Threatened [W&W Book 2]

Chapter 22

Anya lay on the bed in her room and tried to decide what to do.  She would write a letter to Thorne the next day, and gather what she needed when she was in the woods sending it to him.

Anya also thought about all that she had done. Apparently her attempt to kill Lord Wildwood with poison had gone unremarked. Could a healer not tell what the health problem was? She did not know enough about a wizard's healing magic to know the answer. Perhaps she could find something in the library on the subject.

Anya supposed the other reason that they might not be mentioning it was so that she would have a chance to give herself away.

Which is exactly what she would do if they were watching. She needed to act upon before Lord Wildwood left the castle again. The next day she would send Thorne a message detailing what had happened and what she would do. She would also collect the ingredients to make a witch's potion to create despair. Then she would simply have to find a way to trick the man into drinking it.

Anya wondered briefly if he would be able to sense the magic at close range, but she doubted it.

Wizards seemed to be very intuitive of their own and each other's inherent magic, but mostly ignorant of external. It appeared as if they could sense the magic from spells being continually maintained, but she wondered if a potion with very little magic could escape his notice. Missus Allendale used magic to prepare the food and no one seemed to remark it, although the remaining traces of magic were almost there undetectable even to her.

Once Lord Wildwood would drink the potion, he would fall very quickly into a deep depression. He would despair of ever finding happiness and want nothing more than oblivion. He would quickly take steps to end his life, and he would most likely feel relief as he accomplished it. Everyone else would grieve terribly, but that was unavoidable.

It was still more merciful than ripping his magic out of him. It would be like having his self ripped into two. Anya's father had always told her that it was the most terrible, most unforgivable thing that a witch or warlock could do to another human being. Anya had never done it, but she had had nightmares about it when she was younger of being the innocent victim and later of being the terrible victimizer. She had hated both dreams. She had never imagined that she might find herself in such a situation where she would even need to contemplate the act.

Not that she would do that. She would kill him without doing that to him and herself.

Without quite noticing it, Anya slipped off to sleep.

* * * * *

Anya's dreams were full of twisted dark shapes and the people of Wildwood moved in and out of her mind uneasily. Anya tried to find her brother and sister, but they were forever out of her reach.

Anya jerked awake. Her room was completely dark. Her stomach was clenched with anxiety. Her face was wet from tears she did not remember shedding. Some of her dreams had been horrifyingly close to reality.

"Damani, Kallie," she moaned. "Oh, I should have killed Thorne the moment I saw him. I knew that he was evil. I had that potion in my pocket... I could have done it..." Anya buried her face in her pillow.

Anya lay there feeling tired and empty and angry at basically everyone. She almost wished that they had realized what she had done. Why was Wildwood not more suspicious? Or was he? She did not want that either. And why were all the staff in the castle so trusting? Why did they all have to be so nice? At that moment, she hated them. She hated Lord Wildwood and Lady Theresa, and all the staff who had accepted her with such open arms. She hated the lords and most especially the ladies running through the castle with their empty heads that she had styled so competently.