The sound of alarm clock brought me back. I woke up heavily panting, my heart was beating so loud I could feel it in my eardrums. My whole body was trembling while brain kept processing what happened to me. Was it Sister's words that triggered this… whatever it was I saw, or was it my own magic trying to tell my something?
I couldn't shake off the feeling that there was strong a connection between Immara and me. Could she really be me from the past? Could we really share the same soul? It still sounded surreal, but I knew I had to find some way to find out who she was. Moreover, that person in the black hood… it couldn't be a coincidence that he looked exactly like Samil, could it? Certainly, there was a probability that it was my mind playing a trick on me, that my vision mixed real, past events with my imagination, and I unconsciously placed Samil there, because he was almost always on my mind…
I wished I could dream a little longer, I wished I c
Samil gazed at the CFO with a satisfied smirk. Basing on their characters, I could guess they were not just “good friends”, they were more like brothers… or even twins sharing a collective mind. They were both cold, calculative, and uncompromising. Mr. Havet stood up from his chair and walked towards the presentation screen.“Can you go back to your first slide?” he asked, or rather ordered the assistant who showed the presentation.The young female flinched, her hands started shaking, she barely managed to hold the remote control, I took her a while before she pressed the right button. Mr. Havet observed her composedly standing right next to her. As soon as the slide appeared on the screen, he pointed on few basic points presented there.“Are you the one responsible for that load of nonsense?” he asked her, smiling maliciously.“I-I-I… only prepared… the presentation,” she stated stutte
I wondered why I couldn't shut up and tell myself that it didn't concern me. Now, the whole department was watching me, and I could easily predict that if I failed to save them, they would blame me instead of feeling a little thankful that I tried… The CEO chuckled as he most likely found my desperate attempt of saving the entire department's jobs amusing. That moment I wished I could be as calculated as he was, I wouldn't get myself into trouble again. I looked at the CFO, he was smiling at me, impatiently waiting to hear my idea. I immediately realized that I burst out without even thinking about it thoroughly, but I knew I had to pretend as I knew exactly what I was doing. “My idea is to use our website and social media more actively…” I began. I instantly heard groans of disappointment and discontent extending into the room. So much for giving me courage to speak… I started to regret my rush decision even more. I was irked, but I decided to continue despi
I stood at the threshold petrified for few seconds, then I turned to Samil and Mr. Havet. “D-did you see that…?” I was seeking confirmation that I wasn't the only one. “Yes…” Mr. Havet replied, “It might be a reporter hoping for a good scoop, but it might be also something worse than that…” he sighed. “Mr. Philips…?” Samil turned to the concierge with a deadly glare. “I deeply apologize on behalf of the Grand royal restaurant… You obviously have our full cooperation in solving this outrageous situation,” he bowed down. “We need your surveillance footage,” Samil demanded. “Certainly,” the concierge bowed even lower, more apologetically and left us to prepare the recordings. We walked inside the private room, Mr. Havet closed the door. Samil took his phone out to make a call. “Someone dared to take pictures of us, he wore a cap, didn't have any backpacks with him, so he might be going by a motorcycle or a car, instead of
We left the restaurant and got back to work. I kept glancing at Samil on the way back to the office, hoping to notice any signs, that he recognized himself as the main character of my story. Yet, that didn't happen. He either decided to keep his poker face despite the facts he knew that I was the one who rescued him, or this event didn't matter to him as much as it used to… or as much as it mattered to me. I felt upset knowing that the accident which determined my whole life could become irrelevant to him over the years. I imagined that when he would find out the truth, everything would change. Well… something did change. He stopped teasing me, his attitude became colder. I tried to tell myself it was merely my imagination, and that I expected too much from him, but my aching heart didn't want to hear such explanation. We got back to the office almost without talking to each other. Only Mr. Havet and I engaged ourselves in a meaningless shred of conversation, Samil d
Immara's legs and arms were bleeding from being dragged through the ground. She couldn't heal herself since the Duke's presence was somehow preventing her from using magic. The worst part of experiencing this sort-of-dream was that I felt the pain. I was bleeding as much as she bled, and I couldn't do anything about it, her emotions were my emotions. It felt so real I thought I could die if those torture lasted longer… But the more terrifying fact was I couldn't wake up! The Duke tied the rope in the middle of the chain of Immara's shackles as an extension, then tied the other end on the rope around his hand. He got on the horse. Immara used that time to get up from the muddy ground. “Let's go!” the Duke commanded, and the whole group of the Black Hoods rode on their horses off of the village. I could hear the villagers cried after Immara, while she was walking fast, trying to keep their pace, and continuously stumbled following the Duke's horse. She met a cr
