How Charming

Chapter 6

After talking for hours, most of us decided to try and get some rest. We slept in shifts, two of us would be awake at a time. It was the middle of the night when Logan and I were awoken for our shift.

"Did Everly give you the pixie dust?" I ask him.

"Yeah, do you really not know the lullaby?"

"What lullaby?"

"Mom used to sing it to us. It made her hair glow."

I had no recollection of what he was talking about. I knew that Mom had magic hair, but I didn't remember any lullaby. Or at least I didn't until he began singing it. I didn't realise how much I missed her until that moment. It's as if all the memories came flooding back. I didn't feel any sorrow, I felt happy at the memories. But the happiness soon faded as I had a burning desire to kill the woman who had killed my mother.

I leaned on Logan's shoulder, and he wrapped a comforting arm around me. For a moment, things felt normal. It felt like we were sitting on top of the roof, looking down at the village. But we weren't, we were on the grass looking at the stars, and I liked this much better. "Do you regret it?" I ask, seemingly out of nowhere.

"I don't know yet." He says, and silence consumes the woods once more, before he breaks it again. "Do you?"

"No. I don't think I do." I sigh. "I miss Jackson though, he's been following me around since I was four. It's weird that he's not."

"I keep expecting for you to get yelled at by someone." He says, and I punch him on the arm. "I'm serious. When was the last time you went a day without being shrieked at by Aunt Cindy."

"She didn't yell at me for a week last month."

"She was in another kingdom."

"Either way, that was an amazing week."

"I keep doing things, and then thinking, isn't this against the rules? But there are no rules. I don't think I like that. Rules are good."

"Rules are meant to be broken."

"No, I actually think that they were made to be followed, and most are made as a result of unspoken rules being broken." Logan says, being the stickler he is.

"You are no fun. We've barely been outside of the castle for a day."

"It feels longer."

"It feels better."

It looks like Logan wants to disagree but he can't find the words to. We sit in a not so comfortable silence. It wasn't uncomfortable either, it was like a freshly healed wound, but I didn't have anything I was recovering from.

The silence was short yet long, I could have basked in it forever. Sitting with my brother in the grass, in the middle of the woods. Everything felt right. But it was broken by a rustling in the trees. The wind was far too still to have caused the noise. I quickly jumped off of Logan, still unsure whether he had heard the sound. I drew my knife before standing as still as humanly possible.

My head darts around as I search for what caused the noise. I walk towards where I swore the sound had come from when suddenly there was a ruffling sound. I fell backwards and looked up, only to see an owl fly out of the tree.

I cursed under my breath at my own foolishness. There wouldn't be anyone in the middle of the woods at night, that's stupid. Then again, I was in the woods in the middle of the night. I looked down, my clothes were covered in blood and dirt. I looked horrible. I brushed off my clothes, but it didn't do much. They were still caked in filth. I reached back to grab my knife, I had dropped it when I fell. I felt around for it for a moment, but couldn't find it. Suddenly, I felt a cold metal press against my neck.