**ASH**
She begins to laugh, loud and atrocious, driving me to gather magic in my hands. The walls echo with just the power in her voice. “Poor, troubled prince. Doomed to pay a price so great as to sacrifice a royal heir of human blood to the powers that be. Don’t you see, it is right in front of you. I am proof alone. The curse of the King of the Meadow, lifted from my shoulders with the return of a queen.” She chuckles, then loses her smile as vibrant power surrounds her in a cloudless bubble. “You have found her. The lost child.”
“The lost child?” I snap. “I have found nothing of the sort. Are you mad?”
She giggles, deep within her chest, then takes a dangerous step toward me and I have to wonder at her bravery. Lightning flashes at my fingertips, gathering around my person and climbing from my feet. It itches to burn her to the ground.
“I was there on the day of your cursing. I know your mother has been showing signs of waking. I know this because it was predestined within the giving of the curse. How have you not yet realized the treasure you’ve brought home at last?”
I glare down at her, power buzzing around me. “You are wrong,” I say smoothly. “My mother does not wake. She sleeps still.”
“So you say, but then, how often do you watch her?” She smiles brightly, whipping forth a staff made from the oak of the Woodland Realm. All about the tangles of a once dreary dead wood rod, leaves have begun to sprout. Proof that her shadow magics are returning. “The circle is not yet complete. Once it has been, your mother shall rise again. Bring forth the child. I know that you have her, I know that she is here.”
“Do you plan to fight me in my place of origins, because I have said it once and I shall say it again. There is no child here.” I add the last part in anger as I rise from my throne and lightning skirts out from my hands, followed by a plume of smoke.
Once again, she laughs, her eyes glazing with green swirls. “What a child is to me, may not be what a child is to you dear boy, for I am much your elder. You know of whom I speak. The child Daphne, she is within.”
This worries me, for if there is talk of Daphne among the realms - talk that this once exiled witch has managed to hear of - then soon the Winter Queen will hear of it as well.
If her sister dies, Daphne will hate me. And that thought chokes me nearly as much as the image of her carrying Prince Hayden’s heir.
I will not be completing the circle with Daphne’s blood. If she carries Hayden’s heir, I shall use their bastard’s blood instead.
Then she will hate you still.
“You will not be going anywhere near Daphne,” I say with force, dark energy beginning to climb about the room. Spirals of dark power erupt at my back as I begin my descent from the throne. “I am warning you.” I stop just before her, my lightning nipping at her protective bubble, searching for a point of entry should I attack. “I will not be making a tribute out of a simple mortal girl.”
“Tribute? Aha, I should like to see you try," the witch croons, smiling up at me giddily. “You know not of what you protect, boy. Your heart beats for the one you do not recognize, and your jealousy will blind you to the truth.” Swirls of leaves begin to dance about her feet as she prepares to retreat. “Much time has passed since I saw her last. She is the one to whom the Whispering Leaves speak. The one who protects the wildlings of the forest. The creatures of Shadow and the creatures of Fae. That which is hidden and that which is exchanged. She commands without magic and enchants without words. Soon, you will know. She is not who you think she is.”
Her words are beginning to anger me beyond the ability to control my power. Lightning strikes about the room, sending Fae soldiers toward the exit in fear. The spirals of ink sewn into my flesh begin to glitter and glow, slinking around me like a living breathing thing. “Leave. Now,” I seethe, my body shuddering with red energy. “Go back to your lands in the Woodland Realm. Or is it that your king does not welcome you?”
“Curse that blasted fool. His time will come,” she growls. Stomping her rod upon the glowing stones beneath her feet and battling back the lightning that poses to incinerate her aging flesh. She snickers, “Do not take Daphne to the Feast of the Meadow. If you do, the King of the Meadow will not let her go. Despite what he has promised you, he will aim to keep her prisoner.” She grins. “And leave the mortal girl to the Winter Fae, for she will restore balance from within. Heed my words, Ash, Prince of Smoke and Fury. Do not do what the child begs of you.”
My body jerks to attention, my power reigning in.
*Could she know so much?*
*After being gone so long?*
“One of these days, harpy, you’ll have to tell me where you get all of your trifled information from.” I snap, pulling the storm of magic from the walls and back into my skin. “You will not be seeing Daphne today, nor will he be seeing her at the feast.”
“She will find me soon enough.” Her laughter rumbles, deep within her chest as a whisp of cloud begins at her feet and her body begins to shrink. “Once true words are spoken, she will journey to the House of the Five Rivers. Protect her on her way, she is yours and you are hers. Your mother trusted me once, you should do the same.”
“What?” I hiss, as she melts further into herself, taking on a translucent glow of green. “What magic is this?”
She speaks in a whisper as she becomes trapped within a whirlwind of leaves. “Have you not heard, dear boy? The Queen of Hidden Fae lives, and her magic has returned.”
With that, a cyclone built of mist and leaves engulfs her form and storms out of the castle.
I look toward Finn, “Call on the guards along our borders. I must know which direction the witch is heading in now.”
*She is not who you think she is...*
The witch’s words haunt me as I fall back upon my throne.