The One He's Not

Manipulation & Making Up

Manipulation & Making Up

NORA

“Nora, can you stop pacing like that? You’re giving me a headache.”

Oh, he has the headache? He’s the one with the troubles? Selfish.

My husband’s study was not a place that I wanted to be. I felt confined and I knew that there were things out there that needed to be done. This included getting Kathleen back.

“Dear, calm down. She’ll be back in no time at all, I promise.” Elliot had been sitting in his armchair for the past hour and didn’t dare to make a move towards me. He shouldn’t have been this calm, I mean Kathleen was out there and she needed be here. With us. Her own kind.

I shook my head profusely. “Don’t you get it? She will never come back now that she’s gone and if it gets out to the kingdom that she got away, everything will turn into chaos!”

I could just imagine it now. Towns people getting into groups, with weapons and sharp objects, to rebel against the palace. All of the control that I’ve worked so hard to contain would be unleashed and picked up by the crazy people that live here. The only reason that there was structure in Payne’s Landing was because of me and no thanks to Elliot. My husband may be the heir to the throne, but I was the backbone to the strong kingdom, not him. That was part of the reason why his father set him up with me in any arranged marriage. To give his son a gut.

“It’s that worm of a savage. After Kathleen ran away, he was probably there to help get her out. Some sort of sick escape plan.”

I heard my husband sigh and I knew that was a bad sign. He either sighs when he didn’t agree with me or when he was tired, which was practically all of the time. Hence why I did all of the dirty work.

“Then we will deal with the savage when the time comes. You said that you knew his whereabouts correct?”

I groaned and threw my hands in the air in frustrations. He’s so aggravating! “But dear, we can’t dispose of him yet! He is our only key to getting Kathleen back here and to make him useful, we need him alive.”

Elliot stood up from his chair and brushed off his robes. Grey and sleek, just like the ones I would always lay out for him. Big baby, I even had to pick out his clothes!

“Kat is out of our hands, I thought you would be happy about something like this-“

“NO I AM NOT HAPPY!” In a fit of rage, I grabbed the closest object to me and chucked it at the wall. It was a family shot of us in the front of the garden. A crack in the glass lay over top of my face. How inaccurate.

All of the tenseness that I was holding in since Kat ran away was pulsing off of me in waves and I felt my powers take over. I let go of my self-control and I could see my vision becoming red around the edges. Like fire.

I turned to Elliot and smiled to myself. His advice was useless, he had no power over me. I had it all.

Elliot stared at me in shock as he always did and it wasn’t long until his eyes started to turn the familiar shade of gold. It was the signal that my powers were working.

“Yes, my dear. I don’t know what I was thinking,” he mumbled as his face muscles relaxed and gave me full control.

I smirked to myself, but it soon turned into a scowl. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the edges of my finger tips wrinkling to nothing. Soon, my hair would turn grey and I would feel my heart failing me, telling me that I had to stop using my gift. A tiny flaw in my talent, that’s all.