Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
When Alistair opened his eyes, it took a long moment to remember where he was.
The angle of the sun was wrong, and the bed was lumpier than the one he slept in at Isaac’s place.
His mind was still fuzzy from a good night’s sleep, and it took too long for him to remember what had happened the night before.
After a round of mutual hand jobs, where Alistair had needed to cover Elijah’s mouth to keep them from being overheard, he’d wrapped himself around the sweet man and closed his eyes, intending to relax until Elijah fell asleep so he could slip away like he had with his kids.
When his grandmother teased about the bedroom set up, he was still reeling from the conversation with Edwina and didn’t think it though, but he’d figured sleeping outside on the hammock or finding a spare room wouldn’t be that difficult.
But he didn’t remember getting up. He must have been half asleep when he did.
A heavy weight jumped onto the bed, followed by a familiar purr. He dropped his chin, watching as Helios padded his way up the bed to sit on Alistair’s chest. He moved to pet the cat in greeting, but his left arm was trapped, and he froze when he realized why.
Elijah was asleep next to him, using Alistair’s arm as a pillow, breathing deep and even.
Alistair had been afraid to even share a room with someone after what had happened.
His nightmares were sometimes violent, and he lost track of the number of times in the institution when he woke up screaming.
The nightmares had calmed a little with the magical blockers, but they hadn’t gone away completely.
He’d kept his distance at night to protect Elijah from having to deal with him.
Last night, though. Last night was the first night in a long time that he didn’t have any nightmares.
And if he had, he didn’t remember them, and they obviously didn’t affect Elijah in any way.
The telepath was sleeping sweetly beside him, no hint of having been attacked or even woken in the middle of the night.
Still, Alistair sat up, dislodging Helios while he yanked the covers away to check every inch of him.
Fear over what he could have accidentally done to his boyfriend made it hard to breath until he was sure there wasn’t a single scratch on him.
“Alistair?” Elijah asked groggily, his lids still heavy with sleep.
“Did I hurt you?” he demanded.
Elijah’s confusion deepened, his grows drawn together tightly. “Hurt me? No, of course not. Why would you…” He trailed off, looking around for a long moment before he sucked in a breath, eyes widening in surprise. “What time is it?”
“What?” He’d been expecting Elijah to remember being woken up or to say something about how they were still in bed together, but Elijah seemed distracted, rolling out of Alistair’s arms to grab his phone.
“It’s six a.m.! How early do your kids wake up?
” Elijah asked in a rush, already reaching for his clothes.
“That’s what you’re concerned about?”
He got the feeling Elijah wasn’t fully awake. Otherwise he wouldn’t be so focused on something so inconsequential. He opened his mouth to ask again if he’d woken Elijah at all or if he was hurt anywhere, but before he could get a word out, Elijah put his hands on Alistair’s chest and pushed.
“Up! You won’t have a chance to sneak in there if you don’t hurry up!” Elijah demanded.
Too stunned to speak, he allowed Elijah to bully him out of bed and pulled on his clothes, still gaping at the telepath as Elijah shoved his glasses up his nose and tipped his head, tuning in to the kids across the hall.
Then he pushed Alistair out the door, opening Thayer and Hazel’s door silently before gesturing him inside.
Alistair fought back a grin as he followed orders, slipping back into his kids’ room and into his spot between the twins.
Hazel rolled into him instantly, letting out a sweet sigh.
Meanwhile, Thayer didn’t move, his arms and legs akimbo, and his mouth open wide with drool tracks on his cheek.
Alistair pushed away the shock and worry of the morning, soaking in the moment as he relaxed with his kids until they woke up thirty minutes later.
Thayer woke up first, sitting up and blinking sleepily for a moment before looking around. When he spotted Alistair, he beamed, and started talking like he was picking up a conversation instead of just waking up.
“Can we do magic today? I want to show you what I learned in school. Is Elijah still here? He said he can do mind magic. I want to see it. Do you think Grandma will make pancakes? Cousin Mara said Grandma makes the best pancakes, but whenever I come to visit, she makes waffles. Which do you think are better, waffles or pancakes?”
Alistair couldn’t stop smiling while listening to Thayer ramble.
He wouldn’t be able to function properly without at least a cup of coffee, but he did his best to answer his son’s questions without waking Hazel.
She woke more slowly than Thayer did, and she was still mostly asleep when he brought her downstairs for breakfast.
Elijah was in the kitchen with Alistair’s grandmother, a mixing bowl in front of him and flour on his nose. He smiled in greeting, pointing to a cup of coffee still steaming on the counter.
“That’s yours. Thayer, Hazel, would you prefer juice or hot cocoa?”
“We can have chocolate with our breakfast?” Thayer asked excitedly. “Yeah!” He thrust his little fist into the air and jumped up and down until Alistair’s grandmother nudged him toward the table.
“Go sit. Breakfast will be ready soon.”
Elijah looked apologetic as he glanced between the table and Alistair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it. You’ve been making me hot cocoa at work, and I thought…” He shook his head. “I should have asked first.”
Chuckling, Alistair leaned in to smack a kiss on his cheek.
“You’re fine. Hot cocoa sounds good to me.
What do you think, princess? Do you want juice or cocoa?
” he asked Hazel, tipping his head to see her little face half hidden in her hair.
