The Witch's Destiny (Silver Witch Chronicles Book 5), page 1
The Witch’s Destiny
Melania Tolan
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Melania Tolan
Chapter 1
I stared at the book lying on my lap, hoping it would somehow magically tell me what I needed to know. The concrete wall behind me felt cold against my spine. My butt had fallen asleep from hours of sitting on the hard floor. The smell of old pages mixed with herbs and spices wafted from its opened covers. I had read every single entry that my biological mother had written in her journal at least three dozen times. And I’d used the other journal she’d given me to make notes.
Inside her diary, I found various spells and charms, recipes, and observations from her time with the Romani clan. There were a few references to the future and me, but there was no mention of my name. Nor did she mention anything about how I would be conceived.
Every time I read her journal, new pieces of this mysterious woman fell into place. All my life, I thought she had been my grandmother—a lie to keep me safe. The woman who had raised me turned out to be my sister, but I’d always consider her my mother. She’d done the hard work, raised me and kept me alive for the first nineteen years of my life. Grace Greene might be my biological mother, but I’d always think of her as Grandmother.
Just then, Traian’s pinky twitched. I leaped from the floor onto the bed, sending the journal flying and landed next to Traian. He lay as still as he had since we left Octavian’s dungeons nearly a month ago. For weeks I’d tried in vain to reconnect our strigoi bond. But the only thing I had achieved thus far was the physical bond. I could feel him, but I could not feel his spirit. He still hadn’t awakened. And I searched for clues of ways I could break the walls he had created around himself. He’d done this to protect me while he had been tortured, but if I didn’t reach him soon, he would fade. And I would die with him.
The slight movement of his finger was just the spark of hope I needed. He hadn’t moved since we arrived at the cabin near Mount Rainier National Park. Maybe he was coming back.
I took his hand in mine and kissed his cold fingers one at a time before placing his palm on my cheek.
“Come back to me, my love.” I choked back a sob and blinked to avoid the tears flooding my eyes. “How can I reach you? You are right here, yet you feel so far away.” I slid his hand down to my chest, right over my heart. “Can you feel me? Can you feel the love that I have for you? Is it not enough to bring you back?”
My voice crackled, and I couldn’t hold back any longer. Pink tears poured down my face as I fell onto his chest sobbing. What good was it that I brought back Evelina’s sword, but I couldn’t bring back the man that I loved?
I needed Traian. Not just to win this war, but I needed him. No, I wanted him. Every cell in my body wanted him. I would do anything in my power, would give anything, to have him in my arms again. Awake. The longer he lay here, the more it hurt that I couldn’t wake him up.
Time was running out. But he had moved his finger. That had to count for something. I lifted my head, wiped my tears, and pushed myself upright.
“I’m going to find a way. Please hold on. I am going to bring you back.” I picked up my journal full of notes from next to the bed.
A knock came on the door, and the last person I wanted to see poked her head in.
Chapter 2
Justina slipped inside our room without asking permission—her usual way. The muscles in my back twitched as electricity vibrated just beneath the skin of my fingertips. I removed my hands from my journal to not accidentally set the paper on fire.
“Can I help you?” I stared at her incredulously.
“I can watch him so you can take a break.” She unfolded the chair leaning on the wall behind the door and set it next to the bed. “I know you and I don’t meet eye to eye on many things, and your presence makes my skin crawl, especially when you’re doing magic.”
She met my gaze. “But I know your heart is pure when it comes to my master and that you would do anything to save him.”
“Your point?” I kept a hand on Traian’s arm.
“My point is you need to rest and feed. Go hunt and clear your head. Breathe some fresh air. And spend some time with your dragon. He needs you too.” Her words came out calculated, but despite their lack of emotion, she spoke the truth.
Yet, the thought of being a second away from Traian made my stomach twist into a tangle of knots. I couldn’t bear thinking he might awaken without me at his side.
“I doubt he will open his eyes while you’re gone. You’ve been in here for six days straight. And while you are at it, you should consider a dip in the hot spring.” Her nose scrunched up.
Once again, she was right. I hadn’t showered or bathed in over a week. Gross. I might be strigoi, but I still could get stinky. Fresh blood sounded as good as pancakes and bacon had when I used to be human. I sighed.
“Fine.”
“I won’t move until you’re back.” She pulled out her cell phone and opened a reading app.
Part of me wanted to ask what she liked to read for pleasure, but instead, I kissed Traian and whispered, “I’ll be back soon.”
Two hours later, two bucks, and one long soak in the hot spring, and a visit with Argo, I found Justina in the same place I’d left her reading on her phone.
