The Witches of Glass Castle: Uprising (The Witches of the Glass Castle Series Book 2) (5 page)

Away from the wood-burning warmth of the castle, she was met with a burst of wintery air as she stepped outside. The dwindling sunlight cast purple shadows over the stone courtyard, like fractures in a murky river. Mia wandered through the courtyard, trailing her fingers along the castle’s rough outer walls.

A sudden swell of cold evening breeze flushed her cheeks and flowed through her long brown hair. The breeze drew her focus to the hedges that separated the courtyard from the grounds.

Mia shivered.

Colt was out there. She knew he was.

After a quick backwards glance to the castle, she tentatively forged on, crossing beneath the hedge archway and emerging for the first time into the unlit gardens. Tall hedges looped around flower beds, and weathered benches lined the walkway.

Mia stepped onto the grass and paced across the lawn. She knew exactly where she was going. Resolved in her quest, she moved in and out of the hedges, carefully avoiding the barren winter flower beds. Once she’d manoeuvred her way through the maze of hedges, an open stretch of dull December grass rolled down into an embankment. From the ridge, she was able to see to the forest below—the forest that was off limits to her and all other Arcana. Even on a clear evening like this, there was a dense layer of mist clinging to the front trees, hiding them almost entirely from sight.

Mia stood motionless for a while, allowing the breeze to coil around her arms and legs before it moved up to her throat, where it settled like a collar. The scent of pine drifted out from the forest, igniting her memories of summer. Her memories of Colt.

She squinted as she scanned for movement amongst the long shadows. There was something there, she was sure of it.

Boldly, she began down the embankment, closing in on the curtain of mist that eclipsed the forest. When she reached the hazy boundary, her stride didn’t falter. She allowed the mist to swallow her, to lick at her skin and seep into her lungs. She was caught now, drawn in deeper by the mist’s enchantment—whether she wanted to venture farther or not.

Her feet hit the forest floor in robotic thuds, crunching through the fallen bronzed leaves as she passed through the web of trees.

I’m not afraid
, she reminded herself. Her heart began to beat faster. The mist’s enchantment was unnerving; her legs weren’t her own anymore. She had willingly relinquished her control the moment she’d crossed the forest border.
So much for just having
one
reckless act per lifetime
, she thought ruefully.

With that, Mia’s feet were knocked from under her. She stumbled forward, released from the mist’s enchantment, but before she hit the earth, arms clamped around her and hoisted her upright. No sooner had she caught her breath than she was being pulled deeper into the dark tangle of trees. She fought to free herself, but her captor held her tightly. And it didn’t take her long to realise that the arms around her did not belong to Colt.

‘Let go of me!’ she cried.

Her attacker gave a low growl.

Mia kicked back at him, squirming in an attempt to free herself. To her dismay, her efforts were useless.

So
this
is how it ends
,
she realised, cursing the Arx for what seemed like the millionth time that day.
I knew the stupid Tome of Black Magic wasn’t just mislaid!

All of a sudden, she heard her assailant grunt and then abruptly lose his grip. Mia fell to the forest floor, disturbing a layer of tawny leaves as her palms smacked down on the soil. Some distance away, her attacker lay dazed, as though he had been
thrown off course.

Mia stole her first good look at him. He was a Hunter. A boy, no older than thirteen or fourteen. Ebony curls flopped into his dark eyes as he staggered to his feet. He was short and stocky, and more solid in stature than any fourteen-year-old Mia had ever come across.

‘She crossed our border,’ the young Hunter snarled, looking through the trees at his own attacker. ‘She was mine for the taking!’

‘Let her leave.’

Mia’s heart leaped at the sound of the voice.

‘Colt,’ she whispered. She turned and stared into the shadows, following the young Hunter’s gaze, but she could only make out his vague form amid the leaves.

‘Let her leave, Finn,’ came Colt`s strong voice again.

Finn, the young Hunter, glanced at Mia before returning his attention to Colt. ‘But...
no
,’ he objected flatly. ‘She’s an intruder.’ His voice was surly and quick, and he rasped with irritation. ‘She’s fair game. Permit me to make a kill,’ he demanded.

Mia bristled.

Colt didn’t respond. Instead, he spoke to Mia from the shadows. ‘Leave now, Arcana,’ he uttered quietly. ‘You are not welcome here.’

Finn looked back and forth between the two. He trembled with the promise of a hunt, but at the same time he seemed stunned, clearly shocked by the exchange he was witnessing. An Arcana and a Hunter, after all, had no business conversing with each other. And Mia, a trespasser,
was
fair game—as he had pointed out to his leader.

