AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fern’s heart stopped, and she slowly nodded.
“You’re here…because you’re one of Gweyir’s last living descendants.”
Chapter Nine
“I’m sorry?” The blood drained from Fern’s face. Calum’s expression softened.
“You’re one of Gweyir’s last living descendants, Fern. You’re a witch.” His voice was low when he spoke, like he was trying not to spook a frightened animal. Calum watched her face closely. Fern shook her head. Her eyes went wide before she blinked, and her brow furrowed. She started looking around the room, like the answer was hidden on the walls, her eyes dancing between all the antiques and weapons that hung against the faded baroque wallpaper.
Calum was silent, letting Fern absorb the revelation. After a couple of tortuously long seconds, Fern broke out in a snort of laughter.
“Sorry, am I supposed to go throw the ring into Mordor?”
Calum scoffed. “Are you choosing now to make a Lord of the Rings reference?”
“Yes, because that’s how seriously I’m taking what you’ve just said.” Fern tilted her head to the side, as if she was thinking it through. Calum couldn’t help but feel a sense of fondness building in his chest.
“I’m serious,” he breathed. “Gweyir was your ancestor.”
“You… You must be joking.”
“I would never joke about something that affected the fate of my kingdom,” Calum snapped, his voice growing sharp. Fern’s blood went cold at the shift in his demeanor. She had a very particular response to the glimpses of Calum’s barbaric attitude which made her stomach flip, not unpleasantly.
“I’m a witch?” Fern’s voice sounded small. Calum sighed. He hated giving her so much information so quickly, but they were running out of time. He couldn’t leave her breadcrumbs all semester and wait for her to figure it out.
“Technically, you’re a witch in training.”
“Semantics.” Fern rolled her eyes. “Academics. Always so particular.”
Calum narrowed his eyes playfully, smirking. “You’re an academic.”
“I am.” Fern sat up a little straighter. “So I’m choosing to compartmentalize my insane, magical identity-crisis here for the pursuit of knowledge.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Is that so?” Calum’s grin widened. Fern continued to surprise him, and after hundreds of years trapped in the mortal world, there were very few things that kept him on his toes.
“It is,” Fern nodded, “so you’re going to finish answering all of my questions before I decide this is an unpleasant episode of Lost and my plane to Edinburgh actually crashed.”
“I am. We can’t have that. You’d never survive on a desert island. You’re much too pale.” Calum agreed simply, holding out his hands as if to show that he was an open book.
“Rude.”
“I didn’t say that it wasn’t intoxicatingly pretty. Like bone or marble.” He smirked at her, surveying her with a predator’s intensity.
Fern blushed, feeling her thighs clench together. “Don’t distract me. How did you know I was one of Gweyir’s descendants? Did my parents know?”
“I don’t think so,” Calum mused, scratching at the stubble on his chin. “I couldn’t find any knowledge that they did. When Gweyir died, her daughter was young and hadn’t been trained. I think the magical knowledge of your bloodline stopped with her.”
“There were no other witches?” Fern questioned.
“Most of the witches left Scotland and fled once the magic was bound. The witchcraft persecution laws had been repealed ten years before the Battle of Culloden, but they were too afraid to wait around and see what would happen.” Calum’s voice was tense and full of loss. Fern sensed his hurt every time he spoke about it. She now understood that it was his own perceived failure to protect his subjects that pained him.
“But…if Gweyir was the most powerful witch, witches are social creatures. They have covens. Surely, someone knew she had a daughter!” Fern’s voice got higher as the shock sank in.
“They are, but you have to understand the chaos that Scotland was in,” Calum sighed deeply and ran a hand over his face. “It was anarchy. I’ve never been on a battlefield like it. People ran, especially supernatural creatures. Most people went temporarily insane when their magic was cut off.”
“Oh.” Fern chewed her lip as they sat in silence. She turned over everything in her mind, trying to find a logical way to organize the revelations.
This is fine. It’s not like you haven’t come across large amounts of information before. She was slipping into research mode and welcomed the analytical takeover, which kept her more drastic emotions at bay. Scotland’s magical community exists. Easy. You’ve seen magical communities before; you just didn’t know about this one. Dr. Calum Welsh is secretly a powerful fae prince. No problem, lots of academics have second jobs. You’re a witch. Yes, that’s…
