Illusion and Reality

Facing the reality

My mind went numb as her words fell into my ears. I tried my best not to panic about the situation and took a few breaths to calm my nerves.

“What do you mean she is not in her room?” I asked, suddenly everything was silent. 

“I went into her room and she was not there,” Astrid answered slowly, making sure if I was fine.

“Did you check somewhere else, maybe she is in the house somewhere,” Valeria suggested, which was not a good idea as Astrid gave her a sharp look.

“Do you think I am a fool? Of course, I have checked other places as well.”

Ignoring their conversation, I asked, “Where can she go? She can’t just disappear from her room. We were sitting here the whole time.”

Valeria stood by my side, “We will find her, calm down,” she then looked at Astrid, “do you think someone entered inside the house?”

Astrid shook her head, “No, I would have felt it.”

“We can find her, we just need something that belongs to her.”

Astrid gave a nod and I ran towards Lily’s room. I quickly opened the door and grabbed her hairbrush. 

I was about to turn around when I felt the cold air coming from her window, I was sure it was closed the last time I was in her room. I went towards the window to get a closer look, a rope made out of bedsheets tied together was hanging from the window, “Oh Lily.”

“Do you think another witch has something to do with her disappearance?” I heard Valeria asking Astrid.

“No,” I replied, walking towards them, “her window was open, she used bedsheets to climb down, she ran away by her choice.”

“Why would she do that? Doesn’t she know you guys do not have much time?” Valeria asked.

I shook my head, “I never got the chance to tell her about this.”

I realized it was all my fault. She could have been here, she was right I was cursed. She ran away because she was mad at me. If we could not go back home it would be my fault only. Thinking about all those things, I just wanted to curl up in a corner and cry my heart out but I could not give up so soon, there was still hope.

I gave the hairbrush to Astrid who had placed a map of the kingdom on the table.

She put the hairbrush on top of the map. Closing her eyes, she started chanting some foreign words. Suddenly a circle of fire formed around the hairbrush, engulfing it completely in the fire. Soon the brush was just a pile of ash, red sparkles formed on the map, and ash of hairbrush started moving on its own.

It stopped at one place and Astrid opened her eyes.

“She is in the palace,” said Valeria in surprise.

“I should have known,” Astrid and I glanced at each other with a knowing look, we knew why she went there. 

Valeria gave us a confused look, “Am I missing something.”

“She went there to meet Liam,” I answered.

Astrid collected the map from the table in a hurry, “Why would she do that, risk everything for a boy? This is extremely foolish of her, we do not have time to waste,” annoyance was clear on her face, I decided not to say anything.

Valeria cleared her throat slightly, feeling left out from the conversation, “Guys, I still have no idea about this Liam guy.”

“Liam is a royal guest, he is king Ezra’s nephew,” replied Astrid, throwing the map away with a frown.

Valeria looked at me.

“She has a thing for him,” I whispered.

“Ohh,” she replied, “really? Him,” she scrunched her nose up.

I gave her a confused look, “Why what’s wrong with him?”

She opened her mouth to say something but I cut her off before that.

 “Okay, let’s go back to finding a solution to our problem. Val and I can go to the palace and bring back Lily. You can start the ritual and all the other things you have to do for it,” I said to Astrid.

“I need the blood to start the ritual and you should not leave the house especially to go to the palace,” she gave me a look that reminded me of the dead queen who looked like me.

I could not take the risk of being seen by king Ezra, last time I was lucky he was not in the palace, I could not create more problems for anyone.

“What should we do now? We can’t wait for her to come back on her own,” I asked, panicked by the situation, it was already almost evening.

“I can go there and bring her back. I think Samara should not go there, considering Lily is still mad at her, no offense,” Valeria offered.

I bit my lip thinking if it was a good idea or not, she was right Lily would never talk to me let alone come back with me.

Astrid might have understood my dilemma, “No, you will not go to the palace,” she said, earning a confused look from Valeria, “You do not go there often so it will be suspicious if you just appeared there. I go to the palace to collect herbs every now and then. I should go there.”

I nodded in agreement, “She is right, Val.”

Astrid went to the garden to make a portal while I sat there with Valeria, fidgeting my hands nervously.

