A L M I R A

Chapter 8
Almira Davenport

We made it back to the castle and Calix practically dragged me back to his office, slamming the door shut. I knew I was in trouble, but I couldn't bring myself to know how it was my fault.

"So start from the beginning. What the hell happened?" Calix questioned, leaning back in his chair.

I began to explain everything from beginning to end. I told how Alastor had witches use magic at the festival, how Alastor treated me, all about the witches, the spell, me getting kidnapped again, the other witch, my communication spell with Ambrielle, and the guards.

By the end of it, Calix was highly pissed off, but I'm not so sure who at.

"I thought two guards were enough, but you cannot be left alone. Not after what happened," he lectured, pacing the room.

I stood up in my. hair and shook my head. "I'll be fine, it was just an accident. Cutting off festivals I can understand, but surrounding me with more people? That's unrealistic. I'll be fine!" I defended, looking at Calix. He didn't seem too fond of my words.

"Fine? You'll be fine? Did it ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe, I was worried? Maybe even scared? I could have lost you and everything I've worked for and you want to say it's fine?!" Calix roared, turning towards my direction and looking down at me.

"There you go again! It's not the fact that I'm important to you, it's your kingdom! You can't even stop for just five seconds and think about your own mate! I was kidnapped, beaten, assaulted, and punished for being your mate! Am I just going to end up like your other four mates?" I retorted, pointing a finger before realizing what I said.

"How do you know about them?" Calix slowly asked, looking at me skeptically.

"Lord Wryler told me."

The room fell silent and I just dismissed myself, heading back to my room. I was too angry with him to deal with anything right now. Why were things this way?

I heard a knock at the bedroom door and gave the okay for whoever it was to come in. Behind the door stood Ambrielle, smiling. "Glad to have you back."

"It's better than being with the likes of Wryler or Alastor. That was a total nightmare," I complained, sitting on the bed.

"Well, I'm not the only one glad to have you back, you know. Calix was mighty worried about you! His mood was about as bad as an itchy sweater!" Ambrielle grimaced, reminding herself of Calix's unpleasant company.

I laughed at her unique insult. This is why I missed being here, I missed Ambrielle's spunky attitude and quirky self. "Well, I think everyone can rest easy now that I'm back."

"You bet we can. Now what I'm wondering is how did you do that communication spell? I could have sworn to my daily doses of dingleberries your wave was blocked when I tried to reach you after you first went missing!" Ambrielle asked, sitting beside me.

"Well, it was. I couldn't communicate with you until Lord Wryler sent someone to kidnap me from Alastor, which, beats me how he knew I was there. Anyways, when I got to Wryler's, a witch took the spell off for me and then gave me ingredients to contact you. I also found a spell book at Alastor's castle in the witch's spell room. It was old, maroon and navy, and also locked." I gushed, telling her everything that I could think of.

"Do you by any chance have it?" Ambrielle questioned, thinking for a minute.

I got up and grabbed the brown bag before opening it, pulling the spell book out, and the ingredients I took. Ambrielle picked random things up and smiled. "Well I'll be an easy baking oven! You actually got the book? Look at you, become more like us every day!"

I laughed and put up a finger. "I said it was locked, but I never said I didn't have the key." I reached behind my neck and untied the rope from my neck, sliding the key off and handing it to her.

Ambrielle carefully took it and unlocked the spell book, opening it. We both looked at it and flipped through the pages. "A lot of these spells require great sacrifices," Ambrielle muttered, running her fingers across the pages delicately.

"They must be really powerful then, yeah?" I asked, continuing to look at the spells.

All of them were asking for human sacrifices, lives, souls, rare times, highly expensive items, gore items, and a lot more disturbing things.

Ambrielle must have been fed up because she shut the book and locked it back. "Neither of us are going to tell anyone about this book, okay? I'm going to leave it for you to hide, wherever you choose. My mate won't know about this and neither will yours, understood? If they found out we knew about this, that'd only boost their confidence about starting a war and taking over Alastor and Wryler. As far as your magic, I'll train you, and you'll practice, but they won't know about that either okay?" Ambrielle pleaded, grabbing my hands and holding them in hers.

I nodded my head. "Okay."

~-~

"Almira! Guess what!" Ambrielle ran up to me, smiling.

"What is it?" I asked, turning around.

"I just found out Calix is hosting a masquerade in a couple of days! We have to go out and get us dresses and masks!" Ambrielle squealed, her eyes lighting up. She must love dressing up or something.

"Okay, when are we going to go out?" I looked up from the spell book I was reading to look her.

"Well, if you put appropriate clothes on to go out into the town, we can go now. Calix said it was okay if I took you with me, and I want you to look drop dead gorgeous, so you're coming with me!" Ambrielle hurried, pulling me out of my seat and handing me a dress. I quickly changed and put the key to the spell book around my neck before letting my hair down.

"Well then let's get to it," I smiled.

We ran out of the castle and I caught glimpse of Calix smiling. Such an oddity, must have been an illusion.