Mia tried to speak, but the words caught somewhere in her throat. She staggered to her feet and stumbled backwards, almost tripping over tree roots as she turned and ran from the dark forest.

Well, that couldn’t have gone any worse
, she thought wretchedly as she raced back to the embankment.
He’s already forgotten I exist
. She considered the option that perhaps she’d been disillusioned all this time. Perhaps she’d simply been caught up in the fantasy that she and Colt could ever be something other than a freak-of-nature mistake.

Her heart ached at the thought.

The soaring castle walls came into view in the moonlight. Mia raced beneath the hedge archway and emerged into the courtyard. As her shoes hit the paving stones she came to a stop, panting. In the safety of the courtyard, she paused to catch her breath.

Beneath the dark sky, the wind howled through the distant trees. Mia started towards the castle entrance.

But she had hesitated a moment too long. From behind her, a hand clasped around her waist, wrenching her backwards into a narrow alley indented in the outer castle walls.

A scream escaped Mia’s lips, but the hand slid up over her mouth, stifling her cries. Watching helplessly as the bleak courtyard slipped further away, she was dragged deeper into the chasm in the castle’s walls.

Health Warning

Mia struggled to free herself as the hand pressed harder against her mouth. The sheer castle walls soared high above her on both sides, terminating in a narrow aperture exposing the moonlit sky.

With renewed vigour, she pressed her hands against the arm that was snaked around her waist. In response, the hand clasping her mouth slid down to her throat. She opened her mouth to scream just as the hand swept her hair aside to expose the nape of her neck. ‘You know, you really should be more careful about where you loiter,’ said her captor, his breath brushing her skin.

Mia shook his arm loose from her torso and fell back against him, her rush of fear melting into relief.

‘You told me to go,’ she whispered breathlessly.

‘And you listened,’ Colt replied into her ear. ‘I like it when you listen. The occasions are few and far between.’

He stepped back, spinning Mia to face him. But as she turned, she squeezed her eyes shut, knowing that when she opened them, she would finally see him again. Not as a dream, or a memory, or a shadowed figure in the forest. This time, she would see him as
him
.

Colt gave a throaty laugh. ‘You can open your eyes,’ he coaxed her. ‘I haven’t been hideously maimed or anything.’

She indulged in the sound of his voice for a second longer, then opened her eyes and met his gaze. There, Colt stood before her, exactly as she’d remembered him. His black hair was a little mussed as it swept across his brow, framing two deep-green eyes that were now bathed in sliver moonlight.

Mia reached out and touched her fingertips to his cheek, feeling his expression move into a careful smile.

‘Welcome home.’ Colt raised an eyebrow and smiled wryly.

‘Thanks,’ Mia breathed. ‘It’s good to see you. Although was it necessary to pull me in here? You really should come with a health warning.’ She moved her fingers from his face and touched them to her racing heart—though it was no longer fear that made her pulse race.

Colt smirked. ‘I
am
the health warning. Besides, it hardly seemed fair that Finn got to play and I didn’t.’

‘Yes,’ Mia muttered, cringing at the memory. ‘Well, I hope I won’t be running into Finn again anytime soon.’

‘Finn is the youngest of my new coven,’ Colt replied. ‘He’s good, but hot-headed.’

‘Tell me about it,’ she agreed. ‘Maybe I should have introduced myself.’

Colt gave an indifferent shrug. ‘I don’t think it would have mattered.’

‘He doesn’t know about me?’

‘No.’

‘Oh.’ Mia’s heart sank a little. Colt hadn’t mentioned her at all? ‘You know I arrived last night, right?’ she asked, unable to stop herself. She searched his eyes for a reaction.

His expression was removed. ‘I know,’ he said simply.

‘Oh.’

‘I had a feeling you’d come.’

‘I take it you’ve heard about my...’ she trailed off, then cleared her throat. ‘About my problem,’ she finished weakly.

He smiled. ‘I have heard, yes.’

‘Just my luck, huh?’

‘You do seem to gravitate towards disaster. Why is that?’

She sighed. ‘I don’t know. Maybe I overdo my quota for reckless acts.’

Colt reached across and pulled a twig from her hair. ‘Even I could have told you that.’

‘I’m meant to be invincible,’ Mia went on, ‘but all this Arx thing does is tape a neon
kill me
sign to my back.’ She held her palms skyward. ‘Oh, well. At least I can brag about the invincibility part.’

