Witchy Wishes for Christmas

Chapter 2

I slowly scaled the winding stone stairway leading up to my tower, halting next to one of the small square openings in the wall, more like an arrow slot than a real window.

Looking outside, the morning greeted me with a hail of half-frozen rain. Right now I was actually supposed to be sitting in my first class of the day, Basic Battle Crafts. Even though the Christmas holidays would start in two days, I was sure that Ms. Summer wouldn't let us do some self-study (which was basically code for free time) and instead would continue with her curriculum. But the class would have lasted until noon, and thoughts of Aiden occupied my mind.

Maybe it had been a mistake to just let him leave like that yesterday afternoon? I couldn't even explain what had stopped me from confronting him right there and then.

I never really thought about what kind of supernatural Aiden was. Not a witch and probably not a normal shapeshifter, as he lacked their usual ticks. It hadn't really mattered to me - Aiden would always be Aiden.

But now I wondered. He seemed to have dropped the simian shapeshifter yesterday with simply a thought.

Maybe that's why all the other students were so afraid of him? Maybe they had an idea about what kind of being Aiden really was?

I found, that more than what he was, I was worried about if he would still be there.

The first time I met Aiden had been two weeks after I'd discovered the tower room.

On that afternoon I had entered the room, which I already thought of as my room at that point, and stopped dead when I spotted an unknown boy sprawled across the old yellow couch. Aiden had looked a lot rougher back then than he did now; his cheekbones were more prominent and his eyes sunken, surrounded by dark circles. His hair was an unruly mess, covering half his features.

I was startled to say the least.

My first instinct had been to leave the rather unstable looking boy alone and come back later, hoping he'd be gone by then. But before I could walk away I caught a whiff of his nightmare. It turned my stomach. Even though I didn't know him, I just didn't have it in me to leave anyone in a state like that. So I gobbled the nightmare up, until not even a trace was left, and replaced it with dreams so sweet they almost gave me a toothache.

I would never forget Aiden's expression after he woke up.

Since then he stuck around. The more time we spend together in the small tower room, the closer we got, until I considered him a friend ... or a bit more.

Now I feared he wouldn't be there when I opened the heavy oak door. Aiden was almost as much a part of the room as the musty couch he always slept on - without him, there would be something missing.

I should have just talked to him yesterday.

Clenching my teeth I opened the door and felt a rush of relief when Aiden's green eyes met mine - which was quickly followed by a rush of hot embarrassment as I took the rest of him in.

Instead of lying on his couch he was standing next to it, in the middle of unbuttoning his wet shirt. Little glittering droplets of water collected on his collarbone, following the slight indentions between his pecks, and running slowly lower and lower across that expanse of golden skin ... my eyes followed their path as if hypnotized.

"Morning."

My gaze snapped up to Aiden's face to see him smile his usual, small smile at me - the corners of his full mouth were barely crooked, but his eyes were twinkling in amusement.

My throat felt dry.

"Morning," I rasped and heard the door close behind me.

A drop fell from a strand of his bronze hair, running down the side of his nose to finally land on his pierced bottom lip.