nine. 

the awakening of Maev Barebone

MAEV WATCHED JAMES through half-lidded eyes as he examined every nook and cranny in the questionable motel room. After driving for nearly fifteen hours straight, the witch had finally convinced Steve to stop at a motel in the middle of nowhere promising that she'd be able to get them in and out unseen. 

It hadn't taken much effort on her part, she'd just gone to the little check-in station that was separate from the motel itself, tweaked a few things about her appearance, and got two rooms while acting exhausted from so-and-so's drama and the fight that had ensued on the drive here. The employee, a permanently tired looking man who quite possibly had been high, just shoved the keys at her and told her to return them in the box attached to the station at the side when they left.  

Maev was currently sprawled out on one of the two twin beds in the room. James had insisted on taking the one closest to the window, deeming it safer for her to be further away from the window in case of an attack. Maev had contemplated reminding him that she could easily survive any wound received from mortal weapons, but it was sweet and helped calm his nerves, so she'd readily agreed before laying down.

After James was satisfied that there were no immediate threats he gingerly sat down on his bed, staring down at his hands. Maev glanced over at him and noticed the carefully blank expression he wore. 

"You know you're always welcome to ask me things, right?"

He slowly moved his gaze from his hands to her face, "I just—"

Maev waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts, pushing herself up so she was in a seated position. She leaned back against the headboard, crossing her legs. 

"When we work on my memories," he finally said, "you see them too. So you know... you know plenty about me." He hesitated but continued after a moment, "I was wondering if it's possible for it to go the other way," he gestured with his hands at the space between, "for me to, ya know, if you'd be willing..." 

"You'd like to see some of my memories?" Maev finally supplied him with the question he'd been trying to ask.

James nodded jerkily, "If that's okay."

Maev smiled softly, "Of course. Anything in particular you'd like to see?"

He shrugged one shoulder, "Anything you're willing to share."

Maev moved over to the edge of the bed, laying down and patting the empty space next to her. James got up and carefully laid down, a sliver of space between them. Maev stared at the ceiling for a moment, considering all the things she could show James. She'd seen many of his memories, seen the high points, seen the low points, seen how utterly unfair the world had been to him. It was only fair she do the same back.

So Maev steeled herself and laid her left-hand palm upwards, feeling James slowly slide his right hand into her grasp. They intertwined their fingers and waited, a heaviness settling into the air.

Descending into a memory took time and patience, the world around them fading out piece by piece. First it was sight, their eyelids growing impossibly heavy as darkness took over. Then it was sound, everything becoming muted before completely fading away, leaving a silence that was pure. Smell and taste weren't as noticeable, but it was just enough of a difference that it made one feel at odds with their own body. And finally, touch went. They could no longer feel the bed beneath them or the cool air against their skin that was crafted from the single fan on the ceiling.

The last thing Maev felt was Jame's hand subconsciously tightening around hers before the memory swept them away.

Olivia Silvertounge had been the only witch Maev had ever known for the first twelve years of her life. She was tall, with dark skin and brown hair that was knotted into dreadlocks that typically were swept up into an elaborate hairstyle. But, perhaps the most striking thing about Olivia, was the way her powers had manifested. Beautiful, brutal thorns lined her face as freckles would on a human and vines curled amongst her dreadlocks, vines that bloomed with haunting flowers every few weeks. 

Sometimes the flowers were blood red, other times violet or cerulean or blush pink, the list went on and on. But Maev's favorite flowers were the ones that bloomed rarely, tiny silver flowers that pulsated with deep blue veins. 

If Olivia had been sighted by a human, there's no doubt they would've run in fright. Whenever Olivia was spotted by another witch though, there was a mixture of fear and awe.

See, Olivia belonged to a select group of witches known as the Conquerors, witches that had deep wells of power that were sent to a secret island to learn to control their gifts in the safety of secludedness. They were the witches that would go to war if needed, the witches that were called in to protect the rest of the population, the witches that others could turn to in times of need. 

But even amongst witches that could shake the earth and rupture cities and cleave islands, Olivia was different. Different in the sense where her brethren could rebuild the earth and display massive bouts of power seen in earthquakes and tsunamis alike, Olivia could destroy an entire army with a blink. Different in the sense that Olivia's ability didn't give her opponent the chance to rebuild a broken home or sow the fractured land, because she didn't target things, she targeted people. 

With a few choice words, she could raise a plague and wipe out an entire population, she could destroy a country because what was a country without its king or queen, nor their children or relatives? 

It was chaos. It was anarchy. It was nothing.

Maev knew she was different as well. Not different like Olivia, but different because she was a Barebone and lived nestled in the highest peak of a mountain far removed from humans and witches alike. She knew she had two sisters, sisters she wasn't allowed to meet until she turned twenty-one, which to the then twelve-year-old seemed like a lifetime away. The only thing she didn't know was what kind of Barebone witch she was. 

Maev knew she was aligned with Earth, otherwise Olivia wouldn't be there to teach her the basics. And from that, after pouring over countless books about the Sister Three before her, she decided she was a Bone Witch. 

