Charmed

by J. A. Armitage

  As softly as possible, I padded down the stairs, keeping my eyes and ears open. The whole house was still, and the only sound I could hear was the guard I’d stolen the gun from, still snoring upstairs. I’d almost reached the door when someone shouted.

  “Halt!”

  Turning around, I came face to face with a guard. He was young. Younger than me even and looked terrified to have unexpectedly caught me. I held the gun steadily, pointing it at him, and for the first time, realized I may have to actually use it.

  Did I have it in me to kill someone? Probably not, but if he came any closer, I’d think nothing of shooting him in both his legs.

  “Stay back and keep quiet,” I hissed, keeping the gun aimed at his head. He wasn’t to know that I wouldn’t kill him.

  I backed up until I could feel the wood of the door behind me. Keeping my eyes on the guard, who still hadn’t moved, I pulled back the bolt. All I had to do now was turn the latch and run, but as I did, the lights came up, and a siren blared out. The oak door was pushed open roughly, knocking me to the floor and as my hand hit the dark wood, a shot went off, narrowly missing the first guard and hitting a china vase which exploded into a thousand pieces.

  Within a minute I was surrounded. Someone roughly kicked the gun from my hand, sending it spinning across the polished flooring, and making me cry out in pain.

  Behind me, a guard picked me up and pulled my arms back in an attempt to bind them A swift movement of my head backwards landed right on his nose. I heard the snap of the bones as he screamed out, letting me go at the same time. I jumped up quickly as the next one came towards me. The adrenaline pumped through my veins as I kicked him hard between his legs. As he crumpled to the floor, another lunged at me. This one was much bigger. Instead of trying to fight him, I dropped to the floor and crawled quickly out of the throng. I didn’t have time to decide which direction to go in, so I ran down the long corridor in front of me. Right behind me, I could hear the guards chasing. The siren still howled, piercing the peaceful morning with its relentless screech. At the end of the long corridor was the servant’s stairwell. I could either go down to the basement level or up. Deciding that up offered a better chance of escape, I dashed up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Unfortunately, it left me back on the same corridor I started on. Glancing down it, I saw the sleeping guard had finally woken up. The corridor was now empty. I was tempted to rush back down it, but I already knew there was nowhere to go from there, except back down to the entrance hall, so I continued up the stairs to the third and final floor. A doorway led to another corridor, identical to the one below it. I pushed a heavy desk in front of the door behind me to stall the following guards. The siren was much quieter up here, but the shouts and knocking coming from the door behind me made up for it. At least, I had a few moments to catch my breath and think.

  All along the corridor were doors to what I assumed to be bedrooms. I could either run the length of the corridor and see if there was some other way of escape, or hide in one of the rooms. Deciding on the former, to keep moving, I took off down the corridor at high speed. When I was halfway down, I heard the door crash open behind me. I turned to see four or five guards behind me. I picked up the pace, but just as I reached the main stairwell, a door opened, a door that I crashed straight into, knocking me backwards.

  Pain shot through my head as it hit the floor, followed by another sharp pain from my injured hand. I closed my eyes as the waves passed through my head. A rough hand grabbed me by my hair and pulled me upright.

  “Well, well,” said a voice I knew only too well. Luca glared at me although his mouth curled up at the edges into a sneer. “I should have known it was you who woke me up.”

  A female voice floated out of the bedroom. “What’s going on?”

  The blonde, I presumed.

  “Nothing, just a rodent. Go back to sleep.”

  He slammed the bedroom door behind him, and still holding me by my hair, dismissed the guards who had followed me down the corridor.

  “I’d ask how you got out of your room, but I can only assume it is because of the incompetence of my guards. I shall have a stern talk with them in the morning. For now, you will come with me.”

  He dragged me all the way down to the ground floor. I didn’t have any strength left to fight him anymore. In the entrance hall, a couple of the guards stood to attention as I was dragged past, but Luca ignored them. He took me to another set of steps leading down. At the bottom were two doors, one to the right and one to the left. He opened the door to the left and pushed me roughly through. Without windows, the place was pitch black with only the light from the upstairs illuminating it, but I already knew where I was. I was in the basement where Jenny and Dean had been kept.