‘True,’ Colt appeased. ‘Although there aren’t many who would dare to covet what you have, I’m afraid. And those who
do
covet it’—he looked down at his feet—‘are certainly not the ones you should be bragging to.’ His last words were eerily amplified as they bounced off the cold paving stones.

‘Oh, great. Yet another downside,’ she muttered. ‘I have the worst power ever.’

Colt tilted his head and smiled at her. ‘Or the best, depending on your standpoint.’

‘Seeing as though my standpoint is
me
, it still comes out as the worst.’

‘You’re a Tempestus, too—or have you forgotten?’ Colt reminded her. ‘Feel free to brag about that. Now
there’s
a power worth coveting.’

‘You’re only saying that because it’s your power, too!’

‘And it’s a damn good power to possess!’ he countered. ‘Now, you don’t need to say what we’re both thinking. I would make any power excel.’ He paused for Mia to agree, then carried on regardless. ‘But a Tempestus is a force on its own merit.’

‘Well,
my
Tempestus power is hardly a force to be reckoned with.’

Colt grinned devilishly. ‘That’s really not the power’s fault, now, is it?’

Mia frowned at him. ‘Hey,’ she protested. ‘I do try.’

‘You
try
to try, I suppose.’

She threw up her hands. ‘I don’t have time to practise lately. I’ve been busy trying not to die.’

‘That’s fair,’ he conceded. ‘It must take up a sizable chunk of your day.’

‘Exactly. Not dying is hard.’

‘Don’t I know it.’ Colt paused and glanced towards the courtyard. ‘I assume the Arcana are still searching for the spell to safely remove the Arx?’

Mia nodded. ‘We’ve been looking for the Extraction ritual all day. I just want to get rid of this toxic force-field before anybody tries to take it from me.’

Colt’s eyes narrowed. ‘And no trace of the spell yet?’

Mia shook her head dejectedly. ‘Nope. They can’t find the book with the spell to
steal
the Arx, either. Who knows whose hands it’s in by now.’ She bit her lower lip. ‘I hate the Arx curse.’

Colt frowned. There was a pause before he spoke again. ‘The Arx isn’t intended as a curse,’ he said at last. ‘Some of the greatest witches of all time were guarded by it.’

Mia folded her arms. ‘Really? Like who?’

‘Spangles, for one.’

‘Spangles, as in William Wix?’ Her eyebrows shot up. Naturally, she brightened a little at the thought that Wendolyn’s late husband, the very founder of the Glass Castle, had been guarded by the Arx force-field, too. ‘Did he use the spell to remove it?’

Colt’s gaze wandered back down to the narrow stretch of floor. His lack of response was answer enough.

‘Oh. He didn’t,’ Mia guessed. All of a sudden she felt queasy.

Colt exhaled. ‘No, I’m afraid he didn’t break the Arx.’

‘What about the other spell?’ Mia asked in a small voice. ‘The one to steal the Arx. Did that happen?’

Colt was silent again.

‘See?’ she said weakly. ‘Not dying is hard work. Even for the best, most super powerful witches.’ Suddenly, Wendolyn’s tense reaction to the problem made sense. Her husband had been killed for the very reason that was now threatening Mia’s life, too. ‘Do you know who did it?’

‘Wendolyn and Amos suspect it was a Hunter, but no one knows for sure.’

Mia let out a shaky breath. ‘Not to be pessimistic,’ she said, ‘but if they couldn’t save William Wix, how will they save me?’

Colt met her gaze in the darkness. ‘Are you forgetting your secret weapon?’
She furrowed her brow. ‘The Arx?’

‘No. Your
other
secret weapon.’

‘Um...knowledge?’

‘No.’ Colt rolled his eyes. ‘
Me
.’

She leaned against the wall with a hopeless sigh. Just as she did so, a particularly jagged rock grazed her finger. She winced and quickly drew her hand to her chest. A trickle of blood spilled over her skin.

‘Ouch,’ she grumbled. Then her eyes widened. ‘Blood on my hands,’ she murmured to herself.

The vision had come true.

And it wasn’t as dire as she’d feared.

Colt pursed his lips and his pupils dilated. He took an agitated step backwards until he was pressed against the opposite wall, still only an arm’s length away.

‘Sorry.’ Mia quickly wiped the trace of blood onto her jeans, knowing from past experiences how uncomfortable it made Colt. He was, after all, a Hunter trained to have a thirst for blood.

