IN THE LITTLE WITCH'S PRIVATE CHAMBERS

Judah hadn't thought twice before he'd barged into his half-sister's bedchamber that evening. And for that, he'd paid a dire price.

"Kora!" he grunted in pain when his body was unceremoniously smashed against the door he'd just waltzed through, shutting it closed with a loud bang. He supposed she wasn't worried about disturbing that entire wing, because in Oroden, what happened in the rooms, stayed in the rooms.

"What is wrong with you?!"

"What are you doing here?" Princess Kora hissed, right hand outstretched towards Judah's still body. Clad in her nightgown, the princess' eyes glowed green in silent fury amid the dim, flickering candlelight illuminating in her private quarters.

Judah, on the other hand, cursed and shut his eyes as the back of his head throbbed wildly. But before he could pry them open once more and adjust to her silhouette, another stifling sensation constricted him in place.

He couldn't move. His body was squeezing together, begging to be released, but no matter how much he tried to break free, the invisible claws only seemed to grip him tighter.

"Tell me what you want." Her demanding voice low and steps measured, the princess approached her victim with an infuriated look etched on her face.

It took almost all of Judah's willpower to speak. "How...do you expect...me to tell you..." he spattered, "when you're choking me!"

Kora still appeared spiteful, but reluctantly dropped her hand and released him from her spell, not even the least bit remorseful when Judah hit the ground like a sack of bones.

"What do you want, Judah?" she asked yet again, turning away from his moaning body to quickly snatch something that lay on her bed.

Judah noticed the defensive action and continued to after she slipped it under her mountain of pillows, but he was still recovering from her recent assault to care much about it.

"You've never come here before," she accused as she sat on the edge of her bed, her eyes returning to their usual silver. Princess Kora eyed the direction of the half-Shade's grunts as he struggled to rise and sighed impatiently. "I am not going to wait all night."

The bastard prince in question cursed inwardly when he finally got on his feet. His back burned, but at least he had regained control of his body and could feel the magic wearing off.

Glaring at the culprit, Judah leaned his body against the door before he murmured, "I have always wondered why you have no friends." He let his head fall against the wooden barrier behind him. "I can't even pretend to like you."

"What is it you want?"

Judah watched his half-sister carefully. "A favour."

Kora scoffed, rose from her bed and headed towards what Judah supposed was Griffin's large crib on the opposite side of the bedchamber. She sauntered across the room so fluidly that he forgot for a second that she was without sight. Again.

And why were the candles even lit in the first place? She couldn't see!

Judah waited, but the shoe-mould still didn't say anything. "Well?" he insisted, getting impatient.

"You really think I would grant you a favour after what you failed to do?" she asked rhetorically, petting the sleeping beast, but Judah answered anyway.

"Yes, you would." He moved away from the door and stood upright. "I knew what you would ask of me would be stupid. And I was right. You even had the audacity to lie to my face."

"That was the only alternative. You were supposed to stop that ogre from stepping anywhere near this kingdom. I told you I felt something off about this particular visit." She glared his way, all the while reaching down to pick up a loudly snoring Griffin, rubbing her small fingers against his head. "You didn't even try."

Judah rolled his eyes at the absurdity of the statement and the stupid pet in Kora's hands. It was like she wasn't listening to herself.

"Kora, I haven't left the palace since I was brought in four months ago, so what made you think I was ready to leave the entire kingdom's territory in a doomed mission to stop a very snooty royal?" And an ugly one too.

Judah couldn't believe that Kora had even bothered to ask that of him. Of all the silliest things she could come up with, that had to be the most senseless of all.

Regardless of whether he had been ready to leave the palace or not, there was no way he would ever be able to stop the Princess of Drakonwell from entering the palace, let alone from crossing the kingdom's territory, all on his own.

And the silly shoe-mould certainly knew that, which forced Judah to believe that he had most definitely been her last resort. Not that he cared, but he was offended that she constantly thought he didn't have better things to do with his time.

Which he did.

So what had he done when Kora had demanded he leave at once to do her bidding? Well, he had shoved her out of his bedchamber, what he should've done the very moment she had stepped foot into his intricate quarters of grace.

He hadn't physically shoved her, of course, he had tried not to be too much of a monster. However, she had gotten so much on his nerves after her constant demands that he'd had no choice but to threaten the princess, and threaten her well.

Either she'd leave his bedchamber or Judah would have simply told the king that his beloved daughter had been sneaking into his bedchamber at odd times in the day and night, which wasn't at all far from the truth. And to make his threat even more solid, he had witnesses who constantly saw Princess Kora striding into his private quarters, most of the time without even bothering to knock.

