A Red Witch in Hiding

A RED WITCH IN HIDING

" G ods, let me die with my face buried between a woman's thighs," Bri said.

My fae ears picked up her lust-addled remark before I even turned the corner. I found her wistfully leaning against the doorway as she farewelled her latest conquest.

"Bri!" I barked, storming down the hall.

A flash of auburn hair poked out of the door frame. Her golden eyes spotted me instantly, her face a tight grimace like a child caught stealing sweets.

"Time to go," she quipped, grabbing the maiden by the bodice strings and tugging her in for one last kiss.

I kept my head down as I passed the shadowed rooms filled with drunken debauchery. My glamour might've hid my fae features, but my attire was finer than one would find at a backcountry inn. The last thing I needed was for someone to report to the Western Court Queen that the Crown Prince of the East was gallivanting about the backwoods of her homeland. If anyone learned of our true mission—of who we were really here to find—it might start another war. And after spending the last several years fighting my father's battles, the last thing I needed was to be sent off on another one of his suicidal schemes.

I grabbed Bri by the elbow, steered her in front of me, and marched her down the steps of the inn. As we traversed the bottom floor, I was grateful to find the bar empty. Apparently this side of town was far quieter than the northern end. Good. Bri and I already stuck out like sore thumbs. The one time I needed my soldiers to be serious and discreet, I was forced to wrangle them like wayward cats.

Bri grabbed a dirty goblet off a table and drank the dregs. She winced, sticking out her tongue at the taste of the mystery liquid. I snatched the drink from her grip and set it down forcefully.

"Are you trying to get me killed?" I hissed in a low voice as we crossed the threshold into the cold, autumnal night. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Need I remind you, we're in the court that your family was banished from."

Bri shrugged, swaggering towards the woods where our comrades waited. "How will they know it's me?"

"You're a decorated fae warrior with golden fucking eyes," I growled. " Everyone knows who the Golden Eagles are." She lifted her chin, proud. "That wasn't a compliment."

"Apologies, Your Highness," she said, flourishing her hand and bowing like a simpering courtier. She only called me by my title when she was being patronizing.

I clenched my jaw and gritted out, "The fate of the entire continent hangs in the balance, Bri."

"The fate of the continent has been hanging in the balance every Gods-forsaken day since the Siege of Yexshire," she countered.

She lifted a naked tree branch, ducking under it and pointedly allowing the branch to snap back to hit me. Anyone else would be sent to the gallows for such an insult, but not my crew. They knew they were free to rib me—Crown Prince or not—a courtesy I was beginning to regret.

"That all could change if we find a red witch," I said. "We need this girl to safeguard against the threat from the north. She very well might be the last red witch alive who is willing to help us. No bar wench is worth ruining that opportunity."

Even with her back turned to me, I knew Bri was rolling her eyes. "I promise I won't jeopardize this for you. If we ever find this witchling, I won't be the reason we lose her."

"We've already found her."

Bri paused and looked over her shoulder at me. "What?"

I gave her a knowing look and continued forward, crunching through the golden and red dunes of fallen leaves. We hastened into the shadows where human eyes wouldn't be able to spy us. Our steaming breaths whorled in the darkness as we braced against the cold sting of autumnal air.

Carys waited for us in the shadows. Leaning against an oak tree, she bore her usual tight, wary expression. Carys was tall and lithe, with a long blonde braid that draped over her shoulder. She always looked poised for battle, a feline predator waiting to pounce. Meanwhile Bri's twin, Talhan—a lumbering giant of a warrior if ever there was one—sat perched on a log eating a roast turkey leg.

"Shouldn't have done it Bri. We're meant to be keeping a low profile, especially you and I," Talhan said to his twin, his mischievous eyes bright in the darkness.

"Oh really?" Bri countered as she tied the top laces of her tunic. "And you just stumbled across a roasted turkey leg in the middle of the forest, hm?"

Talhan quickly chucked the bone behind him into the underbrush and Bri rolled her eyes.

"They didn't even get a good look at me," Talhan muttered, crossing his tree trunk arms. "I wasn't rolling around naked with them like you."

"Like you weren't playing cards in the last town over," Bri scoffed. "Or fucking that strapping young guard in the one before."

"He was very discreet," Tal said with a wink as he stood and stretched his neck side to side. "Not screaming down the whole bloody inn."

Bri's eyebrows waggled. "I can't help that I make them scream."

"I told you we shouldn't have brought them," Carys said flatly to me as she pushed off from the tree. "The Eagles are a liability." She retrieved a thick woolen cloak from her pack and passed it to Bri. "You stink of sex."

