spellbound | book #1 | completed

X X V I

[edited: 29/08/2017]

Maksim had barely seen Remy all day when he knocked on her bedroom door warily before entering. He thought that perhaps she was avoiding him after the way he had behaved yesterday, but when he found her looking rather flustered with silk dresses scattered all over her bed, she didn't seem as upset as he might have expected. In fact, she looked glad to see him.

"What does a witch wear on a date?" she questioned immediately, her grey eyes flicking over the outfits again.

"Don't tell me you are nervous about this silly little thing with Tykon." Maksim rolled his eyes as though he didn't particularly care, and for a fraction of a second, he could convince himself that he didn't, but then he looked at her and saw that she looked beautiful. He wondered if his mother had helped her with her magic, as there were black lines above her eyelashes and her lips were an unnaturally deep red. Her hair, too, was tied up loosely so that locks of it fell in waves, glinting golden against the light. He swallowed and looked away. "He takes people out all of the time. He once took a warlock out who wore nothing but a skirt. You need not worry."

"I'm not worried that he won't like my choice of clothing," she scoffed. "I'm worried that people will stare at me the way they always do if I don't blend in." She looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. It was the first time he had ever thought about how insecure she must feel in a world where she looked different to everybody else.

"I did not think that bothered you," he said.

"Of course it bothers me," she replied with a sigh, and then turned back to the clutter of material on her bed. "So, what do I wear?"

"Do I look as though I know much about fashion?" Maksim raised an eyebrow, but searched through the clothes nevertheless.

"Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but that shirt is hideous."

He paused to look down at his shirt, which was a mixture of greens and yellows, and then went back to searching through the clothes. It did not take him long to get bored, and he straightened up to face Remy's expectant expression. "I have a better idea, I think."

"You do?" She bit her lip nervously. It was clear that she did not trust Maksim's idea of fashion, and Maksim might have been offended if he was not wearing a shirt that reminded him of vomit. He had only thrown it on because he had been too tired to search through his own wardrobes this morning. 

"That is, if you do not mind me using my magic on you."

She hesitated. "You can do that? I mean, you can change my outfit?"

"I can do almost anything," he shrugged, for once not sounding arrogant even though he had meant to.

"You're not going to turn me into a fly or something, are you?"

"You are irritating enough as a human." He inched towards her, already feeling the buzz of magic in the tips of his fingers. "If you were a fly, you would be much worse. It would benefit nobody."

She gave him an unamused look and then squeezed her eyes shut. "Just do it. If you make me look awful, though, I won't be impressed."

He wanted to make a joke about how she didn't need him to make her look awful, but couldn't, because he knew it wasn't true, and he knew he couldn't make her think that it was. Instead, he held his palms out and allowed the white sparks to fly from him. They surrounded her instantly as though she was drawing them in herself, and covered her until he couldn't even make out her face. When they vanished into the air, leaving nothing behind but a few specks of light that reminded him of fireflies and a coppery scent that tasted tangy on his tongue, he was speechless.