The Princess and the Warlock

Chapitre Treize

I dragged the gold-plated hairbrush through my newly chopped locks, looking at myself in the mirror almost in a trance. I'd found a pair of scissors inside one of the drawers in the study, using them to cut my fair hair so it all fell at one length, just resting on my shoulders.

I absolutely loved it. Never did I ever dream that I'd cut it—the mere idea of chopping off my own hair was taboo in the worst sense. Father would've had my head if I'd done it at the palace. Long hair equaled purity to him, and Prince Grimond's obsession with it was also revolting. I wouldn't have been shocked if there was a clause about keeping my hair long in the contract for my hand in marriage.

The image reflecting back at me was an entirely different person, one with wide eyes that held an expression of freedom. I felt like a different person, too—better. Much, much better.

Setting the brush down on the surface of the cracked vanity—it'd appeared in my room the day after I arrived, with a broken mirror and chipping white paint—I turned and faced my bedroom. My sheets were turned down primly and evenly, and I wondered if Kaius could just snap his fingers and make the bed or if Aimee had come in to make it.

It reminded me of how much I didn't know about Kaius and his magic. The extend to his powers was unknown to me. He'd mentioned that he could only do small magic without the Tempest Stake, but what did small magic entail exactly? And what truly was labeled as big magic? Raising someone from the dead sounded big. Transportation—true transportation—must've been too big or else he'd taken us to the water by now. Unless he was holding out on me for a reason, like he was afraid I'd be that much more attracted to him.

I let out a sigh, rising from the stool.

Underneath my breath I began to hum, a tune that my mother had sang to me many times before. This place brought the memory back to the surface of my mind, uncovering a lot of things I'd long since forgotten. Like the exact smell that clung to her skin, or the birthday parties Anna had thrown me within the quiet walls of my room.

I wondered what she was doing yet again. I missed her presence more than I'd been anticipating. After my mother passed away, she'd been there to fill the void, but more in a big sister way. To me, she was just as much a princess as I was.

Peeling back the sheets of my bed, I slid into the awaiting comforter, immediately surrounded by the warmth it provided. Magically, each night when I went to sleep, my blankets were warm, as if a heated plate had been pressed underneath the sheets. Like I said: magically. I knew without a doubt that it had to be Kaius' doing. And sitting there underneath my blankets, the thought of him purposefully warming my bed, it made my skin feel ten degrees hotter.

There was a large crack in my ceiling, and I traced it with my eyes. There were a lot of things I didn't know about Kaius, so many things that he'd been keeping hidden from me, but there was a twinge in my heart when I traced his name on my tongue. It was like something about him literally ensnared me, like game passing into a trap. It was maddening, and not only on his end. If I knew what exactly drew me to him, I could avoid it. I could obey his wishes and keep my thoughts—and hands—to myself.

But, have mercy on my soul, in these quiet moments, he was all I thought of.

I turned over on my side, and loosed a scream.

Two blue eyes were staring back at me.

And when I say blue, I mean blue. No pupil or no sclera. Just one giant iris, so completely blue.

I screamed again, falling off my bed.

"Jeez, are you part banshee? Close your lips, human, you're safe."