Page 105 of Wicked Curses
“So you’re willing to die for that answer instead of staying here where it’s safer?” Elsa asked.
“Is it safer forme?”
Elsa plunged her shovel into the ground. “The witches and warlocks have been leaving you alone.”
“For how long? And is it only because The Reaping distracted them for a bit, and soon they’ll return their attention to me? Or is it for good? Do you really think they’ll let Radagast’s death go?”
“You didn’t kill him, and he deserved it.”
Sahira stupidly beamed over Elsa’s words. She was never quite sure what to make of the witch or why she had tried to create a friendship between them, but it was good to have someone on her side, even if she didn’t completely trust Elsa and might never be able to do so.
“The witches don’t blame Orin for his death, and if they did, he still wouldn’t be the one they went after,” Sahira said.
“That’s because they’re a bunch of cowards.”
Elsa’s muttered words caused Sahira’s eyebrows to rise. Looking at Zeth, she saw the same surprise mirrored on his face.
“Maybe so, but they won’t let what happened with Radagast go. They’ll come for me eventually, and I can’t spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, waiting for them to strike. I have to try to find a way out of here.”
Elsa sat back on her heels and rested her dirty hands on her knees. “I’m coming with you.”
CHAPTERSEVENTY-EIGHT
Sahira blinkedat her and started to shake her head, but Elsa continued speaking. “I’ve been here for decades, just hoping something would change, but nothing has, and I haven’t done anything to create that change besides read more books than I’d ever considered possible. And notoneof those books has given me any answers or hope. I’m ready to try something new. I’m going too.”
Sahira liked Elsa, and other than being a witch, the woman had never given Sahira a reason to doubt her motives. But the witch thing was a prettybigreason.
She didn’t think Elsa was trying to set her up to kill her, but she couldn’t be certain either. And out there, in those Barren Lands, she’d have to put a lot of trust in anyone who went with her.
But going out there alone was a lot more dangerous than with an ally. Could Elsa be that ally?
“I’m coming too,” Zeth said. “She’s right; I’ve been here for too long. I’ve tried going out there and failed, but I was alone. I’ll prepare better this time, and we’ll have a better chance of success as a team. We can do thistogether.”
He was right, and Sahira wanted to believe they could do it, but she also couldn’t be the reason one, or both, of them ended up dead. “Belda said there are things out there that make the scarogs look like fun. You have no idea what we could run into.”
“I encountered some things when I explored it before. I’m still here to tell the tale, and so is Belda. I didn’t find any answers or some miraculous way out, but we’ll go farther this time,” Zeth said. “Even if we don’t survive, at least we tried.”
“And at least we’re not just sitting here, rotting,” Elsa said.
“If you leave with me, the witches and warlocks will paint a bull’s-eye on your back,” Sahira told her.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not one of them. I don’t livewiththem, I don’t livelikethem, and I’ve hadnothingto do with them since arriving.”
“Why not?”
Elsa’s problem with the witches and warlocks wasn’t her business, but if the witch intended to make this journey with her, then Sahira deserved answers. It could also help build her trust in Elsa.
Elsa glanced toward the cluster of witches’ tepees on the other side of the lake at the edge of town. Beyond them were the fancier homes of the warlocks.
A group of them had gathered near the lake and were bathing nude while others lay on the shore. Their numbers had taken a hit during The Reaping but not enough to make a real dent in their strength.
“Witches and warlocks killed my parents,” Elsa stated.
Sahira’s eyebrows shot up, and she exchanged a glance with Zeth. She wasn’t sure what to say; she was tempted to press for more details, but she couldn’t ask Elsa to relive those memories.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“So am I,” Zeth said.
