying to get home, can you help us?” The laughter fades away, leaving the woods silent, the only sound is my own heavy breathing, and it’s making me nervous. “We will not bother these woods again if that is what you wish. But you must let us go. I have finally found a family of my own, and I don’t want to lose them. I’ve lost so much already.”
Emotion coats my voice, and tears slide down my face before I can stop them.
If I cannot get this witch to see reason, then I will spend the rest of my days alone in here, wandering, starving.
That is not the end that I want. Not when I haven’t had a chance to experience the good life.
“What will you do to be free?” A voice asks, and I whip my head around, searching for the owner.
But I find no one. I’m alone. But I am not.
I can feel the woman’s presence, even if I cannot see her.
“Whatever you ask.” I say, but my words have no emotion, no promise.
“Those are dangerous words to speak, witch.” Comes the voice once more.
“I am not a witch.” I say to the wind, “I am a Nati.”
“You are of the earth, and of the dark.” Says the voice, closer now than before. “You have feet in both worlds. Powers from both sides.”
I frown, the woman is making no sense.
I cannot be both, it isn’t heard of.
I know little about witches, but I know that it can only pass through the female line, not the male. And you cannot belong to two races. Or if you can, it has never been documented.
“How do you explain my spell not working on you?” Says the woman, her voice closer, winding around me like a noose.
“I don’t know.” I answer honestly, “I don’t have any clue how your magic works. Perhaps I am immune?”
The voice laughs, coming from directly behind me, I whirl around, but I see no one. I’m alone. But I know that I am not.
“No one is immune to the power of a witch.” Says the woman, her voice colder now, and so was the wind, bitter and like ice. “No one except for another witch.”
This makes no sense, if I was a witch, wouldn’t I know it?
Wouldn’t there be signs?
“What do you want from me?” I ask, crossing my arms, “You seem to know better than I do what I am, so why not tell me why you have placed me in this loop? Why attack one of your own?”
“I have not attacked you.” The woman snaps, sounding angry, “you would know if I had tried to hurt you. I was testing you. I had to see you were who I thought you were. I couldn’t take the risk of being wrong.”
I frown. Something isn’t right. None of this makes sense.
“If you didn’t place me here to hurt me, then why?” I ask, turning in a tight circle, trying to catch a glimpse of her.
“The hunters aren’t just after the Nati.” She says, “those humans want to eradicate all who are not like them. They do not care about age, they do not care about whether you are violent or peaceful, they only want to destroy.”
I can agree with her there. The hunter council want all races to either bow to them and serve them, or die. There is no other choice. Not even for humans.
“I’m trying to stop the council.” I say, my voice travelling on the grumbling wind. “I’m trying to make sure they never hurt anyone else.”
“I know this.” Says the woman, “that is why I have come to you.” Her voice is further now, fading, “I am going to come to you one day soon, and I am going to train the side of you that you have yet to unlock. When I am finished, no one, not even the leader of the council will be able to stop you. But beware.” Her voice is colder again, and the wind is biting, “so not tell many about this, not all will understand. There has been no one like you before, and I doubt there will be again.”
“You’ll let me go?” I ask, “and my father and Mihai too?”
“I will.” Says the woman, the wind changing, “and when I come to you, you will learn, or I will destroy all that you are, you are either with us, or against us.”
“If you do nothing to hurt my family, then I will help you.” I tell the voice. “I want to learn; I want to know what I am.”
“And you will.” Says the voice, the wind swirling around me like a tornado, “but not today, today you will return home.”
I blink several times, the wind spinning me around and around, blinding me, trapping me. I can’t see anything. I can’t I move.
And then nothing, the wind is gone, and so if the hum of magic, I am stood alone, in the middle of the wood, tired, and still confused.
What did I just agree to?
I hope this doesn’t come back to haunt me, or hurt my family.
A witch. Apparently, I’m a witch, and a Nati.
How the hell did that happen?