Chapter 14
Tino
Once the meeting had ended, we all walked back to Xarius and Niam’s cabin. We told Willow and Nujik we would eat lunch together, the seven of us, which seemed to please them.
“Still trustworthy?” Silver questioned Xarius as we sat down around their living room table.
He nodded. “No lies, except the thing they had Grethe do.”
I tightened my fist as I recalled what they’d done. I got why, but damn. What a violation.
“Still can’t believe they did that,” Silver spat.
“But at least they were honest when we called them out,” Xarius reminded us. “They could’ve just as easily lied their way out of it.”
“Undoubtedly,” Niam shook his head. “They knew you had some kind of way to tell they were lying or withholding something.”
Xarius shrugged. “Maybe, but still, they owned it and explained their reason. It wasn’t a good call on their part, but it seemed they were in agreement and each held the blame for it.”
“One of them being my fucking uncle,” Silver muttered in disbelief. “Imagine what my life would’ve been like if my grandmother hadn’t taken me.”
“You wouldn’t have been bullied,” Niam said. “But you also wouldn’t have truly lived. It sounded like a very strict and let’s be honest, controlling childhood.”
Silver nodded. “I’m glad I turned out the way I did. Who knows how different I would be today had I not been raised by my gran. I never lacked love, and the bullying, although horrible, still made me who I am today.”
“And I love this Silver, even if I know without a doubt I would love any version of you,” Wilston said, pecking a soft kiss on his soulmatch’s cheek.
We heard laughter and voices approaching the cabin and knew lunch was coming. Silver and Wilston went to open the door and thanked Hane and Tane for providing food for us yet again.
We decided to eat casually, so we sat around the living room table again with me and Tair sitting on the floor.
It felt nice being here, surrounded by these men who I had shared many previous lives with.
But I still didn’t feel like I belonged yet.
I think the lack of magic made it harder for us to fully bond as friends since we needed that to connect.
Julie had gained all her energy and sass back and sat perched on the edge of one of the armchairs, eagerly slurping down spaghetti as the rest of us piled our plates with random meats and sides.
One thing the mages had going for them was the food.
They had some amazing cooks and I definitely wasn’t complaining about staying here for a while.
“So, training,” Niam said once he’d swallowed his food. “Maybe we should start tomorrow?”
“Sounds good,” Silver nodded while picking at his green beans. “Tino and Altair, you can watch us train, maybe learn along with us while we wait for you to get your own magic.”
I nodded with Tair, glad to be involved. I wouldn’t be mad spending all my time alone with my love, but I liked being a part of the group too.
“Perfect!” Silver exclaimed happily. “We haven’t really been able to have a true breather and just enjoy ourselves since we kept having to move around.
Now we’re finally all together!” Wilston smiled at Silver with hearts in his eyes as Silver continued to gush over all the things he couldn’t wait to do while here.
“I mean, they even told us to spend time together to bond! We’re allowed to laze about and have fun for once!
” Silver continued with even more excitement evident in his tone.
“And you two,” Niam said, pointing to us. “You’ll finally be able to catch up.” His smile was warm and genuine and I found I really liked Niam. I liked all of them. I did have that one moment where I could’ve slapped Wilston over his comment, but now I knew he was the voice of reason.
We spent the next two hours getting to know each other, each talking about our childhoods and how we got shunned. I still couldn’t believe Silver had almost died. The way Wilston tucked Silver into his lap showed he hated being reminded of how close he had been to losing his soulmatch.
Then Xarius told us about how Niam had thought he was a stalker and was trying to kidnap him. It was hilarious, even more so when Xarius told us he actually ended up kidnapping him in the end.
“What are you thinking about?” Tair asked me as we lazed on our bed.
We’d walked straight there, both of us needing to just lay and cuddle.
It was weird how fast we’d returned to the ease of our friendship, but how it was still so much more than what it used to be.
I was certain if we’d stayed together as children we would’ve started dating at fifteen or sixteen and having progressed from best friends to lovers there.
“Us,” I replied, pecking a kiss on his temple. He had his head on my shoulder, neither of us really eager to untangle from the bed yet.
“What about us?”
“How things would’ve been had I stayed with you.”
He leaned back on his one elbow so we could look at each other. “Do you hate it too?”
I nodded. “I always hated having you taken away from me. I’m glad we found each other in the end, but the time we spent apart was the worst time of my life.”
His eyes turned sad. “It was like that for me too. I wasn’t really living, you know? Just surviving each day and hoping, when I turned eighteen, I could find you. Being banished ruined that for me.”
“I had the same plan,” I admitted, tugging him back to my side. “I was going to return to our small town, find you, then buy the house we’d always dreamed of.”
“And adopt all the dogs and cats,” he grinned.
“All of them,” I agreed.
“We would get a small pond in the backyard,” he continued.
“For the dogs to swim in and the cats to watch the fish as they swam by.”
I could hear the smile in his voice as he added, “and then we would live happily ever after.”
“The end.”
We fell asleep after that, tucked together on the bed, secure in each other’s arms. When we woke, it was to the smell of cookies, or some other kind of deliciously baked goodness.
