The Ether Witch Volume 2

Tam rubbed his hands together against the chill.

While the trees and grasses were still green, the bite to the air told him that there weren't many warm days left. Soon the leaves would change, and the frost would whisk itself over the grounds and rooftops in the night.

In the carriage that rocked its way down the dirt road toward the south of the king's forest that would take them directly to the castle in Austice, the children were tucked under a cozy fur blanket, while Eli tugged on a pair of leather gloves that Tam could smell from his seat across from her.

"Just think, everyone. Soon, we'll all be in my family's keep. We can rest. Bathe properly. Eat proper meals, at proper times…" Tam sighed in anticipation, a blissful smile finding him.

"It will take time to adjust for Penelope and Luca," Eli reminded while sharing a knowing look with Penelope who was in a particularly prickly mood.

"As long as those three don't live with us I'll be fine," Penelope muttered, her arms folded across her chest.

She hadn't been fond of her new cousins.

"They seem fine…" Luca interjected warily. "Charlie was nice."

Penelope paused. "Alright. Yes. He seemed fine."

Tam felt a twinge of disappointment that their first meeting hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped. "Antony and Asher are great, too. Just give them a chance. They've been having a rough time."

Luca nodded, while Penelope pursed her lips. She was visibly holding back a scathing retort.

Tam exchanged a look with Eli, then decided to move the subject onto something safer.

"You know, we should probably discuss baby names."

At this both Luca and Penelope perked up.

Surprisingly, Eli didn't object as she leaned back into the carriage seat and rested her hand on her middle. "Hm. That is a good idea. Especially if we don't agree on any at first. We'll need time to try and find a compromise."

Tam crossed his arms and cast his eyes to the red roof of the carriage as he pondered this.

"What about something after the stars?" Luca asked.

Tam paused, a thoughtful half smile coming up before he checked Eli's reaction.

She seemed open, but uncertain. "Oh? Like what?"

"What about… What about Nova?" Luca shot a hopeful look at Eli, then Tam.

Eli's eyebrows had come up as she considered this. "Nova… I like it."

Tam reached over and ruffled Luca's hair. "So do I. Any boy name ideas? Penelope? Any thoughts?"

Penelope opened her mouth, but Luca spoke first.

"It's a girl so you don't need…one…"

Penelope's mouth slammed shut, but only briefly before shouting, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO TELL THEM!"

Shock washed over Tam as he realized that Penelope must have seen their future child and therefore known. He looked at Eli who, from her stunned reaction, must have come to the same conclusion.

After a quick clearing of her throat, and several rapid blinks, Eli managed to stammer out,"O-Oh."

Tam reached up and covered his mouth as his face buckled under the smile he wore.

"A girl," Eli repeated dazedly as she looked at him. "I see."

Penelope sighed loudly. "I'm never telling you anything again," she informed Luca with a flat tone.

He blushed. "Sorry. I just… I got excited because they like the name."

Tam opened his mouth to console his son and to tell Penelope to be kinder about the slip-up when the carriage came to a halt.

Tensing, Tam waited to hear any shouts of alarm, or for the driver to come back and explain what was happening.

There was only silence.

"All of you wait here, I'll see what's going on." Tam opened the door on his left and stepped down on the road, already glancing behind the carriage, then in front.

He didn't see anything, but his senses prickled.

There was an eerie quiet permeating the woods that should still have been teeming with birdsong and the rustling of underbrush from critters.

He then noted the carriage with his nephews and father was out of sight, as were Sir Lewis and Henrietta on horseback.

Approaching the driver's bench of the carriage with his hand on the hilt of his dagger behind his back, Tam kept his senses honed to any slight movements around himself.

He reached the front of the carriage and found that instead of the carriage driver, there sat a young woman. Her legs were extended and crossed at the ankles, she was clad in brown leather pants, wearing a white shirt and black corset Her hands were clasped over her belly.

She had red hair, and deep blue eyes, and despite the facial structure being different from when he last saw her, Tam instinctively knew who it was.

Aradia.

She smiled at him. "Hello again."

Tam reached for his power instantly.

"Do anything like last time and the archers in the trees will shoot everyone in the carriage. We see them all. The seer girl. The boy. Your pregnant sweetheart."

Tam felt a cold terror flush through him.

"Here is what we are going to do." Aradia began casually while coming to a stand and placing her hands on her hips. "You and I are going to take a stroll into the woods. We're going to perform a little ritual. If you really are the devil as you claim you are, then you and I are going to be going off to the Forest of the Afterlife together, and this can all end."

Tam's hand didn't move from the dagger. "Why would I leave my family with a swarm of archers around them?"

"I either shoot them or you come with me." She jumped down from the carriage. "I understand it's hard not having the upper hand in this negotiation, but that's how things are. Now. Come along."

She took three steps forward looking perfectly at ease.

Tam's heart fluttered in his chest."I don't get to say goodbye?"

Aradia turned a wry look to him. "No. Obviously you'd try something. Come on. I've waited centuries for this."

On legs that already had started to shake, Tam followed the first witch.

He was slow as he shuffled behind her, and he sent a frantic, silent prayer up to the Gods that somehow Eli and the children would stay safe; that even if this really was the end for him, they would be fine.

He just couldn't believe that moments before, he had been incomparably excited to hear he and Eli were having a daughter, and Luca had picked out a beautiful name…

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Now is around the time you tell me that the little boy is the devil and you have just been covering for him because you're a goodhearted person who believes in protecting a child."

Aradia's voice snapped Tam from his thoughts. She had stopped walking ahead of him and waited for him to join her side.

