CHAPTER 18: WITCH HUNTING

MAYA

"What do you mean a death clock?"

"The witch had placed a sort of kill switch between them. If they ever find each other, they die," I reply.

"This… this doesn't make sense. Make it make sense! How did you all even come to that conclusion?"

I take a gulp of water to wet my throat before launching into the narration of all that happened.

"That… that is some messed-up shit. What kind of life must she have led for her to be thus twisted?" she asks, scandalized.

"Beats me," I say with a shrug as I pop a fry into my mouth.

Our meals were delivered during my narration and I am starving.

"So, what now? You want to find the witch and kill her?"

"Hmm, something like that."

"Maya, what are you planning?"

"I was hoping to make a deal with her. She takes off the curse and she can have Natalie-"

"Maya!"

Her exclamation causes the whole bar to look our way.

"Cool it, will you?" I hiss at her.

"Do you even hear yourself?" she demands.

"Look, I know it is not ideal-"

"Ideal?! It is downright cold. Cruel. Who knows what the poor girl has done through with the witch to force an escape and you just want to send her right back to her? What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing is wrong with me! She can't take my man!" I snap.

"He is not your man! He is her mate. The one he has been searching for. The one you have been helping him search for. Was it a lie? Were you just pretending all these years?"

"No. No, I wasn't. I am just… it's not fair!"

"Hate to break it to you sweetheart, but life's not fair. It deals us shitty hands but we learn to live with it, with the pain and the heartbreaks and the disappointment. Because that is life. But you, you are planning on dealing her a worse hand than was dealt you. It is sickening."

"Tanya!"

"Don't Tanya me. What has gotten into you? Tell me," she says, her tone changing. "Let's say all these go according to your plan. That the witch doesn't betray you, or kill you but actually agrees to your ridiculous proposition and takes only Natalie. Do you think Damien will let it go? Will let her go?

"It was a different thing when he didn't know her and had to make the reasonable choice of mating with you. But now, he knows her. She exists. He has seen her and talked to her and touched her. Do you think he would go back to you?"

"Shut up."

"You were the first choice then, not now. And before you say that he doesn't know her, please remember that she is the one with him in the pack, right now. She is the one using the late Luna's rooms. She is the one who manages to get under his skin, without even trying."

"I SAID SHUT UP!" I roar at her, slapping the table and shoving myself off it, and completely ignoring the irritated looks of other patrons. "You have no idea what you are talking about. Damien loves me."

"Yes. But only as a friend and confidant. Not like his missing soul. Even you must know how that feels, you have had a mate before," she replies, looking up at me and being completely calm in the face of my anger.

I glare at her for a few seconds before turning in my heel and walking out of the bar.

I need air.

"Ugh," I groan out.

She makes me so mad.

"She is right, you know?" my wolf adds.

"You shut up!" I snap out loud.

How dare they? They have no idea of the things we have gone through together. We fit, perfectly.

We know each other's minds. The way we think.

What does she know?

I don't know how long I prowl outside the bar. But what I do notice, after I have managed to calm down, is the fact that my sister is leaning against the wall of the building and there are three cigarette butts on the ground.

"Are you calm yet?" she asks, sardonically.

How long have I been out here?

"You have been pacing for almost an hour," she says, answering the relation in my head. "During that period, I made some calls."

"Calls?"

"Yeah. Apparently, when Natalie was escaping, she left an impression, especially on those who saw her. I have managed to get a vague sense of her travel path, all we need is to retrace it and get to the witch."

"Why are you helping me?" I ask suspiciously. "You don't agree with what I want."

"You are right, I don't. And I am not helping you, I am helping Damien. That man has gone through so much, just to die for it all. Or to suffer a betrayal from someone he completely trusts. I still want to believe that when you are confronted with the witch, you will kill her. If you don't, I will do it myself."

She means away from the wall and begins walking away, towards her truck.

How does a rogue afford a truck as sleek as that?

"Are you coming?" she calls back at me.

"Yeah. Yeah, I am coming."

The car ride is a silent affair. Neither of us wanting to talk to the other, and both pissed at each other.

The only time the silence is broken is when we stop to ask for directions or information about the vicinity.

Eventually, we get to the path into the forest that not even her truck can go through.

"We walk from here in out," she says as she unbuckles herself and gets out of the car. I follow her.

We stand there in silence, eyeing the path before us.

If it wasn't for the fact that I could smell the smoke coming from this direction, I would think it was just a dead end.

Overgrown roots and plants, stumps, fallen trees.

"I will give it to the witch, she sure knows how to make a good disguise," Tanya says. "I am impressed."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go."

Almost an hour later, we are both a lot angrier than we were in the car ride, with torn clothes, scratches all over us, and leaves in places, leaves shouldn't be.

"Still impressed?" I snark at her.

"Shut up."

Just as I am about to respond, she stops dead in her tracks.

"There," she says as she points to our front.

I look over and see it. Our holy grail. The witch's hideout.

A smile slowly creeps up my face.

"Let's go catch a witch."