13 Witches Cursed ADELAIDE

Chapter 6

The next day was different. Instead of avoiding each other, they talked. Instead of taking separate breaks, they sat together, ate together, laughed and played. They spent every moment together, enjoying the time they had. By nightfall, Adelaide had drawn quiet.

"Why the long face?" Zahn asked.

"Tomorrow is our last full day together. We only just found each other and now it's almost over."

"I know. I have been thinking about that as well."

"Isn't there anyway for us to extend it somehow? He knows I'm cursed...couldn't we have another set back?" Adelaide asked with a giggle.

"There isn't any point in delaying. No matter what happens, we will still be who we are. It's not that I don't want to be with you, because I do. But, I would just as soon end the torture."

"Torture? It's torture being with me?" Adelaide, who often had a naughty temper, was mad.

"Not torture...just...knowing that we can't be together...it's torture."

"Well why don't you just take your magical powers and make this carriage go faster so you can end the torture. Or better yet...don't you have the ability to jump? You are fully magical aren't you? Why don't you just end the torture and jump us back to your home...that way you can just be done with me!"

"Adelaide! Where are you going? Come back!" Zahn called after Adelaide as she stomped off in a huff towards the woods they rested on the outskirts of. He didn't chase her though. Not initially. She probably needed to be alone, to calm down and think rationally and he...well...he wanted to chase her but thought better of it. It was already more pain than he could bear, knowing he had to turn her over to his brother in less than two days.

He had thought about running away. He was a second son. It wasn't necessary for him to be at the family home. Both he and Adelaide were magical...they could fend for themselves. They could go north...towards the desolate lands of their world and there they could live in relative seclusion. Zahn thought about a magical blanket he could cast around their home...so no one could find them magically. It could work.

He wouldn't do it though.

He had been sent by his brother to be his proxy. He loved his brother. He was a fair and decent man. Zahn was to deliver his brother's bride to him and he would follow through. He hadn't anticipated falling in love, but, elders from centuries passed have always stated that love comes when you least expect it.

That had never been more truthful.

Zahn was just about to go after Adelaide when he heard her scream.

"Adelaide!!" Zahn yelled, jumping up and taking off in the direction of her screams. "Adelaide...where are you?"

He was still running but heard nothing. She screamed only once and now it was eerily quiet. Zahn was breathless, panic starting to rise within his chest.

Where could she be?

"Adelaide? Can you hear me? Please help me find you!" Zahn called.

He closed his eyes, blocking out all sound, trying to focus on even the tiniest hint of Adelaide's presence.

He heard something. It was faint...but it was a whimper.

Her whimper.

Running on instinct and adrenaline, Zahn headed towards where he sensed her. He came to the end of a cliff, saving himself with his quick footing. Peering over the edge he saw her at the bottom. She had fallen onto a ledge a long way down. How she was still alive was beyond Zahn's comprehension.