“Nothing to report,” she said without looking away from the screen in her hand. “And you smell so much better.”
“Thank you, I feel better.” I climbed onto the bed to sit next to Traian.
“You’re welcome.” She didn’t move or make any attempt to show she was leaving.
I felt too refreshed to get pissed, but I could still feel the electricity rushing to my hands. Why was she still here? I kept my gaze on Traian. After a long moment, she finally turned off her screen and shoved the phone back in her designer jean pocket.
“Did Traian ever tell you how he saved me?”
I could feel her dark eyes on me, but I didn’t look up. “No.”
All Traian had told me that he’d saved her when she’d reached her lowest point mentally as a human and this had been some time in the mid-1400s. She’d been the first strigoi he’d created, which always made me wonder why she wasn’t his second in command of the coven. I’d never asked because I’d figured if it was important Traian would have already told me.
“Well, I think it’s time you know.” She uncrossed her legs and sat up in the chair. “I was married to one of Romania’s most well-known characters. We lived in a lovely new castle placed in a perfect strategic location, and then war followed us.”
I glanced up when she paused, finding her staring off into space for a brief moment before meeting my gaze. “My husband had suffered so much at the hand of the Ottoman Empire and I couldn’t stand the thought of surrendering to them. I, however, couldn’t imagine being captured by those cruel men. So I jumped.”
“Jumped?” I asked when she didn’t continue.
“From one of the turrets. I told him that I would rather have the fish of Arges River eat my dead flesh than fall into the hands of the Turks. It’s a quite famous line that tour guides love to share when tourists visit my old home. Of course, he ended up escaping shortly after.”
Arges River? Pieces clicked into place. The only castle that I knew in the area was Poenari Castle. I’d seen it in my short time in the mountains in Romania. Traian had told me that this was the original Dracula’s castle.
“You’re Dracula’s wife?” I gasped.
“The infamous Vlad Țepeș. He drew loads of blood, but never became immortal. Ironic, isn’t it?”
I burst into laughter. All the legends pointed to him as the vampire, thanks to Bram Stoker. Holy shit! But as I thought about what she’d just said, my mood sobered.
“You committed suicide?”
“Well, tried. Traian swooped in at the last moment and gave me his blood. I’d lost so much, that he had to turn me in order to save me.”
“Why?” I asked. “Not that I don’t think you were worth saving. But why, in that moment, did he decide for you to be his first strigoi offspring?”
“Over five hundred years later, I still don’t know.” She shrugged. “He never once acted inappropriately with me, and believe me I tried very hard to seduce him. He said it wasn’t my time to go yet. He saw something in me no one ever saw, not ev
This was new. A large lump in my throat made it hard to say anything. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. I’m rather surprised he didn’t take us all with him when he carted you and Traian away last spring.”
I swallowed hard. “Still, any time in Octavian’s lair of darkness is something no one should ever endure.”
“Indeed. Which is why you need to wake the man up and kill the monster.” She stood up and walked to the opposite side of the bed. She reached down and brought up a green bound journal, placing it on my lap. “I’ll let you get back to your reading.”
Justina sauntered out the door just like she owned the place, her hair perfectly gathered in a ponytail and falling down her back in black ringlets. I wanted to hate her, but I couldn’t… not after what she revealed.
I glanced down at the book in my lap. It had fallen open to the entry I’d read at least a dozen times. Why not one more time?
Chapter 3
December 12, 1991
Eva and I went into the general hospital in Cluj this morning at 3 a.m. to test our theory. Satra came up with a potion that should allow us to communicate with people in a coma. I was rather doubtful this would work, which is silly, since I’ve encountered all kinds of crazy magic since I arrived in Romania last summer. Very powerful magic.
We went into the intensive care unit, where we found six unconscious patients in the ten available beds.
“Let’s start with the man there. He’s been in a comma the longest.” Eva pointed to the patient at the farthest end of the bed.
How did she know these things? Regardless, I followed her. She knew more about this magic than I did. The only gift I had was foretelling. My main purpose was to watch for any potential enemies or possible humans that would interfere with Eva’s test.
In the last six months, I’ve honed my gift. I could call it at will, instead of the random bursts of insight I would get at the most inopportune times.
Eva and I placed the crystals and potion sachets around the bed and the medical equipment attached to the patient. I admit I worried quite a bit the magic might interfere with the machines keeping the gentleman alive. But Eva, in her usual confidence, assured me all would be fine. She then set a circle of salt around our magic ring, with a white silk cord soaked in saltwater, placed at the crown of the patient and down to where she would lay her head. This would be her connection to his mind.
