Witch Hunters

The woods were on fire around the cottage and they it drawing closer and closer. Despite the usual chill in the air, it was growing unbearably hot in the cottage. Liam immediately went to Maeve’s room and gently shook her awake. “We need to get out of here – the woods are on fire. I can carry you.” He easily lifted her into his arms and ran out of the back of the cottage to where the others were standing outside.

“Put me down, Liam.” She asked quietly, looking to her grandmother. The older woman gave her a slight nod then Maeve raised her arms to the sky and closed her eyes and began chanting. “Veterum dii deaeque, ego tibi hodie aquae sit de caelo. Omnia quæ ego præcipio tibi, audi vocem meam, ad placita. Sit pluvial!”

The sky darkened almost instantaneously. Within seconds of her shouting the end of her chant, dark clouds began spilling a torrential downpour dousing the flames that would have soon engulfed their garden and home. Shortly after the rainstorm doused the flames and the rain let up, Maeve nearly collapsed to the ground and would have had it not been for Liam being behind her in a second and catching her. “Maeve?” He lifted her easily into his arms and looked to her grandmother. “We need to get her somewhere safe to rest.”

“There is a blessed place but it’s a trek and we would need to get there by nightfall. There is one spell that she can do when the full moon is at its highest peak tonight that could rid the woods of the evil. It’s complicated and difficult but maybe with the powers of the full moon she can do it.”

“Take us there.” Harry said, letting Lilly lean on him a little.

The blessed place was some distance away but with a lot of the forest burnt down, it was a lot easier to get to than it would have been. It took them until the sun was setting to reach a strong flowing river and, across it, a cavern that Maeve’s grandmother had told him was the blessed place. It was where their mothers, she and Liam’s, had practiced magic and where they had done this spell before together to ward off evil from their town. Places had memories, according to witches, and this place remembered the good and would help Maeve with her spell.

“How do we cross that?” Lilly asked, finally back to her full strength despite the trek to the cavern. She was staring down at the deep river and looking around for any sign of a bridge or slow spot and finding none.

“Maeve.” Her grandmother said, rousing her from her deep sleep. She had barely moved as Liam carried her effortlessly the entire way, not seeming to tire for a minute. “She may be too weak. Liam …”

“What?” He asked.

“You have your mother’s blood … you might have her gift but you’ve locked it away in your hatred for witches. Concentrate … you should be able to feel it, especially with her in your arms.” Liam couldn’t feel anything other than worry for the girl he was holding and frustration at not being able to help her. He had never felt powerful or magical and he had cut down anyone who was either of those things until he met Maeve. “Concentrate … your anger is clouding it. Focus on her – try to feel her power.”

Liam did focus on Maeve – his care for her, worry about her, her beauty and her protection of him. He knew in that moment that he loved her and he would do whatever it took to keep her safe. Almost simultaneously, she opened her eyes and put a hand on his face and he could feel it like a spark igniting in him from where their skin met and spreading all throughout his body. He just kept looking into her eyes as it spread and engulfed every nerve in his body, not breaking the contact for a moment until he heard Lilly gasp.

“Oh my God.” Harry’s voice cut through and brought his eyes up to see he had stopped the flowing of the water like it was frozen – suspended in time. He looked up to Maeve’s grandmother, seeing the girl had closed her eyes again and dropped her hand. “Liam …”

“I had no idea I could …” He stuttered, watching as Lilly and Harry began to cross over it first, followed by Maeve’s grandmother. He went last, careful to concentrate on keeping it frozen until he stepped foot on the dirt on the other side of the river. He heard it crash and begin to flow again before he even turned around to get another look at it. “Did you know?” He asked the old woman, who just smiled at him.

“Your mother was very powerful … it would have been very odd for you to not have at least a small bit of her powers inside of you. Come … there is an old book hidden in this cavern and we need it for the spell. You two will help me. Liam, you need to stay with Maeve just in case.”

