The Witch of Willow Lake - 1

1930, Faircliff, New Hampshire, USA

Emmett cheered as I made yet another attempt at wielding my weapon, “come on, Hallie, you can do this!”

“I’m trying!” I whined in response, beginning to feel fatigued and wanting to call it a night for now. Maybe, I just wasn’t supposed to be able to wield a weapon; not every warlock could, after all, and sometimes they couldn’t be summoned until you were older.

Each warlock was born with what my father called an inner strength or a soul weapon. My fathers had been an axe formed fully of a bright red fire, which no one except him could touch without being burned. My grandfather’s soul weapon had been a sickle embedded with water magics, and I recalled another elder having a sword formed of lightning.

However, not only was it challenging to learn how to summon the weapons but it was also warned against invoking them without cause as it took a lot of power, even once you knew how and it became like second nature.

I wanted to use mine just once to see what mine would be out of curiosity. A bow with arrows that shot fire or even wind? An axe like my father’s but perhaps one of lightning? Or maybe even a shield made of earth powers. I just wanted to see it once to know, without curiosity killing the cat, the cat being me, or Emmett in this case.

Just as I was about to make another attempt, Alicia appeared through the towering trees of the forest, “playtime is over, children; dinner is ready.”

“Aw,” Emmett pouted, looking at her pleadingly, “but she’s almost got it, I know it!”

Alicia rolled her eyes, “It will get cold, and you know meat tastes even worse when it’s cold than when it’s fresh out of the oven. Besides, we don’t want to drain the poor girl too much; she has work in the morning.”

Emmett sighed in defeat, and I felt a little relief, “Yes dear, no dear, three bags full dear, we are coming.”

“Maybe next time.” I shrugged as I brushed off the dirt that I’d gathered from falling a couple of times.

“You’ll get there, kiddo, and I know you got an epic weapon hiding in there.” Emmett smiled, moving beside me and patting my shoulder before following Alicia back to our house.

The three of us had spent three years moving around, never staying in the same place for over six months. While we were there, we’d get a small home, much like the cabin, and all three of us would pick up jobs to cover the costs and put money aside for our next destination.

We stuck to small towns with vast forest or desert areas, as this provided us cover if we ever needed it. It also meant Emmett and Alicia could hunt, and I could train without the risk of being caught. Despite their ability to survive on animal blood, they needed to pursue prey to suppress their hunter’s instincts.

We always kept ourselves in the outer parts of small towns, away from the central area where most humans were. We worked smaller jobs that didn’t involve too much human interaction, and we kept to ourselves. We did everything we could to make it easier for Alicia and Emmett to rejoin daily society.

We’d also changed our surnames, and Emmett, being the resourceful person he was, had commandeered us fake papers.

As far as papers and records were concerned, we were Alicia, Emmett, and Hallie Paxton. Their human ages were thirty-nine for Emmett, Thirty-Six for Alicia, and The papers currently kept mine at seventeen, although, in reality, I’d turned twenty-one two months back. However, because I so rarely used my powers, I still quickly passed for a girl of seventeen.

We’d planned on trying to stay somewhere a little longer now that we were becoming more comfortable living among humans. We figured we could stay somewhere for three or four years before people started questioning why we weren’t aging, which was a decent amount of time. We just hadn’t decided where to settle first.

Alicia hummed in thought as we cleaned up after dinner. “Maybe we could stay here? We have good jobs, and the house is beautiful, albeit small. As far as Emmett and I have scouted out, there are no Vampire clans nearby and only two Wolf packs, neither close enough to cause alarm and don’t think I haven’t noticed you taking a shine to that cute boy two streets over.”

My cheeks pinkened as I shuffled on one of the black bar stools surrounding the kitchen island. Alicia had referred to Jacob, a twenty-year-old boy who worked with me in the quaint clothing store in town. “Yeah, but not like anything can happen.”

Emmett chuckled as he rolled her eyes, “Oh, live it up a little, Hallie, no one’s saying you have to sleep with him or marry him; go on a date, have a little fun. You’re a blossoming young woman, and you deserve to be courted and treated well.”

