Chapter 46

Chapter 46
I was inside the meeting room. They took their time agreeing to even let them in, but I was finally face-to-face with Nikolai, Kalina, and Alice on one side, while on the other were Grandma Blanca, Agnes, Flora, and the rest of the witches and warlocks who had arrived.
He wanted to help, and it was the right thing to do. I needed to do this, but everyone else insisted I shouldn’t get involved with her. According to Grandma Blanca, meddling with dark magic had serious consequences—not just for our bodies but for our souls.
“Send that woman away from here. We can handle this,” Agnes pleaded again. I was tired of this endless conversation that was going nowhere.
“If you could, then why haven’t you done it yet? Why did you let Quanah stay captured all this time while she suffers here?” Kalina spoke before anyone else could. “The answer is because you know this kind of magic is something only I can do, and what’s more, you’re happy that—”
“Kalina, don’t you ever know when to shut up?” Nikolai cut her off, and I was starting to think there was more to this than he was letting her say. “Quanah trusted her, so much so that he went to her to create the bond with you. He knew it was the only way to track you and know if something bad was happening to you. If you really want to find him, you need to do the same.”
“Why would you help me find Quanah? You said you wanted me, that you wanted what he stole from you, and now you want to help me?” I asked the question I’d wanted to ask since he said he was at the reservation’s gates.
“Because I don’t need another woman who loves another man. I’ve lived an eternity with that,” he said without hesitation, and shock hit me. “I promised to protect you, and that’s what I’ll do, regardless of the rest.”
I kept staring at the man in front of me, unable to believe his words. Everything had changed so quickly since the first time we met. It didn’t even feel like almost a month had passed, and yet I was surprised by his offer.
“You can’t trust him. He lies—he’s always lied. And as if that weren’t enough, he dragged this witch here…”
“Enough, Blanca!” I shouted, putting an end to that endless argument. The shocked looks hit me—I’d never spoken to them like that, not until the day I used my powers for the first time. “Will this harm the baby?”
“No, if it did, Quanah would never have chosen this path,” Kalina explained. “I’ll bind you to him through the blood you share with the child. You’ll be able to feel what’s happening to him, feel what he feels, and most importantly, you’ll know where he is.”
“Then do it. Do it now!”
“Bridget, a warning—you’ll feel everything he feels. We don’t know where he is or what’s happening to him…”
“Just do it!” I didn’t care what I’d see or feel. The thought of him suffering only pushed me to want to do it quickly, to bring him back.
“You can’t! You don’t know what this will cause…”
“I have the magic inside me, don’t I? That’s what you said. Enough interrupting—do it, Kalina!”
She nodded and raised her hands to her face, removing her dark sunglasses to reveal two black orbs instead of eyes. I heard whispers and comments in the distance but ignored them, took a deep breath, and prepared myself.
“Umbrae, quae nos circumdant, his utere corporibus! (Shadows that surround us, use these bodies!)”
“Umbrae, quae ventus portat, monstra viam! (Shadows carried by the wind, show the way!)”
“Nox, quae animas incolunt, iungunt animas! (Night that dwells in souls, unite these lives!)”
She spoke the words in Latin, the wind rattled the windows, and a black smoke flowed from her fingers, approaching me.
“Stop this! You have to stop!” Blanca shouted, but Kalina kept going as I’d asked.
The smoke reached me, enveloping my body from my feet up, clouding my vision. Then I felt another heartbeat that wasn’t mine. The sound of dripping water and the smell of sulfur filled my nostrils.
“Aaaaaaaa!” I screamed, falling to the floor as pain consumed my body. Every part of me hurt, especially my head. My body felt trapped, even though I could move my arms and legs. “AAAAAAAAA!”
I didn’t know what was happening. I brought my hands to my head, trying to stop it, but the pain was overwhelming, piercing my skull, nearly driving me mad.
“I told you not to do it!” I heard Blanca’s voice from afar. “Look what you’ve done to her, you monsters.”
Hands held me, and I finally opened my eyes to see Nikolai cradling me in his arms.
“What do you see?”
“Nothing. I can’t see anything, just feel excruciating pain.”
“Focus, Bri. You just need to focus on him.”
I closed my eyes and thought of Quanah. I felt the chains binding me again and the pain that made me want to thrash until it stopped. Then the image of a shaggy-haired child being whipped filled my mind, and I felt it in my body.
How could this be possible?
It lasted only seconds, but it felt like hours. The pain finally lessened, though it didn’t vanish completely.
“Quanah,” I whispered, feeling my body ache as he moved.
A massive cave with dripping water from the ceiling, never stopping for a second. I could feel inside me where he was. Somehow, strangely, I sensed the distance between us, and the desire to close that gap grew within me.
“I know where he is!” I said, opening my eyes again. I leaned on Nikolai and stood. “Let’s go now!”
“You’re not going anywhere! I can’t allow this. Send the men who are already looking for him.”
“I never thought I’d agree with him, but this thing is right. You can’t leave the lands,” Flora spoke for the first time since we entered.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but none of you control me.”
“It’s not about control, Brid,” Alice said. “It’s about reasoning. If we lose you, what do you think will happen? He’ll kill Quanah, you, and your child. It will all have been for nothing!”
“He’s in a fortress, hard to find, and as if that weren’t enough, my father is there, guarding it to keep anyone from getting close. Do you really think you could do it without me?”
Everyone fell silent. No one dared say a word, not even Grandma Blanca. I waited to see who would protest first, but all they did was wait for me, as if they thought I wouldn’t have the courage.
“I’m going with you,” Nikolai said as I took a step forward.
“Quanah would hate to see you. I can’t let—”
“And I’d hate to see you dead, so there’s no discussion. I’m going with you!” he said, as if putting an end to the matter, but I was more powerful than him. I could easily hold them all back and go alone.
“You didn’t think you’d go alone, did you?” Flora opened the meeting room doors, revealing the group of men who had just returned from the search.
“Peta!” I shouted when I saw him, and he smiled at me. His body was covered in scratches and bruises, telling me it must’ve been something serious for them to have healed that way. “What happened?”
“Your father! He’s been sending underworld creatures to attack us constantly along the way.” I approached him and reached out to his wounds. “Hades,” his word made me lift my head instantly. “Your father, Bridget, is Hades!”
“That’s not… there’s no such thing as a god. That’s impossible.”
“Of course it is, girl,” Kalina said behind me, making me turn to face the others. I was too confused by now; my mind was in knots. “It explains why you’re so powerful, not like any other witch.”
“Hades? The god of the underworld? You’re saying I’m the daughter of a god?”