Builds Character

The odor was the second worst part about being at Maggie’s. It was a collective mixture of rot, waste, decay, mildew, and filth. The stench of death would be a welcomed reprieve. At least a corpse would only produce one scent instead of a swarm of putrid odors all battling to overcome the others. And you couldn’t just smell the hut, you could feel it seep into every pore of your body, soak into every strand of hair, coat your entire being in a thickness that was nearly visible. It was everywhere, a warning.

But what was worse than the smell was the witch’s touch. Her fingers were like dull knives that drug across your skin, running along but never piercing with their icy grittiness. She would run them up and down his arm leaving lingering trails of revulsion in their wake.

He didn’t even know what the woman said most of the time, able to successfully drown out the drawl of her voice.

But he’d never be able to forget that touch.

It was scarred into him.

There was no reason for Ren to leave Zero alone with the witch. He could have left the boy at the cottage and Maggie would have been none the wiser. She never even had to know of his existence in the first place considering it was never the devil who required her magic. There had never been an actual legitimate reason for him to be there. But the man would always drag him along, each and every time he did so with glee, practically skipping away with a wave of his hand while Zero had to wait on his return, not actually knowing if he was doing what he was sent to do or just screwing around.

To build character.

At least, that’s what Ren had told him.

After three years, he still didn’t know what that meant.

And during those three years the encrypted woman always waited for the angel to leave before she would make her true desire known to the devil. Running those cadaver-like fingers down his sleeve, she would coo to him, her words raspy and low. He only ever met it with silence. Never had he entertained it. Never had he felt he needed to.

Zero looked down at Ivy, her eyes lost in the trees, pleading for Sakura to come back to rescue them.

But the woman wouldn’t be returning any time soon, and they both knew it.

She would do anything for Ivy.

Sacrifice herself to protect the girl.

And so would he.

Even if the thought of doing so this time made him wither away on the inside.

It was better for him to do it rather than her.

He had already decided that he would finally give the witch what she wanted. What she had asked for each time she saw him. There was now only the matter of doing it.

“Will you stay here?” he asked the girl.

Ivy looked up at him, her violet eyes moist as she did her best to keep her word to the woman. “Where are you going?” Her hand captured his, horrified of the idea of him leaving. “Please don’t leave me with Maggie.”

“I’m not. I’m going inside.”

“Alone?” Her hand clutched his tighter. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll go with you.”

“No. Stay. I won’t be long.” The boy pulled his hand from hers and cupped her lovely face, pressing his lips to hers. “Trust me.”

She always did. “Okay.”

He glanced at the trees once more, finding no one, before returning to the hut.

The door creaked open and closed, the hinges old and built up with rust and dirt. Zero minded where he stepped as he went to the witch who was foraging through a drawer, placing various unset rings above.

“I was wondering how long you would make me wait,” Maggie attempted to croon. “It’s cruel to lead a lady on.”

“Will you do her enchantment now?” the boy asked.

The witch stopped, her head creeping towards him, white eyes aghast. “You can speak?”

“I can.”

“Since when?”

He didn’t want to be here any longer than he absolutely had to. “I’ll give you what you want. But I want Ivy’s enchantment now. I’m not waiting for them to bring the eye.” He knew she could. He had seen her create the stones from the feathers of Ren’s wings before. It took the witch almost no time at all. If she could do it for Ren, she could do it for him.

Her breath seeped from her mouth in a long, drawn-out hiss. “Will you really?”

“I will.”

Her tongue poked out, licking her weathered lips as she considered it. “I want a piece of the girl’s wings as well.”

“No,” his voice calm despite the dropping of his stomach. “You can take my blood now or I’ll offer it to another witch.” He wouldn’t actually offer it to anyone else. Doing so would require them to know that Ivy was fae, and it was an unspoken agreement among the group that the less who knew the better. But he knew how much the witch wanted his blood; she was just trying to get more. She would take what was offered.

Maggie groaned, aggrieved with his response. “Fine. Bring that filthy creature in so I can scrape the dust from her wings.”

“I’ll do it.” There was no way he would allow the witch to touch the girl especially after making her desire for a piece of her wings known. She would take much more than just the dust if given the chance.

Her cheeks puffed at the opportunity lost, but she handed him a small, circular, wooden box that he took, and a dagger covered in years of grime that he didn’t. “It’ll need to be enough to make a stone. Don’t skimp on it or it won’t work.”

He maneuvered his way back through and out of the hut to the girl who waited outside, her eyes and smile bright at his return. “I need the dust from your wings.”

“Oh!” Ivy was surprised but she turned around. “Okay. What for?”

Zero knelt down and pulled a dagger from his belt, gently scraping the dust from the bottom of one of her wings into the box, filling it full. “For the enchantment. Just wait a little longer.” He sheathed the small blade and headed back.

The devil returned to the hut and the witch, handing over the box. Maggie dropped a silver ring atop the dust and covered it with her hand, her mouth mumbling words that Zero couldn’t understand. It was almost over as quickly as it had started, and she plucked the ring and handed it over. He examined it before slipping it into his pocket.

“Now your blood,” she demanded, handing the boy a vial which he took and the same dagger that he refused once again, instead grabbing one of his own. He pressed the blade deep into the flesh of his hand, spilling his blood into the vial. “That girl has changed you,” Maggie snarled, watching as the vial filled, pleased with the sacrifice but embittered to be missing out on a proper feeding.

The boy nodded. “She has.”

“You were better off without her.”

“I wasn’t.” Zero pulled the dagger away, watching the wound heal as he wiped the blade against his pants and returned it to its place a final time. The witch turned and hobbled away, muttering her dissatisfaction to herself. “Maggie,” he called with no response. “Maggie, don’t ignore me. Turn around.”

