To Bewitch a Devil

252 I love you, Zavian

“Neera?” Zavian called again, so softly that Neera had to hold her tears from breaking free again.

“Nothing,” she said. “It’s just... I am struggling to come to terms with my new reality. But Penelope being here is of immense help.”

When Zavian kept watching her and said nothing, she turned around to look him in the face. Her fingers raised to trace his jawline, and she gave him a smile.

“A little birdie told me about a potion being fed to the horses,” she said.

Zavian’s brows creased. “Who told you?”

“It doesn’t matter. What is that about?”

Zavian sighed and took the hand on his jaw. “Nothing major.”

“Okay,” she was disappointed at the disinterested reply. “How about this? We go into town together this week and have all the time of our lives. But... but...,” Neera held a finger as a smile widened on her lips. “We dress as commoners, and stay away from being recognized.”

Zavian managed to smile. “What have you got up your sleeves?”

.....

“Wait, let me check,” Neera said, raising her hand and pulling down the band to check inside her sleeve. “There’s nothing here, Zavian.”

Zavian shook his head at the dry humour, and Neera gave a laugh. If he hadn’t seen her crying a few minutes ago, he would have thought her to be extremely happy.

“I want us to relive how it was like in the beginning,” Neera said.

“I was still royalty from the beginning.”

“You were a Prince, and smitten by me.”

“You were the one who couldn’t stop staring.”

Neera gasped and hit him lightly. “That’s not true!”

“Is it? I remember you staring, mouth open, drooling...”

“Oh my, Zavian!” Neera gave another one of her soul filling laughs, a light sound that painted the walls a brighter colour. “Feed yourself those lies, but as long as I know it, tomorrow is ours.”

“And every other day after,” Zavian added.

Neera smiled. “And every other day after.”

She reached up and pressed a feathery light kiss to his lips. She knew Zavian had been giving her space for healing and kept anything intimacy related away for now. And she appreciated it, mostly because it would only make things worse for her in the end, because of what she had done.

“I have to meet up with a governor downstairs,” he whispered to her, his gaze scanning her face as if looking for cracks, a breakdown. “I know it is late, but I’ll be back soon.”

Neera rubbed his arm. “Okay, and I love you, Zavian. Always will.”

“I love you too, Neera.”

He left, and when Neera turned back to the mirror, the smile fell off, and the tears wasted no time in springing up. She bit her lower lip as she stared at her reflection in the mirror;

I love you Zavian...

But the words sounded hypocritical coming from her.

....

Penelope was nothing but happy. She was soaked in the pure, undiluted joy, and every minute spent with Neera was filled with something practical, a compensation for lost times.

She had most dinners with both the Queen and the King, and she and Neera would engage with the other maids sometimes, while giving them time to warm up to the sudden change of their Mistress. They also raced together, read books together, went on long walks around the castle together. It was as if they picked up right where they dropped off.

Right now, Penelope was balanced on a mare, the white and black giving it semblance to a cow. The beast was huge, and Penelope clutched onto the reins tightly as it trotted beside Neera’s horse, a mare that looked even more huge than the one she had.

“You know horses can’t eat us, right?” Neera said.

“What?” Penelope gave Neera a brief glance, before her eyes returned to the grassy path before her.

“You’re looking at it like it’s going to have you for lunch. I told you they are well trained.”

“Did you see the hooves of this thing? If anything startles it, it’s going to throw me off its back and mash me like grapes for wine.”

“It can sense your fear,” Neera said. As if agreeing, the horse whinnied in response, and it increased its pace forward.

“Neera! It’s going faster!” Penelope freaked.

“I wish you learnt to ride a horse on your own sooner,” Neera said. She pulled the reins of hers to a stop and hopped down. Penelope watched the fluidity of her movement with fascination and concluded that it would take her years to master being comfortable on a horse on her own.

“Pen, you know sometimes the best way out is through, right?” Neera asked.

“Yes?”

“Get through your fears once and for all,” Neera patted the horse, and came close to its ear, whispering something in it. She looked up at Pen, smiled, and mounted her horse again.

“Sorry Pen,” Neera said. “Fortune favors the bold, so I would need you to hold tightly to your reins.”

“Hold tightly? Why are you...”

But the breath was knocked out of her when Neera gave the horse three strong pats to the side of its neck, and it sped off at a breakneck speed. Penelope was almost off the horse at the sudden jolt, and she grabbed the reins, screaming her lungs out as the horse sped through the grassy fields.

Penelope was vaguely aware of the words she screamed, and of the way her hair had come undone and whipped wildly at her face, blocking her vision and flapping at her face like a black crow. She couldn’t let go of the reins, afraid that death would take her in one swoop if she did.

“Stop!” She could make out what she was saying to the horse now, but the beast only kept propelling unnaturally fast, and toward the front of the castle. Someone was calling out her name from behind, but her world was moving too fast, and all she could do was sit atop the galloping mare.