To Be Found ♧ Legacies

15 | not your average damsels in distress

"I think he's still out there..."

"Of course he's still out there," Celia hissed at Rafael. "We've given him three fresh meals on a silver platter, he's not just going to leave u—"

Celia was cut off by a screeching noise overhead. When she looked up, there he was, the arachnid in his full glory was standing on the third floor of the mill. Though she hated to admit it, terror overtook her body.

Josie let out a desperate scream. A scream the Celia and Rafael joined as the arachnid jumped from the third floor to the ceiling directly over top of them.

This was it. Celia was never going to find Maddie. She was never going to get the chance to apologize to Jed for taking her frustrations out on him. She'd never even learned who her mother was. She was going to die right then in a cocoon of her own creation.

"Hey, douchebag!" Landon Kirby wasn't exactly someone Celia would call a knight in shining armor, but right then she so desperately wanted to kiss him. Banging what she could only assume was a pipe against the walls of the mill, he pulled the arachnids attention away from its meal.

As the arachnid made its way toward Landon, Celia heard Hope. It was easy to say that she had never been so grateful to hear the girl's voice.

"I hate spiders."

While the arachnid was distracted, Rafael turned his attention to Josie. "You need to get us out of here."

Josie nodded, though Celia can tell she was overwhelmed. "Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap..."

"You can do this, Jo." This time Celia tried to keep her fear out of her voice. She knew the last thing Josie needed was to hear that Celia still wasn't so sure they'd make it out.

Josie smiled slightly before nodding again. "I can do this." She leaned forward once again, kissing Rafael and siphoning more magic out of him. Celia forced herself to remember that it was for their escape.

Josie placed her hand on the webs. "Uanascar." The spell shreds the cobwebs restraining Josie's arms. Acting quickly, Josie performed the same spell on Rafael's arms before moving across the way to Celia. Together the three teens retreated from the mill. Josie went to find Lizzie and Hope, but before Rafael could get to Landon he stopped.

"Come on," Celia grabbed the boy's arm, pulling him forward. He held his ground.

"No, we have to go back."

"Into that hellhole? I think Hope and the other witches have got it handled."

"No, we have to go get the girl, Sasha."

Celia held his gaze for a few moments, trying to figure out if he was serious. She couldn't find any hint of sarcasm in his golden eyes. Clenching her jaw, she gave in.

"Fine, but can we please make this quick. That place gives me the heebie-jeebies."

Rafael nodded, before leading the two of them back into the mill. The witches seemed to be distracting the spider, which hopefully meant that this was an extraction mission. No fighting. Celia had had enough of fighting to last her a while.

Together they pulled the cobwebs off the girl, revealing her limp, sleeping figure. She was prettier than Celia expected with dark skin and curly hair. She looked innocent, but maybe that was just because she was sleeping. When she was finally loose, Rafael scooped her with ease. And together, Celia and Rafael hustled out of the mill. Just as Rafael laid Sasha gently on the ground, the three witches emerged from the mill behind him.

The whole thing felt like slo-mo. The girls were covered in a slime that Celia didn't even want to imagine the source of. They all had serious expressions on their faces like they had seen things they didn't wish upon anyone, and they probably had. Celia knew that sometimes she found herself frustrated by Hope's heroics, but it was nearly impossible to not find the scene in front of her incredibly badass. She was proud to have such powerful girls surrounding her. She glad she wasn't on their wrong side.

Celia stole a glance over at Rafael. There was a look of surprised awe on his face, like he was just as impressed, with a tad terrified, as she was. But when she followed his gaze, it was on one girl in particular: Josie.

In the escape and rescue of Sasha, Celia had almost forgotten about the kiss, not to mention the kiss back. It all happened so they could escape, but the kiss still caused an uneasy feeling inside of Celia, and she definitely didn't like that feeling. When he met her gaze with a smile, causing that uneasy feeling to stir, she took that as her cue to leave.

"Celia!" Rafael called out her name behind her. Celia clenched her jaw, putting on her best-unfazed facade before turning around.

"Where are you going?"

Celia raised her eyebrows. Why the sudden interest, Rafael?

"Back to the school. It seemed like you all had everything handled." Celia crossed her arms and tilted her head back, examining his reaction. It was like a game of chess, and to get checkmate she had to be sure to say the right things. She wanted to make sure that he thought she didn't have any feelings because she didn't and that she was still a little frustrated with him.

"Well I think a group of us..." he trailed off when Celia's abrupt laugh interrupted him.

"Are you kidding me? A couple of hours ago you were yelling at me for trying to not have you beat up. And I get that we were friendly while we were surviving, but did you really just think I'd forget that?" It has nothing to do with the weird feeling you're causing me.

Rafael looked surprised, and not that she exactly blamed him. Her outburst kind of came from nowhere. Just moments ago they were working together to save Sasha, now she was treating him like the enemy. His eyes scanned hers, looking for some sort of explanation, but she held up her shield, blocking him out. His jaw clenched as he fought for an answer.

"You manipulated me. Of course, I was going to be angry."

"Well, how'd that work out for you?" Now that he was closer, Celia could see the cuts on his lip and eyebrow. Cuts she was sure Jed gave to him. She wanted to reach out and touch them, to wish for them to heal, and to hope that her guilt would heal with them. Jed never would have pulled such a stunt if Celia was at his side like she was supposed to be. Instead, she let her emotions get the best of her and put herself in danger.

"Am I not allowed to have time to sort out my feelings? I liked you, Celia."

Celia's heart lept into her chest. Liked. What a complicated word. She felt childish asking herself if he meant liked-liked, but that was the thought going through her head. 

He continued, "How would you feel?" His voice trailed off as he said that, and she could feel his pensiveness. But what did he mean by that?

She searched his eyes for the meaning behind his words. There was a flicker but it was gone before she could read it.

"Betrayed," she answered honestly. His feelings were validated, but what he had said wasn't. "Every wolf at the Salvatore School has been through some sort of hell. It doesn't make you special and it doesn't mean I'm past it." He nodded and she wanted to forgive him. To tell him that even though he screwed up she wasn't mad, but that wouldn't be true. Before she could do anything she would regret, she turned and walked toward the school. There were certain things she lived by, and staying by her beliefs was one of them, no matter how frustrating it got.