The Grey Witch

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Guys. I'm a disaster. I have no other words other than I am clearly a disaster. But Guess what. The story. It's done. I've finished writing it, so guess who's going to get updates from this story until it's done. Are you excited? Cause I am. This has been a long time coming but it's finally here, you guys are going to find out what happens. We still have a few chapters left, but I'm hopefully going to remember to post every Monday until it's done. So for those of you who are still there, don't forget to review so I know you're still around or drop a fav or a follow and I'll see you next week.

Chapter 8

Gretel's POV

He had done it again.

Hansel had fallen in the water. I thought he had died, but in actuality he was playing lover with a witch. A witch he swore up and down he wasn't into. Let's just say I was getting sick of the pattern.

I glare out to all the faces as our crystal cage floats closer to the thrones. To be fair I'm pretty amazed by what was done here. The giant apple tree. The pond that seemed to make up the whole floor of the throne room, the roots that acted as pathways. It was all fantastical, like straight out of a fairy tale. I might have been amazed if it weren't for the whole crazy situation.

Of course, pretty, perfect Lorne would live here with her pretty, perfect smile and her pretty, perfect outfit. Behind me Carol's gasp breaks the spell of anger around me. I turned to her to see that her eyes were glassy and clear, watering at the sight of a man, the one in all red who seemed rather uncomfortable under her gaze.

I turned my eyes back to Hansel who was staring at me like I had embarrassed him. He was standing by Lorne like he belonged there, like she was going to induct him into her council of gods. Well not on my watch!

"Let us out of here!" I shouted at the gods. "Or are you afraid of what I'll do you?"

The red-haired god merely scoffed at me. "Hardly," he said, a smile creeping up on his face. I immediately understood Carol's attraction. He was one of those guys. Clean, smooth, handsome, clearly suave, and he knew it. The kind of man who preened and smirked and girls threw themselves at him. But I could tell he was the kind of man who didn't take no well.

There was a woman standing with them, she looked almost exactly like Lorne except she was clearly older and her features were more pointed. She was wearing a light-yellow toga and a glowing flower crown rested on her head. She appraised us carefully before stepping forward.

"We would love to set you free, you angry little mortal, but we are amidst a very important discussion and having you running amok would not do. Especially since we are on the very precipice of war."

Now that caught my attention. War? They were going to go to war? With who?

The second that they said the word war my brother straightened. I longed to shout at him that I had no intention of staying here to help them with whatever war they were dealing with, but I also wanted them to let us out, so I was going to be very quiet for the next couple of minutes. Best behaviour and all of that, to convince them that I won't be any trouble.

"I swear to you that I do not want to run amok, I just want my brother and then we'll go back to whence we came," I called out.

The people standing with Lorne all observed me, it was clear that none of them quite believed me. And then, of course, Hansel was also staring at me, but it took Lorne to put a hand out to him and then gesture for him to joins us, to get him to actually come to me.

He carefully made his way off of the giant tree where the others had congregated, picking the safest route down the roots that seemed to take up the whole room.

Once he got close to us there was a snap and the magic bars disappeared and we all came tumbling out. I hit the ground, looked up to Lorne who was trying to hide her smile.

"I hate you," I growled to her but that just made her smile more.

Hansel's P.O.V.

I help my sister up off the ground and then clap her to my breast. For a long while we just hug, and I don't even get mad when Ben joins in.

"I thought I lost you," she whispered to me.

And I sort of feel bad. To be fair, it wasn't really my fault. I had been detained, so it wasn't like I could have gone straight to her, or gotten her a message.

But that didn't change the fact that my sister had thought me dead while I was perfectly fine in this wondrous palace.

"It's alright, I'm here," I told her and that is the wrong thing to say.

Because as she's hugging me, I feel it, the anger growing in her, because it's making her vibrate. She pulls her head out of my chest and her glare is practically on fire. Before she can lecture me, I raise a hand to stop her.

"Mistakes were made. I did nearly die, but Lorne saved me, again and then detained me, again. I did ask her, when I first woke up, about you and she mentioned that you were on your way. If you hadn't been, I would have gone straight to finding you. And… well… I don't quite think we can leave just yet."

One of my sister's eyebrows raised, clearly wanting to know why we couldn't leave.

"The war they're speaking of is with witches. They seem to want something on the island that Lorne and her family are protecting."

