Witch Queen (28 page)

Their faces were streaked with red and black
paint that reminded me of Fawkes’ painted face, but these marks
were more sinister. They were clearly meant to look like blood and
to terrorize me. They did.

Adrenaline shot into my veins like strong
liquor and shook my body awake. The witches regarded me with such
predatory hunger that I felt as if I were a juicy roast, and they
couldn’t wait to tear me apart with their teeth. They sneered with
the cocky confidence of elite witch warriors who knew they had
already defeated me. They had sworn their allegiance to the witch
king and trained for battle since childhood. They should be
confident.

A female Elemental clan witch with short
purple hair smiled at me. Her teeth had been filed down to sharp
needles like those in the mouth of a fish. She was a head taller
than me and just as skinny, but I didn’t let her lean frame fool
me.

The other witches grinned at me with decayed
yellow teeth, and I turned around slowly to get a good look at my
adversaries.

A white witch with greasy black hair hissed
at me like a snake while a purple clad witch from the Shifter clan
rubbed his pendant gently as though he were stroking a cat. An
Augur clan witch with a shaved head and a silver coat shifted on
his feet, trembling with rage, while the dark witch with long
ocean-blue hair that matched her eyes blew me a kiss.

The witches all looked gaunt and tired as
though something had worn them out. In an ordinary fight I would
have rejoiced at their gaunt faces. But this was far from ordinary.
They all had magecrafts around their necks to amplify their
power.

“Death to the steel maiden!” someone shouted
from deep in the arena.

“Kill the imposter!”

“Abomination!”

“Kill the half-breed!”

Once the yelling had started, others quickly
chimed in, until the jeers of the crowd were all I could hear over
the thundering of my heart. I realized with a chill that everyone
in the arena wanted to see me die an agonizing death.

The king looked pleased with the noise and I
feared I had been tricked.

What if the witch trials weren’t trials at
all? Had the witch king put me in front of this group of deluded
witches only to see me die? Had he never intended to help? Had the
witch king deceived me?

I looked to Aurion, but he was looking at
the king. I couldn’t make out his expression. I was overwhelmed
with panic and fury. I had been a fool to agree to this. But it was
too late. All I could do now was try to make it out alive.

Goddess protect me.

The crowd’s cheers rolled through the arena
like madness.

The witch king stood and raised his right
hand, and the arena quieted down. He had silenced them as
effectively as if he had cracked a whip.

“Witches of Lunaris,” the witch king’s voice
boomed out to the crowd. “You honor me and my family with your
presence this glorious morning. I thank you. Today we honor
tradition.”

His voice echoed and he paused before he
continued. “We honor the witch trials.”

Though I tried my hardest to keep my eyes on
the king, I couldn’t help glancing at Aurion. But his eyes were on
a spot near his feet again, and his face was unreadable.

“Elena of Anglia,” continued the witch king,
and I was momentarily grateful that he didn’t mention that I was
actually from the Pit, even though I needn’t have been ashamed. But
the calm demeanor with which he spoke sent a chill racing down my
spine.

“You came here to Witchdom from the western
world, claiming that you were the last of the steel maidens. We all
know the last of that clan died years ago, childless. And yet you
claim to be her
daughter
.”

The crowd hissed and booed, and for a moment
I thought they were going to send spells my way. But the disgust in
their faces was enough, and the king looked satisfied with the
noise.

“I find that hard to believe,” the witch
king’s voice echoed. “But now that you’ve claimed to be the
daughter of the last steel maiden before me, witch king of
Witchdom, your claim to our blood magic cannot be unmade.”

The witch king paused and gave me a
terrifying smile.

“Now your claim to a share of our blood
magic is on trial. It will be a trial for your life. You will be
faced with five tests of strength and magic, one from each of the
five clans. If you manage to survive all of the trials, your claim
to be a steel maiden will be made legitimate. But if you’re lying,
you will die.”

I swallowed hard, but my eyes never wavered
from the king.

The witch king raised his arms and clapped
his hands together once. The sound was like a crack of thunder and
appeared to signify some tradition I didn’t understand.

He smiled and raised his voice, “Let the
witch trials begin!”

The witch king returned to his seat by his
wife. The witch queen drank from a goblet and smiled wickedly at
me. Her husband looked over the arena lazily, as if my trials were
some casual sporting event. His eyes showed the confident leer of a
man who thought he had already won.

I willed myself to stop shaking with rage
and frustration. I had been the subject of ridicule and pity for
too long, and I wouldn’t stand for it any longer. I’d had
enough.

I’d fight until I could no longer draw
breath, until I saved Jon…

The witches’ magecrafts flared with yellow
magic. The earth groaned and vibrated under my feet, and I could
feel the battering of my heart. I stilled my mind and allowed my
body to react on pure survival instinct.

This trial had clearly been intended to
showcase the splendor and strength of the king’s strongest witches.
All the witches would see and fear his strength, and I would be the
fool in the middle of it all.

I heard the crowd cheer, but only faintly as
I tuned them out and concentrated on my attackers.

The elemental witch with the mouth of a fish
leaped towards me. I slashed with my weapon, but she swirled with
inhuman speed and my blade went wide.

“And you call yourself a steel maiden?” the
witch laughed coldly. “My grandmother can move faster than you,
half-breed bitch.”

The other witches didn’t move.

The fish-faced witch bent her knees and
spread her fingers widely with her palms facing down to the ground.
Her pendant pulsed with yellow and red energy. And when she raised
her arms over her head, a ball of fire danced between her fingers.
She hurled it at me.

