spellbound | book #1 | completed

X

edited: 27/06/2017

Remy skulked slowly through the dimly lit corridors of Maksim's home. Annika had left her to sleep almost an hour ago in what was apparently a spare bedroom but looked more like a museum exhibition of treasures and goods, and needless to say, it was impossible for her to do such a thing; her mind would not quieten down, filled too much with images of pink skies and tall buildings, strange people with bright hair and inhuman eyes, and beneath all of that, men dressed in black chasing her and Maksim. She had even been provided with fresh clothes to sleep in, an old shirt that she supposed belonged to Maksim that hung loosely about her knees and was too long in the arms. Her leg still hurt, but after resting it for a while, it felt much better than it had, though a ferociously purple bruise covered much of it, from her thigh all the way down to her ankle.

She ran her hands along the patterned wall, her fingers bumping and breaking their trail each time she came to a new door. It was as though this place was infinite, and she was sure she was already lost after turning down a few corridors, each of which shared the same maroon wallpaper and framed paintings, the same golden doors and low-ceilings, all from which hung dazzling chandeliers.

She was broken out of her daze when she heard the sound of soft music, and soon found the source of it coming from an open door, where Maksim's mother sat cross-legged in an arm chair in what looked to be a large library. Upon observing her silently for a moment, Remy could see how she was related to Maksim; though her eyes were a bright shade of green rather than a deep shade of blue, she shared the same angular features, with high cheekbones and a sharp jawline, and her hair shone a million different shades of red against the desk lamp, though hers was much brighter than Maksim's. She barely looked ten years older than him, with only a few extra wrinkles and laughter lines; though Remy thought she didn't seem to do much laughing.

"Lost?" she questioned, peering over her book to where Remy stood in the doorway, a smug smirk on her face. Remy also understood where Maksim got his sarcasm and hostility.

"I couldn't sleep. I thought I would walk around for a while. I hope that's okay?" She hovered awkwardly, unable to keep her eyes from roaming the books behind the woman. She had always loved books, though she would never admit it to her friends in Calderdale, and her fingers tingled at the thought of running them over the spines, turning the pages, curling up somewhere and reading, though she didn't suppose these books would be of much use to her; she didn't think they would even be in a language she could read.

"Did Annika leave?"

Remy nodded in response, unsure of what else to say. She had barely listened when Annika had rambled on to her about Maksim and his mother, the Council, and god knows what else. There was something rather irritating about her high-pitched voice and overly kind façade—that's what Remy assumed it was, a façade; nobody was that nice, not even 'witches,' which is what she had called herself.

Judging from the way Maksim's mother averted her eyes back to the book in front of her, she assumed that the conversation was over, but Remy couldn't stop herself from saying more. "You know, it wasn't Maksim's fault," she said hesitantly, having no idea why she was defending him but doing so anyway at the memory of his mother's cold glare. "It was probably mine, actually. I got in his way, and he was being chased by those guys in black-"

"The Dark Ones," she interrupted as though it really mattered what Remy called them.

"Right, those. Anyway, he pushed me into the portal to escape them. He never meant for any of this to happen."

"Maksim never does mean for things like this to happen, but somehow they always do," she said tiredly, closing her book and putting it on the desk next to her. This room had been the first normal thing that Remy had seen upon coming here, and she was glad for it. She could at least pretend that she was in the normal world, where people sat in their libraries and read the way that Maksim's mother was doing now.