spellbound | book #1 | completed

X I

edited: 06/07/2017

Remy woke up to the smell of something burning, and it took her a moment to realise that it could not have been her mother making pancakes, for she was no longer at home in her own bed. She had hoped whilst dozing off last night that perhaps the events of the previous day were all a dream—how could she ever believe them to be real?—but was disappointed when she awoke in a stranger's bed surrounded by foreign objects that she could not even begin to identify.

She pulled the deep purple curtains that hung beside the bed—seemingly without a curtain rail—open, her eyes widening at the sight of the vast pink sky. It was paler than it had been yesterday, but still pink, and still without clouds or planes or anything that she had gotten used to seeing every morning for nineteen years. She squeezed her eyes, heavy with sleep, shut in the hopes that her surroundings would disappear as though they were merely some sort of temporary hallucination, but when she opened them again, the sky was still pink and she was still sat in a bed that wasn't hers.

Sighing and wiping her clammy hands against the green duvet cover, she pulled herself out of bed, wincing as she stepped onto her injured leg. She had almost forgotten about it, but looking down now, she saw that the bruising had gotten worse overnight and the violent blackness of it stood out discernibly against her pale skin. She searched for the jeans that she had discarded last night and found them hung sloppily on a golden candelabrum on the bedside table. She hauled them on quickly, glad to find that they had dried from the rain overnight, and slipped her Vans on afterwards. After spending a considerable amount of time looking for the t-shirt that she had worn yesterday, she decided it was nowhere in sight and patted down Maksim's oversized shirt instead before rolling up the surprisingly long sleeves.

A feeling of dread washed over her as she tried to find her way through the corridors, which were still only lit by candlelight despite the fact that it was light outside, and finally found the source of the burning smell. She pushed the wooden door open cautiously and was brought out into the kitchen, which she had only passed through briefly yesterday and so had not noticed how open and light it was compared to the living room. Maksim stood in front of one of many large glass windows with his arms crossed over his chest, though he was leaning lazily against a marble counter-top next to his mother, who was stirring something in a large pot.

They didn't appear to have noticed Remy at first, and she decided to keep it that way as his mother seemed to continue a conversation that she had not heard the first half of.

"She cannot stay here much longer. You know that." Her forehead crinkled in stress, though Remy thought that she didn't seem as hostile as she had last night. That, at least, relieved her a little.

"We just need to keep her here until the portals open again. There's no need to take her to the Council yet," Maksim responded. Remy noticed that he looked tired, his hair tousled and purple circles sinking into the skin under his eyes. Still, he had changed back into his strange clothes, this time wearing a crimson coloured shirt, though he had not buttoned it up properly, and black pants. She thought he would look like a tacky cabaret act if he was not so attractive.

That was when Remy decided to make her presence known; she cleared her throat and stepped further into the kitchen. "Good morning."

Maksim glanced at her attire and raised an eyebrow. "Is that my shirt?"

Remy rolled her eyes in response, pulling at it uncomfortably. She had never felt so out of place anywhere, and she was not sure how to act. She thought that sarcasm was as good a way as any. "I'm sorry I didn't pack a change of clothes with me before you pushed me through the portal. My mistake."

"And you're in as good a mood as ever, I see."

Maksim's mother eyed Remy warily, not seeming to notice that smoke was billowing from the pot on the hob. Remy almost choked on the stench and tried to suppress her coughs as best she could.