I leapt to the side, but I wasn’t fast
enough. The fireball caught me on my exposed flesh. I screamed as
the smell of burnt flesh and hair mixed with the tang of moist
earth and leaves rose up around me. Although it was painful, the
magic was familiar, like Fawkes’ magic, except that his fire had
never burned me.

The magic fire spread along my skin until I
felt it seep deeply into my organs. My breath caught in my throat,
and my eyes filled with tears. I couldn’t see, and I staggered and
fell. My sword slipped from my grasp, and I was overcome by the
pain.

I heard laughter behind me, but I didn’t
know whether it came from the crowd or from the other trial
witches. My humiliation burned me as much as the witch’s magic had
burned me. I was only seconds into my first trial, and I was
already on the ground, defeated.

But I
wasn’t
defeated.

Within seconds my own magic countered. The
pain changed to a warmth that spread through my entire body and fed
me the strength and confidence I needed to continue. Whatever she
had hit me with hadn’t been nearly as strong as the witch king’s
magic. Maybe none of the witches yielded that kind of power. I
hoped I was right.

I lay still on the ground and played the
weakling they expected me to be. The other witches hadn’t moved. It
appeared that they were going to challenge me one trial at a time.
My spirits lifted, and I smiled. I knew without a doubt that the
first witch
couldn’t
kill me.

I rolled to my feet, and although I was a
little shaky at first, my legs found their strength again, and I
smiled.

“Guess your grandma needs to teach you a few
lessons,” I said as I reached down and picked up my witch
blade.

The witch snarled at me and bit her tongue
until blood oozed from the sides of her mouth.

I raised my brows. “You better tell your man
to watch out
where
you put that mouth of yours.”

Her eyes widened, and I braced myself for
another of her fireballs. But she simply gave me a wicked glare and
made her way back to her place among the circle of witches.

I beamed at my temporary victory. They
didn’t need to tell me. I knew I had triumphed over the first
witch. I had triumphed, and I was just getting started.

My victory was short lived, however, and I
was suddenly hit in the chest by a stream of mist-like magical
energy. The force pushed me violently backwards, but I managed to
stay on my feet. The magic burrowed inside me, and my limbs
stiffened like metal posts. I toppled over like a dead tree with my
blade still in my hand. My face hit the ground first and half
buried into the soil and dirt. It was a miracle I didn’t impale
myself on my weapon. Blood poured into my mouth. I knew I’d bitten
down on my tongue, but I couldn’t feel it.

I heard laughter again, this time louder and
nearer. My body had solidified, and I feared my limbs had turned to
stone. The magic stung and engulfed me completely. I smelled the
sour scent of the familiars we had encountered in the canyon, and I
concentrated on willing my blood magic to surge through my body.
When I felt the familiar pain of a body that was no longer
enchanted, I relished it. I had freed myself from the binding
spell.

I looked up into the smiling face of the
greasy-haired white witch.

His smile faded as I struggled clumsily to
my feet. I was little slower this time around because my body felt
like it had been filled with metal. But I still managed to get up
with a little dignity. The white witch backed away from me and made
no attempt to hide his disappointment.

I shook the stiffness from my legs.

“Guess I’m not as weak as you thought,” I
hissed through my teeth, doing my best not to fall over. But it
still hurt like hell.

The witch turned on his heel and moved back
to his place in the circle.

My head swirled, and I blinked the spots
from my eyes. I concentrated on not vomiting. Something felt
different, as though my blood magic hadn’t completely healed me. I
could see that I still had open wounds all over my body. It was
just like Ada had said—magic was
limited.
I couldn’t use it
indefinitely. My magic or my body would eventually run out. This
was perhaps why there were five trials one after another. They
expected to weaken me to the point where I couldn’t heal at
all.

Above and around me, murmurs and gasps
echoed throughout the arena. I could feel all the eyes on me, the
imposter, the fake. I tried to ignore the chanting of
die
half-breed
that spread across the arena like a wildfire.

Even before I recognized the clan color, I
recognized the bald head and silver eyes of the next witch. I knew
he was from the Augur clan and was a seer just like Maya. I had no
idea what to expect from him, and it terrified me.

The augur witch smiled. His eyes glazed
over, and then they gleamed like tiny moons.

“You have been blessed with luck,
half-breed. But it won’t last. No witch can resist my powers.”

I glowered. “Luck? Is that what you call it?
I’d call it skill, strength and maybe a little desperation, but
never luck. I couldn’t survive on luck.”

The augur chuckled. His eyes were spinning
like tops.

“You were
fortunate
to resist lesser
magic,” he said. “Let’s see if you can resist…
yourself
.”
With a great clap of his hands, a giant energy wave burst from
him.

There’s no way I could have outrun the wave,
so I stood and braced myself. The wave hit me, and I stumbled back.
A warm pulsing force entered my mind, and then all I could see was
darkness.

CHAPTER 24

I
STOOD IN A room that looked and
felt vaguely familiar. The moist air smelled of mildew and cabbage.
I didn’t know how long I stood there, but as I blinked and blinked
again, I began to realize that I
did
recognize this room. I
knew
this room. This was our shabby home back in the
Pit.

A heard the faint sounds of hearts beating,
I knew it wasn’t my own, but it was near, pulsing like the beating
of a drum.

I felt relieved.

“I’m home,” I whispered to myself.
“I’ve…I’ve made it back…”
But from where?