Maggie froze before slowly turning back to the devil, her body seemingly trying to fight the movement. “What?” she snapped.

“Come here.” The witch reluctantly obeyed, and Zero took her chin in his fingers, feeling the brittleness of the bone as he raised her face and peered down into her empty, white eyes glazed with unease. With fear. He spoke, his voice soft and slow, like speaking to a small, petulant child, “I need you to listen Maggie. Can you do that?”

She swallowed and her breath came out in a shudder as she felt her lungs begin to smolder under his crimson gaze. “Yes.”

“Good. Now listen very carefully, and don’t forget what I tell you. If you ever speak of Ivy to anyone, I will have your tongue, and I will feed whatever is left of your rancid insides to your pigs. Do you understand?”

Her eyes widened and glistened, a new awareness engulfing her along with the flames under her flesh. “You are no mere devil,” she whispered. “What are you?”

“I didn’t ask for you to question me. I asked you if you understand.” He gently squeezed and pulled her jaw down, exposing the dried, gray tongue behind her rotted teeth. “If not, I can cut out your tongue now and save myself the hassle.”

“I understand,” Maggie whimpered, her blood incinerating her bone to dust.

The boy peered at the frightened witch a moment longer before releasing her and heading for the door. “We’ll see about that.”

“I… I swear,” she stammered after him, finally able to breathe again. “I’ll never speak of that girl… or of you. Just… please… please don’t do... that... to me again.”

“Goodbye, Maggie. Maybe I’ll see you soon.” Zero left the filthy home amidst the witch’s pleas, the first time he’d done so without the man’s prompting, and went to Ivy, taking her hand and pulling her through the trees towards the path.

The girl looked nervously back at the hut and then up at the boy. “Where are we going? We’re supposed to stay here until Sakura and Ren come back.”

“We’re going home.” He reached into his pocket and offered the ring. “Put it on.”

She stopped and took it, observing the colorful swirls in the stone similar to her wings. “It’s so pretty,” she admired as she slid it onto different fingers before settling on the right middle, her wings vanishing with the fit. “How did you get it?”

“I gave her my blood.”

Her eyes bulged as she gasped, “Oh no, Zero! Why would you do that?”

The boy smiled and took her hand, continuing along the way. “For you.”

He knew that no matter how hard the girl tried that she wouldn’t be able to hold back her tears. She would enter that hut and without Sakura as a physical barrier the witch would swoop down upon her, the easiest of feasts.

This he knew very well.

Maggie had attempted to use Ren against the devil in the past; trying to convince the boy that the angel had abandoned him or that he would die on the mountain. Tell him how the man was worthless, had been shunned and cast aside, was an evil being that would only use and destroy all those around him. Anything that may illicit a negative response that she could feed off of.

However, it never worked on Zero. He didn’t care about the insults and even silently agreed with some of them. The boy also knew that the man would never abandon or die on him. Ren was like a cockroach, try as you might to get rid of or kill him, he’d just come back to torment you further.

But Ivy wasn’t like Zero. She was always so kind and loving and felt everything so deeply, expressing her emotions fully whether she wanted to or not. At the first mention of harm or death befalling Sakura or Ren, the girl would effortlessly provide the witch with another hundred years of life.

The devil wouldn’t allow that to happen.

And he had never had any intention to.

Ivy bit her lip, conflicted between guilt and gratitude. “Thank you,” her lyrical voice meek as she blinked back her tears. “But what about Sakura and Ren? They’re still gone.”

“They’ll be fine.”

“But they went all the way up to the mountains for this enchantment.”

“They did, and they’ll be back.” Zero nodded, his attention focused ahead. “Whenever Ren would need an enchantment, he would bring me with him and leave me alone with Maggie.”

The girl’s eyes went wide in horror. “He would leave you? Alone? Sakura always brought me because she had to, but she never left me alone with her even when Maggie insisted. She always ended up having to do something more for Maggie, but she did it without leaving me. Why would Ren do that to you?”

His brows furrowed, still trying to figure out the man’s motivation. “To build character.”

“Well, that’s a terrible way to build it.” Her rosy lips puckered in agitation.

“I’m still not sure what it means. But that’s what he would do, and I would have to wait for him to return. I hated it, and he wouldn’t let me stay at the cottage either. I always had to stay with her.”

Ivy wrapped her arms around the devil’s arm as they made it to the path, feeling sorry for him. But something nagged at her. “Zero.” Her innocent violet eyes gazed up at him. “Did you plan on giving her your blood?”

Crimson met hers. “I did.”

“Since when?”

“When I first saw your wings. I knew that they would need to be concealed, and that meant going to Maggie. She would want something like she always does, and Ren and Sakura would get it for her and leave us there. I didn’t want you around her, and she always wanted my blood, so I knew she would exchange the enchantment for it.”

A small raise crept to the girl’s lips. “But you let them go to the mountains even though you knew you were already going to give Maggie your blood.”

“I did.”

“So, you tricked them,” she sweetly accused, the curve growing.

“Sakura will be fine.” The devil didn’t admit to the deception, but it was obvious to the fae. “She enjoys fighting pests anyways, and Ren won’t let anything happen to her.”

“That was very sly of you.” The girl radiant, delighted to see an unfamiliar side of the boy. “You did it to get back at Ren, didn’t you?”

Zero smiled slightly. “It builds character.” It hadn’t been his main intention, but if he could kill two birds with one stone, then he might as well.

Ivy giggled and clung tighter to the boy as he peered down at her, enjoying seeing her back to her normal, bubbly self.

He really didn’t do it to get back at the angel or give him a taste of his own medicine.

He only did it for her.

He would do anything for her.

She was everything.

And he couldn’t live without her.