  “You can stay here for a few days while I decide what to do with you. I knew I was too easy on you, giving you a nice bed in a nice room. You always were an ungrateful brat.”

  With those words, he slammed the door shut plunging me into complete blackness.

  I’d never felt so alone in my life.

  Cinders

  The basement was just that. A vast empty room with the only exit being the door which was bolted from the outside.

  Although I couldn’t see anything at all, it was easy enough to feel around in the dark. The only things in there were a couple of sets of manacles, screwed into the damp wall.

  Cynder had escaped from this room only yesterday, but he had magic on his side. If no one had taken either his or Daniel’s wand, unbolting the door from this side would have been a breeze. Plus, there were four of them. I was only one.

  “Hello,” I called out, but no one answered.

  I was well and truly alone.

  If Luca wanted to kill me, leaving the door shut would be an easy option. Without access to food or water, I’d be dead without him having to lift a finger. I sat on the cold floor, drawing my feet up and wrapping my arms around my knees. The floor was damp and cold, making me shiver. Without anything else to do, my thoughts turned to Cynder and to my family. Had they all managed to make it to the next safe house? I could only hope and pray that they had and that the journey had been smooth, especially for Elise.

  I felt in my pocket. The piece of paper with the map on it was still there. If I ever got out of here, at least I’d know where to go.

  If I died in here, Elise would be the next in line to the throne. She had to survive. Her and her baby. Without them, there was no one left.

  “She’s a fighter,” I whispered to myself. Whatever was making her sick, I was sure that Alannah would be able to cure it, and if not, Jenny knew every medicinal cure in the book. Between them, they’d make her well again.

  I counted the months. Only three more to go until the next Annesley prince or princess was born. With Elise and Leo as parents, the kid was bound to be beautiful.

  I gave a small smile as I thought about the moment I’d see my niece or nephew for the first time.

  Luca remained true to his word. I was left down there on my own for days. I couldn’t tell if it was night or day, but I knew enough time had passed to be more than twenty-four hours.

  With each moment that passed, my thirst and hunger grew along with the feeling of helplessness.

  Banging on the door was no use as no one came to see me, and it was thick, way too thick for me to even contemplate trying to break through.

  The dampness cut right through to my bones making me shiver constantly and the hours stretched out endlessly.

  Even sleep was not easy to come by to break the monotony. The stone floor was damp as were the walls so even when I did manage to nod off, the wetness of my clothes soon woke me up.

  On day three or four, I couldn’t really tell, the door finally opened. I lifted my head to see who it was, hopeful of someone throwing some food in to me. When my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw it was Luca. Despite my hatred for him running deep, I was still pleased to see him. If he was there to kill me, all the better. Anything was
better than this misery.

  “Get up!” he demanded.

  My bones ached after days of cold temperatures, and getting up off the floor was a painfully slow process.

  “I’ve decided that you are doing no one any good down here in the basement. What use to me are you if I let you rot? I’ll only have to pay someone to get rid of your body. No, I’ve had a much better idea.”

  When he got impatient with the time it was taking me to stand, he strode in and heaved me upright.

  “You stink. You’ll have to have a bath before I put you to work.”

  He was putting me to work?

  I didn’t have the strength to answer him, nor to walk, so he picked me up and slung me over his shoulder, before carrying me up the stairs. At the top, he carried me directly to a large bathroom with a deep tub on bronze claw feet. After putting the plug in and turning on the tap, he threw me in, clothes and all.

  As the water hit my skin, it stung, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of crying out. It wasn’t actually that hot, but after days of living in the damp and cold, it felt like needles piercing my skin.

  “A couple of weeks ago, I would have enjoyed undressing you, but look at you now. Pitiful! I can’t bear the sight of you.”

  He stormed out of the room, leaving me to enjoy the bath. Once I was warm enough to get my joints working again, I stepped out of the bath and undressed, throwing my wet, filthy clothes into the sink. Then I emptied the bath and refilled it with fresh water right to the top, letting the taps run a little hotter this time now that I felt like I’d thawed out. Before getting back in, I bowed my head under a tap on a nearby sink and guzzled down the cold, clean water. It soothed my throat and brought life to me.

