In part two, we return to beginning of the afternoon prior to All Hallows' Eve for Althena's story. This is a continuation, so make sure you read part one first!
In her satchel, Althena carried a string of pearls.
Whether it represented what she desired most, she didn't know, but her last visit to the witch hadn't been fruitful, so she hadn't put much thought into the item she'd chosen.
Or maybe she'd put in too much thought.
With the amount of pearls found in the bay, they were hardly a luxury item. Men came from all over the land to see her and gift her with far more beautiful and expensive things. Those, she sold or traded to help out her friends and family.
The trinkets never meant anything to her, and if they were supposed to purchase her, the buyer always left unhappy.
She was never for sale.
Still, she knew that the rest of the village didn't believe that, and why should they? Althena had a reputation for letting men warm her on cold nights, and she was not ashamed of it.
Did she want to find the love of her life? No, but there was something missing in her life, and she wasn't likely to find it tomorrow.
This trip to the witch was nonsense, but she kept her mouth shut. Pryanna had suggested it. Cecily had been quiet lately and far too hard on herself. Pryanna had insisted that at least it would be something new and hoped to put a smile on their younger friend's face.
For Cecily and Pryanna, Althena would do just about anything, so she hadn't told them that the witch of the wood was a fraud. She didn't tell them because that would mean explaining how she knew, and Althena was far too proud for that.
The two women who walked next to her were her most treasured friends. They were closer to her than her good-for-nothing brothers and her gambler of a father. Her mother had left them years ago, and Althena had a difficult time growing up in a family of disappointing men. Since childhood, Cecily and Althena had been her lifeline, so for them, she could swallow her pride and face Rubina the witch again.
Idle gossip and laughter kept the mood light until they stood at the entrance to the walkway of Rubina's cottage. A painful memory sliced through her, and her cheeks heated at the reminder of how she'd cried and begged at the witch's feet.
Still she'd been denied and cast aside. At the thought of being here again, Althena wanted to hurl.
"Do you think she consorts with demons?" Cecily asked a little breathily.
Why would demons bother with a fraud, Althena though bitterly, but she couldn't say that out loud. Instead, she wanted to see a smile on her sweet friend's face.
"There must be some perks to being a witch."
"Indeed, although I'm afraid that nights with the demons are not one of the perks."
Althena inhaled sharply at the sound of the familiar voice and turned to see the silver-haired beauty watching them with amusement.
"Mistress," they all said in unison. Cecily and Pryanna were already curtsying. Not wanting to worry her friends or draw too much attention to herself, she followed suit.
All night, she'd worried what she would do if Rubina recognized her. Would she tell her friends the truth?
"Please call me Rubina."
That was what she'd said last time, as well. Polite and friendly as though she wasn't about to wrench away their last hope.
As the witch and Cecily exchanged pleasantries, Althena's blood roared in her ears. Rubina was so helpful on the surface, but underneath, she was nothing but a fraud. Althena wanted to wrap her hands around the witch's neck and...
As Rubina waved her hand, Althena was momentarily distracted and the door to the cottage opened. Althena stiffened. That looked like real magic, but it had to be a trick or an illusion. Rubina couldn't be a witch because if that were the case...
She'd deliberately chosen not to help Althena.
No, that couldn't be right.
It was a trick. Everything about her had to be a trick.
"Now, let me see," Rubina mused as they all filed in behind her. "One of you has
come to me before and left disappointed."
Althena's knees nearly gave out, but Rubina only gave her a passing secretive smile and moved on. "You have brought nothing but dour expectations for tonight's ritual, but that's all right. There is still much I can work with for our doubts are never enough to overshadow our desires."
More lies.
The witch continued, ignoring the rage simmering in Althena. "One of you has come with nothing but hope in her heart, and for you, this will be the easiest."
Cecily, no doubt. The woman practically glowed with hope.
"And the last, well, she comes to me with fire. I am afraid your path is already set before you, and there is little I can do but give you advice."
Fire? That seemed like such an odd thing to say, especially when it came to Pryanna. Fire conveyed thoughts of wild emotions and chaos, but Pryanna was grounded in everything that she did. Subdued and logical to a fault.