I jumped up on my bed and nearly screamed. My hands were shaking, and I could feel the exhaustion from pulling the Duke up from the cliff, like I was the one who actually did it. I looked around to assure myself that I was awake and back in my own room. I sighed in relief and collapsed on the bed again. My heart was pounding like I just ran the marathon. I touched my lips with fingertips. I still felt the tingling sensation, as it was my lips that the Duke kissed. The irony of what I experienced hit me hard… I wondered if Samil's lips tasted the same as Duke's. No matter how hard I thought about the Duke as an enemy, he was as freaking hot as Samil! Besides, there was another thing that irked me… “Why Samil couldn't have a spontaneous reaction like that, when he found out I saved his life?!” it was definitely one of the things I envied Immara. Of course, I couldn't tell if the Duke did it to thank Immara, it was more likely that he did on a whim using the adr
We quickly realized the devastating fact that figuring out the name for the show would become the easiest part. Now, we needed to imagine how those episodes should look like, but first we needed to figure out something that always differentiated shows between those which were exceptional and those which anyone could call a disaster, and that was the host. “It should be someone who is easygoing, self-confident, spontaneous…” I counted. “But also funny, natural, charming…” Grace added. “This is hopeless,” I interrupted her, “We are never going to find someone who fits such description, and even when we do, we won't be able to afford someone like that! This supposed to be a low-budget production…” I collapsed on the tabletop, discouraged. We were obviously missing something, but couldn't tell what it was. The time was running out, I knew that the CEO and the CFO would expect results soon, while we were in the middle of nowhere with our draft. “Le
“Sir… what brings you here?” I called panicked. The CEO closed the door of the conference room and walked closer to Grace and me. “I wanted to check on your progress,” he stated casually. “Our draft is almost ready… we just need to go through it one more time, to make sure everything is fine,” Grace helped me explain, while I kept hectically wondering how much of my blabbering did Samil heard. “Good…” he smirked and stood right next to me, “I'm looking forward to see your draft,” he patted my shoulder. I flinched under his touch. My heart beat faster and faster, I couldn't focus, my brain was too busy processing words I said when the CEO entered the room and every possible way, he might have understood them. “Ms. Lee, I need to take Ms. Eder from you now, so you will have to finish your project tomorrow,” he gazed at me commandingly. “O-of course,” Grace gulped overpowered by his strong presence. “See… you tomorro
Samil had never left my side on our way home, whether it was while we were on the ship or flying in the Bordas private jet. He kept asking me if I was ok. He did it so often that I started to find his concern over my health annoying. He wasn't the one that had been bothersome during our trip. Chris, Elijah and all the other men from Samil's army were coming one by one to apologize for trying to burn me at the stake. Although, I kept repeating that it wasn't their fault since they were controlled by magic, but recalling everything they had done while being compelled wasn't exactly helpful in recovery from their moral hangover… Despite the fact that I knew that it was all over and that I and everyone was safe, those horrifying moments were coming back each time I closed my eyes. Once I tried to get some sleep, I woke up screaming, but then Samil would hold me in his arms and tell me that there was nothing that could ever threaten us anymore. The warmth of his body was soothing
Suddenly, I heard nothing but crackling fire from the light of the torch. I hesitantly opened my eyes. Samil threw his torch at the bottom of the pile, yet it barely touched the wooden branches. The pile didn't start to burn. All it caused was a bit of smoke that was coming from one side of the pile. My heart was pounding frantically while my tears kept falling down my cheeks."Samil…" I mumbled, looking into his eyes.He raised his head and gazed at me. His expression was slightly different from before. It wasn't as blank as if his consciousness started to resurface again…"I love you…" I called softly, praying that it would be different this time, that my calling would finally reach him.He stared at me in silence, then slowly turned his head to look around. At that moment, he stopped resembling a mere puppet. It was like one of his strings had been cut. I could see him clenching his teeth. I gasped, desperately hoping that his reac
Ezzura had cast a spell that filled the entire island, including the irresilient to her magic Samil. She compelled everyone. Now, they were all her own army that obeyed her unconditionally…I guessed, she clearly wanted to torture my heart before she would burn my body, doing everything she could to break me. She picked a beach as a place where I should be burned at the stake, and she told Samil to take me there. I didn't have any strength left to resist. He tossed me over one shoulder like a bag of sand, and then he carried me out of the witches' castle. I tried calling his name, but he didn't react at all, as if he had become an empty shell that once had been someone who loved me…"I have to admit that your magic is extraordinary," Ezzura chuckled while walking to the beach. "Can you see how easily I had changed everyone into my puppets? Your magic in this life is even stronger than the one you had as Immara."She kept glancing cheerfully, admiri
