spellbound | book #1 | completed

X X

[edited: 05/08/2017]

Light was leaking through the deep red curtains when Remy awoke the next morning, and she frowned as she realised that she was not in the spare bedroom that she had slept in previously, but someone else's entirely. She eyed her surroundings, starting with Maksim, who was asleep in a small armchair, his long legs dangling off the edges at awkward angles. It took her a moment to realise that she had fallen asleep here, on his bed, in his room. She almost felt guilty for such a thing until she realised what his actions had put her through. Still, she couldn't help but look at him, if only for a few seconds.

His eyelashes looked much darker against his pale cheekbones, and his hair was knotted and fell against his forehead, making him look much younger. She had never seen him without his usual frown, and she took the opportunity now to admire his creaseless face. It was easy to forget just how obnoxious he was when he was like this.

Blushing, she pulled herself out of his bed and crept lightly out of the bedroom, finding the kitchen much quicker than she had the last time she had searched for it. She frowned when she saw a familiar figure sat on one of the stools, stroking the cat, for her brown hair certainly was not Hilda's as she had been expecting.

"Annika?" she questioned, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked down and realised that a few of her shirt buttons had come undone in the night. She was not revealing much, but she thought that witches and warlocks seemed to pride themselves on decency with their oversized coats and loose fitting dresses. "What are you doing here?"

Annika looked surprised only for a second as she turned around, but then her features softened and she stood up with a friendly smile on her face. She eyed Remy's attire warily. "My father told me all that has happened. I thought I would check on Maksim. It must have been hard for him, what with his brother coming back and then the trial."

"He's sleeping." Remy sounded almost protective, though she wasn't quite sure why. "You should come back later."

"Oh, no." She sounded almost amused, and looked it too, with a wide grin curved on her pink lips. She somehow reminded Remy of an eleven-year-old who had not quite matured enough to understand the mechanisms of the real world yet. "Hilda asked me to keep an eye on you. She did not want you wandering around Astracia just yet, not until she's arranged everything with my father."

"And what is it that she's arranging?" She raised an eyebrow as she walked around Annika to sit down at the counter-top, ignoring her glowing amber eyes as they followed her actions carefully.

"How to lure the Dark Ones back to Astracia," she responded as though it was obvious. Remy could tell that there was more, probably something along the lines of, by using you as bait, but she didn't ask for her to expand on her comment. She didn't want to know whatever it was they wanted her to do, not this early on in the day when she had only just recovered from her previous trauma.

"Shouldn't I be there for that, being as I'll be the one doing the luring?"

Annika shook her head, her soft curls falling over shoulders. Remy couldn't help but think that everything about her was a little too perfect—perhaps so much so that it was an act, a pretence. There was something in those eyes of hers, something hidden behind their glittering shine that was insincere, but Remy couldn't work out what it was without getting distracted by their glimmer. She didn't like to consider the other option, which was the possibility that she was jealous. "It is strictly warlock business."

"Of course it is," Remy sighed, and then narrowed her eyes, remembering how Annika had pulled her to the tavern with a certain amount of surprising determination the day before last. "I suppose you heard, then, that I was locked up because people saw me."