Black Magic Women

105

When Zelda finally opened her eyes again, she was met by Mary's loving gaze. She felt a small tug at the corner of her lips and she gave the brunette a shy smile, feeling her mind calmly nuzzled against her own. The calmness followed the storm and their hold on each other was no longer for dear life. They had their arms still wrapped around each other, but it was a kind and tender embrace.

Neither of them wanted to break their gaze, being completely lost in each other's eyes, but Mary had become aware of the audience they had completely tuned out. She diverted her attention to them awkwardly standing in the door frame, looking a bit at a loss of whether or not to interrupt.

Zelda quickly followed her gaze and saw what had drawn the brunette's attention, realizing they must have been standing there for quite a while and become incredibly embarrassed all of a sudden. She quickly averted her eyes, a deep shade of red creeping across her face.

She couldn't believe she had not noticed them before, making a joke out of herself. Not even her sister had ever seen her lose it like that and she felt mortified by the idea that Sabrina might have witnessed her pathetic meltdown. Her niece had always known her as the strong rock she could rely on when things got rough and Zelda didn't want that to change. There was no need for Sabrina's image of her aunt to be tinted by a weak and pitiful moment of complete loss of control.

Don't do that to yourself. 

What do you mean?

The witch looked back at the brunette confused, finding her eyes glued to her face. Mary smiled at the way Zelda's face contorted in confusion, the way one of her eyebrows shot up and her lip did that thing, it always did when she was either confused or disapproving of something. She studied her face for a second longer, finding the sheer beauty despite the cuts and bruises utterly breathtaking.

Don't torture yourself like that. There is nothing wrong with what just happened and you shouldn't tell yourself otherwise. You are not pathetic for having emotions. You're not weak for letting your feelings out. He is pathetic for abusing someone incredible like you. You, on the other hand, are strong, independent, and have a power he'd never hold. You captivate people, they listen to you and he was jealous of you.

Zelda knew that Mary was probably right, but she could not take a lesson on self-love after what had just happened and so she just quickly averted her eyes again, not being able to look at the immortal. She knew that she was right, that to some extend she had a distorted way of viewing herself and was oftentimes too harsh and quick when it came to judging her actions, but she couldn't admit that; not even to herself.

Mary was having none of that. She had overheard Zelda's harsh critique about herself one too many times to not know what the ginger was doing to herself. She took her chin between her fingers and softly pulled her face back up, making the witch look at her. She needed to know that Zelda heard what she'd say.

You are not as cold and calculating as you like to let people on.

Do you know what I really hate? That I simply can't hide anything from you.

Zelda needed a desperate change of topics, not being able to take any more serious conversation that day, and Mary knew that it was a way of escapism but decided to let it go. Zelda had been through enough pain, so she let it slide. It would simply have to be a conversation for another day.

Well, that's part of the package.

The two of them smirked before Mary finally closed the distance between them and pressed her lips tenderly against Zelda's. Zelda relaxed into their kiss, feeling warmth spreading throughout her entire body. She felt those butterflies that only Mary could give life to roar within her belly and smiled into their kiss.

It lasted longer than usual, conveying all of the things neither of them dared to say and Zelda moaned softly in protest when they finally parted. She looked at Mary's cheek, where some of her own blood had stuck to when they had kissed and she gently licked her index finger and wiped it away lovingly, giving her a shy and insecure smile.

She was still not entirely comfortable with showing affection, especially not when people were around to witness her act of kindness. She had never known love to this extend and she was still exploring it on her own terms.

"Ehem, I don't want to be interrupting something, but we have the body of a High Priest lying in our living room and I think we have more... pressing matters at hand," Hilda said, drawing both of them back to reality.

Zelda looked at her sister, pulling her guards back up. She considered addressing the situation for a second, but she knew she'd just knot herself a noose if she tried to get out of this somewhat gracefully, so she simply dismissed the scene she had just caused and decided to act like it hadn't happened; at least for the time being. She looked at Faustus, who didn't seem to be moving and felt absolutely nothing for the man that had once asked her brother for her hand in marriage. Not even hatred would she waste on him.

"Is he dead?" Sabrina asked, who had remained silent up until that point. Nobody had dared to check his pulse, with the stress of the situation.

"I sure hope he is," Mary growled and looked at the lifeless body with hostility and disgust. Even if she hadn't killed him the first time, she'd make damn sure she'd not make that mistake twice.

Everybody looked at the unconscious form of their High Priest, the bloody hole, where Mary had hit him with the hammer, clearly visible. The force had punched a hole, now gaping with blood, into his skull, making them all doubt he had survived that blow.

Ambrose was intrigued as to how much force the petite woman must have brought up at that moment to have hit him that hard, but he decided it was best to leave it uncommented. He knew that there was a time and place for everything but that was neither the place nor the time.

"If no one wants to check for his pulse, I will," Mary finally said after a while of complete silence and crawled over to him, feeling Zelda getting agitated. She could feel her anxiety about what the brunette would find and sent calming thoughts her way.

She wasn't gentle, nor kind when she rolled him around and reached for his neck, checking for any sign that the prick was still alive. When she found none, she half chuckled half sighed, knowing this was rather a curse than a blessing.

"He's dead," she announced to the family, who almost simultaneously released a breath they were painfully aware of holding.

"Well, if we weren't fucked before, we certainly are now," Sabrina said. Under any other circumstances, Mary would have highly disagreed with that statement but there was no denying that the young witch was right.

"Language young lady," Zelda warned, though she knew that her niece was only speaking the truth. Their stakes of somehow surviving this went from zero to minus one hundred with the dead body of their High Priest at their disposal.

Not that she'd complain, she wanted him as dead as the rest of them, but people would start asking questions if he didn't turn up and if they found their answers in their house, that would mean the death of the Spellmans.

Killing a High Priest was almost as bad as crimes cam and all of them fell into silence, as all of them tried to think of the best way to deal with this situation. Even if it was self-defense, nobody would believe them. Rumors had already gotten around about Zelda acquainting her High Priests' special attention, so they'd just call her a liar for claiming sexual assault.

Everybody knew it, but nobody dared to say anything else until Zelda finally found the strength to speak up.

"I need to go to the academy and find out if anybody knew where he was going."