Eva sighed as she watched the ball land on the castle floor. She bent over in frustration to pick up the cloth ball for what seemed like the thousandth time. Lost in thought, she didn't hear Stephen enter the tower room.
She gasped as she felt a large hand land on her shoulder and quickly turned around to see her lover frozen in mid-greeting. She rolled her eyes and sat down in a nearby chair, waiting for the handsome soldier to unfreeze. True, she could unfreeze him by running into him, but her shoulder needed a break.
"Eva," he finally said, several moments later, looking around for the young witch. He smiled when he finally spotted her in a nearby chair with her arms crossed and her lips pursed. "I'm guessing you haven't gotten your powers under control."
"You know not to sneak up on me!" she said, sounding annoyed as she got up from her chair.
"Perhaps you should be a little less jumpy," he teased as he gently cupped her face to kiss her.
"Easy for you to say," she mumbled against his lips.
He spotted the ball in her hand and took it. "You just need to focus," he lectured as he tossed the ball in the air. "We already know that fear triggers it so think of something frightening and channel that feeling."
She straightened her back, took a deep breath, and tried to search her mind for something frightening. "Okay, I'm ready. Toss it again and I'll freeze and grab it."
Stephen smiled a lopsided smile and tossed the ball up. Eva put her hands up and channeled her thoughts to stop it in mid-flight. Instead, the ball just fell back into Stephen's open hand. She softly cursed as she deflated in disappointment.
"What were you thinking of?" he asked curiously.
"Spiders," she began in a defeated voice. "I hate them."
Stephen chuckled and began to absentmindedly toss the ball up and down. "Well there's your problem. I said something you fear, not hate."
Eva rolled her eyes and searched her mind again for something to fear. "Okay," she finally said softly as she put her arms out in preparation.
After the toss, she out her arms down and looked at the frozen scene in front of her. Slowly, she reached for the ball and took it out of the air. Instead of looking at the ball, she looked at her handsome lover and his frozen stance. Gently, as if he would break, she stroked the side of his face, feeling the unshaven rough hairs. She traced his lips with her thumb and stood on her tip toes to place a light kiss.
It was the moment when she realized that she loved him with all her heart.
Stephen broke out in a huge grin several moments later when the freeze had worn off. "You did it," he said as he put his hands on her narrow waist and lifted her in the air to twirl her around, while she laughed and begged him to put her down.
"I did do it," she said with a twinkle in her eyes.
Leeza didn't recognize where she was, which of course was not unusual. She was seeing into the future, which was like being in a dream that you couldn't control.
She could definitely see she was in a bedchamber and that she wasn't alone. Sighing inwardly, she bitterly assumed she was foreseeing another Lady Madeline dalliance by the sounds of a man and woman in the room.
A large bed was in the center of the room and had cloth hung from posts at each of its corners. The two lovers were horizontal so she couldn't see anything from where she was viewing from.
She hated the idea that she had to watch but she couldn't control her damn visions. Although she wished she could wakeup, she had to stay and listen to the loud moans from the two.
Suddenly, she saw one of the lovers get on top of the other to straddle. The top lover rose up and threw her hair back, showing a face filled with ecstasy.
Leeza was shocked as she watched the woman move her hips against her lover's.
It was her.
But it couldn't be. Lady Madeline guarded Leeza from all others, afraid that even touching another person could mean her visions might not be as potent. There was no way that Leeza could ever have a lover.
Despite the impossibility, she watched herself arch her back and place her arms behind her while she continued to grind against the unseen man. She watched her large pink tipped breasts bounce in rhythm until two large hands covered and massaged them while she moved. They squeezed the large bouncing mounds and pinched her sensitive nipples, which made her moans louder.
She noticed that one of her lover's hands belonged to an arm that had a horrible scar from elbow to wrist that didn't seem to have affected his hand's ability to stroke her into an intense orgasm. She also noticed a nasty scar on her future upper right shoulder that she wasn't currently sporting.
But the biggest surprise of all was after the extreme orgasm. She watched as she bent down to kiss her lover and say, "I love you."
Leeza gasped. She couldn't believe her future self was in love! Not a moment later, Leeza heard her fondest desire.
"I love you, too, wife," the man said in a low voice.
