The three witches began their chanting and Belladonna tried to imagine a link from her to another.
It was hard to do so though. Since she had to take off Alaris' bracelet to perform this ritual, the voices in her head wouldn't let her be. Also, although Alaris was in the room with her, that didn't seem to ease anything.
Right now, with the constant distraction, all she could see with her eyes closed was darkness - not links.
Whatever that was supposed to look like.
The ghost brides mumbled in her ears, moving from one ear to the other.
Alaris's grip around her hands remained warm, she was too aware of it.
"See the connection..." The words of one of the witches filtered into her ears.
"Feel it."
"Let us relieve you of it."
The chanting of their incoherent words then continued.
They started clanking metals against one another and a force went through her, like she had been yanked from her body and dropped into the sea.
She could see the Bearer again, a blurry image as usual. She felt the dread, she could hear the song, only that this time it was different, more like wailing. There was blood, red. A silent scream. The hilt of a dagger against her stomach, the rest of the blade buried in it. A feminine bloodied hand tight around the hilt.
The Bearer was laying on the floor, the blood spreading through the fabric of her white dress like ink, staining her silver hair.
It felt like Belladonna could slowly see clearly, but she was pulled away from the vision before she could even take note of anything significant. The next thing she saw was an embodiment of a red shadow trying to pull away from the rest.
She watched it struggle with mounting fear in her heart and the taste of dread on her tongue. When the shadow laid its eyes upon her, she yanked away, snapping her eyes open, escaping the vision.
Petrified, she broke free of Alaris' hold and staggered to her feet, racing to a window to gulp in the air that had suddenly deserted her.
They all attended to her needs till she was herself once again, and her bracelet was around her wrist. Even though she already knew the answer, she asked, "Did it work? Were you able to take the Bearer's link away?"
"No."
She nodded.
"We will do this some other time, I just need rest."
"No, My Lady." One of the witches replied, pacing around the room. "It is dangerous."
"We can't keep tampering with balance. You had almost seen death."
Was that the red shadow she had seen?
"We must give up for your sake." The third ended.
If Seb hadn't spoken so highly of them, and if Belladonna hadn't already tried to seek help from every good witch and wizard she had come across, she would have assumed that they just weren't good enough. But she had, and she knew what she had seen.
So, she agreed.
The witches left and Alaris remained by her side.
"You need rest. How do you intend to get that?" He leaned against the wall leisurely, toying with the long braid his hair had been made into.
"By sleeping, reading a book---"
He rolled his eyes. "That sounds boring. I have an even better idea."
"Oh, I'm so intrigued." She said with the most uninterested voice.
Alaris leaned down towards her, the soft light his tattoos emitted glowing on her. He tilted her chin upwards with a finger, while he stared at her like he had found gold in her eyes.
"How about you let me fly you across the sea that those beautiful blue eyes of yours reminds me of? You'll relax in my arms while your eyes take in the beauty beneath and the one holding you, of course. Perfect rest, you couldn't have ever asked for more."
So egoistic.
"I don't think I'll relax. I'll keep panicking that I'll say something that will hurt your gigantic ego and you'll drop me. Something tells me you'll enjoy the view of me falling in the sea, screaming."
He smirked. "The only view I'll enjoy is of you falling in love with me, and the only scream I'll entertain is that of my name."
"You waste your time." Belladonna swatted his hand away from her chin, and he pulled away, laughing.
"Get out. I want to sleep."
"That's alright. I'll give you time to rest, but after that, get ready because I'll not give up until I take you home with me."
"Like I said before, I'm not going anywhere."
"We'll see about that."
He slipped out but before he even had the chance to shut the door, she had said something that stopped him.
"The Bearer of the Life Gem is dead, right?"
He nodded, his brows pulled into a frown. "So I heard."
"I think I saw it."
"Saw how she was killed?" His eyes widened with surprise and he stepped back into the room, shutting the door behind him.
Belladonna sat up in her bed, folding her arms across her, as if to shield herself from remembering how she had felt when she saw that vision.
"Not really. I just saw her holding a dagger, like she stabbed herself."
"You saw her face?"
Belladonna squinted her eyes, then shook her head. "I didn't."
Alaris hummed, brushing his fingers along his low stumble.
"Well, you seem intrigued. Come with me to Vestros and let us solve this mystery together."
"No one knows what killed her?"
"No one." Then he added, his voice low and teasing. "Come home with me to find out."
Belladonna rolled her eyes, resting her head against the headboard in frustration.
"All you want to do is take me to your Realm. Are you not curious about who must have killed her and why?"
Alaris scoffed, "I only worry about that which is mine. I worry about you."
Belladonna sighed.
He was not taking her seriously. All he was looking out for was an avenue to seduce her.
This was annoying!
"Well, what if the person that killed her, killed her because of her connection with the Life Gem? What if taking me to your Realm will only put me in danger? What if the best thing for me is staying here?"
A smile crossed Alaris' lips, and he pressed his fists against the bed so he could look at her, throwing his upper body weight on his arms. "It sounds like you are so scared you'll fall for me and now, you are trying to convince me to let us stay in this lowly realm together when you'll finally have no other choice but to profess your love to me."
"You are not listening."
"Oh, I am."
He wasn't, or maybe he was just doing this on purpose, trying to make her not worry so she would go to Vestros with him.
"Have you been able to create a portal yet?"
"No."
"How do you plan to? If things go on like this, even you might not be able to return."
"I'll find a way." He shrugged, and began with a drawl, "Sooo, I'll take you flying tomorrow?"
"No."
"Let me seduce you, Stubborn!" He huffed. "Don't you know what a catch I am? I'm glorious for your eyes to feast upon, powerful, I'm the best of anything you'd ever attain."
Belladonna hummed, slipping into her covers, trying to ignore the urge to go and see if Eli was getting better. She had already done that before meeting with the witches, and he seemed to be better than he was this noon.
The Physicians were certainly looking after him better than she could.
Also, this was a time to create distance between them. After everything that had happened, it would be foolish to continue being close.
"Nightshade, jus--"
"Alaris?"
She turned, cutting him off and slipping her hand to his eyebrow, her fingers skimming over his scar.
He stilled beneath her touch and victory glimmered in his eyes.
"Yes?"
"Leave and close the door behind you." His smile fell. "Don't slam it."
He slammed it.
She laughed.
It was always so much fun to get on his egoistic nerves.