“Touché,little witch.”
Moving from her knees, she crossed her legs and studied the book some more, repeating the riddle out loud in the old language.“Freedom is the thing you seek, to come to me and speak. A crown I carry, but not a queen I am. Still, I sit upon a high-seat of red and green.”
“Your pronunciation is terrible.”
“Shut up,” she retorted.
“A tree?” She thought on it for a second, “Yes! I think that’s the answer.”
A smile of pure childish delight lit up her face, enough for the edges of Felix’s mouth to tug upward before he smothered it behind a hand, literally wiping it off his face. She was infectious in more ways than one.
A nail tapped against her chin as she spoke. “It must be the oak tree in the forest.”
“That narrows it down,” he said sarcastically.
“It does actually, there’s a particular tree in the forest?—”
“Witch?” Felix interrupted.
“What?”
“When.”
“When what?” she repeated.
“When did I ask?”
“Asshole.” She seethed.
She closed the book with a slap and carried it to her bed. Furiously, she plaited her hair and ignored him. He stretched uncomfortably in the damn chair.
Perhaps that was a bit mean; she was trying to help them break the bond, after all. He could stand to be nicer to her. After all the witches he had met, she had been the leastwitchout of all of them. Although his sample size was quite small, considering every witch he had met had ended with their blood drained from their body and their head mysteriously missing. This was the first time he had really spent any time around one with a head still attached. He didn’t hate it as much as he thought. It was still awful, though. At least that was what he told himself.
He wouldn’t apologize to her; that was just too far. He leaned his head back against his hand, looking bored. “Tell me about the tree, if it is important.”
She looked at him from her bed, side-eyeing him like a pissed-off cat before sighing and turning toward him.
“There is an oak tree in the forest, it’s far larger than any of the others, and it has been referenced in our history from the beginning of the three tomes. If it was going to be any tree, it would be that one.”
Felix clicked his tongue. “When do we leave?”
Fourteen
Avery
Rain batteredthe two of them as they left the confines of the campus and walked into the forest of Caerwyn.
Felix couldn’t hide the scowl on his face even in cat form.
Serves him right.The rain didn’t bother Avery; she enjoyed it on most occasions, albeit tonight it was like frigid bullets as it whipped past them, like the sky was angry at them. It very well could be. She wasn’t convinced that it was the goddess who had handed this riddle to her, but it was the only theory she had to go off.
When they were deep enough in the forest, Felix shifted out of his cat form. Wet hair clung to his face, and even the fluff on his ears looked sad and soggy. Avery almost felt bad for him. Almost.
At just past midnight, they reached the tree in question. Crooked branches twisted high into the sky, further than the eye could see. The oak tree swayed in the wind, its orange leaves clinging on until it got cold enough to shed. Avery almost wished she could do that. Shed herself every year. But all her leaves stuck to her, every evergreen failure, every joy refusing to fall from her tree.
The wind rustled the trees, sending scents of mossy wood that seemed much stronger than they were before. Her nose wrinkled. There was an undertone of something else, something that almost reminded her of when magic was cast.
“Now what?” Felix asked, his soggy ears twitching.