Right.

If he didn't play the part until the end, she wasn't going to leave Luca alone.

He needed to pull it together.

Tam forced a cold smile. "And make you look foolish? Why would I do that?"

Her eyes narrowed as she studied Tam with open suspicion. "You know if this doesn't work I'm just bringing that child over here and doing this again, right? I can't die unless you really are my brother. I'll just regenerate a new body."

Tam paused. It was risky asking questions. It could reveal the fact that he wasn't the devil, but… It might be worth it. "How will you be doing this?"

Aradia's expression turned unreadable, then she continued walking on.

Tam instantly kicked himself.

"Knife to heart? Stomach? Throat?"

"You choose."

"Mm." Tam scrunched up his face as he thought about it. "A short deep cut on the throat a little below the ear should do it. It'll be quicker. What about you?"

Aradia raised an eyebrow at him. Whether or not she was buying that he was the devil was still uncertain.

"We'll see. Most likely something similar."

For a while they continued stepping over fallen logs and branches, moving farther away from the road until the carriage shrunk in the distance in silence.

"I must admit, you are accepting defeat quite easily," Aradia said breezily, while casting another sidelong glance at Tam who was sweating profusely underneath the black woolen coat he wore.

"Defeat? Please. I'll torment you in the Forest of the Afterlife just fine."

Gods… How could he protect Luca? The first witch was going to watch him bleed to death, figure out he wasn't her true brother and drag him out. Eli would fight whoever tried to take them and would get hurt!

He could push Aradia into the void, then travel back to the carriage, grab them, put them into the void, and move all of them—

"There."

Tam stared at the circle of twelve foot tall five feet wide stones before him. They blended in with the thick trees surrounding them and were spread out far enough that he hadn't even noticed them.

In the center of the circle, was a lone wooden table with a dagger, and a glass bottle filled with black liquid.

A random recollection came to Tam in the moment of panic that ensued.

"Why the stone circle? You didn't need one in Troivack the last time you tried to finish me off."

Aradia looked at him with genuine confusion.

Aha.

She hadn't believed him before that he was the devil, but now he'd made her doubt that judgement with the reference to their last dramatic confrontation.

He kept his mask of cool in place as he waited for her answer.

None came, however.

Instead, she gestured him through the stones.

"Stand across from me there." She pointed on the other side of the table she now stood at.

Tam obeyed.

He swallowed with difficulty.

As soon as she touched him, he would take her into the void.

He could try it right away from a distance like he had when the coven had attacked the ship but… there was an air about her that seemed different from last time. He didn't want to risk messing it up.

"That void power of yours is interesting. I'm also curious how you managed to become the Ashowan heir," Aradia speculated aloud casually while plucking up the dagger from the table.

Luckily, Tam had anticipated this question ages ago. When he had first claimed to be the devil to Aradia back in Zinfera, he had dwelled for several nights on how he could explain it. The answers had come in thanks to Rosaline's story.

"I had one of my imp's bring Tamlin Ashowan to the brink of death, and then had my ashes fed to him. The Ashowan heir had the handy void ability when I took over. Though I confess, my memory is a little spotty. I got the idea from you and your Witch's Brew. The way you could manipulate their deaths with the drug as an exchange for ancient beasts"

Aradia's eyebrows shot up. "You agreed that you'd never do something like that! The complications that could have on your soul and the body's original—"

"You were willing to kill me as an infant as soon as I was reborn somewhere. I don't think you have any grounds to judge my actions. Besides, technically the Ashowans are descendents of your lineage, right? It makes sense that his body would be more receptive," Tam cut in while doing his best to look superior.

Aradia's mouth closed, and anger sparked in her eyes. "Gods. I don't know that you'll ever get out of the Grove of Sorrows. No wonder your power is close to that of a God."

Tam let out a long breath. "Well, I told you what I did. Now you tell me how you got out of that void."

Aradia grinned. "Our old friend Death."

It was Tam's turn to be surprised, but after a moment of allowing the information to sink in, recalled that Death would of course know the children of his fellow Gods.

"Now, take that dagger and stab yourself however you choose. I'd like to say it's been an honor, brother, but we both know this has been a never-ending nightmare ever since the moment we came here."

Tam gestured at the dagger rather than taking it from her hand."Ladies first."

"What? Too chicken?"

"I speak from experience: chickens can actually be quite terrifying." Tam moved his hands to his pockets. "But seriously. As you said, you can go first. If you're wrong, you'll just regenerate, won't you?"

The first witch scoffed. "I'm sure you think you have some sort of plan. What? Going to toss me back in the void? I suppose I should enlighten you on these stones since you seem to have forgotten with that spotty memory you claim to have."

Tam felt his stomach drop straight into the deepest dregs of dread. She'd already anticipated his plan.

"These stones come from the Forest of the Afterlife. These stone rings stand in specific places all over the world that our parents had set up for us to travel through to the Forest of the Afterlife—you know, before you decided to give up helping humans." Aradia flipped the blade in her hand once before she continued her story. "However, to ensure no witch could tamper with the stones, any who crosses in them has their magic nullified. Meaning you only have your devil abilities right now, and—oh dear. Oh no. Thanks to the curse, I don't feel fear. You're trapped. Now. Will you die with dignity? Or will I do it for you?"

To Tam, the world suddenly became terribly beautiful, and terribly sad all at once, as the realization that there didn't seem to be any way out settled over him.

It took every ounce of self control in him not to reveal his defeated grief as he swallowed.

He wished he could've told his family he loved them one last time.