Spindle Wood (COMPLETED)

Chapter 91

Logan struggled against the chains holding him to the wall. They were old and rusted, in theory they should be easy to break. If he could just find the weak link-

"Still trying to escape?" His jailer asked, materialising in front of him. That was something Logan had learnt very quickly about them. They were a sorcerer. And they were very dangerous because of it.

"You won't break the chains and, even if you do, you can't beat me." They shrugged in a bored sort of way. "I really don't see the point. Of course, if you really wanted to be free, you could always join me." They grinned.

"Never!" Logan snarled. The chains scraped each other as he struggled even harder. The sorcerer's smile dropped.

"What's the point?" They asked. "Your 'lover' has left you. Your home won't take you back. What have you got out there that I cannot provide?"

Logan didn't reply. The sorcerer knelt down beside him.

"I could show you things that would make even a mind as clever as yours explode." They said softly. "Great inventions from the future. Incredible creations that couldn't possibly exist. Magic beyond your wildest dreams. Look."

They opened their hand. A bluebell bloomed from their gloved palm, out of nothing. It suddenly burst into small green and blue fireworks, popping and cracking. They closed their hand into a fist and the illusion disappeared.

"I could show you everything." They said. "Teach you everything. You could have power enough to bend the universe to your will." They bent to whisper in Logan's ear. "You could have everything you ever wanted."

Logan felt himself freeze as colour and noise surrounded him. Nothing material, just flashes. Sunlight. Fireworks. Festivals. Stars. Galaxies. All for him.

He blinked the illusion away and kicked out, catching the sorcerer off-guard. His foot collided with their knee and sent them reeling back. They looked sickeningly human all of a sudden.

They got to their feet gracefully and glared down at him with an animalistic sneer. The flash of humanity was gone.

Logan leaned forward. He wouldn't be afraid of them. "Show me whatever you want." He hissed. "Pretend as much as you want. Promise me as much power as you can. I will never join you."

They drew themself up to threatening heights and their face darkened to a thunderous anger. Logan flinched back, thinking they were about to strike him.

They snatched his glasses away from him. "If you won't see reason, then you don't deserve to see at all." They said and then there was silence. They must have disappeared.

Fireworks cracked and sputtered into the night sky. The sun had set and the kingdom was rejoicing. Their prince was back, unharmed!

Why shouldn't they rejoice? They had no idea...

No idea at all. Roman turned away from the window, letting the curtain fall. The flashes of fireworks lit the grey room up fantastic colours. White blue. Gold. Orange. Purple. Deep red. Violent pink.

It all seemed to dim when he looked at the bed. Grim sadness seemed to dim everything.

They'd failed. They'd failed horribly and there was no way to accept that.

Virgil was sat on the bed, holding Patton's hand tightly. His eyes were fixed on the sleeping figure, as if looking away would make the situation worse.

Forcing himself away from the wall, Roman walked towards Virgil. He placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked over his head at Patton.

"What are we going to tell their Majesties?" Virgil asked. His voice was still wrecked with sobs, although he stubbornly refused to cry.

"I don't know." Roman admitted.

"Do you think we should do what Remus suggested?"

"I don't know." Roman said again. Now wasn't a time for lies and there was nothing else to say.

Virgil reached out with his free hand and pushed some of Patton's curls away from his forehead. "We were so close." He said. "What did we do wrong?"

"Vee, we couldn't have known-"

"But we did know." Virgil turned his eyes upward to look at Roman. Roman felt his heart break when he saw the tears lining his bottom lids. "We just didn't want to stay." He looked back at Patton. "Because it would hurt too much." He shook his head. "This hurts more."

Virgil let go of Patton's hand and got up. He passed by Roman and went to the window. He pulled back the curtain. The light of the fireworks silhouetted him in random flashes of colour. Even in the face of utter despair, Roman still let himself get swept away by how truly stunning Virgil was.

"I think we should do what Remus said." Virgil let the curtain drop, muffling the lights, and turned to Roman. "They don't deserve the pain we caused."

He took a breath and tried drawing his wand out of thin air. His eyes widened in surprise when it appeared in his hand. He tapped it on the palm of his hand and blew on it.

"There's so much magic stuck in this." Virgil said. "But it should still work. Guess it's an extension of me, huh?" He smiled a morbid grin.

For once, Roman had nothing to say. Virgil looked up from his wand.

"I know it's not good, love," he said, "but what other choice do we have? We don't know how long Patton will be asleep and they'll all wake up when he does so..."

"Darling, I never said it wasn't a good idea." With one last glance at the sleeping figure, Roman walked to Virgil. "I'm just worried. About a lot."

"We can't control any of that." Virgil said. "But we can control this." He held out his hand. Roman took it. "Come on."

Hey, sorry I've been offline for nearly a month. I should update roughly whenever I come onto my laptop to do my homework (or just whenever) so (hopefully) updates will become more frequent. Thank you for your patience, hope you still enjoy the story.
Bye,
Blaize