Red Spell

Chapter Nineteen

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I stared at Da as he hung back several paces, not daring to come nearer while Merric had a knife pressed to my throat.  Merric was breathing hard and I was hardly breathing at all.  I saw Da's face contort with rage and helplessness as his fists clenched and unclenched. 
"Let her go," Merric said, nodding at Iresia.  I shook my head almost imperceptibly at Da.  What about her magic?  What if she still had the fiery darts?  He ignored me and motioned to the other hunters.  Iresia was untied and shoved away.  She hobbled over behind Merric.  She made no attempt to set anyone on fire.  
"Now let her go," Da said.  I could hear a smile in Merric's voice.
"Not just yet," he said.  I stumbled as he began to move backwards.  "One step closer and she's dead," he added as Da moved forward.  I watched in silence as Da slowly disappeared from my view around the cottage.  Merric would probably kill me as soon as he got far enough away to run.  I felt my vision blur.  I was so sick of crying, but I couldn't help the tears that rolled down.  He held me so tightly that there was no way I could twist away or kick him. 
"Let's just take her with us," Iresia wheezed.  "I'll need someone to do spells for me." 
"What?"  Merric turned forward, pushing me ahead of him, but still holding the knife to my throat.  Iresia scowled and refused to meet his eyes. 
"Yes, and I'll need to track down all my spells again.  I never expected it to be used against me though," she said.  Merric stopped and pulled her to a stop too. 
"What are you talking about, witch?" he demanded. 
"Well, you don't think I set my own cottage on fire, do you?"
"Selene did it," Merric said.  Iresia laughed at him without humor. 
"That helpless brat couldn't have done it," she sniffed.  "But she'll come in handy.  Don't kill her yet." 
Merric glanced back over his shoulder, his face hard.  We had stopped, still within the glow of the fire, but out of sight of all the hunters. 
"Are you telling me you can't perform magic anymore?" Merric hissed.  Iresia looked away and I barely dared to move my head as I looked at her and I desperately wanted to know who had done it. 
"You're useless to me too!" he growled.  "Maybe I should just kill you both!  I'd do better on my own anyway!"
Iresia turned on him with wide and indignant eyes. 
"How dare you speak to me that way!  After everything I've done for you, you ungrateful orphan!" 
Merric's hand trembled with rage as he pressed harder and harder, still looking at Iresia. 
"Run run, witch.  See how far you can get before I'm done with her," he said quietly.  The color drained from Iresia's face and she did run.  She would hardly get out of sight before I was dead and he came after her at that pace though.  The knife dug and I felt blood, but then it stopped.  It stopped and was lifted slowly away and he let me go.  The knife dropped into the snow, staining it a little.  I jerked away and turned to see Merric, slowly raising his hands to show that he was weaponless as a much larger knife was pressed to his own throat.  At first I thought it was one of the hunters who had followed, but the familiar dark hair and patchwork fur coat was unmistakable.  My hands flew to my mouth as I stared.  It couldn't be real.  He was dead.  With a quick jerk he jammed the hilt of the knife into the back of Merric's head and watched as he toppled unconscious into the snow.  Then he looked at me. 
"Are you all right?" he asked anxiously. 
"Am—am I  all right?" I stammered.  "You were dead!  I watched you die."  I stepped forward unsteadily and buried my face in his shoulder. 
"That's what broke the curse," he said, gently wrapping his arms around me.  "The last line of the spell said, And sacrifice all for the kill.  Someone had to die for the curse to be broken.  I'm fine now.  I don't even have that scrape on my side," he said. 
"You can never break anymore curses," I said, still covering my face in his fur coat.  "And why did you disappear?"
"I was returned to the place where I first took on the curse," he said.  "I took it in the woods where you drank that potion.  I woke up there.  And I'm guessing you woke up in Iresia's cottage," he said. 
"Yes," I said, peeking over his shoulder at the cottage again.  He must have been the one to set it and probably the one who cursed Iresia so she couldn't use magic.  He'd probably found the spell to do it in that book; the only bit of Iresia's magic that survived, unless he tossed that in to be burned also.  I felt my legs growing shaky from relief.  The spell over Da was broken.  Wolf was alive.  What more was there to want in the world? 
"So, did you mean that earlier?" Wolf asked. 
"Mean what?"
He kissed me slowly on the forehead.  I blushed.  I'd forgotten I'd done that and I hardly thought he'd been aware of it at the time. 
"I meant it," I said.  His arms tightened a little.  The village could judge me all the wanted for loving one of the forest clan.  Their opinion hardly seemed to matter anymore. 
"Selene?" 
I looked up quickly to see Da coming around the cottage with his ax poised. 
"It's all right!" I cried, "This is a friend!" 
Da watched Wolf carefully as other hunters came and tied up Merric again and more were sent off to find Iresia. 
The sun began to rise as the fire began to die down.  The hunters quickly discovered the terrified sheep, cowering on one side of their pen away from the fire.  It took most of them to keep the sheep together as they began to herd them slowly through the trees, following Wolf since he could take them the shortest way home.  I watched as he disappeared through the trees and he glanced back at me several times.  Merric and Iresia, having been caught and brought back, were tied up and being led back in a crowd of hunters and Da barely left my side. 
He and I walked around the cottage a few more times, just to be sure everything was burning.  I took his hand after several minutes and he squeezed, reassuring me.  We didn't say anything for a long time because there was just too much to say.  How could we even begin to talk about the last nine years?  I decided to let him start those conversations, but I would not.  He didn't seem to be in a hurry either, but he did have something to say.  I saw by his face that he was trying to say it, but he seemed to be arguing with himself about the best way.  He finally did manage to speak.
"Do you really like him?" he asked.  I reddened.  I hadn't expected him to address that so fast. 
"I know he's from the wood clan and there are so many stories and—."
"Do you like him?" Da asked again. 
"Yes." 
Da nodded.  "Then...I will like him too," he said.  "And I already owe him more than I can ever repay," he added. 
"We both owe him everything," I said.  "But he seemed to like being kissed, so I can repay him that way," I added with a laugh.   
Da's whole frame tightened up. 
"Did he now." 
"And I will like Marta and she really liked being kissed," I added, watching Da's face from the corner of my eye.  He stopped walking altogether and looked appalled.  I stopped too, worried that I'd gone to far.  What if she'd only been part of the spell and was just as shocked to be married as Da. 
"I didn't even ask you about that," he said.  "I'm so sorry."  He seemed to bend under a great weight as he thought about the past. 
"She is good and kind," I said, taking his face in my hands; something I would never have dared to do before. 
"I know she is," he said.
"And we can be happy again," I said.
"And we can be happy," he repeated.