“Dangerous.”
“What do you know about witches?”
Damien grinned wide, feeling something open up inside him, like leaves unraveling and spreading themselves out to reach the first day of spring. “I know it’s said they’re in the Innomina Wildwood.”
“So, Lycoris said I should go see them because of the…theold arcanainside me,”—this she said in a voice that he supposed she thought sounded like Lycoris and then went on quickly as if needing a good excuse—“and maybe they can help get the talisman out in a way that leaves me a little less dead?”
“That would be quite convenient,” he said carefully, and paced over to his steed, attempting to coax it up by its reins. It only glared back at him.
“Come on, Peter, up,” she said, and the stallion stood under her gentle command. “So, we can go?”
Damien clicked his tongue, the horse, Peter apparently, still glaring at him but on its hooves. He looked back to Amma. “Why not?”
Kaz moaned loudly, but even his exhaustive grumbled couldn’t put a damper on Damien’s spirits with the smile Amma gave him.
CHAPTER 18
ATTACHMENT ISSUES, A CASE STUDY
What was known as simply The Wilds was a sprawling place that had quite lax borders between its named regions, east of the proper realm of Eiren. Damien had been through it a number of times and had been to the more specific Innomina Wildwood as well. There were no roads there, not like the ones in the realm that were marked and sometimes patrolled. The flora and fauna were different too, less predictable and ever-changing, arcana itself seeping into everything and untamed.
Damien warned Amma of these things as they headed toward them on horseback, Kaz sulking on his stallion’s rump as they didn’t make a direct course for Eirengaard. “Now, I might be acquainted well with the vampires in Lycoris’s den, but witches are not as friendly.”
Amma hadn’t stopped smiling since they’d set out, but at this her lips faltered slightly, and she squinted at him. “Oh, not so keen to, what was it? Engage in intimate activities?”
Damien tried to scoff, but it caught in his throat. “I’ve only met a few, and they indeed had no use for me, magically or otherwise. They like to keep to themselves, and my presence in their forest was not exactly welcome, but that’s typical once my heritage becomes apparent.”
“Well, what makes them witches?”
“They pull their arcana from the earth.”
“So, they’re just earth mages?”
Damien shook his head, not terribly capable of defining the reason why. “Mmm, no. They don’t worship any of your gods.”
“Neither do you, but you’re still a blood mage.”
“Their magic is also a bit…folksy? Superstitious? I’m familiar with some of their customs, the oldest ones are more ritualistic, and they take steps we don’t necessarily need to anymore because magic has evolved. Mages have tamed it, and…” He turned then, feeling Amma’s eyes on him.
She was frowning. “How else are the witches different from earth mages, Damien?”
“I can sense your demeanor has grown irate,”—he straightened on his steed—“and I’m unsure there is anything I can say that will not worsen it.”
“I’m notirate,” she said unconvincingly. “Unless you tell me that they’re all women and that’s why they can’t be called mages.”
“No,” he was quick to retort, then hesitated. “Though I do think most of them are women. But that’s notwhythey’re called witches, certainly. At least, I don’t think so. Is it?”
Amma only laughed at him then and changed the subject, asking after what kinds of creatures and plants they would likely see, the forest growing denser around them as the day wore on. She had always been inquisitive, but she was different now, engaged without underlying fear or suspicion, and he was thankful she’d finally decided to entertain the magic that was so clearly inside her.
Damien had felt it, that time in Xander’s tower when he had passed the spell through her to send a raven to Laurel. After witnessing what she’d done in the Grand Athenaeum, he knew what he was looking for, and it prickled up, a strange arcana that dwelt so deeply below the surface. It wasn’t in her veins, and it wasn’t tinged with the infernal or celestial plane, it justwas.
And now it was propelling her, deeper into The Wilds and away from everything else. He knew she ached for Faebarrow when they were relegated to the Accursed Wastes, but returning home no longer seemed high on her list of desires.
Darkness, what he would do to get a hold of something as solid as a list of Amma’s desires when she were completely in her own mind, free of intoxication and magic.
It would take a few days before they found the Innomina Wildwood, though they wouldn’t know until they were already deep within that they were there—the place just sort of happened around one—and so their first day of travel came to an end in what could only be considered a rather ordinary forest. With a fire stoked and with Kaz deep asleep, preparing for his night watch, Damien and Amma bedded down, still apart, but closer. If Damien had reached his hand out and she did the same, they would have touched, not that he dared.
“Damien, can I ask you something?”
