Alejo

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It felt like torture leaving Morana. Probably that feeling had more to do with what I was going to than leaving her. Though I missed her presence as soon as the door closed behind me.

She truly was a bright and cheerful light. An extreme contrast to where I headed.

I parked my motorcycle on the street outside the coven's house. The house in itself looked very ordinary, albeit fancy, and stood on a normal street. For anyone that didn't know, they would assume it just was someone's home. The coven had also put a lot of charms around it to keep humans from noticing any abnormalities that went on there. Like a barrier that stopped sounds from leaking out.

The lawn at the front of the house stretched about ten yards in all directions. Surrounding it were hedges. The lawn in itself was a pretty boring standard one. The grass was neatly cut and nothing was out of line. Except for a yew tree growing to the side.

I walked through the gate in the hedges and shuddered at the familiar sensation entering the coven's grounds held. A variety of spells protected the grounds against unwanted guests, like spells that stopped you from being able to teleport in and out of the premise, and they made it feel like part of you were blocked, or sucked out, as you entered.

When I got to the front door, I opened it, entered, and closed the door as silently as I could. I was not supposed to be seen nor heard, and I didn't want to be. The best times was when I managed to do whatever they required of me without even catching so much of a glimpse of them.

The interior of the house was as unassuming as the outside. If any human would walk in there, they would only be able to note that whoever lived there liked antique furniture and had lots of trinkets standing everywhere. Someone magical would maybe, however, take a closer look at those trinkets and realize that they were different magical things. Crystals, bottles containing mixtures of herbs, porcelain figures of deities.

I listened for a moment from the hallway. Voices came from my right, from the living room. As such, I went to the left and kept close to the walls as I did, so that they hopefully wouldn't notice me through the doorways.

It was to the left that the kitchen was as well, and that was where I was supposed to be, where my task for the evening awaited me.

Someone important was over for dinner. Who, I didn't know and didn't care about finding out. But it was my task to cook the food. Only cook it though, serving would be done by someone else as I was not deemed presentable enough.

I washed my hands and got started on the food. It would be three courses and none of it easy to make, but if I screwed anything up, I would be punished severely. Something made much more likely to happen as I was on a tight schedule. Really, I probably should have been there most of the day, the Priestess wouldn't have allowed that though. She wouldn't have wanted to have me occupy the kitchen and as such forced her and the rest of the coven to make lunch and similar in my presence.

The starter was a scallop mousse. Main course was smoked salmon terrine. And the dessert, a chocolate souffle with a raspberry parfait.

I knew that to manage it all on time, I would need to use some magic for the easier tasks.

Two hours later, things were well on their way, which was all good, since the starter would be served in only a few minutes. All the plates stood on the table in the middle of the room and I busied myself with plating the food, taking care to ensure that every single plate looked flawless. Thankfully, it was a rather small dinner party. Just the Priestess, my sisters, two other witches from the coven, and whoever the guest was.

Just as I put the finishing touches on the last plate, Marianela entered the kitchen. As the youngest of my sisters, it wasn't weird she had serving duty. I knew, though, that she likely detested the fact.

She didn't give me a single glance as she took three of the plates. She didn't say she wanted me to open the door for her, but I had been through it enough times to know she did, so I hurried around to hold it open for her to walk through.

She quickly returned for the next three plates and then for the final one, her own no doubt. Throughout the ordeal, she didn't say a single word to me nor looked at me even once.

I had one hour alone in the kitchen after that. One hour to finish all that was left for the main course, which meant a lot of magic needed to be used to manage. If nothing else, to make sure it all was cooked to perfection.

As Marianela came in to serve the main course, I used a spell on the potatoes, which would go with the smoked salmon terrine, to make them warm and eatable.

"Pathetic," Marianela said, her voice fully of disdain. I wanted to snap back, but knew there was no point. She wouldn't get nasty and hex me or anything if I did, like my two older sisters would, instead she would leer and say something condescending.

"My dear brother whose magic is only strong enough for household shores. Pathetic," she added as I plated the food.

