EIGHT YEARS AGO

The moon is hidden behind a thick dark cloud. The stars are nowhere to be seen. The wind is picking up speed.

A man helps an elegantly dressed woman and a little girl out of a black Town Car. He then leads them towards a dreary looking building where you can see flickers of candlelights dancing through the windows.

A bell jingles when the man pushes the door open.

"No! No! I don't want that creature in here. Get it out! Get it out of here!" yells a woman from inside the property as soon as the three of them step through the threshold and into the light. Her dark eyes are on the child. A dagger is clutched in her hands. The sharp tip glints eerily in the glow of the candlelight. Her long dark curls swirl wildly around her like live snakes. Fear shrouded around her like a cape.

The other woman gathers the little girl protectively closer to her and the man's face reddens in anger. He strides further into the room and roughly grabs the woman with the dagger by her upper arm.

"Nadine, get a hold of yourself. You promised to do this!" His meaty fingers dig ruthlessly into her skin.

"I've changed my mind. I don't want it here. I don't want it anywhere near me," cries the woman, Nadine.

The man lowers his voice and grumbles in her ear, "She's paying us a lot of money---"

"This is a bad idea, Samuel. You told me she's a witch, not a lunatic! The woman is clearly crazy! She's not getting anywhere near my child," the other woman interrupts as she edges towards the door. Her hands are tight on the little girl's shoulders.

"Victoria, wait! She can do this. She can help you. Just let me talk to her," says the man urgently. His balding head is beading with sweat and his shoulders are rigid. His whole body is tensed.

"You promise!" he turns back to the woman with the dagger, his voice harsh.

"I can't!" she whimpers. "Look at her. I can't do this."

"We need the money, Nadine. You remember that."

The witch closes her eyes. Her shoulders sagged. "She's not a creature of this world. She doesn't belong here..." she whispers in defeat, her lower lip quivers.

"It doesn't matter. You did promise to do this," argues the man. His voice softening as he senses her caving in.

The woman called Nadine takes a deep breath then slowly opens her eyes. She directs her gaze towards the other woman, Victoria, this time. "You're obsessed with her, can't you see that? These creatures are dangerous. They're nothing but evil. They're conniving, devious, and tricky. Get rid of her before she destroys you."

The expression on the other woman's face hardens. "She's my baby. My child. She's mischievous and a handful but she's not evil. And I'm not here for your unwanted advise. I'm here to pay you a lot of money for your services and your silence."

The witch's eyes grow cold and the look of resolve enters her face as she stares at the child.

The little girl is enchanting to look at. Her long, shiny, ash blond hair cascades down her back like a waterfall. Her small, slightly pointy ears peeking out from her hair reveals her nature. She has an extremely delicate and inhumanly beautiful angular face with flawless porcelain skin, a small straight nose, and plump red lips. Her big, brilliant green eyes- the color of forest leaves, framed by thick, long, dark golden eyelashes are wary as they roam around the room before they land back on the witch.

"How old is she?" asks the witch.

"We think she's eight. She's about three when we got her."

"Very well. Bring her to the middle of the room and stand back," instructs the witch, her jaw sets as she slowly moves around the room, keeping the dagger close. Her fearful eyes are constantly on the child as she moves around the cluttered little space filled with books, jars of curious plants and preserves, candles of different sizes and colors, and other knick-knacks. She gathers a few items from the various jars on the shelves and places them in a bowl; the root of Elfdock plant, Licorice, Monkshood, Hyssop, and a few other curious items. The child's distrustful but curious gaze follows her every movement. They widen in horror when the woman's hand wraps around a long iron chain.

"No, no, no! Mommy, please help me. Please, mommy no," the girl suddenly cries, shaking her head. She tries to run but the witch is quick in casting the iron in front of her, chanting, "Trin lánce hin mánge, me pçándáv tute." The iron chain moves like a serpent, forming a circle around the little girl. "Káthe tu besá! Káthe tu besá! Ná ává kiyá mánge!"

"Mommy! Mommy! Help me!" her cries grow desperate. "It's is going to hurt. It's going to hurt so bad...mommy, please!"

"Make her forget. Make her forget everything," says the woman above the little girl's pleas and cries. "Make her normal...make her human."

"She's not human. I can't make her human," says the witch sternly.

"I want my perfect child," says the woman.

The witch's face shows her annoyance. "You want her tamed and obedient to you? You know she's not tamed and obedient by nature." Her voice grows lower and sounds sinister as she continues, "And she's going back to where she came from one day. They're coming for her."

The other woman's face pales and tears well in her eyes. "Then you make sure she's not going anywhere." Her voice quivers and she pauses. In a sterner voice she continues, "Keep them away from her. You make sure they can't get to her."

"You know there's a heavy price to pay when the balance is disturbed and fates tampered?" warns the witch.

"I don't care about the price! Just make it happen. I'll give you more money, a lot more... if you can just make her stay and make her human. My perfect child."

They're talking about two different things, but the woman with the dagger nods her head anyway

"Mommy! Please! I'll be good. Mommy! It hurts...please!" the girl pleads.

"Shhh... You're okay, sweetie. Everything will be fine. Everything will be just fine. Mommy knows best. Shhh...

************************************

Hi, ya!

So this is my new Fae story. I hope you'll like it as much as you liked my lycan series.

As usual, I ask you to please be polite. If you don't like my story, that's fine, just please, please, pretty please (with a cherry on top) be nice in your comments to me or to my other readers in here.

Please vote if you like my story. Please leave comments, good or bad so I can improve.

This book is my unedited work. I'm sure it's full of grammatical errors. However it's still my work, so I would appreciate it if you don't copy it without my permission.

If you decide not to go any further 😞😭 thanks for checking anyways, I appreciate your time 😊. If you decide to join the journey, just flip the page and I'll see you inside 😁.

I update every Friday evenings (est).

Much love,

Nicole💖

Copyright © 2019 Nicole R. All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, distributed , or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher/author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.