Enchantingly Different

Chapter 8

“Robert, I have never put a spell on you to alter your emotions. I made the potion to put you to sleep and there was the unfortunate incident where I paralyzed you, but that’s it. Everything else was real.”

She gives me a small smile and her arms stay wrapped around my neck. It takes me a couple of seconds to process what she’s told me. So all this time that I’ve been a mercurial mess, that was all me. Is she telling the truth? Her open face and hopeful smile say yes, but I still need to tread lightly around her – at least for now.

“Sit down Robert, please. I will get the wood and build a bigger fire. I can already feel the temperature dropping.”

Shae pushes me away from the door with a cheeky smile and slips out of the house before I can say anything. As soon as she has broken contact with me, I know she’s right. It is getting colder in here.

As much as I don’t want to be ordered around by a woman, a witch at that, I sit myself down on a chair by the shrinking fire. Small flames still lick at the charred log inside the hearth, but they seem to do it reluctantly and the light emitted from them is dimming by the second.

I rub at my legs, trying to rub life into them and take away the stiffness from being in bed for days at a time. Hopefully they will right themselves again by tomorrow and I’ll be able to leave in search of Juliette. I glance out the window and see the snow pelting down and I hope that she is somewhere safe and not braving the storm alone.

The door opens abruptly and Shae stumbles in carrying a large pile of logs. She dumps them on the floor with a loud bang and smiles widely at me, her face red from the wind whipping against it.

“Told you I would be fast,” she says, shutting the door and stooping to pick up a couple of logs. She tosses them into the fire one by one and embers explode from the ashes, spiraling out into the air. “I’m going to make some more soup. I know you probably don’t want any more, but you really need to take in as much fluid as you can. You’re probably quite dehydrated which is why you get so dizzy.”

I say nothing in response right away. I know she’s probably right, but the things that I would do for some wine and roasted pig back at the castle right now. But she wouldn’t be there, my thoughts add maliciously. She would never be allowed into the castle….if they knew. Perhaps they won’t know who she is, but I know how the servants talk. All it would take is one person to say something or someone to attack her and another ‘unfortunate event’ to happen. She would be killed.

“Are you alright?”

I shake myself back to my senses and see her standing before me, her cloak removed and eyes trained on my face.

“Yes, I was just thinking about how it would be if I took you back to the palace,” I respond honestly. She freezes and draws in a breath.

“Robert, I could never go into Avonzia. I was outcast five years ago. Too many people would recognize me.” She drags a chair out and goes to sit, but I grab her arm and pull her onto my lap. Her cheeks instantly redden and my heart beats faster at the closeness of her, the press of her thighs against mine and her breasts close to my chest.

“Isn’t there some kind of spell you could do to hide your true self?” I nuzzle my nose into the side of her neck and breathe in her intoxicating scent of Jasmine flowers and Lillies. She sighs softly and leans into me as I kiss her sweet skin.

“No, I don’t do magic like that. Even if I did, is that something you would want me to do? I would have to hide myself for the rest of my life.”

I pause a little at that. She’s right.

“No, I wouldn’t want that,” I say with a frown. Her hand brushes against my cheek, her eyes probing mine.