Witches in Training (#2 in the Witches Trilogy) [rewrites ongoing]

Chapter Twenty-Four: Ashes on Water

VERA

"I hear voices."

My lips move without me realising it.

Kieran's eyes flicker towards the opening of our hideout. "Whose?" He doesn't doubt my words, not with my newfound fairy abilities.

I sit up and listen more keenly. The voices are on the surface, muffled, travelling through water, but I can vaguely make them out. "A man and a woman. Kind of young." The man's voice explodes angrily. "Sounds like Parker."

"And the woman?" Kieran asks, interest piqued.

I wait for her voice. It comes a a furious but clear, beautiful one. "Alix."

"Do you think she's found out about him stealing her magic?"

"Wake Russell."

Kieran does, quietly. Russell cocks his head. "Parker and Alix." The fairy confirms. "And they're fighting."

*

It is the first indication we've gotten that Alix would ever oppose her brother, the first sign that she's more than just a weet face. This is a magical fight, and sparks light up the water, dark objects sail past. Each explosion is ten times louder in my ears, until I wince and back away as far off as possible.

Russell hands me a fairy bead upon noticing my discomfort. "It'll help." He advises. I smash it and touch the soft powder inside to each of my ears. Immediately, the amplified sounds tone down to a comfortable level. "It's for young fairies who can't control the power yet."

"I resent the implication." I tell him. I go back to the front and find Kami and Shaun woken as well. "How's it going up there?"

"Crazy. Alix is heating up the whole lake, Fea can hardly go out."

"Any sight of Es-uh, outside support with Parker?" I amend for Kami and Shaun's benefit.

"Just the two of them."

"Who do you think will win?"

"Parker."

"You think?"

"I know." 

"You sound uncomfortably certain."

"Parker has every power imaginable-well, figuratively-including Alix's, and apparently, he knows how to use them. He's willing to kill. There's no worse combination. What other measure of certainty do you need?" Kieran is unsettlingly calm for one pronouncing someone's death.

"I don't want her to die." My mouth moves independent of my mind. I don't want her to die. But I hardly know her. 

"There's nothing you can do." Kieran says with a strange voice, turning away.

"But you can. Kieran, we can't just sit back and let her die!"

"We can and we will. I'm sorry, Vera, but I didn't go through the past three days to get one of us hurt or captured or killed. Again."

"So you're willing to let Parker kill Alix, just like that. A human life, gone."

"If it means keeping you alive... yes." This comes not from Kieran, but from Russell. "We know it and Alix knows it. You are our top priority."

My eyes flash. "That isn't fair. They're looking for Kieran and you and Louis too, in case you haven't noticed. Why should you be treating me like a piece of glass?"

"And in case you haven't noticed, Vera, Louis, doesn't have his wings any more. Give it a couple of days, and he could have died. That's how we know you aren't going anywhere near Parker. You go out, you'll get killed. Alix would say the same."