“Yeah, but what if I-”

“Rule number one, Hallie,” Emmett interrupted with a smile as he reached out a hand to ruffle my hair, “don’t fear your powers. I know almost everything about you goes against the history of your coven, but it doesn’t mean you need to be afraid. You’re just a little different, and that’s the supernatural for you; nothing makes sense. That’s the beauty and sometimes ugliness of it, but good or bad, you got to embrace it, not let it consume you.”

“Just because Elizabeth turned rogue,” Alicia continued with a kind smile, “doesn’t mean you will. You haven’t got a nasty bone in you. Plus, you have us to keep you on the straight and narrow.”

My lips pursed in thought, “I suppose it can’t hurt to make friends if we stick around towns longer, right? Like a normal person.”

Emmett gave a sharp nod as he smiled proudly, “Exactly.”

------

As I busied myself restocking a shelf at work, I caught Jacob walking toward me with a smile, “hey, Hallie.”

“Hey, Jacob.” As he stopped in front of me, I returned the smile, “thought today was your day off?”

He was cute, tall, with tanned skin, subtly defined muscles, and deep brown eyes that reminded me of melted milk chocolate. His hair was styled slick and neat, parted to one side with the slightest wave at the front, a pretty typical hairstyle for a young man during these times.

Jacob shrugged his board shoulders, “No work, just needed to grab something for mother. So, I forgot to ask yesterday, when are you and your family moving? You were only planning on staying here a few months, right?”

I shuffled awkwardly and felt my cheeks burning, “Oh, well, we decided we would stay a little while. We haven’t decided how long for, but we’re going to give the traveling a rest for now.”

A grin that reached from ear to ear spread across his full lips, “so, you’re staying?”

“Yeah, we just not sure how long for, though.” I shrugged, “It could be a year, maybe longer. It all depends.”

“Hey, I’ll take it. So, if you’re staying, would it be possible for a guy to take you out sometime? My family is hosting a dance, and well, I’d love it if you came with me.”

My cheeks flared red as I began chewing on the end of the braid Alicia had put my hair in. “I-I can’t dance.”

“Then I must teach you; please say you’ll come with me. I don’t want to be a loser without a date, and you’re the only girl I want to ask. Also, if I do go without a date, my mother will pick one of those awful girls for me to accompany, you know, the one’s who only care for the money.”

I shuddered and felt a little bad for him; his family was wealthy due to the business his father had built from the ground up a little before Jacob had been born. This meant that most of the women interested in Jacob were the types that fancied the money, not just the boy attached to it. However, they were primed and taught how to be elegant and sly; they knew how to present themselves to their parents to make them seem innocent.

I bit down on my lip, the hair still in my mouth. Even if we were staying, I couldn’t get too close to him. He was human, and I wasn’t, even if I appeared to be. Something told me he would not be like my mother or the women of our coven and so accepting of who I was.

As well as the wealth, Jacob was a good Christian boy from a Christian family. It was too much of a risk to allow him to find out who I was. It wasn’t just my life at stake, but Alicia’s and Emmett’s.

However, their words rang in my mind too. If we stayed here, I had to learn to make friends; I had to learn to trust myself and my powers around them. I needed to fit in with the ordinary folk, and as much as I still harbored guilt over what happened to Mary, I couldn’t let it stop me from living. Plus, I didn’t want to leave him hanging with an annoying woman who thought herself royalty all night.

I nodded and gave him a shy smile and finally released the hair from my mouth, “okay, sure, I’d be happy to go with you.”

Jacob let out a visible gesture of relief, “Thank god; you had me worried there for a minute! This Saturday, at our house in the grand hall, I’ll pick you up at seven? Smart dress code, no fancy ballgowns or anything, just smart.”

“Sure, sounds good. I better get back to this.” I brushed a stray strand of hair from my face as I gave Jacob a slight smile before I pointed to the half-empty shelf of clothing.

“Have fun, and I’ll see you on Saturday.” Jacob nodded curtly before turning on his heel and leaving me to continue with my work.