The Bewitching - Midsummer Aine - Book 2

Prologue

Elyssa’s Diary 03-21-2007

The nights have been the hardest when I lay in bed next to him, my mind a million miles away. Everything should be perfect but yet some part of me feels like something is missing. Leo is everything I could have asked for and yet I’m haunted. I don’t dare sleep for I may find myself not wanting to wake, wrapped in the arms of another. Instead, I find myself staring off into the night sky, and at the stars, wondering where this other is or if he thinks of me as I think of him.

He frequented my dreams as a mysterious stranger before entering my life, and then disappeared into the night as quickly as he came. It’s almost as if he was never there at all. Yet, I’d seen too much from the small fragments of memories we shared whenever we touched. Something was calling out inside of me, some mystery yet to be unlocked. As I stare at the ring he left behind I can’t help but imagine all of the times we once shared. Memories I can’t recall that he refused to tell. Was I in love with an idea of a man that never existed?

I find myself sitting in a mindless state as the days come and go. I barely notice them without him around. The numbness feels as if it’s overtaken me. Every now and then, as if by chance I catch a shadow, a strange movement I can’t quite explain. Is it him, or merely my imagination run wild?

It’s often said we receive what we give. I wonder if this is my punishment for abandoning him so many lifetimes ago. How those centuries did not drive him to the brink of madness I’ll never know for my mind feels as if it’s almost there. Yet, I’d welcome that if it does decide to come. I’d welcome the lack of reason, the lack of knowing what’s real and what’s not.

To love and sit in wonder is the most painful of torments. The thoughts of words unsaid and chances not taken haunt my very soul. It is in those moments that I find the deepest of anguish stirring within. Just a simple word or two may have been all that was needed. Yet, those words vanish in our times of need as if they were never there at all. And with it, the chances that dragged along hopes and dreams of a lifetime together follow.

Maybe this is my place. To be surrounded by love and yet feel all alone because the love from the one my heart yearns for is no longer around. That in itself is its own prison, no walls and yet trapped. To lie freely with one, while the other holds my heart. It seems a fitting punishment for a witch, a way to both burn and drown within the same moment.

And so I watch as each day passes. I’m left to wonder when the one I lie with will have had enough, and when the one that holds so many answers might once again show. I can sense it coming, like a wicked storm brewing upon a dark horizon. Sooner or later I know the silence will end. The loud clap of thunder will fill the air and then there will be only light. What waits on the other side when the flash dies down is what scares me the most. Will it be him, or something darker...