Virginia could have killed her there but she said Saba should be taken to the Council for interrogation. Saba was barely alive but she was a powerful Black Witch, so Virginia ordered her to be tied up before she was carried out.
It was now the middle of the night but outside the light from the moon made it seem almost like day. As the Hunters bore her body out of the house, Saba began to hum and then she began to writhe. Too late, Virginia realized that Saba’s strength was returning now she was outside in the night air. Saba sent flames from her mouth, setting on fire the two Hunters carrying her. She fell to the ground and used her flames to burn through her bonds. Virginia drew her gun and shot Saba in the chest, but Saba had enough life in her to grab hold of Virginia and set fire to her too. They were both in flames when Virginia’s son, Clay, shot Saba in the neck. She fell, silent at last, on the lawn of the house.
Virginia died from her burns and Clay became the next leader of the Hunters. He’s still their leader today.
Gran rubs her face with her hands and says, ‘A Hunter told me that story a long time ago. We were at the wake of her partner, another Hunter. She was upset and very drunk. I took her outside and gave her a potion to calm her. We sat on the grass and talked.
‘She told me that her partner was the Hunter who had deserted. Clay had tracked her down and had her executed. This girl, the drunk one, had been made to pull the trigger on her partner.’
Debs is shaking her head, ‘They’re all monsters. The Hunters are as bad as –’
‘Deborah! Don’t! Don’t ever say that,’ Arran cuts in.
I ask, ‘Who was Saba?’
Gran takes a breath and says, ‘She was Marcus’s mother.’
Somehow I’m not surprised. I push myself away from Deborah and go to sit on the back step.
Arran comes and sits next to me. Leaning close he says, ‘It doesn’t mean anything.’
‘Saba was my grandmother.’
‘None of this means that you are like that.’
I shake my head. ‘It’s happening to me, Arran. I feel it. I’m a Black Witch.’
‘No, you’re not. That’s your body, not you. The real you is nothing to do with being a Black Witch. You have some of Marcus’s genes in you, and some of Saba’s. But that’s physical. And the physical stuff, the genes, your Gift, they are not what makes a Black Witch. You have to believe that. It’s how you think and how you behave that shows who you are. You aren’t evil, Nathan. Nothing about you is evil. You will have a powerful Gift – we can all see that – but it’s how you use it that will show you to be good or bad.’
I almost believe him. I don’t feel evil but I’m afraid. My body is doing things that I don’t understand and I don’t know what else it will do. It feels like it has a will of its own and it’s leading me down a path I have to follow. The night tremors are taking me outside, forcing me to move away from my old life. The noises in my head also seem to be driving me away from people.
Whenever Jessica used to say I was half Black, Gran would say, ‘Half White too.’ And I had always thought of my mother’s genes and my father’s mixing around in my body, but now it occurs to me that my body is my father’s and my spirit is my mother’s. Perhaps Arran is right, my spirit is not evil but I have to put up with a body that does weird things.
I leave for Wales that morning, intending to stay away for a day or two. It feels good sleeping outside and living off the land and after my talk with Arran I’m feeling more positive, more like I know who and what I am. It’s a different way of looking at things, nothing more than that, but it allows me to watch my body and learn what it’s capable of. I observe it in a more detached way, testing its healing capabilities and working out how the night affects me.
I stay in Wales one more day, and then one more, and then one more. I find an unused barn and try sleeping in it, and discover that the moon has an effect on how I feel. A full moon is worst for being indoors at night and I can’t help but shake and vomit. A new moon and being in the barn is bearable with nothing worse than slight nausea. At the full moon my healing ability is enhanced. I test this by cutting my arm. A cut in the day during a new moon takes twice as long to heal as a similar cut at night under a full moon.
The days go by and I learn a lot but I know that I can’t share what I’ve learnt, not even with Arran. Everything that is Black has to be kept secret, and I know my body is that of a Black Witch.
mary