The Dark Witch And Her Knights

18

"We must talk. No more avoiding each other."

Mutely he had approached me from behind. I turned from the brewing pot so fast the length of my hair whipped him. Nimbly he caught my ends yanking me towards him.

"I hate you. Don't touch me," I spit out trying to push him away but he wouldn't let go.

I needed to put space between us. The feeling of the curse seeping deeper into my veins was already present. Luring me under a lustful haze I had not agreed upon.

"Listen to me," he demanded.

"Fine," I yelled in annoyance. "You must first release me and take five steps out of my reach."

His grip tightened; maybe he thought I was going to make a run for it. "It is the spell," I whispered looking down, away from his eyes hoping I could draw out his soft side. "It is difficult when you are close." My eyelashes fluttered up at him hoping he didn't catch on to my lack of detail.

Finally releasing my hair his arms flew up in surrender. "Take a seat and I'll stay away." I was in the chair before he could even finish his sentence. His handsome face twisted in disbelief at my haste. "I suppose you already know of the prophecy?"

"Yes. All the witches of the land believe I will become Queen somehow and free them from the fear of the hangman's noose," I said flatly, uninterested in the whole pretense.

"There is more to it than that." He had begun sniffing at the pot. "A hex-breaking potion?"

"It is no good. I plan to toss it." He did just that lifting the brewing pot and dumping the contents right out the window. "That's bad for the plants. You should always leave your remains far from your dwelling."

"This brew is fine for the plants, might make them stronger." He began cleaning the pot and prepping for a new batch. "I need you to believe me when I tell you I had never intended to do such a despicable thing to my future queen."

"Are you afraid I shall become Empress someday and I'll punish you?"

"No," he chuckled. "What I fear is a wizard as strong as myself and as old as I, should not have succumbed to lustful whims so easily."

"You are a wizard?" I asked intentionally ignoring the rest. "I have never met a wizard before."

"Gavrial is a wizard... did you not know?" He looked at me confused knowing I had spent a year living with him. Looking away he returned to the potion he had begun making.

"I always called him the Witchman. He had never corrected me or given me his true name. Nor have I ever met a wizard or witch before. I didn't even know I was a witch until the day he kidnapped me." The words slipped past my lips at the same time I realized what I was saying.

"He abducted you and he lives? You must have immensely liked him." He was aware I had lied before.

I scuffed, "He saved me from a worse fate."

"Did he? Or did I when I requested him to find the girl in the prophecy?"

"He never told me he had helped me per the request of someone else." My anger was growing and peeking through my tone. "Why am I here?"

"You came here of your own free will. I, Arbor the grand wizard of the wood, being the oldest of wizards remaining, retain most of the witch knowledge of the world. Who better to answer the question that has hung over your head like a storm cloud other than I? You wanted to know why you haven't been able to cast a spell yet. You sought me out. The memory of our meeting has been ruined since the knowledge hinders the prophecy.

"I have no explanation why. What occurred was never meant to. I could not let Gavrial take you back until I figure out what has happened between us. Not only does it feel like my hand was forced but now my thoughts no longer feel like my own."

I felt his words too deeply. I didn't want to. I didn't want to sympathize with him. If he was as grand as he claimed, how was it possible? "Who could be stronger than you?" The question escaped my lips unintentionally.

"I have not felt fear in centuries until that very question crossed my mind." His brew began to bubble. Taking two cups he scooped up the concoction in each. One of the cups was set before me as he moved across the table taking a seat with his own. "Spit into the cup."

"That's gross," I said giving him a look of ick.

"It is the way of the witch. Get used to it."

I glared at him before doing as he said. My head leaned forward but my eyes remained on him as I watched him do the same. When he was finished he pushed his cup into the center of the table directly in my line of sight. "Do you know of the See Me potion?"

"I have read of it but I never knew of the ingredients to create one. It fascinated me how one potion may answer my biggest question."

"This is a See Me potion," he said nervously. My eyes flew right to his looking for the truth. "I have not used it to see why you can't cast." My heart broke a little inside knowing I wouldn't find out from this brew. "I have used it to see if someone else is behind-" he couldn't finish his sentence. It made him uncomfortable that he was capable of such heinous deeds.

I looked at his cup seeing the herbal yellow liquid had turned black. My eyes fell to my cup to see the same. I felt like my soul had been called by the devil, falling out of my body, through the floor, and into hell. My cup had turned black too. It was the truth I had been cursed. We had both been cursed. This is why none of the hex-breaking potions worked because I wasn't hexed. It was worse, much worse.

Arbor's head slammed into the table with disappointment.

"NO, no, no, no," he breathed pushing his finger through his blond locks to massage his scalp.

His head shot back up groaning with disappointment. He grabbed his cup and slowly began drinking before placing it gently back in the center of the table. The herbs had scattered all around the bottom of the porcelain creating small pictures.

"Drink," he told me.

"Do I have to?"

"You must."

I cringed picking up my cup and slowly drinking the nasty liquid as he had. I held the cup out looking at the small pictures within.

"What do you see?"

I could see a lot that frightened me. Instead of answering him I placed the cup down and pushed it over to him. Taking both into his hands he compared the cups turning them for better angles. He held both out so I could see them side by side and they were the same.