A/N: Preisha again^
Viviana warily opened her eyes to see a white popcorn ceiling. A foreign white popcorn ceiling.
Wait a moment! My room doesn't have a popcorn ceiling.
Viviana gasped and sat bolt upright, momentary disorientation clouding her senses, until she remembered she was in a hotel room in Yaquir, sharing with Jeanette.
Speaking of her friend, Viviana turned her head to see the source of the ringing. Jeanette was rubbing her eyes and holding her phone up to her ear, chatting animatedly in Spanish with the person on the other end. Viviana guessed Jeanette was talking to her mother, judging by the number of times Jeanette said "Ay, Mama! No, no por favor no!" [Ay, Mama! No, no please no!] in four sentences.
Viviana groaned and seized the pillow behind her head, slapping it over her eyes.
Damn it! I'm an idiot! What was I thinking? How could I forget that Princess Isabelle might be dangerous? How do I know I'm not already somehow cursed too?
Something stirred by her feet, and the bed dipped next to her head. Viviana tensed, but when she lifted the pillow to peek, she sighed in relief.
It was only Preisha.
"I can hear you panicking from here." Preisha said, bumping her cold nose into Viviana's arm. "I don't think you're in danger from the Princess."
Viviana sat bolt upright, throwing the pillow across the room with a burst of maroon magic. "Porque? Cómo lo sabes? Tú tienes los secretos? Dime!" [Why? How do you know? Do you have secrets? Tell me!]
Preisha calmly sat up, curling her tail around her feet. "No, no tengo esos. Viviana, I can't tell you how I know, but can't you trust me when I say that you are indeed talking to Princess Isabelle and she is not your enemy? I don't think the dreams are her doing." [No, no I don't have those.]
"But you still know that it's her, completely?" Viviana asked. "Is that it?"
"You were right about one thing. Princess Isabelle is a witch." Preisha admitted reluctantly.
Viviana gaped at her familiar. "When did you find this out?!"
"When I went to Eriscos." Preisha said simply. "Although whether or not Isabelle even knows she's a witch is another question."
"Forget about if she knows! How do you know?! Preisha!"
Her familiar looked sheepish. "I'm sorry Viviana, but I can't tell you how I know. It's against the rules of Eriscos."
Viviana crossed her arms. "This is the first time I'm hearing that Eriscos even has rules."
"We don't have very many, but one of them is not to reveal identities of anyone or anything. I'm sorry, I really would tell you if I could."
Viviana sighed. "Fine. So you're sure beyond a doubt, that Princess Isabelle and these dreams are safe?"
"I am sure that even though Princess Isabelle is a witch, she is not the one causing the dreams. I don't think they are harmful either. You should use it as an opportunity to get to know who you are trying to save. Any information she has at all could be important, although I strongly suspect we know ten times as much as she does when it comes to the magical communities."
Viviana thought back to how the Princess had asked her what fey were, and what one looked like. It almost made her sigh in defeat.
The Princess was undeniably sheltered. Just imagining her as a source of danger seemed ridiculous when Viviana took into account the curious look in Isabelle's eyes and the way she always sat with her back straight, ankles crossed, and her hands in her lap. The soft floral dresses she wore only added to the appearance of grace and general softness Isabelle exhibited.
Yet, the Princess could pack a punch when she chose to. Viviana hadn't forgotten how she'd been hit in the head multiple times with a book. Even though it was paperback, the Princess had a strong enough throw to make it feel fairly painful. Not to mention, although the Princess's eyes were a pretty deep shade of blue with flecks of purple, those eyes could be quite piercing when Isabelle wanted something. Almost like twin lasers of temptation and intensity, demanding Viviana to give in to whatever Isabelle wanted.
Viviana's fingers twitched. The Princess was... more beautiful than she wanted to admit. She could not afford to be distracted. Besides, she barely knew Princess Isabelle.
But that could change. If you keep talking to her in dreams, as Preisha suggested...
Perhaps. But that sentiment in itself was dangerously close to a dream. It would be better if she just left the Princess alone. Allowing herself to get so close to someone with such power over her, even though the attraction was just starting to surface, could easily destroy her. The odds were that Isabelle was not a lesbian, unlike her.
