Enchantress

Chapter XXIX

Aurora's POV

Twisting in the bed, I reached behind me trying to grab Xion. Frowning, I turned to look at the empty space beside me. Of course, he had gotten up earlier in the night to train the soldiers. Sighing, I kicked at the covers in a fuss. It was only when I tossed the covers off my body that I felt the distinct presence of someone else in the room. Someone who was not my vampire.

"Why are you in this room?" I growled looking up to find Shelby. Hopping from the bed, I make a show of pulling at Xion's shirt ensuring it covers my body.

" I came to see you."

"Ooh such familiarity, shouldn't that sentence have ended with 'Your Majesty'? Advisor, surely standing alone in Royal chambers while the Queen is sleeping could be seen as a threat. State your business and leave before I decide you just tried to kill me." I ran my finger along the edge of the closest furniture, making a show of flicking away invisible dust from the digit.

"I will not bow to you. You are not my queen, and I will not let you use this guise as a way to wipe out my people."

"Well, well, well. Finally, you drop your guise and admit that you think I'm behind this. Listen to the vampire bark; you'll never bow to me; you'll never see a witch as your queen. Is this all about you thinking the coup is my doing or is it because of your sick obsession with the king? I do recall warning you while Xion was asleep. If you think you can stand in my way... I kill you and use your body as a mat to rub the blood from my shoes."

Shelby sneered. I'm not sure who jumped on who first. I just remember her kicking me in the stomach and my magic blasting out of me with a boom that sent her flying across the room. She hit the furniture sending the fragile vases and decorations crashing beneath her weight.

We both scrambled to our feet and charged each other. I had grabbed her hair and she had her hands around my neck. All it would take was a simple glance into her eyes and an enchantment and I could have her in a world of torment, but I wanted to take my sweet time squeezing the life from her body. How dare she? My blood was boiling from my anger.

Bashing her head onto the floor as hard I could I felt her fingers fighting to get a good wrap on my neck. She knocked me off her. Hard.

I went scrambling across the floor, crunching I intended to leap onto her once more. A loud crash sounded as the glass of the window behind me shattered. Ugh! I'm tired of fixing windows in this damn place!

Huge ivy vines, the biggest I'd ever seen in my life came in from around me and they wrapped around Shelby. She tried to fight out of them, but she was strangled before my eyes. The vines wrapped around her like an anaconda snake would wrap around prey. Her arms pinned to her sides and her hands twitching and shaking at her sides. Xion and several soldiers came bursting into the room.

"Aurora stop!" Xion shouted at me.
"I'm not doing it!" I tried to tell him. The soldiers grabbed their swords and began hacking away at the vines.

"They're coming from over here." I told the soldiers. When they stopped hacking at the vines they slowly began to recede. Shelby fell to the ground with a thud. She clutched her throat, coughing and choking trying to catch her breath.

Without giving her much time to recover, the soldiers gathered the advisor from the floor, hauling her up with no remorse.

"Take her away!" Xion ordered. His jaw was set hard and ticked as he looked at me. His eyes were hard with warning and promise. His pursed lips hid whatever he wanted to say from me. However, as the soldiers dragged a still coughing Shelby from the room, Xion he grabbed me by the arm, hard enough for me to know that he wasn't playing around but not to the extent where I saw him as a threat. I felt like a child who had gotten in trouble by her parents, I immediately started pleading my case.

"I did not do it. I can't control plants, you know this. She came in here looking for a fight and yes, we tussled a little bit, but I did not try to strangle her with poison Ivy vines. I didn't even know poison Ivy grew on this side of the Netherlands nor did I know they grew that thick vined."

I was ranting away at my explanation I didn't even realize that he hadn't demanded one.
I just felt his sudden embrace and stopped talking.

"This is a strange punishment." I murmured as I wrapped my arms around his waist.

"Are you hurt?" He demanded gruffly.

"She hits hard but not that hard. I'm fine, just a bit hungry... she attacked before breakfast, and I certainly hate missing a meal."
"I will have the greatest feast prepared if you are hungry." He assured me. Xion held me close for long moments, fussing over me and mumbling about how Queens don't fight their subordinates. Like a child, I wanted to explain that she started it, and I was not going to let her get away with it.

Third Person POV

Through the forest and past the mangroves in the land of the witches, Ceres the Ever seeing gasped as she woke from her sleep. Cold sweat washed her skin and her body shivered.

"So, it has begun." Another gasp left her as a wispy voice reached her ear. Her hair whipped around her as she looked left and right but she saw no one.

"Who's there?" Ceres demanded as she pushed away from covers to stand.

"You will regret your actions." The voice warned.

Ceres sneered realizing that she would not be able to find who was there because no one was there. The mist around her indicated the magic of a witch, but she could not see its color nor its user.

"What will you do when retribution comes to your door?"

"Show yourself!" She shouted.

"You've failed. I will finally come back to take my rightful place."

"Curse you and this game you're playing; Iwill not allow this to continue any further!" Ceres looked aroundfrantically, but the voice was gone. She gripped her hair as she tried to calmherself down.
"Hasta! Haley!" Ceres yelled as she stumbled out ofher bedroom. The two young witches came running towards her ready to receiveorders.
"Tighten the security on the grounds."