Lycan Alpha's Witch

6) Silence

“Princess! Princess! Are you alright?! Has anything happened to you?” Lea was by my side in an instant, checking me from all angles and sides, making sure I was fine. Or maybe she was just checking if nothing had happened to my clothes, given how much she was making sure none of the gems went missing.

“I’m okay.”

“He didn’t do anything bad to you, did he?” Her eyes were suddenly clouded with worry.

Not only did that werewolf just waltz in here, he had to be seen here. And he even put me into such a stupid situation. I had to react. I had to say something to calm everyone down and to put the gazes of all the wizards that had managed to gather around us to rest.

“I am fine. Nothing happened to me. The… baron just saw a weird shadow and thought it was a werewolf. I mean, how would they even manage to get into our island? That’s ridiculous with all the security we have.” I scoffed while trying to shift all the attention away from me, while I forgot the name of the yellow-haired guy once again.

“That is great! Thank you, my lord! You saved our princess! She must have been so scared of the weird shadow that appeared!” Lea clasped his hand in hers, bowing her head down. I secretly rolled my eyes up. Is that something you would call saving? From someone, who didn’t even have any bad intentions sneaking inside? And anyway, I would be able to protect myself very well if it came to anything! Definitely better than that broken nutcracker would ever be able to.

“I believe we can move on to announcing the engagement match.”

“The queen…” Everyone but me bowed their heads down as my mother appeared. I was motionless. She made sure I wasn’t going to speak by placing a silencing spell on me. She didn’t care if this guy was talking nonsense now under the bamboozling spell I put on him a while ago. She only needed that one excuse to get me engaged to just anyone with a nobility title.

“Come, we have to tell everyone.” She took me by my arm and started walking with me back to the stairs and up. I couldn’t resist her grip. I knew exactly why she was acting this way now. She wanted to put off all the confusion and make our guests focus on the announcement instead. At the top of the stairs I had finally managed to take back my arm from her grip. The silencing spell was also slowly wearing off. Her magic wasn’t as strong as it used to be, I could feel she was growing old. I was side-eyeing her as she was waiting for everyone to gather and quiet down. I could only glare at her, my lips were sealed shut by her spell.

I was gently rubbing my wrist. If I wasn’t wearing gloves that stretched way above my elbows, everyone would be able to see the red fingerprints that her grip had left.

The whole ballroom quieted down. The hour my sentence was going to be announced, the minute, it had come. And there was nothing I could do to stop it. I didn’t care about anyone in the room. Their gazes were looking up to us with sparkles in their eyes. While I was waiting to be basically slaughtered on the spot by the few words the queen would say.

“An auspicious hour has arrived! Princess Valencia had found her match! Baron Delvey was so courageous to spot out a threat and save my dear daughter from the scare! Does not love do that? Baron Delvey!” She made another one of her grand speeches. Well, this time, that speech made me speechless without any spell needed. The yellow-hair was walking up the stairs while I was gathering my thoughts. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. This wasn’t what I wanted! And that stupid werewolf made all my plans into a useless pulp! My eyes quickly shifted to my mother. What should I do? What was I supposed to do? All the important witches and wizards gathered in the ballroom, and the yellow-haired shortie was now coming to get me. I clenched my fists. I couldn't just let this go and get my life completely ruined! I could feel my heartbeat getting quicker. The mana in me was starting to flow erratically again. But this time it wasn’t because I would be disgusted. I was… scared. Scared that everything I had done up to this point was just meaningless. Useless. As if all that happiness and quaintness I had felt in my life was an illusion. Yet I didn’t want to let go. I wanted to go back to that time when I didn’t have to do something against my will. When I wasn’t forced to behave under a spell.

I shut my eyes so tightly, tears started coming out. I didn’t care about the comments I was hearing that I was crying tears of happiness. I had to focus. Focus my mana precisely and hard enough to get rid of the silencing spell on me.