Brewing Them

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Yes, Mom. All is well here! Tell me about yourself?" I asked her while switching the topics before she got in depth about the night I had spent here. Some of the details were lurid and others were only going to cause worry for her.

The phone was glued to my ears while I was trying to find the kitchens where the witches were going to be gathered for breakfast.

"I'm fine, too. Just missing you a lot, darling. The house seems so quiet without your presence." She responded, grief in her tone.

"I love you, Mom." I reminded her.

"I love you too as well. Go have some and then we will speak with each other. I want to hear all about your first day at court and if you've met with anyone yet." She said, waiting.

I blew out a breath and let a smile linger over my mouth while giving her my goodbyes. Oh, Mom, yeah, I met someone. Callan. Who fucked me with his mouth and let his friend hear me only inches away. Just the thought of it made my insides tremble in both delight and fear.

"Ah, Vivian!" A familiar voice exclaimed behind me. "I knew you'd come." It was the witch from yesterday. I tried to remember her name, but it was somewhat hard to keep track of.

The woman was walking in from the other direction of the hallway with another witch by her side. Both of them the same aged, but the features were vividly different. She gestured at me toward the large dining room next to the kitchens were breakfast was being served by servants.

"Come on in. Everyone would be glad to see a new face here. It's been a while since a witch has been welcomed in the court." The woman said, leading me into the room and toward the table.

I glanced around, facing witches. A lot of them. My heart rate jumped as their eyes shifted on me. Some smiled and some didn't. Most of them looked away, but of some of them continued to stare at me.

"Considering the situation with the Queen, I thought she wouldn't invite another witch into the court. What have you been invited for?" One of them, seated on the table, diverted all her attention on me and asked.

I cleared my throat while feeling my nerves jumping around. They were all older than me, but from the looks of it, none of wrists were darkened which meant they didn't do the real witchcraft.

Fuck.

I moved my hands behind my back. They were covered in gloves, but at some point I was meant to remove them for food.

"Tell them, Vivian. I'm curious as well," The woman who had introduced herself to me earlier said while sitting down. "And tell something about yourself as well. You seem a bit too young to be here, don't you?"

I took a step back and swallowed hard. Could I still escape? I needed to get out of here. This was terrible. Worse than I could ever imagine. They studied me like a prey. The aura surrounding them was dangerous and evil. All wrong. I needed to go anywhere else.

"And not even a royal or from a strong family. What was your last name again?" Another woman asked.

All of them cornering me.

"I—I should—" I tried to find a quick reason.

But I no longer needed one when Raphael, the Queen's guard, stepped into the room and called out my name. "Please, come with me." He continued.

I sighed and offered a smile to everyone before excusing myself out with him. My savior. I was finally able to breathe when I left the room and followed Raphael outside and farther away from the group of witches.

"The Queen had ordered to keep a close eye on you the entire time you're here, in court. There are plenty of bad people here and this, what you've walked out from, was the beginning of a disaster. They cannot know what you do or what you're here for. The Queen demands secrecy. Don't mingle with the witches." Raphael said, stopping me in the middle of a hallway and warning me.

I nodded and agreed with him, "Thank you for getting me out of that situation." He wasn't wrong. I needed to keep a distance from everyone in court.

After Raphael left, I slipped into the kitchen and grabbed a quick breakfast for myself before rushing away from the north wing of the court. I craned my neck out of the large windows to see the morning sky and breathe in fresh air.

A hand came over my hip. I gasped and a scream nearly tore out of my throat as my eyes met with Callan's heavy gaze.

"Oh, f—you scared me!" I exclaimed, my heart still jumping inside my chest.

"I was wondering where you were. Someone told me you fled your first breakfast with the witches." He said with a laugh at the end of his words.

My mouth turned into a frown, "That's not true."

"Too afraid they might burn you for practicing black magic?" He asked while pulling out one of my glove.

"I'm not afraid—" I jumped on my toes to grab my glove from his hold, but he inched backward and let me stumble on my steps. A groan parted from my throat as I looked at him once more, "Fine, I'm afraid!"

Callan chuckled and grabbed my hand before putting the gloves over my fingers and covering them. His thumb brushed across the skin below my wrist before he let my hand fall "Don't be. I'll not let anyone burn you."

"Thank you." I whispered.

"Meet me outside, in the gardens, by eight."

I nodded and then watched him disappear before the sun could burn him.

After spending several hours in my room and after nearly setting my bed on fire, I stopped brewing anymore spells and took a break. It was also almost time to meet with Callan in the gardens outside court—which I hadn't been to yet. A part of me wanted to finish all this quick, give the names of the men to the Queen and return back to my mother. But another part of me wanted to stay, learn the ropes and find an opportunity for myself.

The trees were long, and the trunks thick. The grass was well-trimmed and everything in the garden was just perfection. When the skies became all dark and cloudy, the lights near to the trees were switched on and so were all the lights of the court.

It looked beautiful.

"I've never managed to be-friend a witch in all my time staying here. They despise me and I do the same," Callan said after I had asked him about the witches in the court and who were they exactly. "But they do come from wealthy families and cults. The older one, Eileen, speaks for the witches."

Eileen. The same woman that came to me.

"Do they practice magic?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Some of them. Though, we avoid getting into their matters."

"Black magic?"

Callan stopped on his tracks and turned to me. My feet brushed against the soil and the grass which felt good. We had been walking for sometime, mainly talking about what I needed to know about this place and what I needed to avoid.

"It's forbidden to practice black magic anywhere, Vivian. Are you?" He asked, sounding a bit concerned for me. "You will get caught here. If the witches come to know you're they'll—"

"I'm not!" I exclaimed while aggressively shaking my head. "And I'm not going to."

He pursed his mouth into a straight line. "Good. Don't. You've already blackened your blood by an extent. Anymore and everyone will know you're practicing black magic." He warned.

A warning that went straight out of my head...

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