Regal [h.s au]

09. Stalker

AMELIA

"Silas, you cannot connect to the spirit world by simply wishing it and humming," I tell him flatly, watching as he stubbornly hums even louder, the tips of his pointer and middle fingers pressed against his temples, eyes screwed shut.

"Ooommm, hear me out my ancestors, oommm help me shut Amelia up because she's annoying meeee oommm," Silas chants in one breath, sitting on the wooden floorboards of his cottage, his legs in a criss-cross position.

"Oh, ask them for that recipe I found in your old family cookbook, you know a few ingredients are missing!" Lilly says as she kneels in front of him, placing her hands on top of her thighs as she curiously watches him with big doe eyes.

"Wait... I'm feeling something... oh yes, I'm definitely getting some message!" Silas exclaims, making Lilly widen her eyes in excitement and lean towards him as I simply lean back in his armchair, my legs dangling over the armrest as I play with an azure mineral rock of some sort, twirling it between my fingers.

A muffled grumbling sound suddenly erupts around the silence filled cottage, making all of us look at Silas as he opens his dark eyes, an awkward smile stretching over his face. "Ha false alarm, it was just my food deprived stomach..."

"Idiot," Zayn mumbles with a smug expression, his back pressed against the wall and arms crossed over his chest as he eyes his brother who shoots him an angry look.

"Aw, but at least you've tried, I'm sure you will get it right soon." Lilly pats his head as a small pout forms on Silas' face.

Zayn watches their exchange with an emotionless expression, but I don't fail to notice how his shoulders grow stiff at the scene. Any stiffer and he might burts like a bubble, wow. I contemplate poking him to see if he would fall over like a wooden plank but decide against it.

"It's getting dark, I think the wisest thing would be for us to go," Zayn announces, looking at me for confirmation.

Zayn prefers to live with us since his parents used to live and work in the mansion while Silas prefers to live alone in this cottage in the middle of the woods where their grandparents used to live. Rumour has it they're the descendants from the witches that used to live in these areas, but only Silas believes in it and is interested in his family history and keeping it alive. The cottage is filled with spell books written in Latin, potions, herbs, and mineral stones, all of which he uses to entertain himself and show off daily.

I stretch out my arms and legs like a cat, groaning quietly. "You are right, who knows who might be lurking in the woods."

Ever since Prince Harry talked to his uncle two weeks ago, the attacks have stopped and we haven't seen a single soldier lurking around here. However, there are suspicious groups of people lurking around the woods and villages, seemingly in search of something. If anyone dares to approach them, they'll get attacked so the villagers usually stay away from them and everyone is locking their houses as soon as the sun sets. I've tried to track them down a few times in order to see what are they after, but I would lose their track each time.