"Somebody ordered hot chocolate?" Christoph joked, walking in with a big mug and a small plate with a blueberry muffin. Adelaide smiled at the gesture, but her stomach revolted at the thought of eating.
"Thanks." She told him politely, accepting the mug to at least hold something warm. Christoph placed the muffin on the side table next to her, grinning down at her. Stefan made no efforts to move or make room for him, so Christoph was left standing.
"So," Adelaide started, looking between the two boys who refused to acknowledge each other, "what's the plan now? What are we doing?"
"We aren't doing anything. You're staying here and resting." Christoph told her pointedly. He raised his eyebrows at her, daring her to argue.
"Oh come on," Adelaide protested, "the Ellora murder siblings and their gang aren't just going to leave me alone all of a sudden. We need a plan."
Christoph frowned at the mention of his father. Adelaide watched him, waiting for an answer, but huffed when he stayed silent. She turned back to Stefan, who just shrugged his shoulders.
"Okay well you guys are welcome to sit around and do nothing," Adelaide set her untouched mug of hot chocolate on the side table next to the uneaten muffin. She pulled herself to the edge of the bed, bracing the side as she pushed herself up, "I, for one, finally have my magic, and I intend to learn how to use it."
Unfortunately for Adelaide's argument, she stumbled standing up from the bed. Christoph reached an hand out to stabilize her, putting his arm around her waist. Adelaide did her best to brush it off, but Stefan saw right through her.
"Adelaide, you just came back from the dead. You lost a lot of blood. You've still got a lot of healing to do before you can go out and start learning magic." Stefan told her, shaking his head. He laid back on the bed, putting his arms behind his head as he lounged.
"Okay, fine," Adelaide crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly, "I can heal and learn at the same time, Stefan."
Adelaide moved away from Christoph's arm stabilizing her. She was intent on proving her point, and wasn't going to let Stefan baby her. She looked towards the door, considering walking into the other room. She heard James and Lorenzo arguing about the TV channel, but Adelaide feared that might be too far away.
After a moment, she decided on walking to the armchairs in the corner. She sat down carefully, giving Stefan a pointed smile. Christoph followed her all the way to the chairs, hovering like she was going to fall at any moment. Adelaide ignored any attempts to help that he made, despite the soreness in her abdomen.
"Alright. What now?" Stefan turned on his side, leaning on his elbow to look at her. He raised his eyebrows at her, "Show us some magic."
Adelaide hesitated. She had no idea how to learn magic. With school, whenever she needed to learn something, she turned to the internet. She doubted that would be any help this time.
She thought about the brief lesson Christoph had given her on how to get in and out of Ellora. Magic was all about feelings, emotional and physical. She may not know any actual spells, but Adelaide had a lot of feelings. And after seeing the challenging smirk on Stephan's face, she'd have to make that work.
"Okay, fine."
"Wait, I don't know if -" Christoph stopped short when Adelaide shot him a look. He held his hands up in defense, falling into the armchair next to her. She looked around, her eyes landing on a candle sitting on the small coffee table between the chairs. She remembered the simple trick Christoph had showed her in the coffee shop. She could do that, right?
Adelaide picked it up, placing it in front of her on the table. She stared at it intently, taking in the half burned wick and misshapen wax. It looked well loved, which made her wonder how often Stefan lit candles around his room. It didn't have a strong smell, but a faint hint of sandalwood and pine.
She remembered how Christoph snapped when he wanted the wick to light, so she held her hand up. Adelaide imagined the wick lit, with the fire flickering back and forth. She pictured the heat coming off of the candle in small waves, warming her hand that sat on the table next to it. Adelaide kept the image of the fire in her mind, focusing on that as she snapped her fingers together.
A pillar of fire erupted from the candle, making Adelaide jump back and yelp as it flew past her face. She was sure she had lit Stefan's room on fire, but Christoph reacted quickly. He pointed his hand at the candle, and the fire disappeared as quickly as it came.
"Whoops..." Adelaide bit her lip anxiously. She glanced at the small burn mark on Stefan's ceiling. When she looked back at Stefan, she'd expected him to be angry, but he looked amused.