She whispered, “Ajută-ne pământul și spiritul să ne conectăm cu sufletul acestui om,” while she burned a bundle of sage and then laid on the floor next to the bed.
I was afraid that the smoke would give us away, but when I looked over to the nurse’s station, all three of the ladies in charge of the unit had cigarettes in their mouths. I knew they couldn’t see us as Eva had placed an invisibility charm around us and widened it to include the patient when we arrived.
“Keep watch and bring me back if the moonstones start glowing black,” Eva instructed and closed her eyes.
She’d connected her spirit with the four moonstones set at the four directions of the circle. They were supposed to glow white when she entered the spirit realm to enter the man’s mind. If she got lost, they would change black. I was supposed to tug the rope and pull her out of his mind.
Nothing happened at first, then I saw a white light travel along the silk cord to the gentleman. All four moonstones glowed white. I wondered what she was seeing or feeling. On my end, all stood still. Even the nurses at their station didn’t move. When I checked the clock on the wall, the hands had frozen on 3:11, and the seconds’ hand sat still at the 12:05 position.
I’ve got to say this was the creepiest sensation. All the hairs on my arms stood straight up, and gooseflesh popped up across my skin. It wasn’t from the cold either.
I glanced at the other patients, but they continued laying as still as they had when we’d first arrived. I wondered what the pausing of time would do to them. There was no way to tell how much time had gone by. I just kept checking the people in the room and the clock, but nothing changed.
But then I saw the redhead appear. Eva warned me of her. Adria was Octavian’s most trusted assassin. She appeared next to the nurse’s station, then she disappeared the next moment. I almost pulled Eva out, but she’s told me we were safe inside the circle and under no circumstances pull her out unless the stone turned black. Yet, I had seen the enemy. However, I couldn’t be certain that Adria had indeed seen us.
The next moment, Eva opened her eyes and sat up with a big smile of success on her face.
“It worked.” But her smile turned into a frown. “Although, I wish I had never seen inside his mind. He deserves to die. Let’s get out of here before I give into my urge to end this horrible excuse for a human being’s life.”
We quickly gathered our stones and potions. Eva swept the salt off the floor into a small pouch, which she later threw into a river when we returned to the mountains. She shuddered every so often as we left the hospital.
She didn’t give me a full report of the event until we reached the Romani camp. The man whose mind she’d enter wasn’t a gentleman after all. He beat his wife and children. He had almost strangled his wife when she’d hit him over the head with a brick, the cause of his coma. He drank profusely too. The only thing keeping him alive was his brother, who’d paid the nurses handsomely to keep his brother on the ventilator.
Eva had found that last part when she touched the counter at the nurse’s station, the same way she’d touched my hand and saw my yet-to-be-conceived daughter who played a role in ending this multi millennia-old battle Octavian had been raging on our planet. Eva and Padrick were still conspiring a plan. I wouldn’t know about it until it was time, though, and I had a feeling she would be strong and beautiful. I could see it when I saw her face in my mind.
She’d have my red hair and green eyes, but Eva’s spark of magic. Every time I conjured her image in my mind, sadness always flooded my heart. I wouldn’t get to see her grow up or guide her through this crazy world of magic. At least she’d have Padrick. Although, I still didn’t trust that elf.
Back at camp, she shared what she’d seen, and I’ve recorded her words here.
When I first entered the mind of the douchebag at the hospital, I’d stepped into a black forest, full of brambles and twisty branches I had to push aside to move in any direction. I could also hear screaming and shouting somewhere close. Moving in that direction, the trees eventually thinned out and that’s when I saw a boy running around through the woods in a panic.
He ran to me, screaming in the Romanian tongue, “He’s going to kill you. Get out of here.”
The forest floor shook as something massive approached.
“Run.” The boy called and dashed into the woods, only to appear again on the opposite side.
In and out he raced through forest, but the creature drew closer and closer. It never appeared except for a man who looked very similar to the man in the hospital bed. The image changed, the little boy changed into who he was today and he was chasing a woman and a little boy around with a stick.
From the blackness, an image appeared like a screen. He’s beating the same woman with a broom stick. The little boy jumps on his back and he throws him off. The boy flies into the wall, dislodging a brick. The woman rushes to him and tried to stop the bleeding at the back of the boy’s head that had contacted the wall.
The man lunged and choked her. She grabbed the dislodged brick and smashed it over his head. The screen disappeared. And that’s when I pulled out.
