|Allure| Gellert Grindelwald-ON HOLD

19- POWER

Theodora blinked furiously, albeit the rest of her facial features remained utterly still. She remained immobilized for the duration of a full five minutes until actually blurting out a response, "Wait, you actually were...serious?".

Grindelwald scoffed, "My dear, when have you ever known me to joke?"

The British witch let out a weary sigh, "How do you even...how...the-"

She fell against her chair in exasperation, trying desperately not to hurl profanities at the dark wizard.
"How do you expect to achieve that?"

The latter smirked diabolically, causing Theodora to fervently evade her position of rest and point an accusing finger towards him, "Oh no no no no. I know that look very well, Grindelwald. I have, I believe, explicitly mentioned to you before that I will not be murdering anyone. So, if you're planning to do something of that manner, I am NOT playing party."
Gellert turned towards Mirra (A name preferred by the second female in the room; a fact regarding which Thea had only recently acquired knowledge), passing her a look that quite clearly said,

I told you so.

The addressed lifted her the corner of her lips into a smirk and silently shook her head causing Theodora to bite the inside of her cheek in frustration. Her two acquaintances were being a bit too chummy for her liking, and the display of said chumminess made her want to kick one of them out.

One more than the other.

But then again, she wondered why she should care if they were close; neither was it any of her business nor did it affect her in any way.

Grindelwald turned to Theodora, locking his eyes onto her as he spoke plainly, "There shall be no killing involved, we merely need to break in and retrieve something from the vaults."

Theodora raised her brow in suspicion,
something about the way Grindelwald said that sentence didn't quite sit well with her, it was certainly something that would play an important part in whatever debauchery he was planning, but precisely what?

"And what exactly is that?"

The dark wizard's gaze turned into a glare; eyes
cold and unyielding as frost, his wand twirled between his long, delicate fingers, poised to become a weapon within a moment's notice, warning her not to delve further, not to test his fury.
Theodora Elizabeth Tudor wasn't afraid of him. She knew she had to take such risks from time to time, test his patience, provoke him, risk his wrath. But she wasn't one to sit back and cower in fear, she was going to do what she had been sent here to do and she would succeed.

"That isn't any of your concern." He answered, his voice holding such a vehement tone of finality, no one in the room would dare challenge it.

"If we're going to break into a heavily-guarded establishment the likes of the ministry, I, for one, need all the data I can get. Walking into this with fragmented information is a fool's errand, it could get all of us either killed or arrested. "

Theodora leaned forwards; slowly, calculatingly. Her seaworth orbs met directly with Grindelwald's and in an instant, the atmosphere betwixt them transfigured, turning darker, omniscient, fearsome.

The molecules around them burned with a scalding fire; it was as though the twosome were sending off perfervid jolts of electricity through the air.

"I am certainly not going to risk my life trying to acquire something which I haven't the slightest knowledge about and no assurance of, in actuality, obtaining."

Grindelwald clenched his jaw, abruptly leaving his seat and standing face to face with Theodora, glaring down at her with a cold fury while the latter gazed at him coolly, he thrust his arms on either armrest of the chair she was sitting in.

"Perhaps it has escaped your notice, Miss Tudor," He snarled, "I'm the one who gives the orders here, and you'll do what I ask you to do without question."

Theodora sighed plaintively, "Well, if that's the way it's going to be, then I'm afraid you'll have to do this on your own." She lifted herself off and matched his glare with one filled with a multitude of exquisitely raw emotions, her eyes grew heavy, the vivid greens turning a shade duller.
One could almost see the disappointment, anger and frustration swimming within them.
It came within his notice that he had let her down somehow, his expression softened or most likely, she had imagined it. What she noticed was how his hands curled into fists. The grip on his wand was incredibly strong, absorbing his scalding, destructive rage, turning his knuckles white. Theodora could not possibly fathom what thoughts were running through his mind or what his next action would be.

He wouldn't hurt her surely, or...would he?

She had expected him to have at least slightly risen from that notion after the debacle in the forest. However, seeing as how he was treating her at the moment and that too in front of an acquaintance, she wouldn't put it past him.
Therefore, the moment he gripped her arm, much in the way he had the first night she'd come here, and dragged her out of the room, she went along silently, void of any protest. If he wanted a spar, she would gladly give him one.

She was done expecting anything from him.

Grindelwald's POV

Gellert Grindelwald didn't enjoy being questioned for his decisions.

Customarily, his followers would be told to do something and they would do it in the blink of an eye, never once stalling to interrogate him on said task.
Theodora, however, was another matter; she was so incredibly headstrong and utterly fearless that she found it perfectly within her power to catechize him to her heart's content. It angered him more than anything, but that was what precisely made her interesting, what drew him towards her. She wasn't like any of his other acolytes; with a countenance that was smarter, fiercer, infinitely more powerful and though Theodora herself wouldn't admit it, slightly laced with arrogance as well.

Grindelwald knew she was right in asking him for greater details but he couldn't give them away. He had shared that information with no one.
And he certainly wasn't going to blindly give it to a witch he didn't trust.

But, when she refused to take part in the initiative, it infuriated him. She had dared to question his authority and blatantly refused to acquiesce his orders; that went beyond his tolerance. While he stood facing her, it took him all his strength to not hurl a curse in her direction for she merely sat there, unfazed, unaffected. Where one person would've cowered and broken down shivering, begging for mercy, Theodora Tudor relaxed.

However, as she finally stood, he saw her emotions distinctly reflected in her weary eyes.

He had disappointed her.

Gellert palliated his glare as she continued studying him with that constant expression. He found it unbearable; it was as though someone had laid him bare in the street, stripped away for all the world to see.
Then surfaced his fury; nothing  gave her the right to make him feel this way; it had been mere weeks since she had come into his life and already she threatened to break down his barriers. He clenched his jaw subtly, leaving crimson bruises, gushing blood  bedecked on his pale skin from digging in his nails.His wand hand vigorously shook at his side from the onslaught of temper. Finally, he grabbed her arm and dragged her outside, not caring if he left the other female in the other room unattended.
He was Gellert Grindelwald, and he would never allow anyone or anything to
ever have this power over him.

Hello dear readers!

I apologize for the long hiatus; I have been extremely overburdened with work lately.
Online school is a major pain in the neck.

I figure my writing might not be as good in this chapter, I do hope you'll forgive me for that.

Thank you for the responses on the previous chapter, I absolutely love reading them. Be sure to leave a comment and vote on this one as well.

Stay safe everyone,
Till then,
Nox.