We continued to run until we made it into town. By then we were in fits of giggles. Ambrielle led me to a tailor and we got our measurements. Ambrielle decided to find her dress first. She picked a beautiful dark green satin dress. It was long sleeves and had a sweetheart neckline. It clung to her curves and flowed freely after her waist.

Ambrielle decided to match pearl jewelry with her dress, a silver sparkly mask, and silver heels. This woman had an eye for fashion, let me tell you.

After Ambrielle was satisfied with her look, she shoved me into the room to pick a dress. I looked around in awe at all the designs and colors. I went for the white dresses and started looking.

I picked a white dress. that was sleeveless and wrapped around my neck with the ribbon tying in the back. My back was bare and open, but the dress only revealed enough of my back to tease a man. It was satin and beautiful, accentuating all of my curves. Not to mention the small, but beautiful train it had.

Ambrielle gasped when she seen me. "You look gorgeous!" She clapped and spun her finger, telling me to give her a twirl. I did and she dramatically brought her hand to her forehead. "Too beautiful to handle!"

I laughed and smiled. "Thanks. So, I think this is it?"

Ambrielle's face twisted into one of horror. "You can't just wear that! You need jewelry too! We'll get you a diamond bracelet and some earrings, then you can get heels. Ooh, silver heels!"

I shrugged and let Ambrielle dress me up to her taste. After that we went back to the castle and was quickly greeted by Calix.

"Ambrielle, I need you in the conference room urgently. It's matter of the war. Almira," he nodded at me before walking away. I sighed and shook my head, reminding myself that I have to hate him. He could care less about my existence or wellbeing. Just as long as I make his kingdom look good.

Ambrielle sighed before turning to me. "I have business to attend to. I'll swing by later, okay?"

I nodded and she ran off. I went to my room, hung up the dresses, and pulled out the old spell book. I flipped through the pages until I found a healing spell. I grabbed a dead plant from outside and brought it inside, setting it down on the ground.

Θεραπεύονται με τη χάρη και του Θεού και της θεάς, μεγαλώνουν με την ευλογία τους και ευημερούν..

My hands began to feel warm and glow white, along with the flower. The flower's color came back, the petals expanding from crinkly dead brown to their beautiful blue color. I smiled.

I was getting better with magic, and I was actually proud.

~-~

~Ambrielle Witherspoon~

Inside the meeting room was Calix, Cole, Alexander, and Calix's two spies, Gwendolyn and Floyd. Calix seemed anxious, Cole seemed skeptical, Gwendolyn and Floyd seemed upset, and Alexander was happy to see me. How cute.

I sat down in my usual seat and Calix quickly started the meeting. "Many topics to discuss today. Number one, the war. Gwendolyn, Floyd, I see you're both back from Alastor and Wryler's castles, so I'm assuming you have something for me?"

Gwendolyn stood up, fixing her jacket and clearing her throat. "Yes, your majesty. After returning from Alastor's castle, I have found out a couple things. For starters, he's working on strengthening his witches to create a power surge. They're also making a lot of sacrifices and breeding hybrids.

"Secondly, he hates you more than anything now, Calix. He's seen the fifth chance you've gotten as a mate, you know, Almira Davenport? Not only does he plan to wage war to end your reign and take back his old throne, he's using the hybrids as soldiers," Gwendolyn reported.

Calix growled but looked at Floyd to go next. Floyd stood up and ran his hand through his hair. "Wryler hasn't said much about the war, nothing but his interest in Almira. He took her from Alastor during her time period of being gone. Wryler didn't show her much attention, but he found out rather quickly that she's a rare hybrid. He mentioned using her blood for a sacred spell or something, I didn't get much detail on that."

Calix growled once more and slammed his fist onto the table. "I don't care how many wars I have to fight, neither of them are going to touch a single hair on Almira's head. Go back and keep me updated. Cole, Alexander, do either of you two have anything?"

Alexander stood up. "Yes, your majesty. The people are already gossiping about your masquerade ball you're throwing soon. Many plan to attend, including others from the other kingdoms nearby."

Cole coughed and Calix looked at him. "Is there something you'd like to say, brother?"

Cole shook his head, leaning back in his chair. "Ah, it's nothing. Just your mate, that's all."

"What about her?" Calix hissed, turning his full attention to Cole.

Cole glanced at him before playing around with his papers. "It just amuses me how you let on about how she'll always feel safe and everything, but yet you haven't gave her any of your attention. You're her mate, yet you've already let her get out of your hands twice, get hurt, and she now hates you. You say it's so nothing happens, but look where we are. She's in a lot of danger, Calix. So tell me, are you putting up this façade to protect her or are you scared you'll lose her like the others? The old hag did say the prophecy said you only got five chances.. Well look who's showed up. Lucky number five, right in your own castle," Cole acknowledged, making eye contact with Calix.

The room fell silent with the two brothers challenging each other, everyone else watching.

"Meeting dismissed."

~-~•~-~