WITCH - The Queen

Chapter 19

Agathe

The carriage stopped in front of the vampires' castle. Agathe had never seen it before. The building was scary to her. Friedrich, on the other hand, smiled when he saw Torsten and Annemarie at the entrance to the castle. Torsten held a little boy in his arms and Annemarie a sleeping girl. Agathe snorted. Vampire children. No witches. No wizards. Half-vampires! Well. Better than short-lived, powerless mortals. Definitely.

The two got out of the carriage and Friedrich greeted his son and grandchildren cheerfully.

"How nice to see you!", he said with a big smile.

"We're happy too", Annemarie replied, giving Agathe a very strange look. "You arrived just at the right moment. One day before the celebration. Wonderful. And in time for breakfast. Come. Our servants bring your belongings to your room."

The boy looked at Agathe and Friedrich skeptically. "Daddy? They stay?", he asked quietly.

"These are your grandpa and your grandma", Torsten murmured to him amused. "Do you remember? Grandpa Friedrich has already visited us twice."

"Very nice." Agathe nodded, ignoring father and son. "I'm a bit hungry after the long drive."

"I'm on the verge of starvation!" Friedrich kissed her hand, and touched Rosina's little head. Annemarie smiled.

"Let's go inside", she said.

On the way to the vampires' dining room, a pretty vampire woman with blond curls came towards them. She held a little girl by the hand, who looked very much like Friedrich. Agathe looked at her husband sharply and noticed that he seemed shocked. The pretty vampire smiled at them.

"Good morning, Aunt Coletta!", greeted Annemarie cheerfully. "Queen Agathe and King Friedrich have just arrived."

"Delightful!" Coletta smiled at Agathe, and winked at Friedrich. Then she pointed to the little girl. "This is my Coralie."

"Hello!" the child squeaked. "Mom and I... eat... Cookies!"

Coletta laughed softly. "No, Coralie. There are no cookies for breakfast!"

"No!", the child snorted.

"We'll talk about that later", Agathe hissed at her husband.

"Shall we go?" Torsten cleared his throat. "Breakfast is waiting. Unfortunately without cookies."

Julia

The sun was slowly setting. Julia sat with Leopold by the river. The two sat on the soft grass and listened to the splashing of the water. Julia leaned against her boyfriend. It was quiet.

"Should we go back now?", asked Leopold, kissing her hair.

"No. I don't want to, yet." Her wounds hurt a little with every movement and she still had a headache, but Julia had enough of her bed. Therefore, she persuaded Leopold to go with her to the river. There she could also rest. Leopold, however, insisted on carrying her. An offer she gladly accepted. At the moment, she was trying to get a few drops of water from the river, but it worsened her headache.

"Juli? Are you trying to do magic?" Of course, Leopold caught her immediately.

"Just a bit."

"Juli!" He pulled her onto his lap so they could look at each other and kissed her forehead. "No. You still have a fever. Let's go back. We've been here long enough. You still need to rest."

"But I don't want to!", she grumbled lazily. "I feel like I'm going to need my magic soon!"

"A feeling?" Leopold frowned.