A baby's cry suddenly broke through the romance as her vision suddenly became darker.
"I better see what our son wants," her future self laughed as her husband playfully smacked her on her bottom.
She knew her vision was ending, but she still wanted to scream and struggle to see who this man was. It was the first time in a long time where she didn't want her vision to end.
It was also the first time in a long time that she felt happy.
Stephen visited Lord Candon in the sun chamber with good news.
"We're ready to lay our attack on Lady Madeline," Stephen said, barely able to keep the news to himself.
"So the witch has mastered her powers?" Lord Candon asked after sending all the other people out of the chamber for privacy.
After the door was closed by the last person to leave, Stephen informed him, "Eva has learned to freeze specific objects instead of everything in vicinity, and most importantly, she has learned to unfreeze with just her hands." He absent-mindedly rubbed his shoulder.
"Excellent," Roan said as he sat to deliberate on the next plan of action. "With her on our side, we'll be able to practically walk into and siege the castle. Unfortunately, we'll have to contend with Lady Madeline's own witch."
"Roan, as a friend, I must ask you to stop referring to witches as if they are inferior or something," he sat across from his friend and leaned forward with his hands between his knees. "You've never once called Eva by her name."
Lord Candon sighed as he stood up and walked to the window. "You're in love with her," he flatly said.
"Yes, I do," he replied, getting up and following his friend's path to the window. "She's a wonderful person."
"I'm sure she's a lovely person, but you have to face facts that she's a witch," he shook his head as if he hated what he was saying but was going to say it anyway.
"She's not normal. Do you really think your people will approve of a witch as their Lady? Think about it."
"I have and I think the people will love her as much as I do. In my father's time, witches weren't hunted. They were and are good people."
"Stephen, I really think you should consider the ramifications of being with a witch. If it wasn't for Lady Madeline's witch, do you really think our times would be so bad?" He cursed before continuing, "With her witch being so evil, don't you think Eva might have the potential to be evil as well?"
"I think anyone has the potential of being evil, but it doesn't mean that everyone is evil," he countered.
"You're my friend, Stephen. I'm just worried about you."
Eva backed away from the door with tears in her eyes. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but she was searching for Stephen when she heard her name mentioned.
She suddenly felt as if she couldn't breathe and decided she had to get fresh air. Walking wasn't getting her there fast enough so she began to run, ignoring the annoyed calls from people she practically pushed out if the way.
Finally, she found herself outside the castle by a large tree next to a river. She sat down on the grass and bent her knees to be wrap her arms around.
Eva watched the gentle flow of the river as she pondered what she had just heard.
How could she fight with people who didn't even trust her? Worst of all, she feared that Lord Candon was correct in that that people wouldn't ever accept her.
As she continued to daydream, she stretched her legs out and sat with her arms behind her to support her weight.
She didn't hear the deliberately quiet footsteps behind her.
Within a few heartbeats, Eva's hands were roughly grabbed behind her and slapped together with the palms against each other. A gag was placed around her mouth as she felt her hands being tied up. She was roughly lifted up and saw four men smiling triumphantly at her.
"Well, she was just were the little witch had said she'd be," one of the men commented as he placed a riding cloak around her. He lifted the hood so her face would be hidden from any curious passerby.
"We're going to have to make sure she won't cause a scene," she heard before feeling a sharp blow to her head that brought darkness.
Eva awoke with one of the largest headaches of her life. She went to rub her forehead but found her hands weren't responding. When her thinking began to finally clear, she saw that she was sitting against a wall in a large room with her hands tied behind her back.
A sad face appeared in her line of site.
"Help me, please?" she asked the woman in the room in a voice that she was surprised to hear so raspy.
The young woman slowly shook her head as if to say no.
Eva started to struggle against her ties in desperation.
"You shouldn't struggle. You'll hurt yourself," the chestnut haired woman lightly scolded as she walked towards the captive with a bowl of water in her hands.
"What do you care?" Eva retorted as the young woman bent so that Eva could sip water from the bowl.
"I care very much. I really want to help you...but I can't," she said as the younger woman sipped eagerly.
"Who are you?" Eva finally asked in a clearer voice.
"My name's Leeza. And I'm a witch like you." Leeza got back up to put the bowl by the table.
