Broken, but Not Defeated

Chapter 43 (Wesley)

"Aww, the two love birds are going for a walk. How nice." Aron says, practically giggling.

Anya sighs. "You're welcome to join us."

"Nah, we're good," Matthew says.

"Suit yourselves, we were going to explore this place," Anya says as we leave the room. "Finally, I thought we would never get away!" she says, laughing. I offer her my arm, smiling down at her.

"Shall we?"

Anya slips her arm through mine, returning my smile. We walk through the halls, passing room after room. Finally, we make it past the bedrooms. Walking to the first door, I push it open. Inside is a room full of witches pouring over plants.

"Welcome to the potion room," one of the witches greets, lifting her head and smiling.

"Cool, how does it work?" Anya inquires curiously, walking over to her.

"Our magic is transferred to the potions as we work, yet unlike Caldina and the others whose magic can be called upon, our magic comes forth while we work. Like this."

The witch moves her hand over a boiling pot and all of a sudden a short blast...and then the potion begins to change!

"Nothing happened," Anya says sadly after a second.

"What do you mean nothing happened? It's changing color." I say, leaning over the pot, transfixed. The laughter that had begun to echo around the room, stops. It becomes deathly quiet, the only sound in the room is the crackling fire.

"Interesting," voices mumble around the room.

"You can see that?" one witch asks, hopping off her stool and walking towards us.

"Yes..." I say hesitantly.

"It's weird, usually only witches can see it."

"My mother was a..." I choke on the last word, even now it's still hard to think of my mother as anything else, then a human.

"We know. Some of us knew her."

I feel an arm wrap around my waist, Anya's.

"Come on Wesley, let's go. Thank you for demonstrating," Anya says, waving goodbye.

"Always the perfect lady," I say, smiling at her.

"Does a perfect lady fi—" she starts, but I cut her off with a kiss on the lips.

Suddenly our kiss is interrupted by a witch who comes flying through the hall.

"To the training arena, the princess is fighting!" A witch exclaims, racing past us.

Anya and I make eye contact, before both of us race toward the stairs. We rush for the arena. Pushing open the door, I stumble on my feet.

I knew Caldina could fight, but holy smokes! You could barely see them moving, and I wasn't the only one intrigued. Cole and the others had also come out to watch after a witch had come running inside screaming at the top of her lungs that the princess was fighting the 3rd-in-command. There were also other witches, not to mention the Fae with their ears and teeth. Four of them carried knives and bows slung across their backs. The three others wear clothes fit for a king. I glance at Cole, his eyes following Esta's every move. Interesting. Just then I spot Juliana, but instead of standing at our sides, she goes to stand by the Fae. Three of them glance her way. The one who had caused all of the trouble earlier goes to stand by her side, he leans in and whispers something in her ears. Juliana looks at him, rage simmering in her eyes. Instead of backing away, like any other sensible being, he just laughs and shakes his head. She goes to say something, but then she stops herself and just looks away.

"Isn't that the same Fae from earlier?" Anya asks, slipping her hand through my arm. I look down at her, prettier than ever.

"It is," I affirm.

"I thought... oh never mind." Anya says, turning back to the fight, which was closely approaching its end. Caldina had Esta's nose to the ground, and a knife pressed to her side. A cheer went up. Caldina hopped to her feet and offered a hand to Esta. Just then her eyes slide from the cheering crowd and narrow in on two people. She grips the knife tighter and walks towards Juliana. I drop Anya's arm and follow suit.

"Prince Rowan, enjoy the show?" Caldina inquires, flipping the knife through the air. Prince?

"I did, thank you," he responds, drawing one of his knives out. I stop to stand at Juliana's side and grab her wrist, intending to drag her away from the two very dangerous people flipping knives through the air like it was an everyday thing, which for them it probably was. I tug at Juliana's wrist, but she doesn't move.

"Juliana," I hiss, "move."

"No!" was all she said before, she...