The Witch's Love ( Book I of The Witch Duology )

Chapter Nine: Captive

The sun had set and a faint grayish blue colour filled in the sky. The yellow light could still be seen like a shimmering fire just above the horizon. The weather turned colder.

We walked to the shed.

It would be wrong if I call it a shed, it was like a room with a long, permanent seat lining along three walls.

Irina took the end of the harness from my hand. We did not have any handy rope to properly tie the horse. I leaned against the door and watched her tie the animal to a grill of the only window the shed had.

She looked at me after she was done. I managed a weary smile to mirror her satisfied one.

My eyebrows pulled together when her mouth changed its posture to a semi-scowl.

"What?" I demanded, little confused.

Without saying anything, she walked to me. I noticed her gaze was fixed coldly on my left arm. She gently held it up to have a better look and then stared up at me.

"What?" She emphasized.

I couldn't help myself from laughing at the guardian-like look she held on her face.
"Told you." I answered, "Something silly but threatening."

"It's not silly." She hissed, "It's..." She shook her head to find some fitting word, "It's insane."

"Whatever you think it as." I slowly walked into the shed and she followed me.

"You think it's very heroic to let yourself get hurt for me?" She was ecstatic, "Then I'm sorry but I'm not really proud of my hero. Who did this to you?"

I turned to face her, "Err...should I lie?"

She smiled weirdly and wrinkled her nose, "You don't need to. You don't need to say anything."

"You are reading my mind?"

"I am reading your eyes."

I looked down and pursed my lips, nodded, "Okay." She waited for me to say something more. But when she saw I remained silent, madness started to creep into her eyes.

To lessen that, I said in a badly audible voice, "I did not really do that for you." I admitted, honestly, "I...I felt like doing that. It was not because of the promise or the fact that..." I was afraid to say the words in this moment, afraid that in her unstable temper she would say something she would not mean, afraid that I would helplessly hurt myself again in spite of knowing her, "...the fact that I love you."

She remained silent thankfully. I continued, "It was just because I thought it right. Necessary. If there had been someone else, I perhaps would have acted from my brain. That's the difference. In your case, I cannot help it...but I keep using my heart."

I trotted to her and touched her shoulders, "Even when the first time I saw you...now this is something tricky, I saw you and I thought you were the one we were looking for. When I was sure, I knew you couldn't be the one we were considering as. And even today, I knew I had to work it out like that." I shrugged and dropped my hands off her, "And I did."

She was staring into my eyes, "You are bleeding."

I waved a hand in the air, "C'mon I'm not that a fool! I did it...gently. Not deep at all. Yeah dangerous scratches you may call them." My lips curved into a smirk and I said lightly, "And plus, you are there to heal me. So why should I care?"

There was disbelief in her eyes, "You are...impossible!" She frowned like a child who just dropped ice-cream on her new dress, "I will not heal you this time! You are taking that as an advantage and you will keep hurting yourself!"