Enchanter

Chapter Nine

Raven blinked her eyes open, transforming to lean over Anton. She was far too used to him jolting her awake through his strangled gasp for breath as he woke up each morning, but he instead remained peacefully asleep. Glancing at the clock, she noticed school started over an hour ago. After their conversation the prior night, she assumed they would have gone back to the library to look at the other books. Then again, Anton was out cold during that part of the night, so she wasn't sure how he would have known.

Leaning her ear down to his chest, she gasped when she was unable to hear his heartbeat. "Azalea!" she screamed. "He's dead!"

"What?" she shouted, waking up herself.

Rather than it scaring Anton awake, he merely blinked his eyes open and stared up at her with a smile. "Well, good morning," he sang. Sitting up on the bed, Raven tumbled off him to the floor as he stretched his arms above his head and popped his back. "What a good night's sleep. I haven't had one of those in years."

"I think he's broken," Raven stated as she sat up on the floor.

"What the hell happened? You said he would be better in the morning."

"Yes, the intoxication spell."

"The comforting spell, you fool," Azalea snapped.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she replied, her voice dripping with the utmost of sarcasm. "But he appeared to be drunk as a skunk yesterday."

Slapping her hand over her forehead, Azalea demanded to see the book. There was no way to awaken him from his daze unless something completely shocking or stimulating happened to him. "I believe I saw an awakening spell in here yesterday," Raven commented. She flipped the pages to find it. "It'll only last for a few hours. If it's on its own, it's as though he will be on a lot of coffee, but if he's on a spell already, he'll turn back to normal before turning back into," she explained as she winced at Anton, "well, that."

"So, he'll be stuck in a translucent state," Azalea sighed. "It doesn't matter. He needs to head back to the underground library before the day is over, and we cannot have him behave all willy-nilly."

"We get to go outside?" Anton chuckled, smiling as though he was on top of the world. "That's wonderful. It is such a beautiful day outside."

"Make some of that potion at once. We can't risk him running into anyone like this," Azalea commanded.

"Aww, why do you hate me?" Anton pouted as he stared at her reflection.

"You're too...this right now," she stated. "I bet you wouldn't care about going into the world without looking like me, now would you?"

"Why should I be forced to look like you when I could never pull off your beauty and give it justice," he questioned.

"Your flirting means nothing," she deadpanned. "I am not going to lose you by having you locked in a cinderblock cage again, alright? Now march into the kitchen."

Anton slumped into a seat at the kitchen island. Upon looking up into Raven's eyes, he began to frown. "What's wrong, dear?"

"Nothing," she quickly stated as she continued to wash the mortar and pestle. "I- it's just that I've never seen you this way before, sir, and it's...it worries me."

Not wanting to worry her, Anton quickly stood up and walked into the cabinet. "What do we need for this spell?"

Smiling at him, she read aloud, "Four bits of Mammoth Sage, five tablespoons of Ruby Turmeric, five bits of Cinder Cudweed, three pinches of Winter Seed, and four sprinkles of Blood Basil."

"What kind of nonsense is all that?" he laughed.

"The kind I know more about that you do at the moment," she quipped. Scooting him out of the way, she grabbed the ingredients and began to measure them out. They boiled water, placed it in the freezer to cool for ten minutes, and then mixed it until the brown concoction was thick and goopy.

"That looks horrendous," Azalea gagged.

"But it will make me better and make you stop worrying, right?" Anton asked as he pulled a loaf of bread out of the pantry.

"Yes, but it still-"

"Then what does it matter?" he questioned. Pulling a knife out of the drawer, he slathered the potion onto a piece of bread and took a bite. Azalea and Raven watched him with wide eyes as he scarfed the food down. "Worth the bitter taste to ease your subconscious."

Raven led him into the bathroom, and he allowed her to reconstruct his face to match Azalea's. By the time he was dressed in a formfitting, black turtleneck dress and a gray coat, it was ten minutes after school had ended.

"Should we go now, or should we wait until it's dark outside?" Raven asked.

"At this point, what with that happened yesterday and all, they are going to be keeping a lookout for someone who may have broken into the school. The revenants may be dead, but there could still be more," Anton stated. "If we just loiter outside for the school for a little while, it may be inconspicuous in the day time, but there's no telling what those wolves will do to us at night."

"How much longer do we have until the potion wears off?" Azalea asked.

He looked down at his watch. "Maybe another two hours at most. We should get hurrying before I snap back into...whatever that was," he shuddered.

Slipping a pair of shades on, he stated, "Let's go."