This is Strange. It’s Magic
Elora paused. Her face contorted and her eyes widened as they fell on the portrait that was hung on the wall at the entrance of the room, a few inches away from the door.
It was a portrait of the princess where sat with a wide smile on her face. She was beautiful, she noticed. Her hair was was raven black, her cheeks rosy and her lips a sharp shade of pink. She looked almost like Arielle.
But it wasn’t her focus.
With wide eyes, she slowly walked toward the portrait.
“Rafael,” she urgently called.
“This… this is blood?”
She lifted her hands in an attempt to touch the portrait but before her hands could reach it, his hand suddenly snatched hers from behind and pulled them down.
“Don’t,” he warned, pulling her to stand behind him.
She snuck to his side and both eyes stared at the portrait that had a thin but long blood stain on it. Rafael took a step closer to the portrait and clamped his eyes shut for a second. When he opened them again, they were a lot darker.
“It is,” he confirmed.
Elora’s hands flew to her mouth immediately. “Blood? Whose blood could this be?” She gasped. “It…it can’t be.”
Was it the blood of the late princess? The blood stain was tiny and it blended with the portrait, one wouldn’t realize that it was indeed blood. “This is suspicious.” Could there be something behind the portrait also?
“Step backward, Princess,” he commanded.
Without question, Elora retreated backward. His hands rose to the portrait, finger brushing the frame before he lifted it from
It's place upon the wall. Her breath ceased only to falter when the portrait gave way to an empty wall. There was nothing behind it.
Her shoulders fell and she sighed in retirement. “I doubt there is anything in this room,” she grumbled, turning away from Rafael who was running his hands through the portrait as if to find something.
“We must leave now,” she suggested.
She’d only taken two steps to the door when Rafael’s call made her pause.
“Princess.”
She halted and turned back to him.
“Your highness.”
“If you were a minister of crime…” Rafael locked both his hands behind his back and walked to her. “Will you leave the crime scene with no single evidence?”
“Perhaps evidence has been cleared from the scene?”
“I do not leave a scene with no evidence. And since this is your case, do well and look for evidence. Come on, continue searching. Start by examining that portrait carefully. Perhaps there is more blood.”
Elora said something incoherent under her breath and brushed past him.
“What did you say?”
Almost immediately, she sharply replied.
“I said yes, your highness.”
“Good girl.”
She stormed toward the portrait again. She was just going to pretend to search, she noted.
Her hands fell on the sides of the portrait, pushing it from side to side and then the middle. After a minute, she stepped away.
“See? I told you. There’s not…”
Suddenly, the portrait began to vibrate. Rafael was right in front of her in a second, his hands unshelthing his sword.
The vibration continued and then it started to crack.
“Wh…what is going on?” She clung onto him for her dear life, her hands curling around his coat.
She let out a shriek when the portrait made a loud sound and cracked in the middle, the portrait parting in two at the middle and a dark cloudy hole appeared in the middle.
Elora’s mouth fell open in shock. Her lips quivered and her legs trembled at the surprise of what she’d just experienced, questions swirling up in her mind.
She didn't let go of Rafael even as he took a step forward toward the portrait. She believed that as long as he was near her, not even an inch away, she was safe.
Another step Rafael took toward the portrait. But just as he extended his hand toward the narrow hole, a sudden strong force struck him. His shoes scraped harshly against the stone floor as the force drove him backward, the sound echoing in the room.
She gasped as his body crashed against hers from behind and her footing immediately faltered, her body beginning to fall backward. However, before her body could collide with the floor, his hand closed around her waist and a sound of wind filled the air as he drew her back.
“Are you okay?” He worriedly asked.
She gasped, her hands wrapping tightly around his body.
“Look at me. Did you get hurt?” He gently held her cheeks with both hands, scanned her face, and then, her body. “Talk to me, princess.”
“I’m h…hurt. What was that?” She breathed.
“I sense… magic. It is strange. I can’t put my hands around it.”
“We should go. It must be dangerous.”
“No. We can’t. I want you to try, princess.”
“What? Try what?”
“Put your hands in there.”
Elora felt her jaw fall to the floor. What was he saying? If it had driven him backward, it definitely would kill her. Instantly, she stepped away from him.
“No,” she rejected.
“Princess.”
“It would kill me. It…it’s dangerous.” Her eyelids dropped and color drained out of her face. “Why would you ask that I do such?”
Rafael sucked in a slow breath. “I saw no blood stain on that damn portrait, but you clearly did.”
Her lower lip trembled. “But you…you did.”
“I lied, okay? I also placed my hand on the portrait and nothing happened. But the instant you did, it gave way.”
“Are you saying…”
“You’re right. I always knew you were something else. You’re safe. I’m here, okay, baby girl?”
She didn’t realize when he got closer to her and gently patted her hair and caressed her cheeks.
Slowly, her feet began to move toward the hole in the middle of the portrait. Her breath was ragged and a voice screamed so loudly in her head to stop but it was as if her legs had a mind of their own as they only kept moving.
She extended her hand toward the hole and snuck it in.