Caveat Emptor: Chapter One
"You have something I need."
Lightning flashed to outline Sofia, fresh in from the storm and drenched from the rain. Thunder rumbled in response to the lightning and the room fell dark again.
"Sofia?" Amber asked blearily, her eyes having difficulty adjusting to the dark. "Is that-? How? Wh-where have you been?"
"Seeking truths."
Amber heard a small click and could barely make out something held in Sofia's hands.
"What does that even mean?" Amber was getting to her feet, reaching to her bed side for her robe. Sofia had pushed Amber back down to the bed so quickly that Amber didn't even realize what had happened until she felt rain water dripping from Sofia's hair down onto her face. Sofia's knees pinned down Amber's shoulders and she raised the silver dagger in her hand to Amber's throat. Stunned, Amber couldn't find the will to scream. She looked up into her sister's face to find her blue eyes faded, clouded over slightly and cruelly concentrated with a terrifying cheshire grin across her lips. The blade pressed against the delicate skin at Amber's neck, the pressure a breath away from draining her of her life's blood.
"Sofia," Amber managed to whisper, terrified. Sofia hesitated; she blinked and color and confusion started to cross her gaze. Amber gave her a weak and desperate smile. "Sofia, it's okay, it's okay."
There was some kind of internal fight in her eyes and, after a few seconds, Sofia dropped the knife. It fell to the side, cradled in the thick bedding. She was just starting to ease the pressure of her knees on Amber's shoulders when she was hit squarely in the back by an unseen blast of magic. Sofia arched in pain and hissed, turning immediately toward the source of the spell.
She didn't seem to have any trouble seeing Cedric in the dark. He stood just inside the window she had broken through minutes before, the rain coming into the room in sheets. His wand was pointed at her threateningly as Sofia stood between him and Amber, her posture poised to kill.
"Get out of her," he growled.
Sofia smirked in reply. "You managed to follow me. I have to say I'm impressed." Her voice was darker, almost layered with a second, deeper tone. She bent her knees slightly as she dragged a finger between her breasts, her palm pressing flat against her stomach and sliding down to her inner thigh and then the outer, her fingers making lazy circles there. "Sofia is, too."
"Cedric?" Amber asked, just barely able to make him out in the darkness. She had crawled to press her back against her headboard, holding Sofia's discarded knife in her hand defensively. "How are you - where have you been?"
Sofia exhaled on a deep hum, "Yes, dear one. Care to tell the Queen where we've been?"
"Get. Out." Cedric said, forcing his words between clenched teeth.
Sofia scoffed and straightened, taking long-legged steps across the room to Cedric. She stood beside him and sucked in a deep breath as if she could drink him in through her nose. She lay one finger across his wand and tipped the point downward. Her lips nearly pressed against his ear as the fingertips of her other hand stroked slowly up and down his chest. Cedric stood motionless but for the grinding of his teeth.
"Don't be silly. We both know you won't do a thing that could hurt sweet little Sofia. Now be a dear and keep out of the way while I finish my task."
The iron knife that Cedric stabbed into Sofia just below her last rib came as a complete shock.
The dagger hissed against her skin and Sofia gripped onto his shirt, clinging to the fabric for support as she let out a dual-toned scream; one darker and rage-filled, the second familiar but tortured. Blood and a dark smoke oozed from the wound. Fierce but clouded eyes locked with Cedric's determined gaze.
"This is not over, Sorcerer. You cannot escape your fate. The debt will be paid, one way or another." Sofia cackled in that otherworldly voice and and leaned closer to Cedric, her lips a whisper from his, causing the knife to press further into her gut. She gasped and the darkness finally left Sofia. Her eyes flashed their brilliant blue before rolling back up into her head and she collapsed in Cedric's arms. Cedric's stiff exterior left him as he delicately helped to lay Sofia's limp body on the floor. Lightning flashed again and Amber stared down at the bloody scene.
"What...what…"
"Amber, I need you to-"
"What just-"
"Amber," Cedric spoke with a command in his voice that Amber had never heard from him before. She looked at him, trembling as he spoke. "If you want your sister to live, you'll do as I say. Go to my tower. Find the portrait of my parents. Speak to my mother and bring her here."
"Your tower…but you - you've been gone, You've both been gone so long. We-we thought you were-"
"Amber, you have to go!"
The desperation in Cedric's voice seemed to shake Amber from her confused stupor. She got to her feet and reached for an oil lamp, lighting it in a quick, practiced motion. It was only in that moment that Cedric saw just how old she had grown to be; she was a woman approaching her middling-years, her beauty now a mature and refined thing. She spared them one last, lingering look before drawing out one more compelling and wild "go!" from Cedric and rushing out of the room.
Cedric fumbled through his pockets and came out with a finger-length, corked vial. He brought the cork to his teeth and eased it out, spitting it to the side and holding the vivid green liquid inside to Sofia's lips. He lifted her head slightly with his other hand and eased the potion into her mouth, smoothing deft fingers against her throat to ease its passing. A few moments passed and the furrow of pain between Sofia's eyebrows softened. Cedric sighed in relief, shifting to let her head rest in his lap. He held the side of her face with one hand, his thumb gently tracing over her cheekbone.
"They can't keep him, Sofia," he murmured to her. "The deal was broken the second that...thing wormed inside you. We will get him back, love. I promise."
.
.
A/N: So sometimes you start writing a drabble because you listen to a song that speaks to you (Believer by Imagine Dragons, in this case) and sometimes that drabble grows into a thing all of its own and SOMETIMES that thing because a story all on its own.
My brain dreamed this up tonight, just now. I have a vague outline of the story in my head but I need to do some serious work to make it come together. So let me go ahead and set your expectations now: DO NOT expect any updates to this story any time soon. I will write for it, just not yet. I need to get my head on straight.
Reviews, please please pretty please! (and hey, the more reviews, the more this story is on the forefront of my mind and the more time my brain commits to story building. Yes, I'm manipulating/persuading you. No, I'm not above it ;) )
9/26/17: Minor Edit. The description of Sofia's outfit felt extremely contrived once this grew into a bigger story, so I just got rid of it. It doesn't impact the story. I also changed the color of the potion. Again, no real story impact.