Once we finish breakfast, I take Micah’s hand and walk through the corridors and up the vast amount of steps until we reach the open terrace at the top of the North Tower.
‘Practising spells?’ Micah guesses.
‘Yep,’ I say.
We sit together on the stone bench. Micah holds the book for me while I wave my wand repeating incantations and spells.
‘Visionous Memorious!’ I say firmly, holding my wand.
‘Tremendous Nebulus!’ I say, flicking the wand.
Nothing but a natural cool breeze blows past my face.
‘Focus, Lylah,’ I say.
I face the small pot plant, pull my sleeves up, and wave my wand, ‘Lifto Levitatous,’ I repeat a few times in different tones.
After an hour of failed attempts at casting spells, I sigh and turn to Micah, ‘Let’s do something else,’ I suggest.
‘What do you want to do?’
I tap my foot and look around in thought and an idea springs to life, ‘Catch me,’ I smile.
‘Catch you?’ Micah says, confused.
I shake my head yes, race from the open terrace back into the tower, and run down the stairs. I hear Micah running behind me. I skid across the foyer at the bottom of the steps and head through a corridor. My hair bounces around, falling loose from its ponytail. I turn my head as I continue to run to see Micah a few metres behind me. Leo and Theo are down the opposite end of the corridor talking. They stiffen and quickly part against the wall as they see me racing towards them with no sign of slowing down. I giggle and laugh, and Micah almost manages to snatch me a few times but misses. Making it to the kitchen, I bump into Beth, who spills the bowl of flour on herself.
‘Sorry!’ I say, trying not to laugh and using the huge kitchen island to keep distance between Micah and me. But, as soon as I go left, he goes right to catch me. So I pretend to go right but sneak under the island and race out of the kitchen through the large hall.
‘Sneaky move,’ Micah shouts behind me.
I turn and poke my tongue out, then continue running. I enter the round study, where my father, Nathan and Alex sit, nonchalantly drinking scotch, paying no attention to me jumping over my Dad's chair and climbing onto the window ledge, laughing. They are used to my rambunctious personality and shenanigans. I push the stained glass window open and turn to see Micah jump over my father. I squeal, turn and jump out the window, landing softly on the grass only a foot from the ledge. I hear Micah land behind me, so I run to the stable. A moment after, I enter. Micah catches me, and we fall onto the hay laughing, which leads to us kissing for a moment. Puffed out, we lay on our backs in the hay and try to catch our breaths. We turn our heads to look at each other and laugh.
‘Did you see the bowl of flour go flying and land all over Beth?’ I ask.
‘I think Beth was going to use that to make your birthday cake,’ Micah chuckles.
‘Oops,’ I giggle.
We return to the packhouse, and we help Beth clean up the flour and apologise.
‘Young love,’ Beth huffs. ‘It makes you crazy, I always say, but no one even listens to me,’ she says, pottering around the kitchen and taking a mixing bowl.
‘So, you’re not mad at me, Beth?’ I ask her.
‘Mad at you, Lylah? Never,’ she smiles, potters over to Micah, and pinches his cheek. ‘How is my handsome lad going these days?’
Micah rubs his pinched cheek, ‘I’m always good, especially when I’m around Lylah,’ he says.
‘Good answer,’ Beth says and resumes to the island and stirs a mixture in the bowl.
***
Micah wraps his arms around me and pulls me into his chest, ‘I’ll be back first thing in the morning, Lylah. As soon as the sun rises, I shall be here,’ he says tenderly and places a kiss on my lips.
‘I don’t know how I am supposed to sleep tonight, knowing we are going to be fated mates tomorrow?’ I say as soon as we break the kiss.
‘I know. I’m excited as well. I can’t wait to shout from the rooftops that you are officially mine,’ Micah laughs.
‘Micah, you wouldn’t?’ I laugh.
Micah bites his lip, gives me a mischievous look, and winks, walking backwards. I lean in the doorframe of the packhouse door with my arms crossed, each hand holding either elbow. Micah is now out of sight, but I remain and look at the moon for a while.
‘Please, Moon Goddess, if you can hear me, please let Micah be my fated mate,’ I say, and a tiny shooting star instantly soars through the sky, ever so quickly near the moon.
Any unease I was feeling has now gone. I smile, close my eyes and take in a deep breath of the night’s cool air. Relaxed, I close the packhouse door, gingerly hum, and skip all the way along the corridors and up the stairs to my chamber.
As I enter my room, I hug the dagger Micah gave me before I set it down on my dresser. I’m probably the only girl who has daggers in place of hair brushes, fancy pins and perfumes. I laugh at the thought but then stop as I stare at myself and wonder how I would even look in a dress. It’s been so many years since I wore one. I must have been around seven years old. It’s the only time I can remember wearing one. It was yellow with white daisies, to my disgust. Afterwards, I would sneak into Theo and Leo’s room and ‘borrow’ their trousers. My Dad couldn’t stop laughing when I came stomping down the stairs with pants that were pulled up to my chest and wore a pillow case I put holes in and wore as a shirt. It was tucked into the pants, and I had tied a rope around my waist. Everyone thought it was to keep my pants from falling, but I wore it, pretending it was a belt, and I would tuck sticks in there and pretend they were daggers.
Mother was never able to get me into a dress since that day. She had no choice but to buy me slacks and shirts as I refused to dress at all. I would run nude throughout the packhouse whilst she chased me down.
Removing my clothes, I stand sideways and take in my body, which has changed since I was a child. My hips and thighs are slightly curvy, my waist is small, and my bust is more noticeable. I could probably fit into some of my mother’s dresses that would modestly show I’m far from a child but a woman now. The look on everyone’s face if I wore a dress would be priceless. I shake my head of the thoughts, place my long-sleeved baggy white cotton nighty on, which is the closest thing to a dress I own and enter my bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth.
Excitement once again overtakes me at the thought of finding out in a matter of hours that Micah and I are mates. I happily dance out of my bathroom, spinning and twirling in my room until I become too dizzy and land on my bed. Laughing and hugging myself, I squeal. Then I crawl up my bed and hop under the covers and face my terrace so I can watch the stars. The lace curtain flows up, and the wind caresses my skin.
The stars continue to flicker, and the moon watches over me until I fall asleep.