Heather shook her head
violently. “No, no I’m not. That woman is see-through and Cage says you are
responsible for that thing out there. I’m seeing things again, aren’t I Elise.
The black thing has got me … unless … you’re the witch.” She grabbed Elise by
the collar, then shriek as her fingers skimmed Roark’s body. “There’s a spider
on you! A giant spider!”
“It’s okay,” Elise said
again. She waved her finger. “This, my
friend, is too much to bear. Go to sleep, you will, and forget to share. You’ll
wake rested and full of love, forgetting all of the above.”
Heather looked at Elise
for a moment and Elise couldn’t help but see gratitude instead of fear, just
before Heather’s eyes drooped shut and she started to snore softly.
“Good thinking,” said
Cage as he looked at Heather. “Come on.”
“Where are you going?”
asked Rosemary.
“We have to go outside
and stop the thing,” answered Elise.
“It’s not a thing, it’s a
he,” said Cage.
“What?” Rosemary and
Elise said together.
“It’s Paul,” Cage
clarified. “The hunter who taught me everything I know.”
“Hunters can’t turn into
black fog that shows and makes people feel their own pain,” stated Elise.
“He sold his soul,” said
Cage. “I knew it had happened and I went to stop him, but I was too late. By
the time I got to the cave, the very cage I found the life stone, Paul was
gone. What I didn’t tell you earlier was that there’s something else in that
cave. The Dark Onyx.”
“No.” Elise’s hand flew
to her mouth.
“Who is Paul and what is
the Dark Onyx?” asked Rosemary.
“Paul Campbell was a
notorious hunter,” said Elise. “He showed no mercy and killed anything paranormal,
regardless of whether their allegiances were with the light or the dark. He
wiped out a whole family of Apple Blossom Fairies before I was able to banish
him from the valley.”
“Something he had never
forgotten,” said Cage. “He had never been bested by a witch and the fact that
you were able to banish him from even coming close to getting revenge sent him
over the top.” Cage looked at his feet and then back up at Elise. “He trained
me with the sole purpose of killing you.”
Roark let out a fierce
growl.
Cage held up his hands in
a peaceful gesture. “I’m not going to do it. I never was. He tried to teach me
to hate all things paranormal, but I saw through the hypocritical bigotry of
it. How could I hate all thing magical, when I was a magical being? I didn’t
want to go around hurting people for fun, so it reasoned with me that he was,
indeed, the evil one. I used him for his training and knowledge and then I
left. When I heard he was after the Dark Onyx, I knew he’d found a way to
bypass your banishing.”
“Why now?” asked Elise.
“Because you started
cursing again and because I’m here,” stated Cage.
“Will someone please tell
me what this Dark Onyx thing is?” cried Rosemary. “Dorothea and Ernest are in
that thing and I need to know what we’re dealing with!”
