The Witch and the Half-Angel Prince

Chapter 4

The morning light seeped through Henry’s blinds and on to his bed. He hadn’t slept at all by the looks of it. His eyes were marred with dark circles - eye bags - very uncommon for the likes of a half-angel and even so, he was determined to see Claire. 

He had to undo whatever she had done. He quickly got out of bed, took a quick shower and headed out. A few minutes later and he was in front of her house. He wasn’t particularly a self-conscious person, but notices the stubbles on his face from the rearview mirror, his slightly crumpled t-shirt, and his unkempt hair, unkempt because he had forgotten to brush it. Like all men of the past century, Henry was usually well-groomed and kept his dark wavy hair which fell slightly below his earlobes at a medium length, and was clean shaven - most of the time - some years he had kept a short, thin moustache, and was always in a casual suit, but not today. He was about to knock on number forty-nine when Claires grandmother, Agatha, opened the door.

“I have been expecting you, friend of Claires,” she said with a smile, as she ushered him into the living room. 

“I’m Henry,” he said as he inspected the room around. Claires grandmother must be doing well for herself as she had rare gems such as human sized amethyst stones, tiger-eye, pink jade, and antiques lying about. Henry supposed she must have those as she’s a witch, and a very powerful one too. Agatha went up to get Claire. Unbeknownst to Henry, Claire was watching him from the security cams. Something about him looked different that morning, she thought. 

He watched as she walked down the stairs. His heart ached when he saw her face. He put his hand to his chest and grabbed it. He wasn’t hyperventilating or anything this time. It’s just he finally understood the reason for why his heart ached. She was the reason. 

“What are you doing here? Long night eh?” She asked Henry pointing at her eyes while hoping her grandmother hadn’t used a summoning spell on him or something, she thought. 

“I.. I needed to see you.. about the spell you’ve cast on me. It’s an obedience spell, and I need you to get it off,” he said as he turned to Claires grandmother and took off his shirt. The mark glowed bright green, still. 

Claires grandmother inspected Henry’s mark. She placed her hand on his chest, and recited some incantations, and suddenly the veins all over Henry’s body glowed green, and once she had stopped, it returned to its normal state.

“Your highness, this isn’t an ordinary obedience spell. It seems like the two of you have somehow been bound to one another. I can’t say how and why, and who is depending on whom as this is most extraordinary. You do know what this means don’t you? You’re bound to my granddaughters every whim. Whatever displeasures her, will displeasure you. Her likes become your likes, etcetera, and from what I can see, I think I will have to do more research and consult with the other Grandmasters on how removing it might effect you. She did it to save your life, after all,” said Agatha while looking like she was deep in thought. She was worried about how Edmund might react if he knew it was Claire who performed the spell. Only a very powerful witch could’ve conjured it. Edmund would’ve wanted to collect Claire as one of his “friends” as he has done to the rest of the witches who work for him and she didn’t want Claire to live a life of servitude. She wanted her to be free and to have different choices. 

“Have you spoken to anyone about this?” She asked.

“My cousin and I met Edmund, but we didn’t tell him about Claire,” he replied. 

“Your highness, you must under no circumstance let Edmund know that it was Claire. He will do anything to collect Claire, and other witches like her as although she is informally trained, she wields much power, and he will turn the council against her even if need be. He’s a shrewd, calculative man. He doesn’t do anything on a whim. He plans with such precision, that I worry that he will figure it out. He must not know it was Claire,” she said in a more serious tone.

Realising that her grandmother had no immediate solution of any sort, Henry felt trapped. He wanted so much to hate Claire, but couldn’t. The thought of him being in servitude and to a witch sparked anger in his heart, which died as soon as it sparked since the spell wouldn’t let him harbour ill feelings towards her even. In his mind he wanted to scream, which he did later on at his cousin when he went back to their manor. He looked at Claire with spite in his eyes, and he knew she felt it. He has never hurt an innocent person before - so this would have been his first. He knew she felt his hatred, and his rage, but what could she have done? She was only trying to help. 

“I agree.. I’ll help you hunt monsters… in return for accidentally entrapping you,” Claire blurted out. It was typical of Claire. Always trying to keep everybody happy. Always coming to everybody’s rescue. At school, one day when a few of her classmates vandalised the lockers after school and the headmistress had threatened to punish everybody in the class till the culprits had owned up, so Claire took the blame so the rest of the class would be spared which made grandmother extremely unhappy. She hated being wrung into school especially since she knew Claire was an upstanding, rule abiding student.

They were suddenly interrupted by Henrys phone. It was his cousin. 

“It’s time, Claire. We have to go. Monster business,” said Henry as he glared at her. He didn’t want to endanger her, but since he had no choice, and the fact that it still remains uncertain that he might even need her to help him heal made him seethe in anger. Thankfully Claire was fully dressed, and was ready for her new adventure. 

“Here, take this Claire before you leave,” said Agatha as she placed an amulet made out of gold etched with amethyst and tigers-eye on to Claires hand. Claire took it and without looking at it shoved it into the pockets of her jeans. She didn’t think that Henry would appreciate her being tardy given the situation.

So off both Henry and Claire went. Henry had a small tablet in his car which he used to navigate. The two men seemed to have successfully integrated technology into monster hunting. There was an app that they used along with the picture of the particular being and a chart as well as the location - to make things easy.  

“What? Are you surprised that we’re actually organised?”

“No, I just didn’t think you took monster hunting this seriously.. also, didn’t think you lot would be tech savvy,” Claire replied with a hint of awe in her voice. 

What Claire didn’t know was that there were a lot of people under Henry and Eric’s payroll. They ran a corporation called Tuson Ltd along with other witches (personnel sent by Saturns Predicament Inc.), half-jinns, half-vampires, and many other different beings and together, they dealt with monsters and other evil creatures who threaten to harm humans, and all of this was done under the guise of their company - which was basically a famous advanced household  cleaning appliances tech corporation. On the frontline, they invented high performing vacuums, incinerators, hand dryers, hair dryers, and many more products that help the ordinary human being with day-to-day chores. This was all possible because of the angel Cassiel, who put in a good word a few hundred years ago.