"You are..." He shook his head slowly, sighing as he held a hand to his head "so stubborn."
"Thank you."
"You need to learn to control your magic. That takes time, and it takes a good teacher." Stefan told her. He walked over to the arm chairs, leaning closer to her as he spoke. She held her breath when his face got close to hers, but he just bent down and picked up the charred candle. He stood back up, plopping it in the trash can.
"Well you two can teach me," Adelaide shrugged. She'd thought it was an obvious proposal, but the two of them looked at her like she was crazy, "What? I need a magic crash course if we're going to be prepared for whatever Gisela and Morgen have planned. You both seem to know a lot about magic, so why not?"
"Alright." Stefan responded after several moments of silence. He nodded his head to Adelaide, and she grinned in excitement. They both turned to Christoph, searching for his agreement. He still hadn't acknowledged Stefan's presence in the room, staying abnormally quiet.
"Can I talk to you for a minute, Adelaide?" Christoph finally asked. He spared a quick glance at Stefan, who was standing nearby Adelaide's armchair, "Alone."
Stefan took the hint, putting his hands in the air defensively. He nodded to Adelaide briefly, before waltzing out of the room and shutting the door behind him. She heard him yell something at James and Lorenzo in the other room about the volume of the TV.
"Adelaide, why are you still trusting him?" Christoph turned to her, placing a hand on her knee, "we should be working on getting out of here and away from him, not volunteering to work with him."
"Christoph, where would we go?" Adelaide protested. His home and everyone he knew was at Ellora, which was full of people trying to kill her. She knew absolutely no one in Prague, let alone Europe. Except for Stefan.
"He was right about Gisela and Morgen. He was right about Cora and your dad, and about the ritual. I mean, I'm alive because of him," Adelaide explained, putting her hand on his and offering an encouraging smile, "I think we can it's okay to trust him. He's given us no reason not to."
"What about the part where he caused my mother's brutal murder?"
Christoph's head shot towards her. He pulled his hand away, and looked at her like she'd just spoken blasphemy.
"Allegedly." Adelaide corrected before she could take a moment to stop and think. When she saw the hurt on his face, she wished she hadn't. It disappeared quickly, replaced by anger.
"There you go again, believing whatever he tells you." Christoph scoffed, jumping up from the armchair to pace the floor. Adelaide moved to follow him, but pulled back when she felt her stomach twitch in pain.
"I don't believe everything he tells me, Christoph. It's just that we don't necessarily have all the facts, that's all." Adelaide defended, "There's a lot you didn't know about before yesterday, so maybe this is one of them?"
Once again, Adelaide said the wrong thing. Christoph stopped pacing and turned on his heel to glare at her.
"Do you not trust me?"
"What?" Adelaide asked, looking at him in confusion. She furrowed her eyebrows trying to understand why he would ask her that.
"I just figured after everything that you'd trust me. I haven't lied to you once, Adelaide. I've told you things nobody knows and shared with you, but you still choose to believe him over me." Christoph told her accusingly. Adelaide sat in silence for a moment, stunned by the question.
"Christoph, it's not like that at all. It's not you over him, I just -"
"No, it is, because when I tell you that he's responsible for her death, you believed me. He has one conversation with you, and suddenly he had nothing to do with it," Christoph's voice rose as he grew angrier. He stopped pacing, directing his feeling in Adelaide's face with a pointed finger as he yelled, "I've done everything right and you still don't trust me. So why can't you trust me, Adelaide? Why not?"
He got closer to her, leaning down over her in the chair. Adelaide saw every emotion on his face. She knew he was angry, but not just at her. He was upset, sad, angry at himself, but it was all coming out as anger at her.
"Answer the question!" He shouted at her, and Adelaide winced away from him. She felt like she was a kid again, shying away from her father as he picked drunken, angry fights with her. She was done being yelled at.
"Not everything is about you Christoph!" Adelaide exclaimed in frustration. When she saw the hurt on his face she scrambled to recover, "look, I just mean that it's not about you or him - I can trust both of you. And I do trust you - I know you're not lying to me."
"But?"