I was guessing here, I had very limited knowledge considering I had been eavesdropping and had missed half the actual conversation.

"There is no need to worry, we have this quite handled. Now that you have been reunited you, your sister and your Ben can be on your way."

I had jumped because I hadn't heard Lorne appear, my sister had jumped as well, probably because she hadn't noticed her showing up either.

"Uh… yes… but… we're immune to black magic…"

"You are not needed Hansel," Lorne said. Her tone no longer kind and soft like I'm used to. "You wanted to leave, and now you may. Take the exit we are offering you before you cannot leave at all."

I should have never told her that I wanted to leave, because it wasn't true. I had just wanted her to tell me otherwise. That she wanted me to stay. But now she thought I wanted to leave her, now she thought that I wouldn't want to help, or that I'd offer out of a sense of responsibility.

"Go on now," she said making a shooing motion with her hands. "Go. Go back to the land of mortals before the waters become impossible to traverse."

"I'm not going anywhere," Carol half whispered as she moved past and towards the tree.

The man in red, the one Lorne called Apple, was looking mightily uncomfortable as she drew closer.

"I have long since dreamed of seeing you again."

"I cannot say the same," he said.

That alone should have made her falter but it did not she continued forward, climbing her way up those roots towards him.

Lorne was smirking at him, clearly loving how annoyed he was going to be when Carol got up to him. But she was distracted for only a brief moment before she turned back to him.

"We don't have a way to get across the ocean," Gretel told her and Lorne inclined her head in a sharp nod.

"By the time you get down to the beach a sea worthy vessel will be waiting for you," Lorne told her. "It is the last kindness I will give either of you, so use it wisely."

This seemed to please my sister but it didn't please me at all but Lorne swung those purple eyes onto me and I was frozen in place. "And this time, do not return."

"Not a problem," Gretel said quickly, gripping my arm and tugging me away.

There are no good-bye's, there is nothing but silence as we walk through the ruins that make up this castle and out through the trees. Gretel and Ben both seemed to know where they were going so I followed them and as I followed I thought.

I thought of how I felt when I was with Lorne, how she always seemed to take care of me. It had been a long time since anyone had wanted to care for me. Other than my sister of course.

I thought of how, no matter what I seemed to be happy with Lorne, and that I sort of felt like I had filled a void for her as well. I was someone who wanted to be with her, take care of her and protect her, kind of like she did for me. Because I had long since assumed that she did not have someone like that in her life for a long time. She had been living alone and taking care of herself for a very long time.

I could also tell that she didn't like to be home. Those people arguing with her, did not hold the same beliefs as her and I could tell that they wanted to change her into something a little more callous like them. But Lorne had a heart and she wanted to use it.

She had travelled far and wide trying to live with mortals and they, like me, had been pushing her away and punishing her for what she was.

I still wasn't sure what it was that she was, but I knew it wasn't a mortal and I was pretty sure that she wasn't a witch either.

And then I thought about how much easier it would be for these people to beat the witches if me ang Gretel and Ben chose to stay. We were immune you know, maybe not Ben, but me and Gretel were. We'd be a great ally against the witches.

By the time we made it down to the beach I had made up my mind. The problem was getting my sister on board.

True to her word, a boat made of a grey ash wood decorated with strands of lavender was waiting for us.

It was small, but I knew that it would carry us safely past the monsters and the sirens and back to the mainland.

Gretel was up and on that little ship as quickly as could be, helping Ben up, and then turning her eyes to me.

"Hansel?" she called, but I was immovable.

Leaving this island meant leaving Lorne and I wasn't ready to do that yet.

"Come on, let's go before they change their minds," she called again but still I couldn't find it in me to move.

Gretel got off of the boat and came towards me. "What's going on."

"I don't feel comfortable leaving."

The silent her hung in the dead air between us and was apparently heard as made clear by the scowl on my sister's face.

"She saved our lives," I reminded my sister and the scowled on her face darkened.

"Well she did. She could have let her sirens eat me. She could have the let the… what exactly did catch you?"

"Elves," Ben called from the boat. "And I was like pretty sure they were extinct but they're totally…"

My sister shook her head and she turned back to me, both of us ignoring Ben's prattling.

"We're going to go back to help them… aren't we?" Gretel asked and I half smiled sheepishly at her. She threw her head back and groaned the way Lorne had did early that day. Well, at least I knew she wasn't going to argue.