  I stayed in the bath as long as I could, until my fingers wrinkled at the tips and the water turned cold. There was no rush for me to get out, and no one came to demand I hurry up. Finally stepping out of the bath, I grabbed a towel hanging from a hook on the door and wrapped myself in it. It was then I noticed a pile of clothes folded neatly in the corner.

  I lifted the top item and held it out in front of me. It was a plain grey dress with the letters KL embroidered in gold on the breast pocket underneath an embroidered crown. KL? King Luca? I scrunched my nose up in distaste as I threw it on. Below it was a pair of clean cotton panties and a white apron.

  This was an outfit for a servant.

  I looked in the mirror, and a kitchen maid gazed back at me. I still had the face that Matty had given me. There was nothing left of who I was at all.

  Remembering the map Cynder had drawn for me, I glanced down at my dirty wet clothes on the floor. Pulling the paper out I could see that it was now barely legible. The water had worn it away, and only a small part of the map could still be seen.

  I waited another twenty minutes or so to see if anyone would come for me, but no one did so I opened the door cautiously after pocketing the map once again. A guard, who was obviously waiting for me, directed me to follow him. At the top of the stairs to the basement I stalled. Why let me bathe and have clean clothes if they were going to throw me back in, but this time the guard chose the right-hand door. Through it was a kitchen. It was dark and old-fashioned and had the most terrible smell as if something had died in there, but at least I could see a little light shining through a high-up window. I could just about make out bars on the other side of it, so I had to dismiss it as a valid escape plan.

  “His Majesty has been having food brought in, but he’s expressed his desire for someone to cook for him and her ladyship. From now on, it will be your job.”

  “Luca wants me to be a cook?” I croaked in disbelief. I’d barely cooked anything in my entire life. I remembered the last time I’d attempted it. I‘d made Cynder an omelet in his parent’s apartment last year. It had turned out ok. As I thought of food, my stomach rumbled.

  “There are some ingredients on the table. He’ll expect dinner in the dining room in an hour. Don’t be late, or you’ll go back in the basement.” The guard turned on his heels and closed the door behind him. I waited a minute and tried to open the door. To my surprise, it wasn’t locked. Even more strangely, it had no one guarding it. Not that they really needed to. If I tried running away again, I knew that the alarm would sound the second I touched those front doors.

  I turned back into the kitchen and closed the door. After being in the basement next door for so long, the kitchen was a dream, even if it was filthy and had evidence of rats. I began my job by using some coal to light a fire in the old fireplace. Flames bobbed merrily lending both light and warmth to the place. Then I turned to the food on the table. The guard had said I was only cooking for Luca and a woman. Her Ladyship, he’d called her.

  My stomach growled again as I took in just how much food there was—more than enough for two. I picked up a fresh loaf of bread and inhaled its aroma. For a second it drowned out the stink of the kitchen. I pulled a chunk off and stuffed it into my mouth greedily. It tasted delicious but quickly stuck in my throat. I grabbed one of the beer bottles that had been left on the table and swigged the whole bottle down.

  After that, it was merely a question of figuring out what to cook. I wish I’d paid more attention to what Cynder did to make his food taste so amazing because I couldn’t figure out what to do with the chicken breasts and vegetables. In the end, I threw the lot in a pan along with a bit of oil and salt and pepper and kept stirring until it all looked cooked.

  Then I did my best to arrange it artfully on a couple of plates before adding a couple of slices of buttered bread as an afterthought. My only problem was how I was going to explain the missing beer, before coming up with the solution of pouring the remaining bottle into two glasses.

  I put the lot on a tray, and after glancing at the clock to make sure I was still on time, I took the whole lot up to the dining room.

  The blonde woman sneered at me as I walked in the room, but Luca treated me as he would any servant.

  Without speaking, I placed a plate and glass of beer in front of both of them.

  As I turned to leave, Luca grabbed my wrist.

  “This had better be good.”

  “I’m not a cook as you well know,” I replied, pulling my hand away from him.

  “Well, you’d better learn quickly because I have guests coming next week and I expect you to plan a menu and prepare it for them. There will be eight of us.”

