DROPPED | A Witches Garden

four

I stood on the balcony, looking at the stars above and flowers from below.

Roye and Lily were gonna meet any second now. And the original novel would unfold.

A rustling sound came from behind. I turned only to see the Duke, Roye Finnsweld, looking at me. His eyes, as cold as ever. I was a bit stunned. Shocked even, from the fact that he stood there looking at me instead of being somewhere else with the female lead.

Maybe he had already met her? But that couldn't be. The novel explained in detail how the full moon shone as they locked eyes with each other. The way they basked in the moonlight making the other look like a being sent from heaven. Yet the full moon was out right now and just came out. So he couldn't have met her earlier. Well he could've been planning to meet her later. But if so then why was he meeting me at all? This never happened in the novel!

I watched him. Having nothing to say he slowly stepped towards me. Never breaking from his gaze.

My throat felt dry as I spoke, "urm... if you're here for Lily then she's actually in the rose garden."

He just looked at me with a questioning look and cocked a brow. "Lily? As in Lady Hitchwell? Why would I be searching for her?"

"Ahh... nevermind, forget it."

I turned back to the stars. Hoping that he'd leave. But his voice made it clear that he was still there. "Turning your back on me? You've become quite daring."

Had I been rude just now? This society's customs were a bit different from what I was used to. "My apologies, is there something you'd like to say?" I said as I turned around, facing him now.

He stayed silent, his eyes piercing through me without saying anything. A small smirk appeared on his face. It was unexpected. I'd never imagined that he would smile at me nor even look at me unless he had to. The action made my heart skip a beat.

He walked closer to me. To a point where his face was just an inch from mine. He grabbed a lock of my hair and held it gently, running his fingers through it. His eyes stayed fixated on me. Never once breaking away and I stayed frozen.

A low hum escaped his lips as he looked at me with a cocky smile.

"You've changed."

Was all he said before backing away and leaving. My heart was damn near about to jump out of my chest and I didn't know what to do or what I had wanted to do.

I'd forgotten it all.

What was that all about??

###

A week had passed since I'd woken up as Elietta Pumchell and though getting used to this new life was hard I'd somehow been able to manage. Elietta's parents never really bothered much with meeting me, nor did her siblings. So struggling to figure out how to act around them was something I'd luckily been able to ignore.

As for the skills Elietta had, specifically her being a witch, was something I seemed to be able to make use of. I was able to cast her complicated spells without breaking a sweat and seemed to have a good knowledge on these things. It all came from her of course.

I would often go to the garden that was at the back of the estate. I'd never really had a yearning for being in gardens in my past life but it was very different here. I put it on it most likely just being Elietta's impulses affecting me in some way.

The garden was large and glowed of colours from natural greens to dark purples.

It had so many flowers and even some I didn't know. I would always walk slowly and take a moment to appreciate every different type of flower I would see. And then I'd go to the middle of the garden that had a small white table and a few seats there. It was the perfect place to just sit and enjoy the view.

From the nice warm winds, to the clear blue skies and lovely scent of the different flowers caused that garden to be the perfect place for me to relax.

And since no one ever bothered to go that far out into the Pumchell estate, it made the perfect place for me to try out some of the spells the original Elietta had made.

I got up from my bed and put on a black coat. Casting an invisibility spell on myself as I teleported myself out of the mansion. I only ended up outside the walls and was still inside the estate but I'd just have to get out by foot.

While I had gotten many of Elietta's skills when it came to magic, I still wasn't that great with teleporting. The fear of not making the incantation perfect and teleporting to the completely wrong area would cause me to teleport not too far away from where I really was.

I eventually got out and headed towards the main city. It was dark at night and I doubted that anyone would check up on me. I'd casted a mind spell that would make sure that no one would feel the need to disturb me no matter what for the next five hours. Spells like these always took a lot of time to prepare which is why I rarely ever used them.

Now then, it was time for me to get started on the plot to save the small city of Aierhamn.