"But...maybe I just don't always trust your judgement..." Adelaide admitted, letting out a frustrated groan, "I know you mean well but every time I trust you and listed to you, I get hurt. I trusted you about Ellora being safe. I trusted you that the ritual would be fine, and nothing would happen."
Adelaide hadn't realized she felt so strongly until she started speaking and couldn't stop. Words spilled out of her mouth that she hadn't even realized she meant, but she knew they were the truth.
"I trusted you when you said you wouldn't let anything happen, and if it hadn't been for Stefan -" Adelaide stopped herself mid sentence, knowing she'd taken it a step too far. Christoph scoffed and glared at her. He took two steps away from her, his eyes fixed on her face. She jumped up from the chair, ignoring the stabbing pain in her abdomen.
"Wait, Christoph -" Adelaide's attempt to take back her words was useless. He could outrun her easily, and had made it to the doorway in seconds. He threw the door open and raced out. She heard the front door of the apartment slam moments later.
"Shit," Adelaide cursed, mentally berating herself for being so insensitive. She wanted to go after him, but when she went to move, she felt another pang in her stomach. She touched a hand over the wound, "shit."
When she felt blood soaking the cloth, even through the bandage, she knew she'd double messed up.
"Hey, what the hell was that about?" James asked as he and Stefan appeared in the doorway after hearing Christoph's commotion. Stefan saw the blood on her hand, and crossed the room in seconds. He reached her just in time to catch her as she stumbled.
"I don't feel very good." Adelaide told him, holding a hand to her head as the room spun. Stefan he lowered her onto the edge of the bed, pulling up the shirt to look at her wound.
"Dammit." He mumbled, removing the blood soaked bandage and tossing it into the trash. James grabbed the first aid kit and tossed it to him from across the room, and Stefan set to work mopping up blood.
"You fully opened the wound again." Stefan explained as he worked. Adelaide took deep breaths as he worked, trying her best not to wince at every touch.
"How is that possible?" James asked, standing next to the bed and handing Stefan supplies. He watched Adelaide's face, his frown deepening every time he noticed her wincing.
"Krvavá wounds don't heal like normal wounds. You can't stitch them closed with normal sutures. You have to use a magical stitch, but it's unstable and takes time to heal," Stefan explained. He shot her an annoyed look, "and if you're not careful, you can end up reversing the effects. The wound will act like it happened two minutes ago, instead of two days ago."
"Well damn," James passed Stefan another pad of gauze, sending Adelaide a wary glance, "what were you guys doing in here?"
"Christoph's mad at me." Adelaide breathed out, scrunching up her face as Stefan pressed harder on the wound.
"Yeah, we got that part," James commented sarcastically. Adelaide shot her brother a look, but he ignored her and continued, "why is he mad at you? What did you do?"
"Was he that against me helping you with magic?" Stefan spoke up. He barely looked up from mess of blood, only shooting Adelaide a brief glance.
"He was...apprehensive," Adelaide searched for the right word, "he thinks I don't trust him."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"He thinks I trust you more than I trust him." Adelaide corrected. Both James and Stefan looked up at her with raised eyebrows.
"Yikes." James laughed uncomfortably. They'd finished cleaning up most of the blood, but Adelaide still felt her head spinning. Her abdomen was irritated, painful, and burning with every breath or touch.
"Well," Stefan threw the last gauze pad in the trash can, standing up to look at her, "do you trust him?"
Adelaide couldn't bring herself to answer the question out loud, but her silence was answer enough.
"I mean, to be fair, the dude has some pretty shitty judgement." James spoke up, defending his sister. Adelaide went to sit up, but Stefan pushed her back down on the bed.
"Don't move. I've only barely stopped the bleeding for now. I need to do another treatment." He told her, and Adelaide nodded. She was intent on listening to him properly this time. She could tell how frustrated he was, and she already owed him enough. Plus, she'd rather not experience the same burning pain over again.
"Stefan," Adelaide started. She found herself asking a question that she probably should've been more sensitive about. But she needed to know, and her dizzy brain couldn't gather up enough tact, "did you have anything to do with his mother's death?"
