I nearly startled myself out of the vision. He’d done it for me! He really had. The sick bastard. He’d killed everyone I ever knew or loved because he wanted me? I swooned and my eyes swam, coming back from the vision. A dry heave caught in my throat. I’d been the cause of everyone dying.

“Amarilla! Amarilla! Hey, are you okay? Where’d you go?”

“What?” I asked not recognizing where I was. “Lincoln?”

“Yes, are you alright?”

“No. Yes. Go ahead.”

“I was about to tell you about what happened in Middleton.”

“Yeah. I just saw what he did to my people. Why is he just sitting there, Lincoln?” I asked nervously. I now understood how dangerous and powerful he was.

“He’s been waiting for you to come to him for years, Amarilla. Maybe he just wants to see if you are here to see him; if you’ll go to him, without being forced.”

“It isn’t force if I go to him because I want to disembowel him, is it?”

“He’s dangerous, Amarilla. Very dangerous. He spent months out by that cottage in the woods. You might have seen it. It was abandoned a couple of years ago. Everyone who has lived there thinks it’s cursed and they might be right. When he came back into town he’d become dark, evil, and even in Middleton, he became dangerous.”

“You knew all this time, Lincoln?” I asked disappointed. I felt even more foolish than before. “You knew all this time where I was from and even more than that! Didn’t you think maybe you should tell me before now?”

If what he’d told me was true, I might want him there and I might need to trust him.

“Keeping secrets like this, Lincoln, isn’t how you live up to your name.”

“I’m sorry, Amarilla. I had to double check the story with my mother last night. I didn’t want to scare you if I wasn’t right. What if I was wrong? And you weren’t very forthcoming yourself, especially this morning,” he retorted.

He had a point. “So, what else?” I asked getting back to what I now wanted to know.

“Dameldun finally left, but he still had ties to his brother Mr. Pickens. I was asked to stay close to Mr. Pickens by my mother and the Master Wizard, Mr. Wyzart. You likely met him. He’s the Inn Keeper at the Enchanted Inn. It’s also why I have that lovely job. Well at least until I came here. I’m sure he’ll fire me after this,” Lincoln said before looking at me again nervously.

“And…there is something else. Isn’t there?”

“I was also asked by my mother to keep an eye out for a little golden-haired girl. It had been years though, so I had honestly forgotten, until I was lying in bed, thinking about it last night and then talked to my mother about you.”

His eyes seemed to go all the way through me.

“So, that’s why I’m here and that’s why I’m not going anywhere. After he lost you and your mother he hurt a lot of our people, Amarilla. He’s still in a dark place.”

“I’m sorry about your people, but he killed all of my people, Lincoln. All except me. I cannot die and be with them. Not until he is gone. So whatever you are here to do, don’t try to get in the way of my destiny.”

“Is that what you were told?” he asked.

“My mother told me that I had to defeat him in order to break the curse over Sorseluna and the curse over me that denies me my natural progression.”

He smiled again as if he knew something I didn’t know. “Stop smiling at me like that!” I almost yelled, frustrated at his arrogance.

“It’s just that, well, it doesn’t work like that.”

Lincoln was confusing me. This had been my plan since I’d realized I couldn’t escape through death. I kept a watchful eye on Dameldun sitting on the bench. He sat across the way in a long-sleeved white shirt and dark pants. He had the same kind of dark rope around his neck that looked uncomfortable but would serve as a nice noose. I needed to get on with my business, but Lincoln’s comments were, once again, unsettling.

“What do you mean, it doesn’t work like that?”

“You can’t go over there and kill him and think it’s going to break the curse and give you wings.”

“Why not?” I was perplexed. That was exactly how I’d always imagined it would be.

“You have to defeat him, is what you were told. He is darkness and uses dark magic. The only way to defeat him is with light and light magic. Wielding that little dagger in your bag at him will not end him. It might slow him down and hurt him but it won’t end what’s happening. It won’t change anything that has happened. Trust me.”

“How do you know I have a dagger? Never mind. How do you know killing him won’t work? I mean it’s worth a try,” I whispered, careful not to draw the attention of a young man carrying a satchel.

“Nine years ago, Dameldun came back to Middleton from the enchanted forest. He was angry and he did something over there. This was after his time in that cottage. I don’t know exactly what he did. Maybe it was the curse that took your people. But there were many who were angry about it. They sent some of their strongest wizards and enchantresses out after him and there was a great battle. People from the forest were hurt, people from Middleton were hurt, but Dameldun, while scarred by the battle, only grew stronger until we begged him to leave.”

Lincoln’s words took me back to Middleton in front of the Enchanted Inn. Wyzart stood at the counter, as he did when I’d walked through those magical doors the evening before.

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