I ground my teeth, but still kept silent. I wouldn't allow her to bait me into reacting.

"The disgrace and weakness of the whole family," she continued. "It's no wonder Mom hasn't mentioned you all evening and hid you away in here. If the High Priestess knew she had mothered such a weakling, she'd likely die of embarrassment."

"What is one of the High Priestesses doing here?" I asked to hopefully get Marianela to stop throwing blunt insults at me. But also because I was ever so slightly curious.

The five High Priestesses, who lorded over all other magical creatures, seldomly visited other covens unless there was something important. In fact, I could only remember them having come to visit us once before, about twenty-five to thirty years ago.

"Just some random check on loyalty. Politics and such. Nothing your thick head would ever understand," Marianela answered and took the three first plates to serve the main course.

One and a half hour later, Marianela was back for the dessert. This time, all seven plates were ready, so no exchange of words happened. As soon as all was served, I began cleaning.

I was exhausted. The incident with Morana had made me use quite some magic, and then the cooking had forced me to use even more. I knew I was close to pushing my body to its limit and though I wanted to clean quickly to get out of there, I had to do it all by hand.

I had about an hour of peace and calm during which I managed to get most done. But after that hour, the door to the kitchen flew open and hit the wall so hard that the small glass containers of spices over the stove clinked together.

I turned, while holding the frying pan I had been washing, to see Astria walking in with Marianela following behind.

Before I could more than register their appearance, the pan became burning hot. It made a thudding sound to the floor as I hissed and looked at the hand that had held it. Burn marks had appeared.

"Can't you ever do anything right!" Astria demanded and next thing it felt like my whole body was on fire. That flames ate on my skin. The burning sensation spread everywhere. I hugged myself and bent forward, curled in on myself, but refused to scream.

When it stopped, a plate was thrown in front of me and I knew exactly what was causing her behavior. It was one of the souffles, opened up and clearly too well done.

"Do you have any idea who the guest was? Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is?" Astria shouted, and the burning pain started again.

I fell to my knees, my hands scraped the floor. I bit down hard on my lip to not scream. So hard I felt the metallic taste of blood in my mouth.

"You're useless!" Astria threw at me, before storming out. The pain subsided.

"Pathetic," I heard Marianela say, while I was still on the floor, panting.

There was a gush of wind in the room, and then Marianela's feet walking away. I remained on the floor for quite some time more. Collecting myself, preparing myself to finish the last of the dishes.

I reached out for the pan I had dropped and took hold of it before standing up. The pain still echoed in my body, but I knew I had to get back to work. Had to finish all of this. Wanted to just be done and escape. Wanted to sleep and then clean my own apartment so that I could have Morana over the next day. So I could get to soak in the comfort her presence gave me.

I reached for the sponge and then looked at the pan to find the dirt I had been cleaning off it. I looked and looked, but there wasn't any left. Had I been so tired that I hadn't even noticed when it had become clean?

I put it away and then took the dessert plate and the destroyed souffle. The souffle went down the bin before I cleaned the plate.

When that was done, I turned to clean the table in the middle of the room. It was the second to last thing left to clean. Only, it wasn't.

I was completely sure I hadn't cleaned it yet. But when I turned to face it, it was spotless, except for the six other plates from the dessert that stood on it. Apart from those, though, it looked completely clean. But... I hadn't cleaned it. I was sure. Or had I?

I had to have been even more tired than I realized to forget that I had already wiped it down. I made a mental note to drink some energy replenishing tea before sleeping. Then I quickly cleaned the plates so I could finally get out of that hellhole.

Hey, you all! I hope you are enjoying this mass release and the story so far. As always, I'd love to hear some thought 👀

What is our first impression of Morana?

And of Alejo?

And what's up with them not being mates? 😯

From now on there will be one new chapter every day at 18.00 CET. 

And for everyone that doesn't know, today is Litha, the summer solstice, and actually one of my favorite days of the year.

Stay blessed

Elena

❤️