“I want whatever that is,” Tair rasped, his eyes blinking open slowly as he began to untangle himself from my side. His cheek had lines from where he’d slept on my chest, making him look adorably mussed.
“I’ll fetch whatever you want,” I promised, then pecked his lips with a quick kiss, unable to stop myself.
“Gods, I love you,” he sighed dreamily. I chuckled warmly and left the room to find the source of the delicious smell.
On our living room table stood a basket with different goods and two notes.
One from Niam where he explained he’d let himself in since Xarius told him we were asleep.
How he’d known was a mystery. Were sleep emotions a thing?
The other note was from Willow, it was a rather sweet note honestly.
She’d written how she hoped we would like it here and that she was sorry again for having Grethe push further against Altair’s fatigue, stating that she’d never do anything without our consent again.
The baked goods were apparently muffins that she and some of the other mages had baked together to welcome us further.
“Maybe she shouldn’t have wasted her time baking, but spent it figuring out how to hide our magic from the false leaders,” I muttered to myself as I put the note back down.
“Willow baked this?” Tair asked, startling me as he appeared around the corner.
“Yeah, and some other mages. It’s a sort of welcome basket.”
“Mmm. Smells wonderful,” he sighed and then picked out a blueberry muffin. “Join me?” he asked, then sat down on the couch.
I sat, unable to do otherwise, then picked up what smelled like a cinnamon and apple muffin. “Damn,” I mumbled, the crumbs falling from my lips. “So fucking good!”
“Right!”
“Mmmhmm,” I replied with a nod. Maybe it would be a waste of time if Willow did anything but bake, if this was the result.
He wiped his mouth and dusted his crumb filled shirt. “Maybe we should take a walk or something, try to leave the cabin seeing as we can’t really do much in here other than talk and sleep.”
“Oh,” I replied with a smirk. “I can think of several things to do here that don’t involve those two things.”
He blushed. “Yeah, but since we aren’t allowed, maybe going outside will help us actually listen to them and not tempt fate.”
I sighed and rested my head back against the couch. “Why do you have to be so sensible?”
He giggled. “One of us has to remain the rule follower, and last time I did such an amazing job at it. We never got caught or yelled at.”
I shook with laughter as I remembered the many times he’d have to stop me from doing stupid shit. “The swing,” I laughed, remembering it like it was yesterday.
Altair burst out laughing, too, “Oh my gods, I’d completely forgotten about that! Mrs. Olsen’s face!”
“I was certain it was a swing!” I defended myself, still laughing.
One day we’d walked past Mrs. Olsen’s house and spotted a bra held up by strings on either side.
As an adult I knew it was laundry left out to dry, but seven-year-old me?
I’d thought the very big bra was a swing with cool floral prints on it.
As you could imagine, once my tiny butt had placed itself on top of it, the line broke and caused all her other laundry to tumble down on top of me.
The shriek of surprise had alerted Mrs. Olsen and she’d found me buried in her clothes. She wasn’t happy. And what had Tair done? Well, he was lying on the ground laughing his ass off because I hadn’t listened when he’d told me to stop.
“She never liked us after that day,” Tair said, shaking his head, his smile still big and filled with humor.
“Uuuuh! What about the box!” I said, remembering the day I’d locked myself in a tiny chicken coop for when hens needed to be separated.
It had been further from the other coops so I’d believed it was just an empty wooden box on legs.
The tiny door allowed one side to be opened completely and while Tair had told me not to go in, I’d done it anyway, then closed the door, sealing me inside, unable to get out since it couldn’t be opened from the inside.
“Yes! You were so afraid in there!” he cackled.
I winced. “Sorry again,” I said, remembering how I’d kicked the door with my left leg, not knowing Tair was opening it, causing the door to smack straight into his face, giving him a nasty case of nosebleed.
He shrugged. “I lived.” Then his eyes widened, “But you almost didn’t! remember the go-carts?”
I groaned. Did I ever.
We’d each gotten a go-cart for our birthdays, matching ones, mine was red and black, Tair’s green and black.
We’d pulled them up to the highest hill so we could drive down it with maximum speed.
We were eight, and we hadn’t told any of our parents what we were up to.
Had we done that, they would’ve stopped us. No doubt.
On top of the hill, we’d placed them side by side and then we’d raced down.
It was too fast. Way too fast. We had pedals, but we’d had to place our feet on the sides because we couldn’t keep up with the speed, making us unable to push the brakes too.
We’d flown down, down, until we’d reached the forest. Tair had yelled at me to jump out of the dangerously fast go-cart, but I’d been too afraid to do it, causing me to drive straight into a tree.
“I didn’t almost die!” I said indignantly. “I just broke my arm.”
He grinned. “And I still have the scars from jumping off mid drive,” he said, showing me the tiny scars on his arm. I remember coming back from the hospital, looking him over and asking if he’d eaten spaghetti with meatballs since his face and body was filled with red dots.
“Maybe it’s a good thing you keep being the rule follower,” I conceded.