Page 14 of The Powerless Witch
“Alice,” I whispered and her hands stilled over the cloth she was folding. Rising to my feet, I moved closer, waiting for her to turn. She did so slowly, keeping her eyes on the floor. “I’m sorry it took me so long to find you, but I tried. I did everything I could to find you! When Celeste mentioned she met you before, I tried…”
She moved so quickly that I froze because I thought she’d attack me. Still, I didn’t pull away from her and when she wrapped her arms around my neck and squeezed me tightly, I sagged with relief and hugged her back. Her body rocked with quiet sobs, the sound muffled while she pressed herself closer to my chest.
I had found her, after all this time. She was alive. She was well. And she was with me.
My eyes burned, but all I could do was smile.
After some time, she withdrew, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She looked me over from head to toe and chuckled.
“Well, you sure grew up. What the hell did they feed you?” Pressing a finger into my chest, she grimaced when she failed to push me, then let her hand drop by her side. “Did our parents…?”
“They’re dead,” I replied, and she nodded, her face taking on that familiar haunted expression. “What happened, Alice? I know that everyone who disappeared back then was taken by the Hunters, but…I don’t get it. What happened to you? How did they take you? How did you meet Celeste and end up here? Please, tell me! I need to understand because things are so messed up now that…”
She took my arm and led me back to the sofa. After fidgeting in her seat for a while, she finally looked at me. Her expression closed, the haunted look gone in favor of a seriousness that made me feel like we were kids again and my big sister was about to scold me.
“A few months before I was taken, I was out of the house when I shouldn’t have been. A few of the other kids and I made some stupid bet about going into the woods after dark and catching an animal. The one who brought the biggest one was supposed to be the winner and the alpha of our group. So I snuck out after you fell asleep and I was on my way to the group when I saw our father. I got curious to see if I could trail him without him noticing, so I followed him to the Alpha’s house. I hid under one of the windows to listen. I thought maybe they were considering him for the next alpha since the old Abel was growing too weak to lead the pack, but…it wasn’t that.” She swallowed, looking at her hands as her fingers played with the hem of her sleeve. “They talked about some pact they made with the hunters, a pact that ensured the pack would be left alone as long as we provided ten young, healthy children to them. They didn’t know what the children would be used for, but since it was the Order, they knew it wouldn’t be good. Still, they agreed. They were trying to pick which children were to be given. My name was among the candidates and so was yours.”
My mouth went dry, and I leaned forward, resting my hands on my knees.
“Why would they put in yours?” I frowned. “You were among the fastest, brightest of the young. Everyone said so, even the elders praised you. I don’t understand.”
“I was…inconvenient for the pack because I wouldn’t fit. The pack needed every member to survive, to protect, and to reproduce to keep us growing, and I wasn’t going to do one of those things.” Her cheeks heated up, and she looked away. I was just about to ask what she meant when she continued. “After hearing all of that, I ran home. I don’t think they ever caught me snooping, but I couldn’t be sure. I rushed to our mother, and I told her in the hopes she’d make them reconsider. She already knew, and she made me swear not to tell anyone. She said she’d make sure we weren’t taken.”
My mouth fell open, and I shook my head in disbelief.
“They were just going to give us to the hunters? Their own children?”
Alice nodded sullenly. I wanted to urge her to keep going, but she looked so fragile at that moment that I dared not even breathe. So I waited while she struggled with the words.
“When the children started disappearing, I confronted our mother again. She told me to keep my head down and that we won’t be touched. But I couldn’t just sit still and let my friends be taken. So I tried to keep watch and see if I could figure outwhich child would ‘disappear’ next. Little did I know that I was being watched, too. One night, while I was prowling outside, trying to make sure nobody was snatched, they got me. It was the Beta and his eldest son. I was bound and gagged before I could even scream for help. And they knew. Our parents knew—or so the Beta told me as they carried me to the place where they gave me to the hunters.”
My heart was racing so fast in my chest, it felt like I was about to throw up. The thought of Alice thrashing and fighting against grown men, men who should have protected her, made me see red. If they were still alive today, I would have torn them apart with my bare hands.
All my life, I had been taught that the only people I could trust were my pack. Even if we fought, we quarreled, and we disagreed, they would always have my back when it mattered. I believed that as confidently as I believed that the sky was blue, and that fire burned. That’s why I distrusted the other species even before witches destroyed my life. In my mind, they couldn’t be trusted from the start.
But now…now everything was wrong. The only ones I never questioned, never doubted, turned out to be…my people. Not the vampires, not the other shifters or the Fae, not even the witches. My pack had betrayed me first, before anyone else. And if I couldn’t trust those who taught me everything I know,whoshould I trust?
Alice took a sharp breath.
“They left me there and never looked back. The hunters…” She shuddered, her eyes turning glossy as if she were back in that memory, reliving it all over again. “They started torturing me on the way. Wanted to see how fast I could heal broken bones, cuts, and bruises. They were careful not to kill me, but they were really…creative. I don’t think I was lucid most of the time, but when I was, all I could remember was pain and desperation.”
“I’m sorry, Alice, I didn’t—” I started, but she raised a hand to silence me. I pursed my lips, clenching my arms together to keep still.
“One night they were in the middle of…torturing me…” She swallowed again, but then she raised her chin as if refusing to be afraid by the memory. “When the caravan was attacked. It happened so fast that I don’t remember anything aside from the screaming and the flames. Thensheappeared, covered in their blood. She saved us from them—there was a Fae girl with me, with blue skin, dark green hair, and wings. She was even worse off after they cut her wings off as punishment for trying to escape. Celeste took me here, then went to the nearest Fae grove to return the Faegirl to them. Before she left, I begged her to save you, to make sure the pack didn’t give you to the hunters so you wouldn’t experience what…what I had to go through. I offered her anything she wished—my freedom, my life, whatever she wanted—for putting a stop to what the pack was doing. She said she would and left. She never came back and later we heard the entire pack was annihilated.”
Alice pinched the bridge of her nose, puffing an annoyed breath.
“Later, we heard all kinds of stories—about how she killed our pack, about how the pack killed her, about how the hunters killed everyone. One thing always remained the same—the soulless witch had died in our lands, taken down by the hunters.” Alice’s eyes rose to mine and the look in them turned to steel. “There had never been a confirmation, not by anyone who witnessed what transpired that night, but I knew it in my bones. I knew it when she made the vow to me that, if she died there, killed by hunters, then she had fought too. Fought for you, fought for those children, fought to bring justice to those who had already been lost. I still believe that now more than ever. Because you are standing here.”
I found it hard to breathe under her scrutinizing gaze. She sounded so sure even without proof, just like me after that night. The only difference was that she trusted Celeste, and believed in her, even when everyone else told her not to. And I…
“Tell me what happened after I disappeared,” Alice said, and the note of command in her voice made a tiny part of me reel in frustration. I shut it down, focusing on the story instead. I told her about how I survived, about the people who found me and raised me, about the witches that attacked my new pack and killed the first and only woman I’ve ever loved. Finally, I told her about how I became the Alpha of the pack and moved them to another city for a clean start. I was just finishing my tale about storming into the Order’s headquarters when someone knocked on the door.
The person on the other side waited a couple of seconds, as if expecting to be invited, but before either of us could speak, they let themselves in. The woman was unfamiliar, short and plump, with dimples on her cheeks and long auburn hair. She looked between the two of us, licking her lips nervously.
I jumped to my feet.
“I’m sorry,” she said with a wince. “Considering the condition you brought her in, there wasn’t much we could do for her.”