Spellbound

Chapter One: Hilda

   I thrust my sword in an upward arc, aiming for the side of her throat. However, she deflects my blow and sends another at me just as quickly. I narrowly avoid it, and in the split second in which she's recovering from her thrust, my blade makes it's mark, falling to rest on the tender skin of her throat.

I watch as my stepsister throws her hands in the air in surrender.

"You've gotten better," Grace says, smiling. "You were never able to beat me before."

I swing my sword around, showing off.

"It's about time the student surpasses the master, right?"

She shakes her head and laughs.

"You're something else, Hilda."

   It's when we have our secret training sessions that I actually feel happy- not just happy, but complete. It's where I can show the part of myself that I am the most proud of: my powerful side.

I know Grace feels the same way, because the look on her face mirrors my own every time we fight.

   Maybe it's the giddy feeling that you get when doing something forbidden, or maybe it's the fact that my haughty sister Fidelia blabs about everything but this.

If mother knew that Grace and I did this, she'd have our heads. I let out a tiny grin. It's not as if that fact stops us any from doing what we want.

"We should head back to the house now," Grace says, breaking me out of my reverie.

"We don't want Fidelia sniffing around for us," she grumbles, heading up the cellar stairs.

The old cellar behind our manor is where we've practiced our swordsplay for the past couple of years. Since no one's been down there for nearly a decade, it's as safe a place as any for taking part in forbidden activities.

As always, we enter the house through the back kitchen entrance and sneak up to our bedroom.

Grace and I share a bedroom, but it's by choice. I for one, have always been more close to Grace than my own sister of flesh and blood. I learned early on that Fidelia existed solely for pleasing our mother. She was never to be trusted to keep sisterly secrets, and she possessed none of the spunk and rebellious thoughts that so often linked Grace and I together.

I jump into my four poster bed, exhausted from training. However, rather than falling asleep, I do what I've been doing for the past couple of sleepless nights. I close my eyes and imagine the impossible: escape from this house.

From the moment my mother killed my father and gained full control over the estate, she shrouded the entire property in a powerful spell that kept outsiders out, and unfortunately, her daughters in.

No one in the kingdom, not even the king, has stronger magical powers than she does. Even worse, the magic that is supposed to run through my veins is nonexistent. Neither I, nor Grace, nor Fidelia had been gifted with magical abilities, despite each of us having at least one parent with magic.

I roll over in bed and try to get the impossible out of my head. I'm never getting out of this manor. No way no how.

I can dream of riding horseback with my sword, cutting down my enemies, and leading a warrior's life, but that is what it is: just a dream.

I hear a slight creak as someone opens our chamber door. Immediately, I close my eyes and heap the silk covers over my head, pretending to be asleep. I know who it is.

I've always been able to feel my mother's presence when she is near.

There must be an ample amount of ice in her soul, because when she's near, it's like everything and everyone in the room gets a tiny part of their life spans sucked away, and it becomes noticeably colder, as if the very air around her has turned into a lifeless corpse. 

"Goodnight my daughters,"

her dead voice tells us, echoing throughout the silent room.

I, Hilda Willthorn, daughter of the most evil and powerful miscreant in the kingdom, am going to get out of here.

It's only a matter of when.

~ Chapter written by RamyeonHan

The beautiful picture above is Hilda, and was made from a picture of Alexandra Daddario, Hilda's actress.

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