And the last thing Viviana wanted to do was to relive her painful preteen years. Preisha would probably have an aneurysm.
Viviana jumped when Jeanette set down her phone with a thump on the nightstand. An errant maroon spark shot from her finger and pinged off a lampshade, only to bounce off and hit the opposite wall, leaving a mark like a burn.
Jeanette frowned. "You ok, Viv? You're awfully jumpy. But I guess after what happened yesterday, I'd be jumpy too."
"What did happen? All I remember is Preisha came back and Santiago disappeared." Viviana mused, rubbing her temple... the same spot Isabelle had hit her in the dream.
"Well, it looked like you were about to have a magic explosion, and we didn't want to cause a huge scene like something out of a horror movie, so Santiago... actually I'm not sure what he did, but you just-" Jeanette held her arm straight up before making it fall forward ninety degrees, parallel to the floor. "-fainted. Sorry. Apparently, he realized you were pretty much unreachable. He didn't want anything bad to happen. Are you ok? You didn't answer that earlier."
"It's fine. You made the right choice." Viviana was proud when her voice didn't shake, but she couldn't quite bring herself to meet Jeanette's eyes. Jeanette and Santiago didn't know her true powers, and although a magic explosion would have been bad, what Viviana would have actually caused was far worse. But she had to reassure Jeanette that she wasn't upset. And that required eye contact. Viviana quietly exhaled and steeled herself, before she forced herself to meet Jeanette's eyes as she smiled tightly. "Thank you, Jeanie. I mean it. I'm not mad. You really did make the right choice. And I'm fine."
Instant relief appeared on Jeanette's face. Viviana hadn't realized how tense her friend had been until it was gone. Jeanette must have been worried I'd have a second freak out when I realized what they'd done. I can't believe I almost lost control like that. I thought I finally had everything fixed.
The weight of her failure crashed down around her ears, and she flinched when Jeanette wrapped her up in a hug.
"It's all good, Viv!" Jeanette's smile leaked into her voice, coating it with genuine enthusiasm. "Ready to leave?"
She moved away, packing up the few items scattered around the room while Viviana watched her, completely frozen.
"Leave?" Viviana croaked when she finally got her voice to work. "What do you mean?"
"Oh." Jeanette paused, a tilt to her head. "I guess I forgot to tell you. When Santiago knocked you out, you were out. We're supposed to leave today if we want to get to the mountains, remember?"
Dread curled in Viviana's stomach, and Preisha hissed slightly, her ears pressed down on her head, the tips lighting on fire.
"Preisha!" Jeanette yelped. "Put those out! Do you want to set off a fire alarm?!"
Preisha glanced at Viviana, who nodded. Preisha extinguished the twin, candle like flames, while Jeanette shook her head, finishing her packing.
"I still don't understand why neither of you particularly like fey. We aren't even going to run into any anyway. Chill."
Jeanette zipped up her suitcase and extended the handle with a click. She brushed her dark hair out of her eyes and fixed Viviana with a look.
"Come on, Viv. We've only got a day. Princess Isabelle's birthday is too close to waste time."
Jeanette left the room, her suitcase rolling behind her, while Viviana frowned.
When did she become the enthusiastic one?
***
Viviana's jumpiness only marginally improved the more distance she put between herself and the hotel. Preisha was in her bag, curled up around her feet on the floor of the car, while Santiago and Jeanette sat in the front, Santiago guiding the car with practiced ease despite all of the snow and ice on the road.
Winter here sucks. Viviana thought, watching the snow that was still falling from the sky in leisurely flakes, as the pine trees created a blurred background of dark green. It is mushy but frozen at the same time. And I still haven't seen the sun. I wonder if it always snows this much, or if this is somehow brought on by Ilsadora.
"What'cha thinking about?" Jeanette asked suddenly, whipping her head around her front passenger seat to look at Viviana. "You haven't said a single word since we left the hotel."
"Too many things."
It was true. She'd thought about the mysterious spell book with its mysterious symbols. She'd thought about her powers, and what to do with them. She'd thought about the dreams and Isabelle. She'd even thought about Ilsadora. All to distract herself from what they were technically getting closer to.