Bri took the cloak with a grin and put it on, fastening the simple clasps. It wouldn't be enough to fool anyone paying attention, but I hoped it would keep enough of a low profile for our purposes.

"We're heading out," I said, looking between the three of them. "We've found the place."

"At last," Bri said. "After so many weeks of travel, we've found ourselves this elusive red witch."

I walked at a fast clip, forcing the others to keep pace. Normally, our journeys were one of leisure, leaving a trail of degeneracy in our wake. But on this trip, I was in no mood. The persona of the Bastard Prince was a mantle I had once readily embodied. It was what kept me surviving all these many wearisome years. But the constant raging war and the mounting threat of the Northern Court King was looming over our heads and a red witch would be a lifeline amongst the impending chaos.

Carys kept close to me, ducking under tree branches and climbing over logs as we cut through the densest part of the forest. One thing about the fae was that we were very skilled at keeping hidden. We'd spent more time outdoors than in these past few weeks—sleeping under the stars, hiking all day, avoiding any fae towns or trails where our motivations might be discovered.

I wished we could keep it this way forever, just my crew and me, traveling Okrith spending my father's coin and drinking every tavern dry. Maybe with a red witch in tow, we might be able to once more.

With our magical speed, we made quick work of crossing the forest from the local inn to the dilapidated tavern on the outskirts of town. The undergrowth began to thin as the flashes of window light peeked through the trees.

"Oh look, another seedy little tavern," Carys said mildly.

Staring through the copse of spindly trees, I spied the sign that announced the tavern as, "The Rusty Hatchett." From the outside, the place looked uninhabitable, but candles lit each window and the echoes of uproarious banter filtered through the forest.

"Delightful," I muttered as I led the group to the edge of the clearing. "This is the one."

"Don't pout, Cars," Tal said, clapping Carys on the back. "The seedy ones always have the best food."

"And the best women," Bri added. She eyed me sideways, grabbing my bicep and jarring me back and forth. "Loosen up. It's far better than freezing our asses off in Falhampton waiting for the thaw to resume our never-ending border war."

"True," I relented. I was surprised my father, King Norwood, permitted us this quest. But he, of all people, knew what it meant to have a red witch up our sleeve. It might be the only thing to prevent the eastern court from falling to the Vostemurs. I doubted there was anything I could ever do to win my father's approval, but I still owed it to my people to protect them, regardless of my father not caring whether his heir lived or died.

It was no secret that he wanted his legitimate sons to take his place and not me, his bastard. My father had named me as his heir because I was meant to marry my Fated, one of the High Mountain Court princesses. He planned to send me off to her court and name my younger brother King. But when that High Mountain Princess died in the Siege of Yexshire, so too did my father's scheming plans. Now he was stuck with me as his Crown Prince . . . that is, unless I died in his border wars, an outcome I suspected he secretly hoped for.

"We've made it," Tal said with a sigh as we lingered at the edge of the shadowed forest. "Our journey has reached its underwhelming end."

"I fear this journey has just begun," I muttered. "Just because we've found the location of the red witch doesn't mean we can inconspicuously apprehend her, let alone convince her to work with us."

"She will once she hears that her High Priestess is alive," Carys said. "Maybe try not to traumatize this one first. The last thing we need is her thinking we're just more witch hunters. This court is rife with them."

"You think we can just convince a red witch to sit still and listen to our pleas?" I countered. "No. We will win her over in time. But there's too much at stake to let her run free now. We might spook her straight into the arms of witch hunters. She's safer with us—restrained or not."

"This is beginning to sound a lot less like an alliance and more like a kidnapping," Bri pointed out. She flashed her cavalier grin. "Not that I mind."

"If King Vostemur figures out how to wield the Immortal Blade, we won't live long enough to regret it," I said. "We need her. Now. Whatever it takes."

We drew closer to the light of the tavern, pulling from the shadows like ink to dry paper. Soon even human and witch eyes would be able to spot us.

"Hoods up," I instructed.

Carys snorted. "We're already glamoured into our human forms."

I tipped my head to the Twin Eagles. "Even so, he's tall enough that he'll have to crouch through the doorway. And that's without considering those golden eyes and gilded daggers."

"Fair point," Bri said, shouldering her brother.

The twins tugged the hoods of their cloaks up in unison. Carys swept her long braid over her shoulder and tugged her hood up as well. We weren't the only ones lurking in the shadows this night. The benefit of these tiny taverns in the foothills of the High Mountains was everyone was a stranger. Many dark deeds happened in places like this. I shook my head. What it must've been like to live and work here. How long had this red witch been hiding in dangerous squalor?

