Chapter 1 — Binding

Today, unlike Cara’s usual routine, she woke up not by the sound of her alarm clock, but by the sunlight that shone directly on her face. 

Today was her twenty-first birthday and like before, she would wake up with a terrible headache. Although unlike the years before where her headache was because of drinking too much on the eve of her birthday, this time it was different…totally different.

Cara’s head was throbbing. She opened her eyes and instinctively her hand searched for her thick glasses. To her dismay, they were broken beyond recognition.

“The heck? I can’t afford to get a fresh pair of glasses,” she blurted out as she mussed her hair in frustration. Luckily, the incident last night was just a bad dream… or was it?

She rubbed her eyes with her hands. She suddenly realized her vision was high definition even without her thick glasses on. She looked around and saw the time on a wall clock. It stunned her that not only was her shift almost over, but the clock was a few meters away from her. Her vision actually zoomed in!

“Oh my God, what is happening to me?” she murmured, still in disbelief. The staff room was in shambles. The incident last night had knocked heavy metal lockers over and the full-length mirror was shattered beyond repair.

“How on Earth will I fix everything in time?” There was a tone of panic in her voice. She pushed the lockers hard, trying to get them back into place, but surprisingly, they were light. “What the fudge! Is it really so light or am I just really strong?” She was starting to question her abilities, and she was sure that super strength definitely was not one of them.

“Sinli sibil, Sinli sibil, Sinli sibil.” She heard chanting in her mind, as if wanting her to say it out loud.

“What the hell is Sinli sibil?” she finally said loud and clear. A beam of purple, glittery light flashed across the entire changing room. And voila, everything was clean and in order, as if nothing happened.

Cara quickly picked up her things and felt like her sanity was slowly leaving her. She ran as fast as she could. She needed to get out of this place as swiftly as the changing room had gotten cleaned. She lowered the cap she was wearing and ran so fast she felt like she was almost floating.

“Ahh.” Cara fell. Feeling slightly dizzy, she realized she had bumped into someone. It was a man. And everyone around her looked mortified. She stood up to check on the man.

“Is he dead? Why are these people overreacting?” she spoke to herself as she went over to see the fragile man.

“Ahhh!” he screamed like he was in so much pain. Cara was scared, so she started moving away. The man screamed louder.

Cara heard a sizzling sound, like putting fresh meat on a searing hot pan. And the scent was unpleasant, like veal being torched. She looked around, and it seemed like she was the only one bothered by it.

She chose to ignore it and stepped backwards little by little as if no one would notice her leaving the scene.

“Don’t let that woman get away!” he shouted, giving instructions to his guards while pointing at Cara.

Cara instantly realized the man she bumped into was none other than Ashton Crafter, the billionaire who was allergic to women. She walked back, not wanting to be dragged away by his guards.

“Oh God, am I killing him right now?” Cara couldn’t help but feel sorry at the sight of Ashton in excruciating pain.

“Help me to my office and bring that woman too!” Ashton said while obviously still in pain. His staff helped him and brought Cara with them.

Cara was dazed and confused, as the song says, but it was literally what she was feeling. One moment, she thought she had superpowers, and the next she almost killed her weird boss.

Ashton signaled for his men to leave the two of them. Cara did not know what to expect, but she sure had a lot of explaining to do, especially now that Ashton was looking at her name tag.

“So, I suppose you are not Theo,” he said in a low voice.

“I’m Cara. I’m really sorry, boss. I did not mean to bump into you. Is your allergy really that bad?” Cara asked Ashton with a tone of innocence.

“Yes, it is bad.” He started unbuttoning his shirt. His rock hard abs and broad chest were a sight to behold.

‘Boss, works out for sure.’ Cara’s silly mind was again blabbing about unimportant things at this critical time.

He moved towards the mirror behind his desk to check his back. It surprised Cara to see a fresh brand on his back. It was identical to her new tattoo.

“How the hell?” she exclaimed loudly this time.