So, suffice to say, his efforts had panned out perfectly, and Judah had never felt so proud of himself.

Because truthfully, if he had indeed found a way to stop the dragon princess' carriage from entering the kingdom—in theory, of course—claiming that she carried a "bad omen", he doubted that it would've given a certain deranged Shade the opportunity to approach Judah and bombard him with her insane intentions for both of them.

Intentions that were probably going to get them killed.

Speaking of death...

"Look, forget about all that." Judah approached his half-sister, stopping just a few feet away. "It's my turn to ask for a favour now, and you will do well to follow through. I have a lot of dirt on you, Your Royal Highness. Filthy dirt." He smiled when he saw her eyes narrow. "And you are aware of what that would mean for you, don't you?"

In response, Kora's silver eyes blazed with defiance for a moment before she placed Griffin back in his bed with more aggression than necessary. Judah almost felt sorry for the poor creature.

"Fine. What favour is it then?" she finally relented, chin raised and line of sight facing away from her half-brother.

Judah clasped his hands in anticipation and let the words spill out, "Teach me how to do proper magic."

Confusion dominated Kora's once annoyed expression. "You want me to teach you how to do proper magic?"

"That's what I said."

She cocked her head and turned to face him. "What exactly do you mean by proper?"

Judah thought on it for a second. "How's this? I want to learn how to fight with magic, and also defend myself. With magic."

"Why? You've never shown that much interest before..." Her brows furrowed further as the wheels started to turn. "Are you not telling me something?"

Scoffing, Judah began to pace the room in slow strides, suddenly needing to do something with his feet. "Don't take it the wrong way, little witch, but I never tell you anything."

A sudden blast of heat engulfed Judah's back, making him gasp in surprise and lose his footing. The half-Shade would've fallen painfully on his face if he hadn't caught himself in time.

One day, he silently vowed.

"That was your first lesson," Kora said when Judah turned to face her with a scowl and a grave insult at the tip of his tongue. "Never annoy someone more powerful than you."

Her right hand was outstretched, just like it had when he had first entered the bedchamber, and Judah saw that her eyes also shone bright with power.

"I want a lesson that's actually going to help me, not disfigure my back!"

"You want revenge for that?" Kora positioned herself in front of Judah and held out both hands towards him. "Do as I do."

Judah hesitated, but mimicked her pose in the end, feeling kind of foolish. He was just glad that Kora couldn't actually see him.

Or could she? He could never really be certain.

"I'm ready," he announced with determination, feeling the slightest amount of energy coursing through him. It wasn't much, but at least it reminded him that he had that potential.

Kora's eyes grew brighter, and Judah wondered if his too displayed the same feature.

Probably not.

"Repeat after me." Her voice deepened, making goosebumps involuntarily rise on Judah's skin.

"Burn."

Immediately, fire spread from her hands to her arms—actual fire—yet didn't burn off the sleeves of her nightgown.

Judah watched carefully, amazed, then took a deep breath and stared down at his hands, repeating the word with as much vigour and authority as he could.

"Burn," he murmured and waited.

Not long after, Judah felt a faint humming vibrate throughout his body, and when a small flame began to flicker on both his palms, he nearly threw his arms up in excitement.

Finally! Something worth—

Whoosh!

Judah's excitement plummeted as the flame quickly died in his hands. The bloody thing hadn't even developed into fire, which made him absolutely certain of one thing:

He was going to die before he even left Oroden.

It had been hard enough to survive in Ravencorff, but at least everyone was in the same soup. Nobody had any advantage over anyone when it came to magic. But the problem was, their destination was nowhere near Ravencorff.

In fact, to be completely frank, Judah had absolutely no idea where they would be heading towards as the little Shade hadn't told him the precise location of the treasure. But for some absurd reason, he looked forward to it.

Despite it being the most insane task he had ever put himself through, Judah still couldn't get the mental picture of Naomi out of his head. Her adorable brown eyes pleading for assistance even though her words had been spoken with confidence, the funny way her nose had stood out when she'd babbled on and on, and even her poor propriety skills had him intrigued.

Judah didn't know why exactly he was bothering with all this for her—someone he had just met—when the only connection between them was that they were from the same kingdom.

Yet somehow, he couldn't help himself. Call it a wizardry instinct if you wished, but Judah had a deep centred feeling in his insides that that treasure was so much more than what Naomi was making him believe.

So, not wasting any more time, the half-Shade sucked in a long, motivating breath and stood directly in front of Kora once more, knees bent and eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

He cracked his knuckles and said the words that he immediately regretted moments later, "Let's try this again."