Death's Awakening

Chapter Fourteen: The Witch

She was dreaming of the woman inside the ice again.

Ever since the young witch had come through the portal to this world, her dreams had been so real. So incredibly detailed. Even now she could feel the cool air rush across her skin.

"What do you want from me?" she asked.

The woman trapped inside the ice opened her eyes. "I want you to set me free," she said.

The witch shook her head and took a step closer to the center of the ice cave. "But I don't know how," she said. Worry squeezed her veins. Was she supposed to know what to do? What would happen if she couldn't do what this woman asked of her? The look in those dark red eyes scared her. "I don't know what to do."

"You have already done more for me than anyone in centuries," the woman said.

"How? I didn't mean to do anything. I was just following the old man." She shook her head again, sleep making her mind foggy. "I was just doing as I was told."

"Don't lie to me, child," the woman said. Her eyes glowed brighter. "Why do you work so hard to make yourself seem weaker than you are?"

"I am weak," the witch answered. "I have always been weak."

"Then you are lying even to yourself. You have never been weak and you know it. Your whole life, you have been underestimated. Taken for granted," the woman said. "But deep down, you don't believe any of the things the elders of the Council have said to you about your powers. You know you are capable of so much more than they believed. Don't you?"

The witch fell to her knees in front of the block of ice. She began to cry, but the instant her tears touched her face, they froze to her skin, then fell like diamonds onto the floor of the cave.

No one had ever spoken to her like this. No one had ever really understood.

"When you stepped through to this world, I felt your presence like a glowing sun," the woman said. "You became my hope and my future in that instant. And who told you to come here? Who commanded you to follow Tobias, the old man?"

"No one," she answered.

"No one told you. You made those choices on your own," the woman said. "And who commanded you to kill him?"

The witch's eyes snapped to the face of the woman in ice. The Dark One with her red eyes glowing. She swallowed, her throat tight and her hands trembling.

"I didn't mean to kill him," she whispered.

"Yes, you did," the Dark One said, her voice low like a growl. "You felt my presence the same way I felt yours. You felt my will, my power, inside you. That's why you raised your dagger to his chest. You did it because I willed it. And the first drop of his blood that touched this earth was the first step toward my freedom. The first step toward breaking the seal on this earth and regaining my power. Can't you see that?"

The witch nodded. Yes, she did see. It was beginning to make sense to her now.

When she'd stabbed Tobias, she knew there was something, or someone, pressing her to do it. Something that reached inside and begged her to do it.

"You had a choice," the woman in ice said. "You could have ignored my will. You could have spared his life and let him take you back to the world from which you came. But you didn't. You chose to follow me. To obey me. And for this, child, I promise you will be greatly rewarded."

The witch stared down at her hands, almost able to still see Tobias' blood on them.

"Before you receive your reward, there is more work that needs to be done," the woman said. "If you do my will, you will know a power greater than anything you could have ever imagined. I promise you that you will never again be taken for granted or treated like a useless child."

The witch looked up, tears in her eyes. This is what she had always wanted for her life, but never, in any of her dreams, had she expected to have to kill someone in order to get the respect she longed for.

But the death of a few seemed a small price to pay for what she might get in return.

When she looked into the Dark One's eyes, the witch knew one thing was certain.

She was going to have to kill again.

Short chapter today, but I hope you enjoyed it! <3 Thanks for reading!

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