To Kill a Witch (ONC 2024 SHORTLIST)

Chapter 4

The crow, it transpired, was called Ceridwen, and she was not at all pleased at the enthusiasm with which Wilf approached Thea's order.

"A cat needs to eat, Ceri."

"You eat mice! You have claws!"

"There's nothing better than coming in from a hard day—"

"You haven't worked a hard day in your nine lives!"

"— and finding a freshly killed mouse waiting for you, still warm from living."

"You disgust me."

"But don't you eat dead things?"

Ceridwen turned her terrifying eyes on Thea. "No," she said simply.

Wilf had moved to sit on the table. Thea had been tempted to take a seat, the steady, bright burning of fear throughout the night had drained the strength from her legs, and her arm was beginning to ache in protest to her adventures, but sitting down would render her even more vulnerable than she already was, with her dagger now sheathed at her side. "She wants to do a deal. I'm sure the Witch can respect that."

Ceridwen shuddered, rustling her wings. "That is beside the point. She came here with iron." The notion seemed to have personally offended her.

"Then she's a smart girl." Wilf licked his paws, uncaring. "We need a smart girl to help us find ours."

"She wants to kill her!"

"I want to save my brother's life," Thea said softly. "If your Witch can give me a cure, then I'll let her live."

Maybe that would settle their debts, let them go their separate ways. Thea would give anything to let her brother keep on living. That was the most important thing. Revenge was secondary. Perhaps she could threaten the Witch with the knowledge that there was someone still left in Devil's Corner that knew the old stories. And if she didn't agree, or tried to destroy her, Thea could still end the curse.

Something in her rebelled at the idea as she stood in the little cottage, watching the two familiars at their arguments. To them, the Witch was family.

The crow was staring at her in disbelief. Thea swallowed.

"My Pa taught me the old stories," she said. "My grandmother was the village Silvertongue. I know what magic can do."

The crow gave a loud, baleful caw. "And how it is defeated?"

"Iron. Truth. Something like that." Thea was blurry on the details. Pa had always tried to impress upon her that all dark things had hearts. Thea hadn't believed that since she'd entered this After, without arm or balance or life for herself.

Wilf rolled onto his back, legs and tail akimbo, and switched to his other paw. "Ceri. It's been several weeks."

"When was the last time you saw her?" Thea found herself asking.

Ceridwen gave a loud sigh. "After they found you."

Thea didn't remember that, only waking up a day after, free from the woods and the touch of that mist, like a living thing, stroking her skin, admiring its meal. "She said she needed to do something." Ceridwen added. "Stocked the shelves with food for us, because she babies Wilf. He's incompetent—"

"This is about your Witch, not your cat." Wilf interjected.

"You are not mine." Ceridwen cawed.

"The other Watchers' in the town thought that the Witch was losing strength." Thea said. "Her fires were dying and there were less and less attacks. They were getting complacent."