Althena chanced a look at her friends and gasped.
They seemed frozen solid. "You are a witch," she whispered, her thoughts swirling wildly.
Rubina smirked. "Indeed, I am."
"What have you done to them?"
"Don't worry about them, my dear. To them, you are the same. 'Tis nothing more than a bend in time to give us some privacy. When we are finished here, you will all be ready to leave." Rubina studied her with shrewd eyes.. "When you came here last, I had nothing to offer."
Fury rose inside Althena. She did remember. How she must have laughed at the tears of a desperate woman. "That is not true. If you can do all of this," she waved her hands around angrily, "then you could have given me what I wanted."
"Perhaps," Rubina said softly. "And in doing so, I might have ruined your life. Did you think of that?"
"I might have been happy," Not might. She would have been happy. It had been her destiny, and with one word, the witch had ruined it. Ever since then, Althena felt like she was drifting, too afraid to anchor herself to another.
Sighing, Rubina waved her hands and smoke rose from the cracks of the floorboards. In it, a vision appeared of Althena on her knees, arms outstretched to the witch of the wood. "When last you were here, you'd given your heart and your body to a man who would not stay. Fearing what would happen when he left, you asked magic to intervene, and I refused. Let's see what happened to him."
The witch snapped her fingers, and the visions changed rapidly. One right after the other. All different men that Althena had taken to her bed. "Well," Rubina mocked. "Look at this. Not destitute but in charge of your life and dare I say enjoying it?"
Althena had no rebuttal. It was true that she'd made every choice with careful thought. None touched her that she did not wish, and none stayed longer than she deemed them welcome. She was in complete control.
"Now let's see how he's doing."
Gleefully, Rubina clapped her hands, and Althena saw her former lover at a gaming table, losing.
And then another.
And another.
After each loss, he'd tumbled into a woman's bed only to leave for another Gaming House, until he had nothing but the clothes on his back. In the last image, the handsome man was in a tavern and unable to pay his bill. Large and burly men pulled him up and threw him out.
"Looks like the gambling caught up with him. No, I fear your life would be drastically different had I done what you asked. When I looked into his heart, I did not see you but his love of money."
"You could have told me."
"Perhaps," Rubina allowed, "but then, I suspected you would not have returned, and I have been waiting for you to come back. You are very important, Althena."
Important to what? To whom?
"The question now, Althena, is what do you want this time?"
As the witch looked pointedly at Althena's satchel, Althena swallowed hard and gripped the satchel. Wary, she was unwilling to tell the whole truth. "I've come to you to bring some joy in my friend's life."
"Yet you've brought something of great value, and it has nothing to do with your friend." Reaching out, Rubina closed her fist, and somehow, the pearls dangled from her hold. "A prop which brought you great pleasure."
Althena shivered as she remembered the way her lover had brushed the beads over her nipples, down her belly, and teased her nub. "They were his."
"Yes, but you don't think of him when you see these,' Rubina murmured. "You think of pleasure."
"I have had many lovers. None of them have brought me the same kind of fulfillment."
Some of them didn't bring her pleasure at all.
"You will not open yourself back up again because you were betrayed, so you hold back. You are lucky, you know. Some women spend their whole lives unable to find the courage to seek their own satisfaction."
Althena narrowed her eyes. There was something bitter in Rubina's voice. "Do you know of satisfaction, witch?"
"I know the pain of being without." Her hand shot into the air, and she threw her head back. "An offering for All Hallows' Eve so the spirits may guide her to her heart's desire."
The witch's voice boomed and echoed as the cottage melted away leaving only darkness and the strangest purple smoke.
Her friends were gone and only Rubina remained. A maniacal look of pleasure gleamed in her eyes as the smoke touched her and lifted her hair. For the strangest moment, Althena wondered if this was the witch's true home. She seemed far happier here, in these few blissful moments, than she had back at her own cottage.
Behind her, three shadows writhed.
"See her heart. Strip her bare. Feel the shiver of her heat. Mark her to taste her truth so her love she will meet."
