As soon as Sam had made his grand entrance, I shot off the bed and picked him up by the scruff of his neck. I gave him a little shake. "What is wrong with you?"

"I am being held against my will by an impetuous child. That is what is wrong with me." Sam stated. Glaring at me with his half lidded blue eyes. he thumped his little paw against my cheek with an inexplicable amount of force considering how small his body was.

I had to stop putting him so close to my face.

He hadn't had his claws extended.

Something was wrong with him.

I moved him out of striking range but didn't let him go. "What happened to you? Aren't you supposed to protect me?"

"I was petrified." Sam answered.

I laughed, feeling the heat of anger warming my face. "For the first time since you found me, something that is an actual danger arrives and you are too scared to act? Where did all the I am a predator," I mocked his low voice. "go? Are you only fearsome and mighty when facing down a bird."

"You are wrong." Sam stated.

"Uhmmm," I said, dragging the sound out. "It kind of seems like I am right."

"Fear is not the cause of petrification. The projection prevented me from acting, physically."

I placed him gently on the top of the dresser and sat at the edge of my bed. "How?"

"I do not know. I have never experienced magic of that nature."

Neither had I. I turned to Anna. "What did it feel like when it beckoned you?"

"Understood, a cat walking into the room and talking isn't worth a discussion," She looked towards the mattress-covered window and slowly wrapped her arms around herself with each word. She said. "I felt, cold? Dead? It felt like all of me had been taken from my body or that it had. . .I don’t know.”

Sam did not acknowledge Anna. "What did you do to bring it here?"

"There was a door that I had never seen before. It was the last in its hall. A black symbol laid over its surface and I took it. The memory did not start unusually. I was a Sorceress, Reyna, and was delving into a crypt with another Sorceress named Uma. We reached a room with a chest full of gems and then the Lich appeared. He killed Uma," I hadn't noticed the lump in my throat until then. I had never met Uma. I didn't know what her favorite food was or what kept her up at night. Reyna had, and in turn, for a time, so had I. I had known how warm Uma's presence was, how she couldn't help put sing when she drank, how my aura had been a dark juniper green when I had met her but it had unclouded and brightened for every day we were together. I had known her deeply, for a time. Then that thing had taken her, drained everything I loved about her out in a matter of seconds and left her a crumpled corpse. "Then he came for me."

"Came for who?" Sam asked, his voice low and steady.

"Me," I said, placing my hands on my newly aching chest to indicate that I knew I was still Autumn Aubrey. For once, I didn't blame him for asking. "It saw me, through Reyna. It forced me out of the memory and by the time I had come back to myself, it was here."

Sam didn't respond for a time, staying utterly still with the exception of his crooking and uncrooking tail.

I didn't push.

Finally, he spoke. "I am at the end of my willingness to speak in front of the mortal. The lich was not here. It was a projection, not dissimilar from your own glamor. I suspect if it was here in earnest, your pitiful display of power would not have driven it away."

I stood, my fists balled by my side. It was my turn to pace. "I don't understand. Memories. Are. Memories. They have already happened. They are from the past. How could I be seen by something if I wasn't there when the memory was created?"

"I do not know." Sam growled.

I snapped at him. "You don't know and I know I don't fucking know, but I need to know."

"This is precisely why you should return to Zenithcidel." He growled again.

Damn, I didn't want them to, but his words rang true. I needed to go home. Even if it meant being held under lock and key until I allowed myself to die, my freedom wasn't worth risking The Well.

Anna cleared her throat "Still ignoring the fact that you have been in a conversation with your cat for like ten minutes and both of you sound absolutely insane, are you okay?"

How many times had we asked each other that same question? That was just something friends did, I supposed.

I don't want to go home. As soon as I looked at her, I felt tears come to my eyes.

"You’ve got to stop doing this to me," She said, smiling. Without realizing what was happening, I watched her step to me and wrap me in an embrace. "Let’s go outside. I'm tired of looking into the bathroom every few seconds to quadruple check that the licht isn't back."

"It is pronounced Lich, mortal." Sam said with a sour tone.

"I don't know what I did to him, but I get the feeling your cat really doesn’t like me." She withdrew from me and went to the door. "Put on the clothes I gave you, it's cold out."

Before I could protest, she had unlocked the door and opened it.

Anna screamed.

Mrs. Mole, the old woman that lived on the floor below me, was standing in the doorway. Her long silver hair framed a face that looked just as surprised as Anna's scream had sounded. "Oh my!" She screamed in return and started backwards. One second, I could see her and the next, I heard a jumbled mess of thumps and yelps as the old woman fell backwards down the stairs.

After the final sound of impact, larger than the rest had been, a moment passed and then Anna ran down the stairs after her.

I went to the landing outside my door and saw Mrs. Mole laying in a heap with Anna standing over her.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"I'm okay, I'm okay. Enough fuss over me," Mrs. Mole waved a hand. "I had nine children, all boys! And Mr. Mole was not a small man," The old woman rattled on, gingerly taking Anna's hand to rise to a sitting position. "It would take more than that to break my hips, if you catch my meaning."

I caught it, and based on how Anna's face had quickly gone from concern to disgust, she had as well. "Are you sure you're not hurt?” Anna asked.

"Oh stop it, I'm fine. Why, I could probably beat you in a foot race if I had time to stretch." The old woman said with a cackle as she rose to her feet.

"If you say so." Anna responded, but she didn't look convinced.

I spoke before I realized my lips were moving. "Why were you up here, Ms. Mole?"

The old woman brushed a lock of her silver hair out of her face and looked up at me. "I thought I heard one of you scream and I wanted to make sure everything was alright."

