Chilling Cadence

Seven

Everyone in the supernatural world knew the twins Hansel and Gretel. They had defeated a witch who feasted on the flesh of children when they, themselves, were children. The Witch Hunter society had taken them in, refined their killing instincts to a point, and then set them out to destroy any Witch who so much as stepped a toe out of line.

They had a one hundred percent success rate. That was to say, they didn’t lose.

So, it was no wonder that the witches of the Dark Moon coven in New York were not happy to receive the twins. In a shower of rain, they let themselves into the Dark Moon’s headquarters, only to be stopped by a ward that had been placed by Agnes Nightingale. Even after her death, she protected the Witches here.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” drawled a voice from the shadows.

Instead of moving like they were in danger, reaching for their weapons or looking tense, the two turned in the direction of the voice in time to catch the woman who loosened the spell of the ward and revealed herself.

A woman in her late forties or early fifties with fine streaks of gray in her once completely mahogany-colored hair. Her eyes glinted—a cat’s eye slit in them, the mark of a Witch. And the air around her was charged with energy and power.

Even still, neither Hansel nor Gretel flinched.

“We have no business with you, Witch,” said Gretel, her tone calm, almost cajoling. “We’re looking for a Witch who was once a part of your Coven. Her name is Cadence Nightingale.”

The Witch’s expression twitched in surprise before she forced it back to her poker face.

“Hansel and Gretel after a little girl like Cadence?” She laughed.

“Is she not the fifth Witch of great power born in the Nightingale family?” asked Gretel.

The Witch was quiet for a moment, and when she spoke, her words were careful. “She is the fifth of her bloodline, it’s true. But Cadence hasn’t used her power since she was very young. She certainly hasn’t done anything to warrant her being on your list.”

“We’ll be the judges of that,” said Hansel for the first time, glaring at the Witch with a kind of disdain. “Where is she?”

The Witch grinned. “I’m afraid I don’t know, Hunter.”

Hansel narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to snap something at the Witch, but Gretel cut him off.

“You do realize that, should you know something that you’re not sharing, you’re breaching the Treaty between us.”

All traces of humor left the Witch’s face and she glared at Gretel.

“I know that,” she snapped. “And like I told you, I haven’t seen Cadence in almost a week. She came by almost five days ago and said she was leaving. She looked spooked, and now I understand why.” She stared at Gretel and her brother hard. “And surely, you must realize if you kill Cadence you’d be making an enemy of the Dark Moon Coven since you’re so fond of your rules.”

“I’m fond enough of my rules to know that you only have a right to attack if I kill an innocent Witch,” Gretel shot back.

The Witch raised an eyebrow. “And a Witch who refuses to use magic, even to protect herself isn’t innocent?”

This time it was Hansel who spoke. “There’s no such thing as an innocent Nightingale,” he spat. “If you have no information for us, we’re leaving.”

And then, in a show of how the ward set by Agnes Blackwood hadn’t affected him at all, Hansel turned and began storming toward the door. The Witch, looking equal parts horrified and expectant, watched as Gretel murmured her goodbyes and followed behind her brother.

Back underneath the rain shower, Gretel looked up to the sky, watching the moon with interest while Hansel punched a hole through a brick wall. The sound of the crash and the loose bricks tumbling to the ground didn’t frighten her in the least. She looked over at her brother exasperatedly.

“Could you not ruin private property? The messes you make while not in combat are taken out of your check.”

“We had her,” he was saying. Gretel sighed, he was worked up again. “If that…that thing hadn’t come swooping in, we could have…” He trailed off for a moment. “Dammit.”

“I understand your frustration, but it’s unnecessary. People—even Witches—can’t disappear altogether. Cadence won’t be able to stay hidden for long.”

His sister’s tone prompted him to look at her. She stood underneath the slackening rain and the moonlight glowed on her blonde hair, giving it a silvery glow. The look in her crystalline blue eyes was one he recognized. She had a plan. She always did.

“What do you know?” he asked.

“Did you forget? Samhain is in a couple of days.”

Hansel’s eyebrows furrowed. “So?”

Gretel gave him another exasperated look. “Seriously? Did we not attend the same lessons?” She sighed. “A Witch’s powers are increased by tenfold during Samhain,” she explained. “The more powerful the Witch, the harder it is to hide their magical charge, so to speak. We’ll locate her on Samhain, and travel to her in the few days after and…” She paused, letting Hansel fill in the blanks.

He looked at Gretel, uncomprehending for a few moments before realization broke across his face. He grinned and gripped his sister’s shoulders.

“Gretel, you’re a genius,” he exclaimed.

“Not really,” Gretel said, extricating herself. “You’d have been able to figure it out, too if you studied.”

She gave him another disapproving grimace and, feeling defensive, Hansel said, “I do better in combat.”

Gretel sighed, shook her head, and looked back at the moon. The rain had slowed to a drizzle and the moonlight shone brilliantly against the dark expanse of the sky.

“Let’s rest while we can, so we can arrive at Cadence’s location and end this as soon as possible. It won’t be long until he seeks her out. And once he does, it really is all over.”

Hansel’s lips tightened in a thin line and he followed his sister as they searched for a place to lay their heads for a few days.