She woke up a lot like Isaac did. She’d need more than a few minutes to be sociable in the morning.
“Cocoa,” she murmured without lifting her head. Alistair was happy to carry her around until she woke up, in no rush to put either of his kids down after so long without seeing them. He’d keep picking them up until they stopped asking him.
Smiling softly at the sleepy girl, Elijah nodded. “Cocoa it is. You and your daddy can sit at the table. I’ll bring them to you.”
“Oh, you don’t have to–” Alistair began, only to be nudged toward the table by his grandmother.
“You heard him. Go sit down. We’ve got this.”
Elijah’s cheeks pinkened, obviously pleased about being so easily accepted by Alistair’s grandmother.
He gave his attention back to the food, pouring a small circle to the heated griddle to test it.
Alistair let himself be moved, sitting at the table with Hazel in his lap and Thayer talking his ear off beside him.
It was nice being able to just focus on them, and he soaked it in while waiting for their breakfast.
“Can you show me your magic?” Thayer asked after Elijah and his grandmother had joined them at the table.
Elijah shook his head ruefully. “Not like you can. And not without your parents’ permission. A person’s mind is a private place. I don’t go poking around without good reason.”
Thayer jerked in his seat, giving Alistair a pleading look. “Please! I wanna know what it’s like! A girl at school can do water magic, and it’s super cool. I wanna know all the magic in the world!”
Elijah looked worried, but Alistair trusted him and lifted a shoulder. “Sure. Think of a number. Make it a hard one.”
Thayer bounced in his seat, screwing up his face as he thought hard about what number he wanted to pick.
“Three hundred and twenty seven,” Elijah said without prompting. “Twenty nine. Twenty three. You have to pick one, Thayer,” he chuckled.
Thayer’s mouth dropped open. “You can hear everything I’m thinking?”
Alistair didn’t miss the way his grandmother focused on Elijah, waiting for the answer. He’d expected her to say something eventually, and he’d been worried about how she’d react once she understood Elijah’s magic better.
Elijah lifted a shoulder uneasily. “I could, but not without focusing. I never look into someone’s head without permission. Usually, I pick up emotions instead of specific thoughts, but even then, I keep that to myself. It’s not my place to share someone’s private feelings.”
Thayer cocked his head. “What’s the point of fancy brain magic if you can’t use it?”
A flash of pain crossed Elijah’s face before he masked it with a smile. “I do use my magic occasionally, like at my job, but never without permission. I wouldn’t want to poke into someone’s head without consent. That wouldn’t be very kind.”
Alistair’s grandmother nodded once in agreement. “It’s a good practice to have. We don’t use our magic on others unless we’re under threat. Right, Thayer?”
Thayer nodded, but Alistair could see the disagreement in his eyes. He thought the idea of keeping his magic to himself wasn’t cool. It would be a hard taught lesson if Dilwyn had been getting into his head for who knows how long.
“Think of it this way,” Elijah began, gesturing to Thayer. “Say you had a secret. Something you didn’t want anyone to know. You wouldn’t like it if I used my magic to find that secret and share it with others, right?”
Thayer’s eyes widened in horror, and he shook his head rapidly. Elijah nodded.
“Exactly. Well, if I was using my magic without permission, there’s potential that I could hear something I wasn’t meant to.
Not only would the person with the secret feel very upset, but they wouldn’t trust me in the future and might treat me unkindly for poking around uninvited.
It’s for my safety and theirs that I keep my magic to myself unless permission is given.
I’ve also done training to make sure I only get the information meant to be shared so I don’t read things I shouldn’t.
People are wary of telepaths, because everyone has secrets.
I do my best to make sure they feel safe and comfortable around me so that we can get along. ”
Thayer accepted that explanation and spent the rest of breakfast trying to think of a number or word hard enough that Elijah might not catch it. Elijah smiled indulgently and seemed pleased that at least here, he was accepted.
Since Elijah cooked, Alistair cleaned up dishes, putting away the leftovers in the fridge and cleaning them by hand in the sink. His grandmother offered to clean them with spells, but he just shook his head. He’d learned to do things by hand, and it didn’t bother him to wash the dishes.
“He’s a good man,” his grandmother commented after both kids pulled Elijah outside to play. “Not many telepaths have his sense of morality. Most wouldn’t put in the effort to filter through thoughts to not overstep, at the very least. I doubt they would care enough to bother.”
Alistair nodded, watching Elijah holding hands with his kids while they pointed out the spell circle and talked his ear off.
It made his heart lurch in his chest seeing the three of them together.
Elijah didn’t demand photo ops or look for the best angle for a shot like Edwina would.
He was present in the moment, answering questions and smiling.
Alistair hadn’t realized how much he wanted that reality until he saw it for himself.
“Good doesn’t even scratch the surface,” Alistair admitted. “He’s been suppressing his magic to make everyone else more comfortable around him for years.”
His grandmother’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “That’s… not healthy, Alistair.”
“I know. I’m working on it.”
She looked out the window, watching the three playing in the yard for a moment. “I like him for you,” she eventually said. “He’s got good energy. You need that after what you’ve been through.”
The more time he spent with Elijah, the more Alistair had to agree. Something about Elijah’s presence soothed him. He didn’t want to give that up.