The Witch's Curse (Book One)

Chapter Twenty-One:

With the entire kingdom being in shock from the attack, I knew my place was not back at Witch University. The demonic realm was temporarily maimed by the huge loss which would disable their attacks for a little while. The safest place for the four of us was the Enchanted Castle. However, most of the rooms had been occupied by the abundance of guardians and refugees who were involved in the various raids.

Liam greeted me while we waited for our options. “Nice to see you again, Princess. First of all, I would like to express my condolences for Aegus’ sacrifice, but he obviously thought your life was more important than his. Don’t waste this sacrifice by not thinking for yourself. A lot of your predecessors had this issue.”

“I have had enough talk about how I should govern this realm. I just need to find a place where we can rest. Do you know of any available rooms?” I asked him desperate to get some sleep. The others looked too hyped up on magic to care when we found a room.

He nodded. “Unfortunately, only a few rooms were vacant, but those are all stocked with supplies like weapons and potions. Your suite is being remodeled as of right now so that’s obviously out of the question. Our last option was to get a few guardians to clear out of their rooms so you can each have your own.”

I shook my head. “All of you do too much for the four of us to take your rooms. The bedrooms turned supply rooms will be perfect for the four of us. All of the beds in the guest rooms are king-sized so the guys can have the bed, and I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Liam smiled. “I will go and get the boxes moved out of your way. Princess, you really are a very special person. Whatever you think or hear others say about you, just remember the gods wouldn’t let a witch have the power you do if you weren’t going to do something significant with it. Aegus, the most powerful guardian since the dawn of time, would not have sacrificed his life for just another bystander. You have every single guardian on your side until you take in your last breath. Just remember you are not alone.” He left without another word. Just those few sentences helped boost my mood tremendously.

I caught Rocky smirking at me. “What?”

“I didn’t say anything,” he laughed.

“You didn’t have to say anything. I saw that look. What was it for?”

He smirked at me again. “Nothing. I was just thinking how lucky my brother is for having a girl like you. He didn’t even realize when he first showed interest in you that he was going for an army general versus a princess.”

“What do you think Maura is going to do whenever I become queen? Her job becomes more than fancy balls and party dresses. She becomes a warrior versus a face in a magazine. You guys have no idea what you got yourself into whenever you decided to date a witch. We can be incredibly magical and beautiful or maliciously ruthless in times of terror.” I thought of all the battles I had in the Underworld. I’d never been one to torture a demon that much, but this next fight was different. I had to be merciless in order to save the lives of the people I loved and cared about.

“I noticed you didn’t mention Merilyn. What is she going to do whenever you become queen? I know she isn’t that much of a fighter, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be beneficial to you during your reign.” Ross pressed. I saw a fire burning his eyes whenever he talked about Merilyn. Similarly to me, he’d never experienced love before, but he wanted to hold on to the little romance he found with my sister. The only difference was he did not know whether or not his love would persist or die off.

I thought over my words carefully before I responded with an answer that would crush his hopes and dreams. “Merilyn is a very tricky person when it comes to her aspirations and future choices. Honestly, I wish I could tell you I knew what she was going to do, but I have no idea where her head is at right now. I can only say what I think and not what I know because I don’t know the truth. I’ll tell you this. She does have options when it comes to what she wants to do. Being the third child gives you the option to continue being a public figure in the Thirteenth Realm, work with the Supernatural Assassins Academy as a fighter or spy, or go to Earth and live her life there. Who knows you could potentially sway her decision. Ross, you could be her decision.”

Liam came back before anymore questions could be asked. “The room is ready for all of you. Just follow me.” The guys all stepped in front of me leaving me in the back.

Accidentally, someone passing by elbowed me in the side. “Sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to startle you. Just in a hurry.” the deep country accented blonde man told me. I did not reply, and instead just smiled in response. He was just another witch lounging here for safety.

My back was towards him whenever he spoke up again. “I just wanted to express my sincerest regards about Aegus. I heard how he was your biggest ally and beloved mentor. Oh, and congratulations on reviving Riker. You finally unlocked the elements. Then again, I guess you would want to save the man you were destined to fall in love with anyway.”

The blood in my veins got cold. “How did you know all of that?” I turned around, but that country bumpkin was gone. I walked down the hall a little ways, but there was no sign of his existence.

I turned to find Ellington and the rest of the crew staring at me. “Where are you going? We were walking this way when we turned to find you had vanished. Did you get lost in your own castle?”

I looked around again hoping the man would reappear, but of course no other sign of life was present. “This witch accidentally ran into me and caught my attention with something he said. I was just looking for him, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. Liam, do you know of any Southern accented blonde guys around here?”

Liam looked at me very confused. “Melody, we definitely need to get you to bed.”

I probably looked just as puzzled as him if not more. “Why? I was just talking to that guy. What’s the big deal?”

“What exactly did he say to you?”

“He apologized for Aegus’ passing, and then he congratulated me on something else that he had no way of knowing without some sort of insight. It was really weird.” I looked at Liam who changed his reaction from confused to shocked. He grabbed a guardian and whispered something in his ear before returning back to me. “If you think I’m delusional, why don’t you just keep it between us versus  going off and telling other people?”

Liam had a very stern face now, but in his eyes I saw pure fear. “The guy you just described came looking for you two weeks ago. He said it was urgent because he had information only you could know about.”

“What’s so bad about that? We get help from commoners all the time.”

“Melody, his description sounded familiar to Aegus so we cross-referenced him through our database.”

“And?”

His face showed pure terror. “That guy was Aegus’ brother who died over two hundred years ago. We just thought he was some ghost walking around. Either a necromancer is at work or he never died in the first place and if he never died and is showing himself to get a message to you-.”

“Then there is something much bigger than we can possibly imagine going on.”