The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga Taliesin Govannon (best free ereader .txt) 📖

time,” she replied, “and I will still be loving you when the stars fade and we are plunged into the endless night. For your love is all I need to keep me warm.”

                I kissed her again and moved to pleasure my love in ways that I'd never tried before.

                Because she deserved all of the love.

                Because she deserved all of my love.

Chapter Eleven

                From the Diaries of Angelique Dupre

                05/23/1589

                Roanoke Colony

                Sarah is starting to show some real talent at healing magick. Her heart has always gone out to the little furry ones, and she tried healing the injured ones on her own quite early on.  She eventually figured it out, and the rabbit, songbird, and deer populations are doing quite well this spring, if you will.

                Petronia, I hope you’re proud!

                She has been growing distracted more and more as of late. I try to find the source, but women in this era have learned how to keep the deepest parts of their hearts private. She says several boy's names… Matthew, John, and Tobias… in her sleep, but aside from Matthew, she hasn't spoken of the others while awake.

                She is young. I have time to learn.

                                                                                                *                *                *

                It wasn’t morning yet.

                Well, it’s technically morning, I thought, as in ‘am.’.

                The forest path was dark, but I had no problems finding my way. I had been noticing a slight haze around plants and trees, even the ones without leaves, on my early morning walks as of late. I was pleased to see that my theory was right.

                I can see the life force of growing things when there’s no other light to drown it out. The sliver of moon that had yet to set would obscure the glow in places where it broke through, but I still had a well-illuminated path to walk either way.

                Though covered with snow, the forest seemed alive in a way I’d never encountered before.  Well worth getting up at the ungodly hour of three am.

                As if I could have slept any longer. My dreams had been of Angelique, and how her lips tasted in the moonlight.

                Well, leave that past life in the past for right now I admonished myself. You’re out here to hunt beasties and commune with the forest.

                I didn’t feel cold, either, even though I wore only thermal pants, sweats, and another borrowed hoodie, this one saying ‘Kiss me I’m Fae’ in sparkly letters. I am SO fortunate Raina’s a hoodie hound.

                I had always worn dresses for most of my life and still preferred them for everyday use. While they were comfy, they weren't made for close combat, especially the long skirts I favored.

                Not that even shorter skirts would improve things I thought with a grin.  I’ve worn exactly three short skirts in my life, and they weren’t designed for the easy use of stairs, let alone fighting giant spiders!

                Raina often talked about the power of repeated actions and mystical power… about how our subconscious remembers things, so the more often we do them, the more energy is there for the task at hand.

                I’m experiencing that right now. When I put on my ‘action outfits’, as I called them, I felt like I was made of pure energy, ready to take on the world.

                And that feeling was increasing.

                I felt like I was floating above the ground as I moved. I was starting to feel like water flowing… infinitely flexible, unyielding, unceasing.

                Until I heard it.

                The sound started infringing on my consciousness so subtly at first that it almost escaped my perception. However, as I moved, the sound started getting louder.

                Thump-thump… thump thump… thump thump…

                I stopped moving. I tried to figure out just where the sound was coming from, but all I could see was the forest, still glowing with life.

                “You hear it, don’t you?”

                Gaia’s sudden appearance at my side didn’t phase me. I was too entranced.

                “What is it?” I asked, full of wonder.

                ”What does it sound like?” she asked back.

                Thump-thump… thump-thump… thump-thump…

                “It sounds… “ I paused, looking for the right words.  “It sounds like… a heartbeat.”

                One seriously BIG heartbeat! I thought furiously. Is King King next on the menu of horrors?

                Gaia, however, didn’t look worried. She closed her eyes, breathed deep, and soon started glowing the same way that the forest did.

                “It’s the heartbeat of the Earth.” she said finally.

                I closed my eyes like she did and reached out with my perceptions. I could still see the energy outlines of the forest around me but could feel everything extending farther and farther until I could feel the luminosity of the entire planet. It throbbed in time to the thumps I heard.

                “This is incredible.” I said breathlessly.

                “That power, that rhythm,” Gaia said, “that is the source of your power. That is what you’re connected to when you practice your magick.”

                I heard her words and knew them to be true.  I sent my perception through the energy all around me, and traveled from leaf to trunk to scurrying forest creature in turn.

                I almost giggled with delight. And I DON’T giggle!

                I then encountered something that made me pause. It was a break in the energy that turned out to not be a break, but a fading of the power. Without looking with my physical eyes, I started walking towards the dip in the green energy all around me.

                I didn’t hear her move, but I could feel Gaia walking with me. I knew that I had left the trail, but I met no resistance from underbrush or branches as I moved towards the energy dip.

                I soon found my quarry. It was a cat, an orange tabby, and I instantly knew why the energy of life was weaker here: he was dying.

                He’s dying, and it’s not his time. I don’t know how I