The sunshine warmed the back of my neck as I pushed my hair to one side, trying to wrestle it into submission as I walked down the grand staircase. My eyes catching on the beautiful chandelier before looking for any sign to prove I'm not alone in this big house. I hesitated for a moment, about to head for the dinning room, when a sound made me spin around. A maid with her long brown hair braided into a knot on the top of her head, smiled at me gently.

"Miss," she started.

"Oh, it's just Cara," I shot back quickly.

"He's waiting for you in the garden Cara," she smiled shyly at me.

"Thank you," I smiled back at her.

My bare feet sunk down softly into the green grass, the sun warming my face as I scanned the garden looking for him. My eyes landing on a table set up at the end of the garden, the white table cloth gently playing in the wind. I walked over to him, his back was facing me and he still hadn't spotted me.

"Morning," I greeted him as I slid into the empty chair.

"Good morning." Taylor's dark eyes glistened at me in the sunshine.

"So this is what you do as a royal heir?" I teased nodding at the breakfast buffet laid out in front of us on the table.

His eyes crinkled as he laughed before his featured slid back into a serious facial expression. I grabbed some toast, still warm, and started spreading marmalade across it as I felt my stomach sink as a stone.

"We have to talk about what happens now Cara."

"The matches?" I raised my eyebrow as I bit into the toast, letting the mixture of orange, sugar and carbs explode in my mouth.

"The royal court sees you as my partner. You've been through the funeral but there is plenty of ceremonial situations on the horizon before the new kings is crowned. You need to stay here, stay safe until all of this is over."

I nodded, studying his face as he poured himself a cup of coffee. His brows were furrowed and I could tell this whole situation was worrying him. I lent back in my chair, looking up at the blue sky.

"What do you need?" I sighed.

"I need you to be careful and help me keep up this lie that you and I are a magical power couple." He sipped his coffee, his eyes intently staring out into the distance.

I didn't realise it was such a chore. "What do you need me to do?"

I cut off.

"You need to stay here. Stay out of the way of all the warlocks."

"Apart from all these ceremonial situations when I have to act like I am a warlock?" I could hear the snarky tone in my voice but I couldn't help it.

"I quit my job at the Royal Star," Taylor countered. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he hadn't done it lightly.

"Why?" the word rolled out of my mouth before I could control it.

"Because the time to pretend I could be anything but an heir is over." A darkness danced behind his eyes. My hand automatically reached across the table for his, squeezing it. We are both stuck here. Why am I angry at him?

"So we just wait for new king to be crowned?" I confirmed lightly. I made it sound so simple. He nodded in reply. But we both knew it would be harder than that to get out of this mess.

We sat in silence. I stared at the clouds as they blew past above our heads. My mind raising as I tried to find some sliver of hope for us to work of. Taylor was staring grimly into his coffee cup. It didn't take a genius to figure out he would rather be wiping down a greasy bar counter in East London.

"What about the Queen?" I smiled at my own cleverness.

"What about her?" Taylor shot me a blank look.

"Why can't she just rule?"

Taylor shook his head, a small smile playing across his lips. He stood up, his hand squeezing my shoulder.

"Cara the magical throne is something that has to be earned. If the Queen wanted the privilege to fight for it, she would join the matches. But I suspect she won't." He walked away from me, I stared at his tall frame as he walked towards the conservatory at the other edge of the garden. Thoughts where bouncing through my head as I pulled my feet up on the chair and the knees to my chest, catching the last glimpse of him before he disappeared into the house. What's the drama with all these matches? The king has died. We have been to his funeral. What else is waiting around the corner?

My bedroom was basking in the golden light of late afternoon sun. Even with my things here, trying to stay entertained when basically trapped in this house was proving difficult. I closed down my laptop and placed it on the nightstand as I heard a knock on the door.

"Yes?"

The brown haired maid from this morning poked her head around the edge of the door.

"Mr Grimstaw wanted me to alert you that the initiation dinner has been moved up to tonight."

My bewildered expression must have triggered her to keep talking.

"Taylor... sorry, Mr Grimstaw will explain everything when he's back from running errands."

"Errands?" I raised my eye brows. Why would he have left the house? Surely that wasn't part of the approved plan.

"Yes, he had something to pick up or do in Chinatown," the maid furrowed her brow as if she was trying to remember. She shook her head and continued, "Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I'll be back to help you with the dress and hair in an hour."

"Thank you," I smiled at her.

She shot me a small smile before closing the door behind her, leaving me alone again in the grand bedroom.

As I walked into the bathroom, different scenarios for this initiation dinner kept popping into my mind. Just ignore that for now. I pulled at the taps, letting hot water flow into the bathtub. Whatever this initiation dinner is, might as well be clean for it. I let my clothes fall to the floor and stepped into the bathtub, lowering my body down into the warm water. Just try to relax, whatever this dinner is you can bet that it'll include warlocks. The thought of more warlocks made my body shiver involuntarily. I tried to focus on the warm water surrounding me, blocking any thoughts of magic from my mind.

The water had nearly gone cold, I forced my eyes to open and pulled myself up to a sitting position. A bad feeling lurched in my stomach, I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was but something made me uneasy. I pulled the plug and watched the water as it started to swirl down into the drain. The water spiralling downwards and disappearing into the darkness. My body froze in fear as a dark shape pushed up through the drain. My hands pushed against the sides of the bath, trying to get up but the dark shape had grabbed hold of my ankle. In horror I realised that the dark shape was a snake, its eyes glowed red as it pushed me down into the bath water. My fingers were clawing at the slick snake skin as it constricted around my leg. My heart felt like it stopped beating as I saw a second pair of red eyes emerge from the drain. The second snake swam up through the bath water, before wrapping itself around my waist. My fingers were trying to dig through the knot the snake had on my body, as my mind felt like it was frozen in disbelief. As if in a horror film, another couple of dark, black snakes pushed their slim, long bodies up the drain. Their scales graced my naked skin as they wrapped themselves around me. I felt powerless, trying to struggle against them without any result. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a pair of red snake eyes, sparkling as they stared me down. I felt my body give up, as the snakes pulled me below the surface. My eyes blinked involuntarily as I tried to focus my eyes underneath the water. Another few snakes swam across the surface of the bathwater. My muscled relaxed with defeat, as I tried to focus on the ceiling through the blurry bath water which was dotted with the dark shapes of swimming snakes. One of them turned its head, the red eyes looking at me with a pitiful look. Something clicked into place in my mind. The red eyes of the snakes, their shocking appearance. These aren't ordinary snakes. The thought vibrated through my body. The snakes slithered closer around me as if my thoughts were audible to them. I know who sent you. As soon as the words had passed through my mind, their scales burst with firey magic as they tried to hold me down. I felt their magic course through me, as I closed my eyes focusing my mind on the snakes holding me down. You are just magic. You are not real. You will not control me. I felt my skin explode with magic, the snakes touching me dissolving around me in the bath water. As soon as their weight was off me, I threw myself out of the bathwater. My hands rubbing down my naked body, trying to brush away the slivers of snake skin as I stared into the swirling water. Little pops of magic, red and sparkling swirled around mixed in with pieces of dead snake. Fuck you. I wrapped a towel around me. You have tried to kill me one too many times, Aaron.

Author's Note: I hope you liked this chapter. What did you think of the last bit of it? 

I've written a post for the Wattpad Block Party - if you haven't read it, I'll leave the link in the comments

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