Free Avelynn: The Edge of Faith by Marissa Campbell Page B

each choice, creating a new web, a new pattern. Didn’t Muirgen allude to that very possibility by her own actions? By securing her book with me and by agreeing to go to the Witan and stand for my character against Demas’s lies, did she not in fact contribute to a certain outcome? Did she not create or at the very least continue to weave a specific thread, ensuring, up to a point, a future she herself had helped to orchestrate? The thought gave me hope. I locked the chest and tucked the divining bones in my satchel, ready to face my future.
    A knock at the door interrupted my ruminations. I released the latch and for a moment merely blinked, uncertain what to say or do. I had expected Alrik to be standing there.
    “May I come in?” Marared asked.
    I hesitated. Alrik would be waiting, and I wanted to get the journey underway.
    “It’s important,” she said.
    I stepped aside and let her enter. She took up residence on a chair.
    “I’m sorry to bother you, but this matter will not wait.” Marared brushed down the front of her kirtle.
    “Can I offer you a drink?” I asked, moving to the pitcher of mead.
    “No.”
    I tried to assess her mood and suspected this wouldn’t be a jovial visit. I poured myself a good measure, took a fortifying drink, and turned to face my guest. “To what do I owe the honor of your company?” I sat on a bench opposite, the long plank table between us.
    She folded her hands on the worn and dented surface. “I’ve come to ask you to leave Wales.”
    I narrowed my eyes at her. “Alrik has no intention of leaving until this conflict with Rhodri is over.”
    “My request has nothing to do with Alrik.”
    “I’m afraid I have no intention of leaving him.”
    “My uncle is willing to offer you passage. There is no reason for you to stay.”
    “Except that Alrik and I are promised.”
    “You are not wed. You have time to change your mind.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “Why would I change my mind?”
    “The two of you do not belong together. Alrik and I are bound by a past, a connection you will never understand. We share the same ancestors, the same future. You’re an outsider, a meaningless fling. He’ll grow bored of you and toss you aside. I’ve seen it countless times. He always comes back to me.”
    Her connection to Alrik’s past rankled, but her audacity overshadowed my discomfort. Indignation rose in its stead. “I’m sorry that my announcement hurt you, but I do not mean to leave his side.”
    She stood, her hands braced on the table. “Then you’ve left me no choice. If you don’t leave of your own free will, I will force the matter.”
    I remained seated and leaned back to look up at her. “You mean to threaten me?”
    “My grandmother was a child of the harsh ice lands of the Norse. She could summon demons and force them to bend to her will. She could read and cast the runes, spit curses or grant blessings depending on her whim. She was a powerful völva, and she bestowed upon me the full strength of her power when she died.”
    Marared’s grandmother was a witch?
    “You will leave Wales immediately, or I will use whatever means necessary to change your mind.”
    “You mean to use magic against me?” My tone came across more dubious than I had intended. I’d never witnessed anything magical in my life.
    “Yes.”
    I reconsidered her. I had personally experienced the strange occurrences after or during a ritual, and I believed in all aspects of the supernatural. Elf shots caused illness. Creatures old and frightening hunted the dark forests. The dead walked amongst us. Fairies and sirens called men to their deaths in bogs and glistening pools. But could a person harness those forces and wield their power to terrifying effects?
    She threw a small packet on the table. “A token.”
    The last time someone had dropped such a warning at my feet, I discovered my grandmother’s hair scalped right from her head. A tremor shot through me. I remembered my horror and