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“I have all the answers, my dear. To the kitchen, we have sorcery to wield!”
***
Edith’s kitchen is just as chaotic as the rest of her, well, being. Wooden shelves, towering stacks of drawers and overstuffed pantries clutter the room, with glass vials and jars smattering every surface. Herbs and flowers in various stages of drying or decay hang from the ceiling, brushing my hair uncomfortably. A large cauldron sits in the centre of the room, a fire pit set into the dark floorboards, next to a scarred thick wooden table with a collection of smaller cauldrons and pots of various sizes on top.
As we enter, Edith quickly sets about collecting various jars and boxes from around the room, dumping them on the table, along with various crystals and other bits and pieces, including the map we had saved. While she gathers her things we give Seff an extremely abbreviated recap of everything that went down at the cottage, when we had faced… whatever she was. He listens intently, only asking questions when strictly necessary. From the look on his face, and the way he grips my hand with a hard squeeze, I think he’s struggling to process the whole thing. Which I get; the whole thing is insane.
Eventually Edith finishes gathering her things, standing on the opposite side of the table to Seff and myself, while we stand there, clueless and in the way. She spreads her arms wide and leans forward across the table, her wild frizzy hair glowing in the dim light of the dirty windows behind her.
“Right, Caelan, the first thing I have to tell you is that those amulets I made for us before we left that last morning? They were horseshit. Sorry. They were never going to work. Not just because we went up against ancient magic but also because they were just random bits I tied together. I was hoping the placebo effect would kick in and give us a little confidence.”
I take a small moment to be offended that she had taken such a risk, but my mind is still too caught up on the ancient magic thing. “What do you mean ‘ancient magic’? We’ll get back to the other thing later.”
She has the common decency to blush before slamming things around on the table, throwing things wildly into the pot. “Yeah, ancient magic. There’s been stories forever about ancient beings lurking in the Woods. But they always seemed so unlikely. You know? But it was sort of obvious when she attacked us… That place? That magic? I’ve never felt anything like it.” Edith’s eyes flutter shut, and she shudders in a strange breathy sort of way. I’m not sure if the feeling was good or bad. Or maybe so good it was bad? Her violet eyes snap open and there is a fierceness firing beneath them. “It was powerful. Ancient. Definitely from the Before Times.”
“But that would make it well over five hundred years old.” Seff plucks a mushroom off the counter and has it halfway to his mouth before Edith reaches over to smack it out of his hands.
“Put that in your mouth and you’ll be hearing colours and seeing sounds before your guts turn inside out and you die. Don’t eat random shit from a witch’s kitchen, you idiot.” She softens the harsh words by dumping a box of biscuits in front of us, which we waste no time piling into. “But she’s older than that. She isoldold. I get…” She pushes her fingers through her hair, but the large obsidian ring on her middle finger gets caught, making her curse as she pulls it out.
“I think the Woods dislike her being there. It upsets the natural order of things. Immortality isn’t right. It’s notnatural. Things should die. It’s how the wheel turns. If she is that old and that powerful, it would create an unnatural balance.” Edith takes a moment to stare pensively at the bench and her assortment of witchy bits, shakes her head slightly and gets back to work.
Using a particularly wicked-looking blade she slices across her palm, wringing her blood into the cauldron. It sizzles as it makes contact with the ingredients already in there. Then she gestures to Seff and me to give her our hands. I only hesitate for the briefest of moments before letting her cut my hand and wring my blood into the spell. I can feel the tingle of the magic flow from the wound.
“But how are we going to kill her? She kicked our asses three ways from Sunday last time.” I wrap my hand with the bandage Edith had kindly thrown to us, while Seff awkwardly wraps his own, too.
“Well, for starters, Tor helped us. She intended to kill us. He managed to block her spell somewhat. Mute it. She wanted us dead, he wanted us safe. The magic merged a bit, and the outcome was us getting blasted back here. Safe. But we forgot everything we’d seen.”
“Until you undid that part of the spell?”
“Ten points to the poodle. Yes, Seff, I undid part of the spell. I’m a bit iffy on whether she’ll know that or not. So time is ticking. As for how we’ll defeat her, Caelan, do not underestimate me. I amexceptionalat what I do. The first part here, to which you have generously donated your life’s blood, is a protection spell for us to help mitigate her magic against us. Next step is Monty.”
“Monty?” Seff can barely get the word out around his mouthful of biscuits, spitting crumbs all over the mess on the table. Edith laughs and once again lifts the giant sword from where it is leaning against the kitchen table. It glimmers an unnatural silver in the dull light of the kitchen, but despite its size it looks fairly unremarkable from its deadly tip to its leather-bound handle, with a large red stone glinting at its end.
“Monty. I stole it from a mage one night after he groped me at the Tavern. It was forged by dragons, blessed by Mage Masters back in Ulydessia.” With an absent flick of her hand the fire in the hearth to her left springs to life, and sheshoves the sword deep into the coals. Naturally, fire is going to recharge dragon magic. She comes back to join us at the table, joining us on our side, crowding our space, forcing me to take a step back into Seff. “And last, Caelan, we are going to use you.”
“Me? What can I do?” I splutter biscuit crumbs on her chest, and she brushes them off with disgust.
“You, my loveable idiot, are bonded mates with a fae. One who doesn’t understand his true power, but then, none of them do since they abandoned the Woods for the cities. His power is yours. Yours is his.Together,you can help us send this fae to the ether where she belongs.” She stabs one of her bony fingers into my chest while I flap my mouth like an idiot.
I’d understood that Tor and I were connected. I’dfeltthe tie between us. But that Tor’s power is mine? Like his fae magic? I pause, freezing mid-movement, as it sinks in.
Is that what the thing with my hands has been about? I feel kind of foolish not putting it together until now. The idea ofme, the most unremarkable man on the planet, wielding fae powers just seems ridiculous. Completely beyond my wildest comprehension.
It all feels so muchbiggerthan me.
“Excuse me,bonded mates?” Seff shoves my shoulder, more than a little shocked at the development, jostling me out of my freakout. Can’t blame him, I was too. Still kind of am.
I face him and I can feel the heat blooming under my beard. I rub awkwardly at my neck. “Yeah, it’s a thing, apparently? We, uh, did it by accident.” Seff’s eyes nearly pop out of their sockets, and I throw my hands up defensively. “Not that I’m mad about it. In fact, just the opposite. But yeah.” There is an apologetic tone to my words, and I’m not certain why I feel I need it, since Seff and I had been over for a long time, and we’d both been with others since.
Still, it feels necessary.
But all he does is nod and chew on his lip, fingers tapping on the counter. “It’s cool, man. I um, I’m happy for you. If you’re happy.” His words sound sincere, but he takes a beat longer to meet my eyes, and when he does they aretinged with sadness. But then he perks up, his eyes lighting with mischief. “Hey, is that how you set fire to Edith’s couch last night?”
Oh crap. Edith jabs a bony finger into my side, making me yelp in pain. I jerk back, rubbing the spot while she rounds on me.
“Youset fire to my couch and didn’t tell me?”For a second I think she’s going to turn me into a small bug or something, but then she slams her eyes shut, drawing in an exaggerated breath through her nose, raising her spread hands in front of her. “No, it’s fine. Fine. Accidents happen. You’re learning.” She doesn’t look like she forgives me in the slightest, so I try to look as apologetic as I can.
“I really didn’t mean it. I have no idea how it happened, anyway.”
