CH.14 A demon so tricky
Iris threw the needle away in anger, stabbing into the wallpaper like a dagger.
Several needles stuck out of the wall like arrows in a target, the threads hanging from them refusing to obey her commands.
She didn't understand what was happening.
Her power had never failed her before. Why all of a sudden?
She felt like cutting up the stupid dress.
"What did that wall do to deserve this?"
"It's not working. That stupid enchantment is not working!"
"And what are you trying to achieve?"
"As you know, my stepmother is threatening to pull all the skeletons out of my closet, so I figured if she doesn't remember them, she won't have any power over me. But that stupid enchantment doesn't work!"
She threw the scissors at the wall too. She had always felt when stitches carried her heart's desire, but now she felt nothing but emptiness. Deep and dark. As empty as her stepmother and her stepsister.
"I can tell you two reasons why," Luc said.
"Teach me, demon!"
"Call me that again and I'll have to teach your sharp tongue a lesson."
"My dearest demon? Does that sound better?"
"Way better, my little witch."
He took her stepmother's dress, which she had been adjusting for her to cover the berries that marked her skin, from her hands and blew out all the candles, shrouding the room in the gloom of the setting sun.
"Light them!" he whispered in her ear.
She lit them with a wave of her hand. And Luc extinguished them again.
"Again."
Iris did so. A third and fourth time.
"What's the point?"
"Just keep doing it until I say enough."
And so she did as he wished, over and over again.
She lit the bright flames of the candles, whose bright light he stole.
Shadows danced on the thin line between darkness and light.
Then he suddenly kissed her neck. His tongue wandered over her skin.
And when she waved her hand this time, they remained in the dark.
"Try again," he whispered against her skin.
She waved her hand, but nothing happened. Her power refused to listen. And when he hit that sensitive spot, she pushed her demon away.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm showing you how easy it is to distract you."
"I'm starting to question the way you teach me magic. Did you do it like that with my mother or my ancestors?"
"One day you'll realize that I do a lot of things with you differently than I should."
"One day... One day... I hate those words."
"If you stop resisting, it will be closer than you think."
Iris waved her hand, and the candlelight cut through the twilight, banishing the creeping shadows.
"You're a distraction, Luc," she told him.
"That prince of yours you're constantly chasing so vainly is a distraction. You're obsessed with him," he said.
"I'm not!" she objected.
"You watch him every hour. Maybe I should never have taught you that trick with the mirror. Tell me, Iris, do you want him back because you love him or because your stepsister doesn't have him?"
"I've had enough of having everything taken from me. My father, my home, my life."
"That's not the answer. For your stepmother or for yourself?"
And Iris couldn't answer. She didn't know the answer. She felt only anger, and she did it for it.
"I already know the answer. We'll see how long it takes you to discover it.
But your distraction isn't the only reason the enchantment isn't working.
It's what you want it to do," he said. "Erasing memories is complicated.
You have to see into your victim's mind, untangle the threads of memories, find the right one.
Erasing their entire being is easier for a beginner like you.
And something as primitive as what your mother taught you can't do that. She was wasting your talent."
"But you could do it, couldn't you?" she saw it clearly in his eyes.
"Give up your prince and I'll show you." He grinned.
"You're making conditions now?"
"For your own good, Iris. Say you'll be mine alone, and this kingdom won't remember you ever existed."
He offered her his hand. That fleeting movement could solve all her problems. An irresistible temptation as she stared into his golden eyes, the world paled into darkness by comparison. As their fingers touched, she suddenly withdrew her hand.
"A cage is still a cage. If you will not help me out of the goodness of your demon heart, I will have to refuse. I will earn my freedom myself."
"Oh, my little witch," he sighed. "You are driving me crazy."