The Rose Witch - Chandelle LaVaun Page 0,70
our carriage, but on the way out we were on foot.
“I remember. We came out right here and then Mum saw that building, so we started to walk towards it but then a man appeared. Yeah, he was a friend of ours. I remember recognizing him. He was tall and had black — oh my God. It was you.”
He smiled but it was kind of sad. His eyes had a distant dark look to them. “I wasn’t allowed to pull you out of the Old Lands. I had to wait. I sensed the moment you stepped through the gate…so I came.”
My eyes teared up. “You brought us home.”
He nodded.
“But then you left.”
“I was never far,” he whispered and walked over the cobblestone path and into the wall of fog. His black wings and gold eyes stood out like beacons within the haze. He held his hand out and I floated toward him. “Let’s do this.”
As my hand found his, I braced myself. The memories I had from the Old Lands haunted me as a child, playing out over and over in my nightmares. Together, we walked into the fog. It was cold against my skin and tingled. I braced myself …but when I got through the fog, I found nothing but forest. Everything was green, from underneath my feet all the way up to the mountaintops in the distance, slicing into the clear blue sky. And this forest was alive. I felt it deep down into my bones.
“Just breathe,” Malachi whispered close by.
“We were in the carriage before…so I don’t remember how we got there—”
“I know the way.”
“You do? How?”
He shrugged. “Angel.”
My breath left me in a rush. I kept forgetting that detail. He just seemed so human. Which really, he wasn’t. At all. Even in the slightest bit. His father was an angel and his mother was Seelie Fae. He just looked human. Whereas I was human. For now. Once I get changed into a vampire I’ll just look like human, too.
I forced those thoughts away and focused my attention back to the pathway. Although it wasn’t really a pathway—more like controlled chaos. “All right. But just…stay close to me.”
“Try not to run off, okay?” He chuckled and took my hand. “And let’s stay silent. There are many creatures who live here, and we don’t want to alert them of our presence.”
I nodded and gripped his hand with both of mine. “I’m a silent shadow. Got it.”
Together, we charged forward. The path was bizarre. If I took my eyes off of it for a split second it would change. Trees would move. The sky kept changing colors, from blue to green to its current shade of purple. With every step the knots in my stomach tightened. We ducked under branches and climbed over fallen trees and random roots. Animals stirred and scrambled closer, peeking through bushes yet not revealing more than pairs of sparkling eyes.
The forest thrived all around us. The trees towered so high above us I couldn’t even see the tops. Little bits of weird purple sky poked through the branches and leaves. Streams of sunshine looked like spotlights. The air was warm and fresh.
There was a huge gust of wind, and then a massive bird the size of a car swooped down and landed on the path ahead of us. It had the head of an eagle and the legs of a tiger. The wingspan on this thing had to be fifteen feet wide. It opened its mouth and squawked…and two fangs popped out.
Malachi pulled me behind him. His black smoky wings billowed around me, hiding me from the monster’s sight. I should have been scared, but I knew he wouldn’t let anything hurt me.
The bird cocked its head to the side and stared at him. I didn’t know what it was seeing, but after a few moments it flapped its wings and took off out of sight. I sighed and sagged into his back. Malachi squeezed my hand twice, which I knew meant he wanted to keep moving. So I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind him — and gasped.
Up ahead, lying at the base of a tree at a fork in the road was an old wooden carriage.
Our carriage.
The one Mum and I left London in all those years ago. In the fifteenth century.
I sprinted over to it with my heart in my throat. Oh my God. Oh my God. The dark brown wood had a little more wear and tear