Cursed

Chapter 18

Eva's POV
Slowly, I force my eyes open, this room is all too familiar. Except, this is the first time I've felt warm in it, or seen it in colour.

"Cas?!"

Looking around, I can't find him anywhere, he must be close though. I'm not in any pain.

Whilst I'm panicking, I feel a head run against my leg and as I move the duvet off of me, I find Cas there, fast asleep.

"Thank god..." I murmur.

As I go to pull him into a hug, I notice a weight on my wrists. Shackles. But they aren't attached to anything, nothing about them is holding me in place.

"Oh, so you're finally up?"

His voice manages to turn my blood cold, a shiver running through my entire body.

"Yes, I am, what's it to you?" I spit, using my body to form a barrier between Sebastian and Cas. If he's going to try to get me to obey him, he might hurt Cas, I can't let that happen.

"So you don't want to find out what those things on your wrist are?"
"No wait-!" I call out as he goes to leave. "I-I mean... what are they? They seem pretty useless if you ask me."

"Do you know what Silence is?"
"Other than the luxury of not hearing your voice, no..."
"It's a type of stone, it suppresses a person's magic, so whilst they're on you, you can't use any magic to assist your escape. In addition, the stone tends to be heavy, on both body and mind. Hopefully, like the curse you put on yourself before you got here, it should dampen that rebellious spirit of yours."

"You're determined to keep me trapped here, aren't you?"

"Well of course, I'll return later."

Once he's gone, I tug and pull at the shackles for at least ten minutes, but I fail to get them off. Instead, irritation and bruises appear on my skin where the stone had been rubbing and hitting against it.

"Goddammit..." I murmur, trying as hard as possible to cast even a simple spell. "God... dammit."

"Eva... where are we...?" Cas voice yawns quietly from behind me.

I don't turn around, I can't let him see the state I'm in, if he finds out I can't use magic, he might begin to panic.

"We're in the palace. This is my old room..."

"...Are, are you okay? Eva, what's wrong?" He peers over my shoulder, noticing the shackles on my wrist. "Oh my... is that Silence?"

"How did you-"

"I didn't really want to tell you about this... but, before I met you, my master would keep shackles like that on me at all times to keep me in my dragon form. Problem is, they can only come off if the person who puts them on dies, or wants them to come off."

"What happened to your master then?"

"She was killed... by the royal guard. Turns out, I didn't originally belong to her like she tried to convince me, she stole me from some place, my original family I guess. She was originally just going to be arrested, but she refused to give me to them, so just before she died, she broke the shackles and told me to run away. It was the one good thing she's done for me."

"...So you don't know your family... why didn't you tell me?"

"Because unlike you, I was scared to face my past. If I wasn't so frightened of it, I would have searched for my lost family like you, but now I'm not frightened anymore, but I don't feel the need to search."

"Really? But it's your family."

"Blood doesn't mean family. For example, you've considered Maven family almost your entire life, even though you weren't related by blood. I've got my own family now, and I don't know if I would be happier with my blood relatives, and I most certainly don't care. I've got Maven, Charlie, maybe even Cassie and Hunter, but most importantly, I have you. I've never had a sibling before, but I consider you one."