When the splintering door swung open, we were greeted with a cacophony of music and raucous banter. A drummer and fiddler played boisterously by the fire and the room was packed with locals and weary travelers alike, all drunk and merry.

The crowd parted for us, instinctively giving way though they paid us no heed. Maybe they thought we were thieves, henchmen, or witch hunters, who knew. But tall figures with broad shoulders and cloaks clearly concealing the hilts of swords were always given a wide berth and no questions were asked.

I led the crew to a corner booth currently occupied by an old man with his tongue down the throat of a courtesan half his age. Bri intervened, rapping her knuckles on the table. The two pulled apart and the old man—rich by human standards—had the gall to sneer for a split second before his eyes snagged on the rest of us. He grabbed the girl by the wrist and yanked her out of the booth seat and into the crowd.

Smart. When greeted with four looming cloaked figures, even pompous men ran.

Bri tamped out the lantern above the corner booth and Carys blew out the candle upon the table as she slid into her seat.

"Ale!" Talhan bellowed across the bar, flagging down a harried older woman carrying a tray.

The frowning matron waved her hand to us in acknowledgement.

"Way to keep a low profile," Bri muttered.

"Quiet," I commanded, scouring the bar for the witch. "Start looking. She's here. I can feel it."

Her thread of magic thrummed through the throng, her very essence scenting the air. Never had I been so easily able to pick up on this kind of power. Something about this witch was special. I knew she was there somewhere, hiding amongst the crowd perhaps. Did she know who was in the tavern this night? Did she know we'd finally caught her scent? Our predatory fae eyes scoured the tavern. The wolves were closing in.

When the door to the kitchen swung open, a lanky boy fumbled out, tall enough to rival even Talhan but only half his width. The boy swept a hand over his mop of blonde hair and smiled down, twisting to reveal the woman beside him.

My heart lurched into my throat at the sight of her. Gorgeous wasn't the word—otherworldly maybe, mesmerizing perhaps? Waves of dark hair cascaded down her back, making my fingers tingle. She had full lips, warm brown skin, and midnight eyes ringed in green and flecked in gold. The sight of her had me vibrating with anticipation. Her power sang like a low, resonant note hanging in the air, one only I could hear. Despite her slumped shoulders and downcast eyes, I saw the beauty and power she couldn't quite contain. I wondered how much effort it required for someone as formidable as her to appear timid.

She was our red witch— my red witch—I was certain of it.

The witch let out a laugh at whatever the tall boy said and I wondered for a moment if they were lovers. Unbridled jealousy bloomed in my gut—a feeling I had no right to but felt so acutely I bared my teeth. Was he a witch as well? Clearly not a red one, but perhaps from another coven? He was obviously not as powerful as her. Magic radiated off the red witch. It twisted the air like heat warping the horizon. Did the humans not see it? Could they not feel her very presence?

I looked to the rest of my crew, but their eyes still danced over the crowd, searching. How had they not spotted her yet? Her very energy seemed to call to me, hooking into me and making me pay attention. All my senses homed in on her and the rest of the room faded into silence until she was all I could see.

"There," I said, finally able to get the word out.

The rest of the crew followed my line of sight, their gazes landing on the red witch.

"She's younger than I thought she'd be," Carys murmured.

"That's probably how she survived," Bri said. "She'd have been a young child during the Siege of Yexshire. Maybe she learned to stay hidden, to control her powers well enough so as not to arouse suspicion."

"One little flash of crimson light, one slip up and they'd have her head," Talhan said. "What a life it must be. Always hiding, always wondering if today is the day that you become the prey."

The thought made my stomach sour. Knowing that witch hunters could take someone so perfect from me had my hand instinctively reaching for the cold steel of my sword.

"She'll be safe with us," I vowed, meaning it with every cell of my body. "We will protect her."

" If we can separate her from her friend there. It will still be a tall order convincing her to come with us," Carys countered.

"Two of you need to follow the boy, restrain him so I can grab the witch," I commanded.

"Grab the witch," Bri echoed with a huff. I shot her a lethal look and she shrugged. "It's your call, Your Highness."

"We can appeal to her reason once we get back to the campsite and away from the crowds," I said. I was overwhelmed with the need to make her safe by whatever means, even if she hated me for my use of force and lack of tact. "There might be witch hunters in the tavern tonight and fighting a multi-pronged battle is the last thing we need. I won't be responsible for spilling any more red witch blood."

Talhan pouted. "A little brawling would be fun though."

"Not tonight," I gritted out.

When the red witch disappeared behind the door, I was left hollow, like the magical tether between us had snapped. Suspicions grew in my gut with every mounting second. I needed her—always.

I knew then for certain, whatever twisted games the Fates played, I never wanted to let her out of my sight again.