Under the Moon - Book 1 in the Bewitching Moon Series

Chapter 8

It took a lot of my strength to get just my head off the floor. The room looked like it was spinning and black dots clouded my vision. I sat up so I could observe the damage. I had a bunch of little cuts and scrapes along my arms and legs, but the most painful was a deep gash along my right thigh. Blood oozed out of it and I could see the glistening glass still stuck in my flesh.

I clenched my jaw as I tried to pull out the glass, fighting against my will to scream in pain. When I was sure that I had removed all the glass, I tightly wrapped the wound with one of my shirts, trying to stop the blood flow. I rested my head on the wall behind me, breathing in and out, trying to calm myself. Just as I started to calm down, I heard footsteps coming from down one of the halls. I scooted towards the corner of the room, gripping my bag to my chest.

This was going to be the end of me. I was going to get caught and thrown into jail while I was weak, vulnerable, and in pain. The footsteps got louder and louder. I shut my eyes close, silently praying to have a peaceful death right here, right now, instead of the brutal one I was destined to.

"Marabella." A voice said from in front of me, a voice I recognized. I opened my eyes slowly to find Aiden in front of me.

"Marabella," Aiden said once again kneeling down so that I wasn't looking up at him, but straight at him. "Marabella, I need you to trust me, but first we have to get out of here before they find us."

"W-Why?" I said, my voice shaky. I couldn't understand why he would want to help me, even after he and the rest of the school have found out that I am a witch, after finding out that I have lied to him, deceived him.

He seemed to understand my question, "Because I'm just like you," he said as he unwrapped the shirt on my leg. I winced at the pain but stared at his hand as he pressed them to my wound and a glow came from them. I could feel the warmth spreading all throughout my body. I watched as the wound on my leg, as well as all my other cuts and bruises healed in only a matter of seconds.

"Y-You're a witch as well?" I said, astonished by the fact that I had just learned.

He only nodded before getting up and extending a hand to help me up. He didn't let go of my hand but instead dragged me to the far corner of the room. He reached inside of his pocket and pulled out some sort of gadget that was almost as thin as paper. It looked a little like dried seaweed but there were blue glowing lines that almost looked like cracks in it.

"I was told to use this only in an emergency, this seems like enough of an emergency to me," Aiden said with a smile. Of course, he was going to joke now. When have I known him to be any different?

He placed whatever the thing he was holding, on the wall. Somehow it stuck. He closed his eyes and murmured something under his breath. The thing extended into a door-sized rectangle of blue light. Aiden dragged me into it and I didn't hesitate. I just wanted to get out of here. Preferably before the police found us. The portal-like thing brought us to the inside of a bedroom. Based on what little I saw of Aiden's background when we Face Timed, I could tell this was his bedroom. I looked back at the weird portal thing and it started to shrink and disappear. Not even the gadget was left behind. I guess this was a one-time thing.

Aiden brings me to his bed and sits down, patting the space next to him, indicating for me to sit down next to him. I sit down and look around his room. The paint on the wall is a shade of light blue so light it could be confused as white. Everything was so clean and organized, all in precise order. The only thing that contrasted to this order was his desk, it was littered with papers that from the bed, looked like official paperwork.

Aided cleared his throat, "So um, Marabella,"

I cut him off, "I have so many questions. How did you know my full name? Since when were you a witch, and why are you here if it's so dangerous for a witch to be here?"

"I could ask you that last question," Aiden said in a joking way.

"Aiden, seriously."

"Fine," Aiden sighed, "I came here on a mission to find you, Queen Anastasia..."

"Queen Anastasia! You mean like, the queen of the Under Sea?!" I was shocked, Aiden was sent to find me. From the queen of the Under Sea.

"Yeah, since only your mother was exiled, although pregnant with you, the Queen is allowing you to come to the kingdom."

"My mother? Did you know my biological mother? What happened to her? Why did she leave me on a beach?"

"Beach? What? No that wasn't what happened, I would know because my dad was part of the royal guard, tasked on spying on all who were exiled and making sure they never came back."

"Wait, so what did happen? Why did my mom, er my adoptive mom lie to me?"

"Your mom was exiled under... illegal business that I am not allowed to say and was sent here where she hid to preserve your and her life. She became great friends with Gwendolen Cooper, your adoptive mom, and they both raised you until you were about three months old. That is when the human government discover that your mom, Diana Ciro, was a witch, and executed her by setting her house on fire. Gwendolen Cooper managed to escape with you, changing your name to which I just found out to be Marabella Antoinette Cooper."

"What was my name before?" I asked. I don't know why that was the first thing I asked, I guess I just haven't processed all the information that Aiden had just told me.

"Antoinette Akosia Ciro, was your name before it was changed."

Everything was silent, silent for a long time before anyone said anything. Aiden got up from the bed and started picking up papers from the desk, sliding them into a folder before putting the folder into a backpack. He went around the room stuffing what little items were in the room, into his backpack. I stayed on the bed, silently watching him.

"Aiden?" I said quietly. Aiden stopped what he was doing to turn towards me.

"Yeah?"

"Did you know I was a witch before the incident, like in the cafeteria?"

"Somewhat. I had a feeling you were when you shoved Jake that day, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure."

"Oh." I didn't know what else to say. After a bit of an awkward silence, Aiden went back to packing his bag and continued to sit on his bed in silence, questioning my whole existence.