AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But then I did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
At first, the person in front of us didn’t seem to be a threat. It was a tall, slender man…or was it a woman? I honestly couldn’t tell. Anyway, he or she was wearing a long, emerald green robe and had long red hair and delicate, androgynous features. The person also had mesmerizing green eyes…or were they purple? I blinked. No, they were blue. The color kept changing…
“Don’t look into their eyes,” Rath rumbled in my ear. “Don’t let them mesmerize you.”
“Huh?” I blinked and somehow dragged my eyes away. But they kept wanting to return.
“Who are you and why are you in our path?” Rath asked the person standing in the woods in front of us.
“We are but a simple messenger.” The voice was also soft and androgynous. “You do not wish to seek this path—you should return to your home where it is safe and warm and dry.”
Somehow the words sounded extremely reasonable and true. Despite my new winter coat and Rath’s body heat radiating against me, I was shivering with cold. Being warm and dry sounded really good right now.
“You know, maybe they’re right,” I said to Rath.
“Maybe…” he rumbled in a deep, dreamy voice. Then he shook himself. “No—don’t listen, Sarah!” He looked at me fiercely. “I’m going to walk past them—put your fingers in your ears and don’t look at them.”
I tried to do as he said, but the wooly gloves I was wearing kept me from really plugging my ears. I could still hear the person in the green robe speaking, even though I did my best not to look at them.
“Come now,” they said coaxingly even as Rath moved right towards them, a determined expression on his face. “Come now—this is no time to be out in the elements! Why do you not go back to your home where you can find comfort and warmth?”
Again, the words sounded eminently practical and true. I wasn’t built for snow and ice—I was a Florida girl, I reasoned to myself. It really was so much nicer back at my Grandma’s house with a fire going in the fireplace…maybe some hot chocolate with marshmallows melting on top and Sebastian purring as he snuggled against my side…
“You do not wish to seek Baba Yaga,” the person murmured. And as Rath got closer to them, their voice seemed to weave around me, like an enticing melody. “You do not wish to bother Grandmother Witch. She is an old woman…a poor old woman who only wants to be left alone. Why would you torment her with your presence?”
Suddenly I felt really bad. What was wrong with us, going to bother a poor old woman who just wanted to be left alone? I knew exactly how she felt—it was the same way I felt anytime a stranger came to my door or the phone rang with an unknown number. The social anxiety was awful—it was cruel and wrong of us to put her through such agony!
“They’re right,” I said to Rath again. “I know how hard it is to deal with people sometimes. We shouldn’t be forcing ourselves on Baba Yaga like this.”
“It does kind of make me feel like an asshole,” he admitted, looking ashamed. “Makes me feel almost as bad as I did after chasing you through your backyard that first day you were here.”
“I know I hate it when strangers bother me,” I said. “Maybe we’d better go back. We can snuggle on the couch in front of the fireplace and I’ll make us some hot chocolate.”
“Mmm, that does sound nice—especially the ‘snuggling’ part,” he rumbled. He started to turn around…then stopped.
“Rath?” I asked, frowning at him. “Are we going home or not?”
He shook his head, like someone trying to clear their mind.
“No, we’re not,” he growled. “This is just a trick—they’re telling us lies! Don’t listen to them!”
I looked at the person in the green robe and saw their color-shifting eyes turn a pale, menacing yellow. Yet, the sweet, androgynous voice stayed soft and lilting.
“You do not wish to visit Baba Yaga,” they began again.
Even before they gave a reason, I felt the seductive melody of their voice weaving around me like a poison rope.
A spell—they’re casting a spell on us. Telling us lies and making us believe them! I thought. We need some way to stop them—to stop the spell. But how?
I suddenly remembered my last minute preparations in the kitchen. I didn’t know if what I had packed would help, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
Reaching into my coat, I dug into the inside pocket and pulled out a small glass jar. I had found it in the basement and transferred the jelly it had held into another container. Now it sloshed with viscous purple liquid—the remains of the potion I’d made the night before.
I had been keeping it close to my body so it wouldn’t freeze. Now I threw it at the person in the green robe as hard as I could.
I had been aiming right at them, but luckily I have shitty aim. So instead of hitting the person in the abdomen and bouncing off into a drift, the glass jar hit the snow dusted rock they were standing on and burst into a million glass shards.