Bhorn Forest, and Arquillon. Technically she was already in Bhorn Forest, but that wasn't worrisome, considering how huge the forest was.
"Maybe we are being stubborn."
The sudden appearance of Preisha's voice made her glance down at her familiar. "Really?"
"Come on." Preisha insisted her tail moving out of the back to nudge Viviana's legs. "It's time to drop your unease. You know just as well as I do that fey don't really hate us. You just think they should, and it's clouding your judgement. Stop being stubborn."
Viviana huffed, folding her arms and leaning back in her seat. I'm not being stubborn.
"You are."
Viviana held a hand up in front of her eyes, allowing maroon magic to rise to the surface and wind through her fingers. A risky move, but she had it under control. She was in charge of the chaos, not the other way around.
Sometimes to gain control, you had to lose it first.
Preisha was right. Viviana knew it, just as she knew that she didn't really fear fey at all. The fey hated Ilsadora, not her, and she wasn't Ilsadora.
The problem was the closer they got to Ilsadora, Viviana wondered if she was more alike the former queen of Nazeen than she wanted to admit.
Both of them were capable of horrible things. But unlike Ilsadora, Viviana hadn't committed to any terrible enchantments. It struck Viviana as ironic that the only one who might understand her wasn't even a witch. Ilsadora was an enchantress, something entirely different yet very similar at the same time.
She didn't fear fey. She feared what they could do.
She had seen it in Brandon Bates' eyes. He could expose her, if he was around her long enough. One look at her aura with his fey powers, and he would know what her true powers were... if he'd studied magic enough to understand what he was looking at.
How do you tell people you've known for years that you lied to them? That you couldn't stand to see the looks on their faces when they inevitably found out you're a monster?
Preisha crawled out of the bag to sit on Viviana's lap and look out at the snow.
"You aren't a monster Viv."
Viviana snorted derisively. "Preisha, I'm only capable of destruction. No matter how much I try to create and heal, it doesn't make up for what I leave behind me."
"You haven't even used your powers since you were seven." Preisha protested. "It was an accident!"
"An accident that will never happen again unless I have no other choice."
Preisha hummed. "So you have thought up a plan C if Ilsadora tries to kill us."
"Of course." Viviana tried to keep her slight offense to herself. "I would have been stupid not to."
"When were you planning on telling Jeanie and Tiago?"
"I wasn't."
"Viviana Morales!" Preisha gave her a glare. "You don't have to tell them explicit details, but you should say something."
"No, I don't think I should." Viviana replied flatly, her gaze returning to the window as she shut Preisha's protests out.
Her familiar did not understand why, after all of this time, she refused to show her powers, apart from the obvious expulsion from Circe's Academy and general fear other people would show her. Viviana couldn't believe Preisha had blocked out the most important details, but since her familiar had managed to forget, she would not dare to bring up something so painful again.
The short and mostly harmless version of events she had told Preisha after her familiar informed Viviana she couldn't remember, involved only the basics.
When Viviana was seven, she had been waiting for Elena to pick her up from the playground right by her school. A group of older kids had come over and messed with her and Preisha, and they went too far. Preisha was severely injured, and that had set Viviana off. That was all Preisha knew.
Viviana hadn't told Preisha that the group of older kids she'd taken on was a group of witches and warlocks, roughly five years older than her. And she certainly hadn't told Preisha that she had almost killed the group.
As a seven-year-old kid, it had been an accident. She didn't know what she was doing, and her powers didn't exactly have a glowing red stop button.
What she had planned for Ilsadora... would be eerily similar. She would just have to be exceedingly careful.
"Uh... Viv?" Santiago asked.
Viviana snapped her head to the front, and he pointed at the ceiling of the car, where maroon magic had gathered in a sphere and was agitatedly making the entire car shudder. It seemed to be squeezing the air out of the car. Viviana glanced down at her hands to see them clenched around the hem of her jacket in a similar fashion.
She clenched her jaw and steadily exhaled, releasing the car from her magic grip as well as her jacket from her physical grip.
Santiago and Jeanette were looking at her like she was losing her mental grip.
