Adelaide exhaled in relief and then collapsed. Atarah caught her with a blanket so that her skin did not burn.
“I was wondering when that would happen. I am not at all a very good doctor,” Hinrik stated, sitting back down.
“Sister, you might want to find another witch,” Ulrik said as he reached out to poke Adelaide’s cheek, getting burned and slapped on the hand by Melora, who looked at him as if he were dumb. “I mean, she’s strong but not smart. Who just collapses in a living room full of vampires?”
“Poor thing overextended herself.” Matias swaddled her as if she were an infant, and then he lifted his hand in the air. “Pelopia, can you put the thing to bed and also do something about the door she broke? Now there is an awful draft.”
I turned to him along with the rest of the family.
“Why in the world would a draft bother you, Matias? We don’t get cold,” Arsiein said back.
“The temperature is not the problem. It is the air. It messes with my hair. Not all of us are blessed with teenage boy band hair like you. Though I did come close.”
Jabari snorted, which made Hinrik and Ulrik all begin to laugh.
“Are you sure you don’t want to run away?” Theseus asked me.
I shook my head.
I wanted to be here, and for me to be here, I needed to face the witches—the one currently being carried upstairs in a blanket by Pelopia and the one that stared at me from across the room in a straitjacket.
Free us, she demanded.
I will.
* * *
“Bloody f—Ah.” I hissed as I pulled my hand back from what felt like the gates of hell! Damn, that burned.
“Still no luck?” Atarah asked as she knitted, and Arsiein played chess by himself.
“None,” I said as I looked over my healing hand.
“Do you wish to take a break?” asked Arsiein, not bothering to look at me.
Yes, I wanted to go back to Theseus. However, he hadn’t slept in days, not that he minded at the time. But now that we were back in reality and didn’t know what would happen next, he needed the rest. He knew it, and so did I.
Only, the last time he rested, I disappeared for days, and now with a witch in his home, he didn’t feel comfortable any longer. However, Arsiein and Atarah all but swore to stick to me. And they sure did, from the moment he’d gone back to our room till this very second as I practiced releasing my magic or Adelaide’s as she slept on the bed. They never once looked away from me.
But I just watched Adelaide, slightly annoyed at how long she had slept. It had been hours already. I didn’t know how to do this! I’d read vampire books in which vampires talked about how watching a human sleeping was fascinating. It wasn’t. It was annoying, and I didn’t want to rush her, but she had just jumped into my life, disturbed my morals, and fallen asleep!
“You are pouting.” Atarah giggled.
“I am,” I grumbled and looked back at my hands. “Why is it that I can do every other magic but break this stupid spellbind?”
“Maybe it takes an exact spell?” Arsiein shifted his bishop across the board.
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know, so until I do, I will try to force it,” I replied, taking a deep breath and closing my eyes.
There, in the darkness, appeared me. Before she could say “free me” again, I reached ove
r and grabbed the binds of her jacket, just trying to rip the thing off her. It burned, like touching raw fire, but I tried to ignore it and kept pulling. It didn’t budge an inch.
Magic in my wake, now you must break.
“Dammit!” I opened my eyes again, smoke rising from my hands as they trembled and bleed.
“How is that force working out for you?” Arsiein asked, the corner of his lip turning up.