Oh my god. They’ve put me on trial. This is serious.
My heart began to pound and race in my chest as shivers of unease snaked through my blood.
Why did I ever come here? I should have just built my sisters a home, and stayed in our realm. Safe.
Or moved in with Auntie Alison. Sure, our lives would have been simple, but they would have been our own.
“Untie my hands. Now.” I glared at Tavlor, who stood behind Charity and her other witchy friend.
“No.” Charity’s words fell like lead weights in the room.
I tugged at the chains that bound me, struggling to fight my way out. “You can’t do this! I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Charity’s smile was pure evil as she looked at me. “This is our realm. They’re all our realms, and we can do... whatever we want.”
I blinked, hard. This was everything my mother had warned me about. Everything she had dreaded, and kept from us. These people were crazy. I wondered if my mother knew about Charity. Did she know what an awful person she was? Was thhy she didn’t care about being with a married man? Was that why she had been so overprotective? Was that why she made me promise not to come here, ever? Not because of Matlock, but because of Charity?
I looked at Matlock who was now standing with Tavlor. Looking super uncomfortable with his arms crossed over his chest. “Could you tie my arms in the front at least? This is super uncomfortable.” I asked. I tried to sound reasonable but it was hard not to have an attitude.
My father whipped his hand through the air before anyone could stop him.
My arms moved as though pulled and tugged into my lap, but my wrists were bound again in the same instance.
I sighed as the stress on my shoulders relaxed.
“Thank you.” I looked back at Charity. “You were saying?”
I’d done absolutely nothing wrong and I had to have faith that this would turn out in the end.
The most important thing was to control my panic.
Charity faltered so I pushed forward. She was intimidated by me, and I had to wonder why. I was no one. I was completely insignificant. At least, I should be, especially to someone like her.
“Oh, that’s right. You were saying that you and the Council rule this realm, and what you say goes. Well don’t worry. I’m used to following rules like that. My mother ruled our realm with an iron fist.”
I shrugged to show her that she did not intimidate me.
If I’d learnt anything from living with my mother, was that bullies only responded to strength. Show them a weakness, bleed a little... and those sharks circled.
“Ava... who are you?”
I groaned and rolled my eyes. “I’m Ava Melfi.”
Charity glanced at the other members of the Council before looking at me once again. “Why are you here?”
“To find out if this is where I belong,” I said simply. “To get a job. Find a home.”
She cocked her head, then looked towards the door. “We have a visitor it seems.”
The door opened and Mallory strolled in, holding my gold pendant in her hand.
I gasped, and swallowed to hide it. What the hell was she doing here? And more importantly... was she here to help me?
Or rat me out?
“Hello Councillor.” Mallory said as she walked forward and practically fell over herself curtseying to Charity.
I rolled my eyes again. Mallory was definitely not here to help me.