‘No,’ he said. ‘It’s all right. I only need a moment...’ He closed his eyes, then opened them again a second later. ‘I’m all right. Watch.’ To Mia’s surprise, he closed the gap between them. He took her hand in his and raised it to his lips, lightly kissing the broken skin.

Mia gasped. ‘Doesn’t it bother you?’ she asked as he held her hand to his lips. There had been a time when Colt had become virtually animal by even so much as the sight of blood.

‘If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my time with you, darling,’ he offered with a smirk, ‘it’s tolerance.’

‘Likewise,’ Mia remarked wryly.

‘And so you have returned to me, bringing with you a black raincloud of doom and twice the workload. Have I mentioned how pleased I am to see you?’ he teased.

Mia grinned. ‘Likewise.’

* * *

Later that evening, Wendolyn called a meeting in the drawing room. As the Arcana filed in, Wendolyn busied herself lighting candles to offset the room’s darkness. Isaac and Roland chose seats together at the front of the room. They were both dressed smartly, with rigid postures and uptight expressions. They muttered back and forth between one another, occasionally casting cantankerous glances to the back of the room where paper rustled as Blue tried to find a blank page in his jam-packed notebook. Beside Blue, Dino lounged on the sofa, engrossed in the task of balancing his pen on his nose. Mia took a seat on the sofa between Dino and Blue.

Amos was the last Arcana to make an entrance. He carried a tray stacked with white china teacups and was followed by two teenage boys. Amos gestured for the boys to take a seat while he placed the tray on one of the larger tables. Before he took his own seat on a sofa, he handed Wendolyn a china teacup from the tray.

‘Thank you, Amos,’ she said. ‘And thank you all for coming.’ Smiling warmly, she glanced at each of the faces in the room. ‘I’d like to welcome two new friends to the Glass Castle, Jonathan and Demetrius.’

All eyes landed on the two boys sitting on either side of Amos.

‘Jonathan is a specialist in enchanted herbs and ancient potions,’ Wendolyn informed, nodding amiably at the blonde boy before her. ‘He is one of the most accomplished Arcana I have ever had the privilege of knowing.’

At that, Isaac shot a fierce look across the room at the new Arcana arrival. He hissed something inaudible into Roland’s ear, and Roland proceeded to shake his head and shower his friend with hushed ego-soothing praises.

‘And Demetrius is an exceptional Hunter,’ Wendolyn added.

The darker-haired boy gave a controlled, emotionless bow of his head, acknowledging the compliment without being humbled by it.

Mia studied them from her seat at the back of the room. The blonde boy, Jonathan, sat placidly, listening and observing with quiet curiosity. Demetrius, on the other hand, didn’t seem quite so mild in manner. He was the archetype of a Hunter, alert and tense. His jet-black hair had been cropped nearly to the scalp, and his bulging muscles crept all the way up to his neck so that the collar of his black fitted T-shirt was stretched to its maximum capacity.

All of a sudden, as if sensing her gaze, Jonathan the Arcana craned his neck and looked back at her. He smiled.

Mia blushed, embarrassed to have been caught staring. She summoned a smile in response, then pretended to become engrossed in Blue’s notes.

‘Now,’ Wendolyn went on, ‘we are all here to unite against a common enemy: a malevolent witch. As you know, one of our own has been exposed as being protected by the Arx.’

Mia felt all eyes in the room fall on her, and the flush in her cheeks deepened.

‘Visions tell us that she is being targeted, and we must work together so as to ensure her safety until we can find and perform the ritual to break the Arx force-field,’ Wendolyn continued. ‘Has anyone come across anything useful in the Arcana Tomes?’

The room fell silent.

‘Not to worry,’ Wendolyn relieved her audience. ‘Amos and I were aware that searching the books would be a long and extensive process. I can only continue to assure you that we will come across it sooner or later. In the meantime, we must pull together to secure the castle from intruders.’

Just then, the drawing room door opened and a gust of wind toyed with the candle flames.

‘Hello,’ Wendolyn greeted the late arrivals. ‘Welcome.’

Mia, along with the rest of the room, turned to see the newcomers. The first to enter the room were the two new resident Hunters at the Glass Castle. Of course she recognised Finn from her earlier encounter; he was stocky with a matted mane of dark curls. The second boy was young, too, but taller and broader than Finn. His hair had been shaved, and he walked with his head lowered in a sullen bow. The twosome moved into the shadows at the back of the room and stood side by side.