“Witch, look at what you did to me!” Ashton replied with conviction.

“I really did not mean to bring you harm. What should I do to fix your allergy? Should I not move away from you right now? Well, as far as I know, you should stay away from allergens, right?” Cara thought of a lame excuse even though she still did not understand why Ashton’s allergy looked like a cow branding. But what was stranger is that it looked exactly like her fresh ink.

Ashton fixed his clothes and grabbed pain reliever from his drawer. With a serious look on his face, he walked towards Cara.

“Witch! We have no choice but to get married now. Come with me!” Ashton exclaimed to the confused Cara.

“What? Why? I just met you! I don’t even love you!” Cara was distraught, asking Ashton while he practically dragged her out of his office.

“Don’t flatter yourself, witch. What I feel for you is the opposite of love,” Ashton sneered angrily at her.

He instructed Cara to get in his car. Cara knew her boss’s reputation, so she behaved and kept quiet. She would wait until he cooled down and was willing to listen to her explanation.

The silence between them in the car was bearable. She preferred it this way. She looked out the window and realized that he was taking her to an exclusive estate. There were no houses nearby, and all the people they passed bowed before Ashton’s car.

When they arrived at a mansion, a butler opened the door for her. They were all taken aback to see a woman with Ashton, and an unsightly woman at that.

She just quietly stood there and felt judged by everyone around her. Perhaps she was not used to being the center of attention, or maybe she was just guilty of causing harm to that arrogant boss. Cara was half explaining this in her mind as she could not do it in actual life. She clenched her fist nervously, waiting for instructions.

“I did not mean to bump into the weird boss and I’m definitely not planning on marrying him.” The thought of marriage made her cringe. She could not even admit her feelings to her crush. How could she face marriage?

Ashton interrupted her daydreaming when he grabbed her arm and pulled her inside the mansion.

‘What is he planning now? I’m not ready for this!’ She wanted to protest, but Cara was afraid of what could happen while she was in his mansion. ‘They will bury my corpse here and no one would even know. What a sad life.’ That’s how far she had thought of her situation already, and she was ready to give her last will and testament.

Ashton opened a beautifully carved, humongous door. “Is this my dungeon?” Cara could feel that her end was absolutely near. She closed her eyes, refusing to see how her life would end.

Thud.

She heard the door close shut. Cara slowly opened her eyes. She was in an elegant room—a library—a library that was bigger than her best friend Theo’s house. She could not understand why people would choose to house so many books when most people barely had a roof above their heads to keep them warm at night.

She looked around and smelled a pleasant aroma of essential oils. She sniffed it like a bomb-sniffing dog. “Lavender with the bark of a century-old Acacia and three drops of fresh spring water from up north,” she said out loud. Cara covered her mouth with her hand immediately. It baffled her.

‘What the fudge did I just say? It was too accurate for a guess,’ she thought to herself.

Ashton leaned over the table in front of Cara. He cupped his chin and pinned his gaze to Cara. She ultimately felt uncomfortable being raked from head to foot. She looked down to avoid Ashton’s deep-set eyes, which were made more gorgeous by his thick eyelashes.

“Hmm, so, you have a heightened sense of smell, incredible hearing, and impeccable eyesight, right?” Ashton bluntly asked Cara.

Her eyes widened at his statement. “How could you possibly know? Are you some kind of shaman?” Cara blurted out with a tone of mockery.

“Not me, dummy. It’s you. You are a witch.” Ashton laid it out in the open like it was normal for him to call her a witch.

“You know, you are too petty for a CEO. I’ve told you already. I did not mean to harm you in any way. Why do you have to repeatedly call me a witch? Let’s be grownups here and settle this now,” Cara begged Ashton to take her seriously.

He moved closer to her and lowered his head to meet her eyes. Ashton was serious. There was not a thread of a doubt in his aura that he meant business. In his low voice, he said to Cara, “You really are a witch. In fact, you are the Sakalam.”