Falling For A Fallen

11 A Deal's A Deal

Dedicated to suberzz for their support c:

፠CHAPTER ELEVEN፠

Nothing interesting happened since then, especially since I hadn’t gotten the chance to research anything else. A full day had passed after my last encounter with Chayn and I hadn’t seen him since. What happened? Was it not just a day ago that he said it was his job to follow me around? Whatever the deal was, it didn’t matter to me. I was perfectly happy at the fact that there was no guard to harass me all day.

A smile crept up my lips as I realised that tomorrow would be the last day with this horrid metal bracelet around my wrist.

One more day… I thought to myself. But three more weeks until Chayn goes away.

I sighed and rubbed my head in aggravation. Kaiti had turned back to her normal joyful self again. And for that, I was glad. However, I was itching to get my hands on the small leather book about Senious Avecum. I just needed to know more. About him, about the person from Harroway Woods, and about the one from my nightmares I’ve been getting ever since the night I caught him staring into my room. They were somehow linked, right?

As soon as class was over, and since there was no one to stop me this time, I raced to the library and plopped the two books on the varnished desk before me.

“Okay.” I exhaled and flipped open the slightly burnt leather book.

The pages were thick and yellow in colour. I skimmed through a few pages and realised that this wasn’t a book. It was a journal. The personal views of Senious. Things couldn’t get any better, right?

I landed on a random page where he’d written a spell. The words were of a foreign language, but his handwriting wasn’t anything I couldn’t read. Quickly, and without hesitating, I pulled Kaiti’s favourite spell book from the walls and looked for a spell that contained the same title as the one in the journal. Carefully printed out in front of me in black letters stood the translation, I assumed, of the spell in Senious’s journal.

I read back and forth from each book, and skimmed further into the journal. I realised that Chayn was right. Like me, Senious was looking for an escape from Calambria. But Chayn didn’t know me. Yes, we were both longing for the same thing, but in different ways. Senious had a more obsessive, more demanding want of escape. He seemed slightly… insane. Whereas I didn’t think the way he did. Did I?

Surely, though, he was the man from the woods. How could I have mistaken him for a guard? How foolish.

I was so engrossed in the books before me, that I hadn’t noticed when Chayn entered the small dimly lit room. He easily pulled the book from my grasp, and I let out a quick gasp.

“What are you doing?” his voice was firm and demanding.

I stood up and reached for the book but he pulled it back further.

“Hey! Give that back you bastard!” My temper started to rise. It was like I could no longer control it. Especially when I found myself around him. Chayn had somehow managed to always flip a switch in me.

“Didn’t I tell you not to read up on Senious Avecum?” he questioned.

“You may be my guard, but you’re not my father.” I countered.

“No, I’m not your father, but I can’t have you reading up on Senious, because it’ll give you ideas about escaping and I’m in charge of at least that, okay?” his voice seemed a bit irritated. “So, Nyala, you better start following instructions before you end up facing the consequences.”