The Shy Witch

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"You've been awfully quiet." Ryder said to me as we were walking down the flights of stairs. I didn't reply to him at first. I was still thinking about the events that had just happened a few moments ago.

"I guess I'm still taking it in." I told him.

He nodded. "understandable."

We continued down the stairs in silence. Honestly, I kind of missed his cockiness. It was weird seeing him serious.

"You know, you're lucky. Most of the girls here would pay money to spend some time alone with me." He said.

Aha. There it was.

I chuckled a little. Soon, we heard feet coming up the stairs. A few seconds later, Katrina and Penny came into view.

"Aww, if it isn't the cute little new girl." Penny said.

"We have to say, we were very surprised when you faked that stunt last hour. Please. We know you don't actually have the power to do that." Katrina added. I clenched my fists, wanting to punch them in the face.

"Actually, she does. And her power is ten times stronger than yours could ever be. So how about you shut up and finish doing your nails or whatever." Ryder snapped at them.

He took my wrist and pulled me past them. Well, it started on my wrist. I was up a few more stairs than him, so eventually his hand sorta slipped down to mine.

Wow.

I never knew holding someone's hand could affect me that much. My heart immediately quickened, and I could feel my face turning red. His hand was strong, but it wasn't very rough.

Don't hate me, but I kind of wanted to hold onto it forever.

But eventually, he let go, and my hand dropped to my side. We were on the ground floor, anyway.

"Annalise!" I heard someone yell.

I looked to my right towards the sound of the voice to see Daniel hurrying over to me. I left Ryder to go to him, and Daniel pulled me into a big hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay." He said.

"Um, sorry, but we need to get going." I heard Ryder say as I felt his hand on my wrist again. He gently pulled me away from Daniel.

I looked at Daniel with sorry eyes.

"Where are you two going?" He asked with a worried tone.

"Training. Very important stuff. Bye." Ryder said.

"Wait!" Daniel said, grabbing my other wrist. I turned to him, causing Ryder to stop. Daniel stroked my face with his thumb, and then pressed his lips to my cheek. "Be careful." He whispered. I nodded.

Ryder gently tugged on my arm, reminding me that we needed to go.

Finally, I turned away from Daniel and walked away with Ryder.

"Why are we in such a hurry?" I asked him as we went through an empty hallway.

He stopped, and he slowly turned to me and walked closer.

"Is that your boyfriend?" He asked with a smirk. I shook my head.

"Just my friend."

"I don't like him." he said simply.

Wait, what?

"Why?" I asked, shocked. He started leading me towards our destination again.

"I just don't."

We got to an empty classroom, and Ryder opened the door. Inside, there was a regular classroom setting.

"We're training here?" I asked. He shook his head and walked to the back of the classroom. Ryder took a key out of his pocket and unlocked a cupboard and opened it. It was pitch black inside. He jumped up and grabbed onto the cupboard, pulling himself in.

Once he was up there, he held out his hand to me. I took it, feeling the warmth and joy once again from his grip, and he helped me up. We crawled through a tunnel for a long time, which made me nervous because it was completely dark. After about ten minutes, the tunnel opened up to reveal a beautiful room full of bookcases and furniture. In the far left corner of the room, there was a beautiful spiral staircase that led to a loft above our heads.

"I thought we were supposed to be in a tower." I told Ryder.

"We are. There's a spell on the tunnel that makes you feel like you're crawling on level ground, but we really just climbed up." Oh. Ryder turned to a bookcase and pulled out an old, red book.

"Alright, let's get started."

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7-10-14

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