She passed me a cup of tea, “Drink this, this actually helps. I should take the recipe from Astrid, considering if she would tell me the original one and not something to turn me into a potato or something.”

I chuckled slightly at her, “Astrid will not turn you into a potato. Take this from me, she is nice.”

“Yeah for you maybe,” she mumbled.

I took a few sips of the tea.

 “So, are you going to tell me the other reason?”

I looked at her with furrowed eyebrows.

“The reason why you did not go to the palace.”

I stared at her astonished, after hearing her words.

She laughed slightly at this, “I noticed the way Astrid looked at you when she said you can not go to the palace, so spill.”

“I look like her.”

“Her?”

“The queen,” I muttered, without looking at her. I felt ashamed for hiding another truth from her when all she did was help us.

“You mean the dead queen?”

I nodded.

“Wow!” she sat there with wide eyes, staring at me.

“I am sorry for not telling this to you earlier, a lot of stuff was happening and it just slipped from my mind.”

“Are you serious? You do not have to apologize for this, I understand this is difficult for you, and your main priority is not spilling secrets right now but hiding them,” she smiled.

I gave her a smile in return, relieved that she was not angry about this.

“How did you find out about it?” she asked with curiosity dancing in her eyes.

“I saw the portrait in the palace one day,” I skipped the part about how we got in the palace after trying to follow Lucius, “then Lucius told us the woman in the portrait was the queen,” I skipped the part about us finding the picture in his room as well, if we were going home then it was useless to create so many questions in her mind about Lucius or Astrid.

Just then the door opened and Astrid came inside with Lily following her silently, the scar on her face was completely healed. 

“We do not have much time left. Let’s start the ritual right now,” Astrid said in a hurry. She ran to her room and came back with the same bag she was carrying during our trip to visit her grandmother.

She started putting various flowers, dried leaves, and some other things which I could not recognize on the table. Taking out small glass tubes she turned towards me, I gave her my hand.

With the needle, she poked my index finger and collected the blood in the tube, while I looked away.

Then she turned towards Lily and did the same thing to her as well, Lily looked at everything showing no emotion on her face.

Astrid opened her bag to remove the stone but froze suddenly. 

“Astrid?” I called.

Slowly she removed the white stone from her bag.

I covered my mouth with my hands as I looked at the stone. It only meant one thing, we missed our only chance to go back home.

“What is it?” asked Valeria, staring between us and the stone.

“It is too late to use the stone now, it has lost all of its powers,” replied Astrid in monotone.

Nobody moved a muscle in the room, everyone stayed in their positions silently accepting the reality. A dead silence wrapped itself around the living room.

Finally, Lily’s voice broke the silence, “I am going back to my room,” her voice was flat, devoid of any emotion. 

I just stared at her walking through the stairs towards her room.

“Thank you, Astrid, for trying," I said, I was grateful for everything she had done.

“Wait,” Valeria said suddenly, “the moon is out now, maybe I can help you,” she looked at Astrid expectedly.

Astrid waited for a while, thinking about something before giving her a curt nod.

Valeria looked at me with hesitation, to which I replied with a motivating smile.

“Follow me,” Astrid said and started walking. 

“I have to get some things before I can start,” Valeria said.

“Fine,” Astrid sighed, "get your stuff and meet me here."

Valeria walked out of the door in a hurry to bring her stuff and Astrid went towards her room.

I went to the garden and sat there silently burning my head in my hands, without the knowledge of time and my surrounding. I felt the slight wind touching my hair softly, the sounds of the insects falling on my ears but none of it mattered to me at that time.

Until I felt someone taking a seat next to me, without looking I knew who it was when the scent of familiar cologne entered my nostrils. I did not turn to look at him.

“I am sorry,” I heard his voice but did not look at him.

Slowly I lifted my head to meet his soft eyes filled with regret.

Without thinking twice I threw myself in his arms. At the moment I did not care about the doubt and questions I had against him. I did not want to find any answers. I did not want to ask him any questions and hear his answers.

I wanted to stay like that, as he held me tightly in his arms, rubbing soothing circles on my back.

It was what I needed after the long day I had.

I had a lot of things to worry about and tomorrow would be a new day filled with many challenges. I was ready to face the reality, but at the moment I wanted to stay in the illusion under the dark sky.