  I nodded and turned away, grimacing. Just before leaving, I glanced back towards the pair of them. I noticed that Luca was waiting until the blonde tried hers first. He probably thought I’d poisoned it. It wasn’t a half-bad idea. Back in the kitchen, I found some old rags and made a makeshift bed by the fire. I’d not had a full night’s sleep in days, and I was exhausted. I lay myself down and closed my eyes, feeling the warmth of the fire next to me. I slept like a baby until dawn broke through the small window, streaming light down into the kitchen.

  The smell of the kitchen was worse than it had been the day before, so I set to cleaning the place up. Looking in a cupboard, I found more rags and some cleaning fluid which I used to wipe all the surfaces and the inside of cupboards. In the last cupboard, I found the source of the smell, a large decaying rat. Scrunching my nose up, I picked it up and threw it straight into the trash, before using the lemon scented fluid to clean that cupboard too. I rubbed the window down, wiping years of grease and dust from it, and sunlight poured through. Only when everything else was cleaned, did I set to mopping the floor. By the time a man came with a box of groceries, the kitchen was immaculate.

  In the box was enough food for two large meals for two. Instead of jumping in like I had the day before, I put everything away in the fridge and cupboards and sat down with a pen and notepad that I’d found. They clearly weren’t ordering enough food for me to eat too, but if they weren’t down here to watch me, I was going to eat anyway. I mentally listed all the ingredients I had at my disposal and came up with a plan for both lunch and dinner.

&
nbsp; I prepared the food and cooked it before ladling it onto three plates. Two large ones for Luca and his girlfriend and a smaller one for myself. My portion might not have been huge after all, I probably wouldn’t have gotten away with it if they’d noticed too much missing, but at least, mine didn’t have dead rat rubbed all over it before I served it. I allowed myself a little grin before heading back up to the dining room.

  “The food yesterday wasn’t good enough,” Luca announced as I put his plate in front of him. “The vegetables were crunchy, and the chicken was rubbery. None of it had any flavor.”

  “I told you yesterday. I don’t know how to cook.”

  “What’s the use in having a chef boyfriend if he doesn’t show you anything?” barked Luca. The blonde sniggered.

  “If you brought me some cookbooks, I'd be able to do better,” I replied, hoping that the rat had died of the plague. It would serve the pair of them right.

  “I’ll have some sent down to you by the end of the day,” he snapped.

  Back in the kitchen, I tucked into my dinner. Ok, it wasn’t as good as anything Cynder could have made, but the thought of the two of them upstairs eating lunch ala diseased rat, made it all the more delicious.

  A New Queen

  A week later and I was still there. Any thoughts of escaping had abandoned me. Even though there wasn’t a guard directly outside the kitchen door, I knew that if I tried the main doors, I’d only set off the alarm again. The thought of being thrown back in the damp basement was enough to keep me from trying. By day, I studied the cookbooks and came up with my own take on the dishes in them, and by night, I slept on rags by the fire just like Cynder had done all those years ago when he was a boy. We’d had such different upbringings, and yet, we’d both managed to end up in the same place, being a servant and sleeping among the cinders.

  One evening I heard the sound of someone shouting. It was distant as if it came from outside, but when I listened more closely, I realized it was actually coming from upstairs. I glanced at the kitchen clock, just discernible in the moonlight, and saw it was close to midnight. Pulling myself up from the bed of rags and cinders, I cautiously opened the kitchen door and peeked out. The stairs were dark as was the entrance hall at the top, so I took the chance to sneak up. As before, there were no guards on the door, so keeping to the shadows, I followed the sound of the voice along the corridor. Light shone out from a crack under one of the doors, and I didn’t have to open it to know it was Luca in there. His voice was loud enough for the whole house to hear. He was arguing with someone about Cynder. I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized he was no closer to finding him or the others. That’s why he was so mad. I jumped back, hugging the shadows of the wall as he slammed his phone down hard. I hid behind a curtain thinking he was going to storm out of the room, but he didn’t. I heard him talking to someone else, this time much more quietly. Edging out from behind the curtain, I held my ear to the door.