The Herbalist

Breaking the Spell

-Camille-

That old fae woman seemed she meant well but her heart was surrounded by a dark aura. The same uneasy feeling I felt with the bullet or with the water near our pack. I couldn’t be mistaken, it was dark magic and my growing powers were telling me she was under a dark magic spell.

As soon as the grumpy long-lost child of the Hulk and Legolas retuned with my mate, his overbearing aura was suffocating. He was pissed, but what did he expected believing that snake Julia Stein would be his destined? Oh my God, this guy must be really clueless about women, mating, and love… My heart went to Agneska, she would have her hands full with this one. I needed to reach out to her. I went to the forest, grounded myself and let my powers flowing. Once I was in a deep enough meditation state, I focused on her. She was with some magic entity, she was upset. I felt bad because we kind of ditched her without much notice, but I left Thaddeus with her, she was safe.

I forgot her powers were not awoken yet, so she wouldn’t be able to feel the connection I was trying to establish. I would try again tomorrow, after we dealt with Julia bloody Stein. Kaelith was fuming but we needed him to focus. Daniel was calm and commanding, as always. I was swooning over my mate and how well he did his part of the mission. Now, he was instructing Kaeltih to go to their rendezvous place and take Julia back here for interrogation. The elf was reluctant to have anything to do with her, so I took over.

“ Kaelith, you’ve sensed it yourself, dark magic is a play here. If we don’t know her motive for meddling with you, we always be behind. Greater forces are at play, here.” I stood strong and assertive.

“Don’t you think I know that, Witch!” he spat. “Why should I trust your kind over her? All beings meddling with dark magic cannot be trusted.” He barked angrily. Daniel growled a low menacing one.

“Enough! Have you sense dark magic in me?” I confronted him. He didn’t seem to expect any talk back, but man, he had another one coming with me. “Answer me, O mighty supreme lost Elven son!” I sneered.

“… No…” he mumbled.

“Have you sensed in me any ill intention?” I challenged.

“Not really.” He grumbled.

“Have I done anything so far to make you doubt me?”

“I don’t know! No yet I suppose!” he was losing his patience. I took pity on him.

“Come, come with me to the forest and I’ll show you something” I softened my tone and indicated behind his large shoulder. I turned back to Daniel and mind-linked him to trust me.

Kaelith reluctantly followed me, leaving Tobias and Daniel with Elowen. Once we walked out of earshot, not from my party but from the other fae, I called the spirits of the forest, drawing them to me, helping me convince this reluctand fae/elf hybrid to trust me. I rested my palm on a tree trunk, and encouraged Kaelith to do the same. He obliged, but not without rolling his eyes and sighing loudly. The visions came quick, the attacks in the forest, our previous encounter with Julia, the spell she casted with an amulet around her neck, the tendrils of dark magic extending all around, and insidiously into Elowen’s heart. I wanted to stop there, but a surge of magic came forth and more visions spilled from me. Three women laying, though the ages, different yet similar – I gasped. No! It was too soon to show him that! It abruptly switch to a figure in a dark cloak, with a bony hand, a throne, a signet ring with PG engrave in it. I was fighting for control to break from the trance, I didn’t want to reveal too much, too soon, I wanted to make sure Kaelith was on the same page before telling him more. Then I understood. He was extracting information from me, he could control the spirits of the forest too. Damn fae/elf with unknown powers. I tapped into my power to make the earth move underneath him but as I called an ivy vine to stop him, he draw one last image: Agneska’s. He fell backward on him bum, tripped by my trap and pulled by the ivy.

“What sorcery is it? The forest never attacks a fae!” He shouted, indignant.

“Well, get used to it, Mr ‘I steal visions by force’! Never heard of consent?” I threw back.

“I warn you, Witch! If I hadn’t glimpsed the greatest evil of all times in your vision, I would teach you a lesson in respect for talking to me like that!” he lectured.

“Whatever, so now you believe me?” This dude had a massive ego problem.

“What is her name?” he softened.

“I will let her tell you herself, but first, we have a Julia problem to deal with.” I reminded him.

“Ah… The conniving she-devil… Yes. But what of Elowen?” He seemed concerned for the older fae.

“I’ll rid her of that hex, but I will need Julia’s amulet to put it back in.”

“Consider it done, little witch.” He winked at me. Winked.

“Oh, we’re on nickname basis, Hulk-olas?” I sassed back. He looked too old to get the reference, never mind. He disappeared into one of his signature portals and I returned to the others.

