Bound || A Twilight Fanfic

Chapter 7

"Don't you think it's weird?" Ruby muttered as she examined her features in the mirror. "It's been a couple of years, and my face has not changed at all. Not even a gray hair on my head. It doesn't make any sense."

Bea chuckled as she walked over to the young witch. Her hands rested on her shoulders as she brushed away the strands of hair from her skin and left a soft kiss on it. "Maybe it's genetics," she mused. "Just be grateful you don't have to deal with smile lines and crow's feet at twenty-three. Now, that's a travesty."

"How could your happiness ever be a bad thing?" Ruby smiled. "You're as beautiful as ever, Bea."

"Oh, you only say that," the girl chuckled. "I would gladly give you the three grays I found in my hair."

"My little salt and pepper beauty," the other witch teased. "I know you'll look marvelous with an all-white mane."

"Oh, goddess, I just hope it's at least twenty years down the line," Bea whined. "Not anywhere near my twenties or thirties."

"Well, maybe you could give some to me," she laughed. "I'm in serious need of some aging here."

"I wish those were my problems," Bea sighed. "Anyways, as much as I would love to stay here and chat about how your skin and your hair are perfect, I do need to go to school if I ever plan to finish college. I think five years is enough time to have finished already."

"Everyone has their own pace, Bea."

"Yeah, says the girl who finished her degree in three and a half years and is already finishing her master's."

"Well, not everyone can be me."

"Clearly," she playfully scoffed. "Beautiful and unbelievably intelligent. Save some for the rest of us."

"I'd give it all to you if I could," Ruby smiled. "But for now, you're going to have to apply yourself in school and embrace your changing body. I know I will."

With a hug and a kiss on Bea's lips, the two young women left the small house and walked onto the village center to head to the coven's entry point. They chatted amongst themselves, enjoying the cold air of October, when Margaret, a coven elder, stopped them in their tracks.

"Good morning, girls," the woman said. "Are you off to school?"

"Beatrice is," Ruby answered. "I'm simply escorting her."

"Well then, why don't we leave that to Russell?" Margaret asked but both girls knew it was an instruction. "I fear I must steal you away, Ruby. It's a rather urgent matter."

"Is everything okay?"

"Oh, nothing you have to worry about, Beatrice," she smiled. "But I do need to speak with her."

"Russell will get you to school and back safe," Ruby assured, smiling at the awaiting man. "I'll be here when you get back."

"Alright," Bea sighed. "I'll see you then."

Ruby watched as Bea and Russell disappeared through the trees, one second there and the next gone. As much as she wanted to take off running after them, the last thing she would ever do was disobey an elder. If their instruction did not go against anything she believed, there was no chance she would ignore them.

"Come on now, Ruby," Margaret called her attention. "Off to my cabin."

The girl followed the woman to her home, running a million scenarios in her head. She knew there were no rules she had broken, and she doubted it had anything to do with her human and witch studies. Ruby had always been on top of it all. She had even been assigned the role of mentor only two years before. Clearly, she had been doing something right.