Beauty and the Magician (Tales of the Red Witch Book 1)

Chapter 12 - Beware witches and their tempers

The temperature in the shop had dropped the moment the magician had left although it did little to cool her temper.

Annika slammed the shop door before locking it. She was a little surprised she didn't break the glass in her fury. She wasn't sure what made her angrier; Mr. Haak and his ridiculous proposal, if you can even call his demand a proposal, or the fact that a real magician had walked into her shop, performed real magic and wasted it turning that scoundrel into a toad! The whole scene had surprised her and maybe she had become a little scared.

She had never met a magician before and had never seen magic. Magicians were not common and rarely mingled outside of palaces. She had only ever read about them and their exploits in books.  No one really knows where they come from just that a very small number of children are born with the ability to do magical things. She used to wonder as a child what it would be like to have been born that way.

Her fear was quickly subsiding as she pondered the past few hours and she began to become more concerned for Valdimir. She knew for sure she didn't like him, but she still couldn't find it in herself to wish him serious harm. Well, maybe she had once wished for him to be struck by lightning, but she didn't really mean it. She just wanted him to go away and focus on some other unlucky girl.

She had tried to tell the magician that she had the situation perfectly under control.

She would be lying if she didn't acknowledge that part of her was happy to be rid of Valdimir but this wasn't how she wanted to fight this battle nor did she want someone to fight her battles for her. She was the one who would have to live in Wohnort for the rest of her life and she needed to know that she could deal with Valdimir on her own. The very thought of facing him again filled her with dread, that is, if he was ever turned back into a man.

Sofie had been right, when the time came, she knew exactly what she needed to do. She just didn't expect Valdimir to be so angry about it.

The image of the mysterious magician's clear grey eyes came unbidden to her mind. She was sure they felt some kind of mutual connection up until his unwarranted, foolish, botched attempt to rescue her. Though it was kind of gallant of him to stand up for her.

No one had ever stood up for her like that before. She shook the thoughts out of her head.

The very last thing she needed was to get mixed up with a strange arrogant magician and his nonsense. Stars, he wasn't even going to tell her he was a magician! She wondered why he would keep it a secret. She wondered if she would have been less frightened if he had told her before hand. Maybe she should have realized it when she felt his strangeness but she had just chocked up that strange feeling he gave her to her attraction.

It figures, the one man she actually felt some interest in turned out to be an unattainable dream. He could not possibly want anything to do with a village flower shop girl. Magicians were special and she was anything but.

She smiled as she thought of his broad boyish grin. "Don't be ridiculous, Annika. There are lots of handsome nice men in the world who are far less trouble than a ridiculous, arrogant, stubborn magician. You need to forget all about this right now. It's not like you are ever going to see him again anyway." She said under her breath.

Though she wasn't sure who she was trying to convince. And she wasn't convinced at all that she would be able to forget him. She walked quickly off to meet her sister.

***

Annika arrived at the laundry to hear shouting coming from inside. She hurried and stopped just inside the door surrounded on either side by the workers who were cowering from the scene playing out before them. Sheets hanging on the line behind fluttered like a curtain almost making the scene look like a macabre play. But it wasn't. The large open room was cold and sparks of lightening seemed to dance around the space causing the little hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end.