"Is that what this is about?" Stefan had been busying himself cleaning up bandages and fussing over her wound, but he stopped to look at her.
"Dude, you killed his mom?" James asked in shock. He had about as much tact as Adelaide did. At least she could blame it on the blood loss.
"No," Stefan snapped quickly. He pinched the bridge of his nose, clenching his sharp jaw, "I had nothing to do with her death."
"Then why does Christoph think you did?" Adelaide asked curiously. The truth was, she trusted both of them. She trusted that Stefan didn't have anything to do with it, but she also trusted that Christoph wasn't lying to her, and he truly believed Stefan did it. The question lied in whether Christoph's judgement could be trusted.
"Because his father has lied and manipulated him his entire life, and Christoph believes anything someone in power tells him." Stefan explained, "Frederick didn't like me questioning his methods. As soon as I got old enough to do something about it, he got rid of me. And then he took advantage of the Risolute attack, and spun it so Christoph would turn against me."
"Why haven't you explained this to him" Adelaide asked, a small part of her hopeful that they could repair their friendship if Christoph knew the truth.
"I've tried, but he doesn't want to listen," Stefan looked shook his head, "he's got his heart set on hating me, and he's not going to change."
Adelaide frowned, propping herself up on her elbows. Stefan pulled a pillow over behind her, taking a spot on the bed next to her. He crossed his legs, preparing to chant over her like he'd done earlier.
"Look, I'm sorry your boyfriend is pissed at you," Stefan told her, annoyance clear in his voice. Adelaide felt the urge to correct him and say that Christoph was not her boyfriend, but she kept silent, "but if I don't do this now you're going to lose even more blood."
"Okay." Adelaide agreed quietly, leaning back onto the pillow in defeat. James gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Hey, I'll go find Christoph and calm him down," He told her. He squeezed her hand gently, before heading towards the door, "just focus on not bleeding, okay?"
"Got it. Thanks." Adelaide smiled at her brother, thankful he knew her well enough to know she wasn't going to stop worrying until Christoph came back. As soon as James left and shut the bedroom door behind him, Stefan scooted closer to her on the bed. He readied himself to do the spell he had done earlier, but he stopped just before starting and looked at her.
"I'm not going to lie to you," Stefan started, giving her a cautious look, "this is probably going to hurt."
Adelaide groaned. She had always been a baby with pain. She used to be afraid of getting her flu shot alone, and would force James to go with her and her hand. Part of her wished he hadn't left to find Christoph and could hold her hand this time.
"It won't be as bad as the initial krvavá wound, but we have to reverse the effects, so it's similar. Last time you were unconscious, so it didn't matter. So unless you want me to knock you out..." Stefan explained. Adelaide raised her eyebrows at him, an idea coming to her.
"You got any vodka?"
Stefan looked at her with raised eyebrows, surprised at her suggestion. But she didn't have to try and convince him. he shrugged, and hopped up from the bed, disappearing through the door. He appeared a moment later, a large glass bottle of clear liquid in his hand. He took his spot on the bed, and Adelaide snatched the bottle out of his hand. She dreaded the idea of feeling anything close to what she'd felt when Cora did the ritual. She was willing to try anything at this point.
Adelaide unscrewed the cap and took a large chug from the bottle. She made a face at the taste, shivering as it burned her throat. After a pause, Adelaide took another swig before handing it back to Stefan, who looked at her in shock.
"Okay, I'm ready." Adelaide told him, laying back on the pillow. She took a deep breath, hoping the vodka kicked in quickly. She saw Stefan watching her cautiously. He nodded one more time, before closing his eyes and readying his position.
She felt the warmth of his hands near her stomach, but he was very careful not to touch the wound. He started to mutter under his breath words Adelaide couldn't hear, and within seconds, her abdomen started to burn as it had earlier.
It started out slow, just near the edge of the wound. Then it spread out, until her chest was burning too. It wasn't unbearable, just a dull ache spreading throughout her body. But the longer Stefan worked, the more painful it got. She winched when she felt a sharp pain in the area where the key had embedded itself in her. It grew sharper and sharper, until it felt like someone was stabbing her again, pulling the wound open and digging inside her.