Rise of the Witch Queen

But I'm a Witch

"Charlotte darling," A voice called, bringing me out of the vision. My eyelashes fluttered open, and I found myself on Jace's bed, his worried face hovering above my own. When Jace saw that I had regained consciousness, he smiled relief washing over his features.

"Thank god you're all right. One minute you were fine, and then you went pale, collapsed, and your eyes turned completely black..." Jace said, dabbing at my forehead with a wet cloth.

I batted his hand away in annoyance, pushing myself up. I tried to grasp the magnitude of what I had just seen. My adoptive parents hadn't kidnapped me at all. They had been working with my birth parents to keep me safe. The question was to keep me safe from what? And if my adoptive parents didn't kill my birth parents as everyone assumed, then who did? I was so caught up in trying to untangle every detail of the vision in my brain that I didn't even notice that Jace was still talking until he waved a large hand in front of my face.

"Hello earth to Charlotte," Jace teased, but underneath the words, I heard genuine concern.

"Sorry," I groaned, sitting up. Every inch of my body ached. Pain pierced my skull.

"Are you ok? Can I get you anything?" Jace fretted.

"Actually yes," a cough rattled through my chest. "Could I please get some water?"

"Of course," Jace soothed and nodded towards Callum, who left the room, "Does that always happen when you have a vision?"

"I don't know?" I winced, "I've only had one before this one, but I lost consciousness and felt like shit afterward." I moaned and quickly rolled over, wrenching on the floor. Jace held my hair back as I emptied the limited contents of my stomach on his floor. I was about to apologize before I remembered that I was here against my Will.

"What did you see?" he asked, feigning disinterest.

"Nothing that would interest you," I rolled my eyes. And it was probably true. While what I had seen would rock the sorcerer world as I knew it, I doubted my vision would affect Were society, but then again, my knowledge about this world was severely limited.

Irritation flickered in Jace's eyes, but he masked it quickly "Why don't you tell me anyway, and I'll tell you if it's interesting."

Sighing, I figured that it probably wouldn't do much harm to tell him. "It wasn't a vision of the future, but one of the past," I started preparing to say out loud for the first time what I'd seen. "I saw the night my parents were murdered."

"That must have been terrifying," Jace said sympathetically.

"No," I tried to explain, "I mean yes, but it was more than that. My adoptive parents didn't kidnap me or kill my birth parents. My birth parents gave me to them to hide me from something. It was only after my birth parents gave me away that someone came looking for me and killed them."

Jace's face went pale. "Why would you think this wouldn't be interesting to me?" he asked "Whatever your parents tried to hide you from is still out there? If you're in danger, I need to know so I can protect you."

"Gods, why do you care?!" I asked, frustrated "And don't say it's because I'm your mate or whatever, because that makes no sense. You don't know me well enough to be able to have that kind of claim on me."

"I don't know how to explain it," Jace sighed. "It's like the moment I saw you. I felt complete for the first time, and I hadn't even known that a part of me was missing."

"But I'm not part of you," I said softly "I'm my own person. Someone who is a stranger to you."

Jace growled, "This is the way things have always been for Were's."