Fire witches alone aligned with the Elemental Sister, whilst Water witches were common picks for the Blood Sister, leaving Earth and Wind to squabble over the Bone Sister. There were anomalies, there always were, but Maev was certain she was going to be the Bone Witch. It just made sense to her. 

Olivia chided her, again and again, to keep her mind open. After all, elemental alignment didn't mean everything. Maev agreed to keep an open mind, but secretly she knew she was aligned with bone. Or at least, that's what she believed.

Maev was supposed to learn what Sister she was on the eve of her eighteenth birthday when her second alignment would appear, giving her four years to master her powers and ready herself for the role she'd play in their world.

Maev was only thirteen when her powers awoke. 

It was the night before her birthday and Olivia had left to get groceries and, she'd said with a wink, the cake for the birthday girl. Maev had been sitting curled in an armchair next to a dwindling fire, listening to the wind howl outside as she twirled a piece of earth between her fingers, watching the snow fall outside. 

Maev had a habit of staying up until midnight on her birthday, liking the feeling of being awake on the exact moment she turned a new age, liking the feeling of being awake during the darkest hours, liking that Olivia never chided her for it and instead would let her blow out her candles at midnight. Olivia had come through the door a few minutes later, taking off her heavy coat littered with snowflakes and kicking her boots off.

In her hands, she had two grocery bags, one of which held the cake and candles. She'd put the cake on the counter, a small chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, and then proceeded to make dinner. They'd eaten, practiced a few simple spells, and then Olivia finally put the cake on the little table they had. 

She'd taken out the purple candles that had been used every year and carefully placed them in a ring on the cake, lighting them with a snap of her fingers. Witch flame burned bright and didn't melt the candles, ensuring that Maev could use her favorite colored candles every year without fail. Olivia had then taken a carefully wrapped package from her back pocket and placed it on the table next to the cake much to the delight of Maev.

The clock on the wall ticked its hand once. 

It was 11:58 when she looked at the clock. It was 11:58 and she only had two more minutes until her birthday and she was excited to eat the cake and see what Olivia had gifted her. It was 11:58 and Maev felt a swell of happiness at the prospect of another year closer to her eighteenth birthday. It was 11:58 when her life fell apart.

The windows shattered and she felt the swell of magic surrounding them and the earth slid out from underneath her feet. She could hear chanting outside rising with the wind that encircled the house and ripped at it with savage teeth. 

Maev hit the ground hard, finding it impossible to breathe as the air was sucked out of her lungs, and all she could do was watch as five witches invaded her home. They were black robes and faceless masks with splashes of red, singling them as members of the rouge group of witches known as the Forsaken. She knew that one day they might come for her, but she didn't expect it to be today. 

Someone was screaming and the ground shook again, the cabin shaking with it. Not from the rouge witches, but from Olivia who rose from the ground with a fury lined in every movement. 

Maev had fought against Olivia to train herself, but she knew Olivia had been holding back, she just didn't realize how much until she slaughtered the five witches without blinking. The earth tilted on its axis and Maev found herself able to breathe again, hands clawing at the table above her so she could stand, bodies crashing to the ground around her. 

But there were more. There always were. 

Maev didn't know how many witches swarmed the house, how many stayed on the outside. She didn't know how they'd gotten past Olivia's wards, she didn't know how she could help other than sending spiderwebs of cracks to get the rouge witches off balance. She'd staggered to her feet at some point, the candles still burning brightly despite the blasts of power. 

Olivia was yelling at her, but Maev couldn't make out the words, blood trickling from her ears. She couldn't hear, but she could see. She saw the witch appear out of thin air. She saw the glint of an obsidian blade, a witch's blade meant not to harm but to kill, and she screamed as the blade pierced through Olivia's back and through her heart. 

Whatever spell had damaged her hearing broke as she screamed and screamed and screamed. Maev fell to her knees, a resounding boom shaking the house. Her skin felt like it was becoming too tight and her blood felt like it was on fire and all of her senses were dialed to a ten, no, to a hundred as pain ripped through her chest. She could sense herself falling, not in reality, but in her mind, towards that dark black abyss she kept tucked away. She was falling and falling and falling, rushing to meet the invisible barrier that separates her from that abyss. She didn't give it a second thought, shattering that barrier and slamming into the power that slumbered deep within her.

For a split second, everything froze, as if the world itself held its breath. 

Then that power ruptured out of her and the mountain shuddered in its wake. 

Maev cried as the witches tumbled to the ground dead, she cried as she heard the clock chime, she cried as she staggered to her feet and stumbled over to Olivia whose eyes were still open but unseeing. Twelve dead witches laid at her feet, one her mentor, the others her enemy. 

The clock ticked, ticked, ticked. 

It was 12:01 when Maev unknowingly became one with the darkness within her. It was 12:01 when she felt everything she'd known disintegrate. It was 12:01 when she felt more powerless than she'd ever felt in her entire life. It was 12:01 when Maev Barebone found out she was the Blood Witch on her thirteenth birthday. 

And, despite the catastrophe, the candles still burned on.

tbh i think this is my favorite chapter i've written!

i hope you enjoyed the glance into maev's past even though it was a sad part,

let me know what you think :)