For a few seconds, I was unable to open my eyes. I heard a continuous, high-pitched sound in my ears. It covered all the other sounds I could hear, and disturbed my focus. Finally, I forced my eyelids to open. My vision was slowly coming back… I was lying on the floor in the middle of the witches' courtroom, trying to comprehend what had just happened. I nervously lifted my upped body to sit and look around. When I did, I gulped. All the witches from the group of the eldest were dead. Their bodies were lying motionless on the ground. Some were covered in blood, some looked like they were electrocuted. It was a massacre, and I was sitting in the middle of it… Suddenly, I saw Ezzura nonchalantly walking around the hall, gloating over the victory. I flinched, then I clenched my teeth. My previous visions, Immara's memories, the feeling of betrayal, they all came back and filled every inch of my body. I instantly raised my hands in order to attack her, but… nothi
"W-what?" I murmured nervously, gazing at Sister.She avoided my stare. She must have known from the beginning that I was the incarnation of her younger sister, the one she told me about. Now, the fact that she claimed that she didn't remember her name and told me to call her "Sister" made me grit my teeth. Why couldn't she tell me?! Even if she wasn't certain if I remember my past life, couldn't she tell me that I look exactly like her late sister?! I felt confused and betrayed, and the most disturbing fact was that I had never recalled having an older sister in the memories of my past life…"Oh… I can see that she didn't tell you, did she?" Shelta chuckled coldly. "She had been told to gain your trust and kill you, but once she had learnt that you were sisters, she disobeyed the orders. She even decided to trick us to save your life, but you had to die even after you had lost your powers…"My head started to spin. I glanced at Sister. I co
There was a road outside the forest. It led straight to the witches' castle. It looked like a fortress. It had high stone walls around it, and an enormous iron gate at the front. Samil walked at the front. Sister and I were right behind him, and the rest of the soldiers marched in formation, moving towards the gate while constantly fighting off the witches. Finally, we forced the witches to run back to their castle. They ran to the gates, banging on them and desperately crying to those in charge to open the entrance. Yet Mahala and the rest of the witches in charge were deaf to their pleading voices. They would rather let them die at those gates than open them. I gave Sister a signal, nodding my head, and we hit those witches with our magic, making them fall into a coma."Chris, get the explosive to blast those gates," Samil ordered."Understood," Chris replied, then abruptly turned around to get the bombs ready."Wait!" I called out, "There's no need for that.
It was dawning when Sister finished her story. We managed to drink three bottles of wine, but certainly we didn't have to worry about getting drunk or having a hangover. Lack of sleep couldn't bother us either. That was the upper side of being a witch.After the whole night of talking, we used a few spells to improve our looks. Then I made us breakfast, and we were ready to work on making the cor inane for Samil's men. Chris showed up after 10 AM and brought the clothes and other things for Sister. Then his men delivered thousands of crystals, some for the amulets and some to make a powder that can be used on bullets. There was a lot of work ahead of me and Sister.For the first time, I was glad that Samil wasn't around. I felt more at ease then. I didn't have to worry about my boyfriend's peculiar behavior. I wasn't sure if he'd act the same way the next time he and Sister met, but I'd rather not think about it at the time...Sister was friendly towards everyon
I was exhausted from too much thinking. I was anxious, but I had to pretend that everything was all right in front of Sister. I didn't want her to jeopardize our alliance right before that big fight. It was something I couldn't afford. I wished Sister goodnight while wearing a perfect smile. I saw her casually lying in bed and closing her eyes. I wished I could fall asleep as peaceful as she did.I tossed and turned in bed, hearing my pounding heart. I was terrified. If Sister's magic wasn't effected by the power of the seal, it could mean that her abilities were far beyond mine. It could mean that Sister's magic was great enough to defeat the demonic power within the seal, and as far as I was concerned, no witch had ever done it. How could I consider myself as a witch from the prophecy then?I wasn't that arrogant to think of myself as the most powerful witch in the world. I had never craved for power. I just wanted to feel confident about winning, and now I was becom
Samil took Sister and me to my apartment. While driving, he turned out to be surprisingly considerate towards Sister and even sent someone to get clothes, shoes, and other basic stuff for her to accommodate comfortably in her new environment. Perhaps I should be glad that he was helpful, but I couldn't help it. It just bothered me more and more. I tried not to show it, yet keeping a smile on my face was no longer possible. Unlike me, Samil was… smiling. He was smiling towards Sister. I had noticed it a few times, and it instantly brought chills to my spine. He'd never been so submissive to me, and now, Sister said a single word, and he immediately made a phone call to get her what she wanted!I felt completely left out in a conversation while we were in the car. If I had been an outsider, I would have thought that she was Samil's girlfriend, not me. I didn't like it in the slightest. I kept telling myself that there were more important things to handle, things concerni