After about half hour, he returned dragging a screaming Julia behind him. He manhandled her like she weighed nothing, tore her amulet off and threw it towards me before calling to nature to make some ivy restraints to bond her.

“Copycat” I teased him. He smirked. Mmmh, maybe he was not a lost cause after all. I quickly moved towards Elowen and put my hands on each sides of her face. I focused on the pulsing dark aura in her essence and willed it to leave her body to return into the amulet. After it was done, she collapsed, but Tobias quickly caught her.

“She will be fine...” I started before being rudely interrupted by a very crazy Julia.

“You’re a witch, an abomination!” She spat her venom. But before she could finish, Daniel gagged her with a cloth of some sort. I gave him a grateful smile.

“Didn’t you want to interrogate the she-devil?” Kaelith raised his eyebrows. “but I am grateful you made the banshee stop” he smirked again.

“I’m not going to interrogate, I am going to Alpha command her to tell us everything” my mate said smugly.

“And you couldn’t command her to stop howling?” I poked fun at Daniel. “By the way, where did you find the cloth?” I suddenly was curious as this k********g wasn’t exactly planned.

“Cloth? You mean Tobias’ 3-day old socks? Well, I couldn’t resist… “ he declared all proud of himself.

“Ewww… well, payback is a b***h indeed…” I laughed. I couldn’t be less bothered, since Julia was linked to the Purifiers’ Guild.

Daniel proceeded to alpha command Julia, after removing her disgusting gag of fortune. She initially tried to fight the command, but as soon as I infused my powers into Daniel, she was done for. She claimed her father had always been part of the Guild but they were told the amulet was to block magic, not being an actual instrument of Dark Magic. She explained the story of the founder of the guild, a poor farmer who fell in love with a witch and she stole his youth to live forever. He fought back to reverse the curse, but he was left weak and disfigured. After that he swore to protect humanity of all magical beings, and the Purifiers’ guild was born. Along his path, he found humans who have been used or left for dead by other supernatural, such as werewolf and vampires, and joined forced under the banner of the Guild. The name of this poor farmer was Serube. Fast forward to present day, it was still believe that Serube’s descendants were at the head of the Purifiers’ Guild. They were not as powerful as we thought, so no access to CIA or Interpol resources, but they had the backup of powerful and rich high-tech companies. Julia revealed that they knew about Agneska being special for supernatural, but didn’t know why exactly. She added than another girl was under their watch in a high-secured location in Siberia, but she didn’t understand the interest as she was just another plain Jane. I felt my skin crawl and a really uneasy feeling gripped me. They had her, the third witch, the last piece of the puzzle. I looked at Daniel and he also felt the gravity of the situation. I looked a Tobias and he was white as a ghost. That was exactly that moment that Elowen regained consciousness.

“From ashes, the Arcane Coven shall rise once more,

To stand against the eldest shadow, born of greed.

He who dared steal a goddess’s heart,

Unbound her soul, then struck the man dead.

A mortal no longer, he walks as gods do,

Eternal and unyielding—until fate intervenes.” She blurted like a possessed woman, or fae, whatever. We all looked at each other in a bit of a WTF moment, here… Julia was spent, she told us all she knew, but the question of her fate was on everyone’s mind.

Kaelith then spoke “Julia is misguided, but we cannot release her like that, she knows too much”.

“You’re not going to kill me!!” Julie screeched. Kaelith disappeared into one of his portals. He returned a few minutes later with a blond burly man in tow.

“Eryndis Falkholm, the best spellweaver from the Nordics fae community.” He offered, as it was obvious to everyone what a spellweaver was or did…

“Hi everyone! By the look of your faces, you don’t seem familiar with my kind. Hi Elowen” He waved at her before returning to our conversation. “I am a master of weaving complex spells, charms, and enchantments. Big Kael here tells me you need some mind wipe spells with a human.” He explained cheerfully while Daniel and I were too busy making big Os with our mouth. “Well, Big Kael could have done it himself, he’s too modest” he winked. Daniel and I scoffed.

“ I refuse to touch the subject” Hulk-olas grumbled under his breath.

Eryndis got to work by grabbing Julia’s head and muttering weird words in the fae language, I presumed. While they were working, Kaelith opened a portal directly in Julia’s apartment. Once Eryndis seemed to be done, Julia was passed out and they dropped her unceremoniously on her bed. Then, they both returned and Kaelith declared: “Now the spell is broken, take us all to my destined.”