I hadn't heard the stairs creak. Either the old woman was capable of extreme stealth or I had been too distracted to hear her coming.

"That's very sweet, we just saw a big spider. It crawled right out of the sink in the bathroom. Let me help you back down the stairs." Anna said, turning the woman away from me.

"Spiders are nothing to be scared of, young lady. In this old house, there's probably a million of them." The old woman said, slowly descending out of sight.

In the shock of what had happened, I had left my door wide open.

Mrs. Mole could have seen Sam. She didn’t have to know he wasn’t really a cat for it to bring me trouble. There were no pets allowed in the boarding house, after all.

I closed my door and took a deep breath.

"Do you understand the series of errors you have made?” Sam started in on me without hesitation.

“I know.” I answered.

“Not only have you willingly given that mortal the power to destroy the precious little freedom you claim to value over all, but she now possesses knowledge of something capable of turning the tide of the war."

I had never heard him speak like he was then.

“I know.” I repeated and started changing into the warmer clothes Anna had given me.

“Even still, you mean to go with her.”

“Why do you care so much?” I said, too exhausted to put any heat behind it.

Sam hissed, sounding more like stones being ground together than that of a normal cat. His ears flattened, the hair from the top of his head all the way to the tip of his tail stood on end, and he rolled onto one side, exposing his extended claws. He growled. “Do not ask such questions. I cannot know.”

This had happened before, when he had helped me discover the boundaries that had been placed within The Well.

“I'm sorry. I didn’t know that would hurt you,” I said, holding up my hands. My familiar slowly relaxed out of his defensive posture. I waited for the pain to leave his face before I asked another question. “Does this happen to all familiars?”

“Yes, much like the boundaries that were placed within your mind, familiars have boundaries that prevent us from knowing who we were in our past life. The frequency with which I have painfully encroached on those boundaries suggests that I was someone who knew more than most about matters that very few knew anything of. “

“Maybe you were a dragon.” I joked.

“How could I have been something that doesn't and has never existed?"

Sam didn't get the joke.

I heard someone coming up the stairs in a hurry. They tried to turn the doorknob, but found I had locked it. Three quick knocks followed. "Do you have clothes on?"

Anna?

"When I return, we are leaving this place." I said, feeling the ache in my chest grow with every word.

Sam didn't answer me and I didn't wait for him to. Instead, I left my room to see my first friend for the last time.

My mind was so scattered, I didn't think to ask where we were going until we were outside. I was glad I had changed. Not only was it cold, but a bitter wind blew nearly constantly. The bright afternoon sun, beaming down from a cloudless sky, did nothing to warm me.

“Have you ever drank before?” Anna asked me, holding up a glass bottle filled with a brown liquid.

You are never going to see her again. I couldn’t stop the thought from coming again and again.

Mr. Bill Argus stood in the side yard, some black looking glass held to his eyes and his wispy blonde hair whipping in the wind. He lowered them from his face and waved.

Anna tucked the bottle behind her back as she waved back at him.

"Good afternoon, girls." He called. He wore the same mismatched yellow suit and the too friendly smile that I hadn't liked the first time I had met him. He reached inside his coat and pulled out a small silver flask. "I won't tell anyone if you don't."

"Thanks Mr. Bill. Dinner will be ready around seven tonight." Anna called back, motioning for us to go and I followed her lead, heading for the wood line behind the house.

Good. I thought. I wanted to put as much distance as possible between me and that mans creepy fucking smile.

"Hold on a second." Mr. Bill Argus called again.

"Yeah?" Anna said, stopping and looking up at him. He had walked a little closer to us..

"It's going to cloud up and rain in a couple of hours. If I saw you two going out into the woods and didn't tell you, I'd feel responsible." He said and then raised his looking glass back to his eyes, evidently done speaking with us.

Before we crossed into the shade of the trees, I looked up and didn't see a cloud in the sky.

"Do you hate men in general, or just Mr. Bill?" Anna asked, carefully stepping into one of the gullies that carved through the leaf covered ground.

How had she picked up on that? I thought, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Both times you've been around him, it looks like you want to kill him."

I hadn't realized I had made any expression.

"I just don't like him." I answered, following her down into another gully.

"Is that some kind of magical sixth sense?" Anna asked.

"I wish it was," I replied, climbing up the other side. "He just makes me uncomfortable."

We fell into a comfortable silence then, walking through the woods with no destination in mind. It was cold and occasionally a gust of wind would blow hard enough through the trees that would stop and huddle together until it passed.

Anna, I, I thought, trying to find the words to tell her goodbye. I know we haven't known each other very long- no, that wasn't right either.

I should have charmed her when I had the chance.

You should have left before you grew fond of her. The thought came and went from my mind in an instant.

Long after we had reached a depth in the woods that would give us relative privacy, Anna stopped and spread her arms out, gesturing to the patch of trees that looked indistinguishable from any of the other patches of trees. "We have arrived," She handed me the brown bottle. "I should have known you were a witch all along. All you need is a flying broom. Have you ever drank before?”

“No, what does it taste like?” I answered, pulling the cork out with an audible pop.

“You don’t drink for the taste, just try it.”

I did. My face twisted in a grimace as I swallowed the burning liquid. I gasped for air as it went down my throat and grew warm in my stomach. “Why would anyone choose to drink that?”

Anna took the bottle from me and drank much more than I had. “It gets better as you go. Try it again.”

We passed the bottle between us four times in as many minutes.

I took a breath after my last drink and a warmth came over my body that made me smile. “You were right, it does get better.”

Anna wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her jacket and put the bottle down, recorked. "Alright, teach me how to call lightning down on my enemies."