Harry quickly found two thick branches and ripped off pieces of his shirt to make torches, Lilly being the one to know the perfect trick to light it with friction. Liam kept Maeve laying at the entrance to the cavern with enough light he could barely see her but he knew they would be concealed from outside the cave unless someone got close. While he waited for the others to find the book, he thought about what he had just done. He had magic inside of him – the very thing he condemned over everything. Of course, that was different now because of the girl sleeping in front of him. She had changed his opinion – not all witches were evil. Magic didn’t naturally make you that way – you had a choice. And he was choosing to use his for good and to help Maeve with this complicated spell.

He practiced levitating leaves and he found it was much easier for him when he grabbed her hand and held it tightly, feeling her energy and his mingle through their skin on skin contact. She remained asleep and he wondered if touching her was using her powers so he tried his best not to disturb her and do it on his own. He had just gotten the hang of it, with one leaf, when they returned with a think, leather bound book that looked burnt and old in her grandmother’s hands.

“Now we wait for nightfall. Make a fire.” She said to Harry who grabbed the torches while Lilly gathered wood from right outside the cave to make a small fire inside to keep them warm. “The moon will rise soon and you will feel it when it is at its strongest. Awaken Maeve, she is the only one who can read these and find which is the right one.”

He hated to do it, but Liam managed to wake her up. She was disoriented at first, never using that much magic in such a short amount of time. “I’ll take you on a vacation after all of this is over.” He promised quietly, earning him a smile. “I promise. Where ever you’d like.”

It took no time at all to find the spell that they needed and prepare. The darker it got, the thicker and heavier the air around them felt though it seemed only she and Liam could actually feel it. Now that his power had been somewhat awakened he was going to be more susceptible to things like that. Perhaps he always had been and that was how he was so good at tracking them before. When the moon hit its highest peak, a heat traveled through their bodies unlike the one they got from the fire and it was apparent that it was now time.

“Liam, take my hands.” They sat across from each other on their knees, both hands laced together as her eyes shut again and her head fell back. Liam could feel it flowing between them again as he watched her begin the spell. “Deas magica defendat nos a malo. Nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Arguet illos! Virtutibus tuis, qui ambulant in infernum conjecti, et hoc lignum et perniciem animarum sibi nocuit!”

“Maeve …” Liam watched as her nose began to bleed but he couldn’t get her to stop the spell. “Maeve!”

“Proteges eos et bonum malum, quemadmodum anima caedis potestatem non meritum peccatorum. Iustitia et adducite a tenebris ad excute merentur! In profundissimum infernum descendent omnia creata sunt mala ex nomine dearum. Ego te ad infernum deleo! Ego te ad infernum deleo! Ego te ad infernum deleo!”

A spark reverberated out from where their hands met, sending them both onto their backs before moving out through the woods. Within a moment shrill screams of terror and pain they knew to belong to the witches could be heard ringing out in the night sky, a red light flashing from their position near the mountains. The light burned bright then disappeared and as Liam sat back up he could feel the thickness in the air was gone signaling that the witches had been defeated thanks to the spell Maeve enacted. At the thought of her he scrambled up to see her still unconscious, the blood trickling down from her nose. He lifted her head into his lap, the others watching him as he grabbed one of her hands and put the other on her face.

“Bring me that book.” Her grandmother set it in front of him though he couldn’t read the ancient language. He sent a silent prayer to his mother to guide him and then the pages began to flip to an entry and he immediately began to read from it. “Magnae deae, sana animam suam, et adiuva me, mecum est in terris suis.” It felt like he had been reading the language his whole life. “Ita nunc illa ex malo et salvum sanitatem oppido … Please … please, give her back to me. I love her.” When she did not stir he bent down and kissed her lips gently and, as he pulled away, her eyes fluttered open and she gasped in a deep breath.

“Did we do it?”

Liam smiled and nodded, taking a deep breath. “We did it.”

“I love you, too.”