How Charming

Chapter 15

When we caught up to Everly and Kitty, Everly's left hand was covered in blood. I was too scared to ask why, and decided I'd rather not know. Everly is continuously wiping the blood off of her hand and onto her dress, much to Felicity's dismay.

"Where are we heading now?" Kitty asks.

"My house." Ashton says, looking at a map, that he must have grabbed from the village.

"We don't need that map, now get rid of it before I do." Everly threatens, the never ending fight over who should lead the way to the house begins once more.

"You two are the worst, let's just go." Jack states before beginning to walk, with Elisa trailing right next to him, the same goose still following her for unknown reasons. We begin walking back through the woods, not wanting to risk another encounter with guards, we try to head back through the clearing, even though that worked very poorly the first time.

The walk consists of small talk, more specifically it's Jack trying to get Logan to curse, "Ods bodikins! Stop punching me Jack."

"There is no way. You can't be that princely, just cuss and get it out." Jack continues to punch Logan's arm as he grows more and more annoyed.

"By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of purgatory! If you keep doing that I will hurt you." Logan flares.

"Knock it off you two this is ridiculous." Felicity says, knowing that someone's going to get hurt.

Kitty begins chanting as we stop in the clearing, "Fight, fight, fight!" Everly joins in, as they revel in the chaos about to ensue. Elisa closes her eyes and makes a face that implies she's praying to God that they stop their fighting. I struggle not to laugh at the scene and Ashton makes it very clear that he just wants to keep moving.

Jack pushes his luck and punches Logan once more, "That's it!" Logan says as he pounces on Jack and knocks him on the ground.

"Take me to dinner first." Jack says with a wink as Logan is on top of him, forcing him down. Logan winds up to punch him, but Jack uses the shift of Logan's weight and forces Logan to the ground. "Come on, you can do better than that shithead."

"That's not even a pun." Logan pants, disgruntled by both his current position, and the fact that Jack didn't even try to be clever this time.

"Yeah, I couldn't think of one." Jack says as he gets off of my brother. Jack extends his hand as a gesture of goodwill, and Logan accepts it as he pulls himself off of the grass. "I'll break you eventually."

"Good luck with that." Logan replies snarkily, I've heard him curse before when we were younger, but I think he enjoys making Jack annoyed.

Much to Ashton's relief we continue on the path again with limited interruptions. It's beginning to grow dark as we approach the musty cottage. The dark wooden stairs up to the door creak as we step on them, and the plants around the house seem even less tamed than before, I didn't think that was possible.

We enter the house and are immediately greeted by Bella who is reading a book and not bothering to look at us, "You guys made great time. I was worried you wouldn't be back by now. I take it you have the hair?" Bella finally looks up as she finishes talking. "I have many questions, none of which I can put into words at the moment."

I wordlessly pull the ball of golden hair out of my pocket and hand it to her. "Right, good. Where should I start? Who's this?" Bella asks pointing at Felicity.

"I'm Felicity Huck, and you are?"

"Bella, anyway, why is she here?"

Ashton shifts his weight, unsure of how to answer, Everly per usual takes charge "We were in trouble, and she helped us out."