"Just thinking about Arquillon." She lied. "Sorry about the magic chokehold on the car."
"It's fine." Santiago said, glancing at the gas gauge, with an analytical look. "But now we'll have to stop before we reach the mountains. I didn't realize you were actually slowing us down until I felt the drag pressure."
Viviana winced. It had been purely accidental, but then again, the worst mistakes with her magic were always accidental.
But now they would have to stop in the middle of Bhorn Forest. The one place she didn't want to be.
Damn it!
It did not escape her that she was stabbing herself in the back. Perhaps this would be funny if she wasn't so set on getting to Ilsadora and avoiding as many complications as possible.
And stopping for gas, in the middle of a forest, certainly qualified as a complication in this circumstance.
"We aren't going to just stop and break down, are we?" Viviana asked, looking infinitely calmer than she felt.
"Nope. We're just going to take this detour right here." Santiago said, before turning the car abruptly down a nearly hidden side road that deviated from the winding highway. The car bumped along for a few seconds, tilting up and then down with such force, Preisha dug her claws into Viviana's jeans to hang on. Viviana glared at Santiago and strongly resisted the urge to shriek at him.
"Are you insane?" Jeanette stared at her brother with wide eyes. "Detouring will make it worse! We'll be stuck for sure!"
"No, we won't." Santiago said with such confidence, that Viviana almost believed him. Almost. "I stared at a map long enough to commit it to my memory. I know where this road leads, and also that we will get help faster than if we just continued on the highway."
Jeanette scoffed. "It's so unfair you have a photographic memory."
"I'd prefer to call it helpful."
Viviana blocked out the rest of their bickering, and put down her window, ignoring the snow that entered the car and tangled in her hair. She would have to trust that Santiago knew what he was doing. In a way, this idea was reinforced by the road itself.
Although it was a side road, after the initial bump, it was quite smooth. It was well maintained, and important enough to be plowed. She could see drifts on the sides of the road, very close to the trees, where a plow had come through and shoved snow to the side.
I guess that is promising.
Priesha pried her claws out of Viviana's leg, whimpering when she saw the holes she had made. Viviana glanced down to see tiny little pricks of blood on her left thigh from where Preisha had held on too hard.
If cat familiars could cry, Preisha certainly looked like she was on the verge of tears.
Viviana carefully rubbed Preisha's head, in between her ears, as she kicked the back of Jeanette's chair.
Jeanette stopped arguing with her brother and she turned to look over her shoulder a Viviana, who motioned to her leg.
"Thanks to your crazy brother, we had a bit of a mishap." She said as an explanation.
Jeanette gave them both a sympathetic look, and she sharply poked Santiago in the shoulder. "See? Viviana got hurt because we didn't get a heads up! Don't just make impulsive decisions!"
"Jeanie!" Viviana hissed, fury rising to the surface. Jeanette turned back to Viviana with a sheepish smile.
"Right. Fix first, argue later, got it."
Jeanette's hand closed around Viviana's ankle, and a second later, a cool feeling, like water or aloe vera washed over Viviana's leg. The cuts closed quickly, leaving only tiny stains behind that weren't overly noticeable on Viviana's scarlet jeans. Viviana quickly motioned to Preisha.
"Look, Preisha. It's fine. No harm done. Although, maybe we should have found a way to strap you into a seat so this didn't happen."
Preisha still gave her a regretful look, and curled up on her side in the seat, nuzzling Viviana's left hand with her nose as a pained note escaped her. Jeanette let go of Viviana and went back to berating her brother, who clearly listened to her words, but didn't take them to heart.
Snow still streamed through the open window, but there was something different about their surroundings.
Viviana leaned closer to the window. The trees seemed to be thinning.
Jeanette stopped talking abruptly.
Viviana snapped her head to the front and gasped at what she saw.
A castle. A castle was in front of them.
"Santiago, what the f-"
"Santiago, are you serious? This is so cool! How'd we get here?"
Viviana glared at Jeanette. Jeanie! You're supposed to be on my side!
Santiago pulled up to the front stairs and parked the car. "Welcome to the second castle of Yaquir."