Mischief, Charms & Rule Breaking *Watty Awards*

Chapter Eight

Charm/France

None of this made any sense; everyone was talking in riddles and acting like I was different somehow. 

I wondered what I had been like before the accident. I had asked my cousins and Kendall this question, several times and they had all tried to describe ‘the old Azréa’ to me, but ‘the old Azréa’ did not sound at all like the person I was now.

Maybe I had multiple personalities and the accident had buried the other one, causing the personality I was now to emerge. I guessed that was silly, but what if when I did eventually get my memory back, I wasn’t the same person anymore?

I thought about my brother; he had said he would be leaving soon and I didn’t want to let him leave before I had said goodbye, so I walked towards the study and knocked hard on the door.

The sound of the knocking on the solid oak door echoed loudly around the chateau corridor, but nobody answered. I knocked again, louder. Nothing...

Finally I grabbed hold of the door handle and nervously opened the door… to find that Uncle Henri’s study was empty!

The study was a medium sized room with a large fireplace set into one of the wooden, panelled walls. There were two armchairs in the middle of the room, and Henri’s desk sat in one of the far corners. I scanned the room, but there was no sign of anyone.

I wondered if they had gone outside, via the open French windows that led onto the terrace.

As I stood there, I caught sight of a newspaper that was sitting on Henri’s desk. It wasn’t a French newspaper though, but an English one which seemed to be open at a page discussing a prominent English wizarding family. I don’t usually read newspapers, but one of the pictures caught my eye; there was a blonde boy scowling out of it in a haughty manner.

I stared at the picture, something about the boy niggled at me, but I knew I had never actually been to England before, so there was no way I could have known him. Come to think of it though, his arrogant expression kind of reminded me of Elias.   

“Azréa! What are you doing snooping in here?” I spun around to find Alpha standing behind me, eyebrows raised, suspiciously. “And where’s father?”

I flushed, “I wasn’t snooping! I was looking for Luc. I saw him come in here with Uncle Henri and now they’ve disappeared! I thought they might have gone outside, but I can’t see any sign of them.”

“Luc is back?” Alpha sounded surprised, “Where is he now?”

I rolled my eyes, “That’s what I’m saying; they were both here a few minutes ago, and now they seem to have vanished!”

Alpha caught my expression and grinned, “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to make you repeat yourself, it’s just that Luc works away and he doesn’t get back here as much these days. Anyway, Kendall and James are waiting for you out the front, so how about we go outside and we can keep an eye out for father and Luc on the way?” I got the feeling he knew more than he was saying, but I let him lead me out of the room, onto the terrace - and away from the newspaper.

There was no sign of Uncle Henri or Luc outside, either, but my friends were sitting outside waiting for me patiently. Kendall heaved a huge sigh of relief as we appeared at the top of the stairs, “Thank goodness you came. Any longer watching James drooling over the muggle cars and I swear I would have had to resort to violence.”

I felt bad now, I hadn’t realized how long I had kept them waiting, and judging by the tone of desperation in Kendall’s voice, it had been too long!

“Where’s Elias? Did he go home?” I asked suddenly noticing he was missing. This would normally have cheered me up, but their faces fell.

“Haven’t you seen him?” Kendall asked, “He said he needed to use the bathroom and that was the last I saw of him. I thought he’d gone back to find you.”