‘So he has magic, but someone else with magic has been near him for so long that that person’s magic can be felt on Archer too. Just who IS this mystery boy with bad parents?’ I thought suspiciously as I gave him a more thorough look. He looked… normal. I felt the blood leave my face,
‘What if he was decoy?’ my mind screamed frantically as I rushed down the hallway and descended the stairs to check on my parents. They were sitting down in the kitchen, which was really large and modern considering the outside appearance of the place; where outside it was all brick and mortar, so to speak, the inside hinted at culture… an expensive one. My mother had seen me coming down the stairs and nodded, but my father saw me running and was already up and moving towards the stairs with murder in his eyes.
“Dad, wait!” I whisper-yelled at him as I blocked his path.
“What happened? Are you all right? Is he a spy? Assassin?” He questioned me fiercely whilst only just managing to wait for me to tell him what had happened.
“Honey, you need to relax, not every unknown mage that walks into our house is trying to kill or harm us.” My mother said calmly between sips of her tea. I looked at her curiously,
“You know he has magic?” I replied to her and my father relaxed a little at the confirmation from my mother.
“Neither of you told me?”
“You didn’t ask, besides, you were busy trying to fix things and call the movers to tell them where everyone needs to go, sorry honey, I didn’t want to distract you.”
“Umm, I just told you now, you can’t be mad.” I said sheepishly after my mother had spoken. But then I remembered the other thing I had noticed and spoke again.
“Right, umm, did you notice that someone else’s magic has left a mark on him too? It’s only recent, but faint, and it seems like someone wanted to help him by casting charms on him... but he seems to have shrugged them off mostly.”
“Oh? I hadn’t noticed that.” My mother admitted and drank more tea, excusing herself from dealing with Logan whilst he was worked up and paranoid.
“Let me look at him.” My father said, already walking up the stairs. I bolted past him and got in front of him again.
“No way! You never take dealing with strangers well.”
“Oh relax, I’m not going to hurt him, I just want to check. Plus I can tell you like you him, how did he reply to you wanting to take him on a date, anyway?” My dad said smugly, he already knew… so he was just going to double check… right? Regardless, both my mother and I followed my father back up to my room. Once inside, he immediately flexed his right hand and closed his eyes. Seconds past and soon a minute or two had gone by before he opened them again.
“It’s true, someone else has tried to affect him with magic and he’s seemed to have shrugged it off subconsciously with his own magic… Do we know what type he is? Or what type the other mages in this town are?” He asked my mother.
“As of this moment, we know of some Elementals, a family or two that live closer to the town and one that lives closer to the lake, near him, and a small family of Necromancers other than ourselves. Why?” She said and I could see her puzzlement clearly.
“I’m not sure actually, I thought that I recognised his aura, like maybe someone I used to know had a similar one… I thought that the Adepts went underground… Uh, never mind.” He finished, smiling again. Then he and my mother left, already talking about Archer Elliot, the unknown mage. I had no doubts that they would try and figure out who he really was, but I didn’t give it much thought. Instead I looked down at him again, he looked like he was sleeping but he opened one eye and raised an eyebrow, he had heard the noise but I don’t think he had heard what they said. I just shook my head and checked the time, 7 a.m. Okay, so, one hour of rest before I woke him up again for breakfast… that is, if I woke up again. I didn’t know what was going to happen because of him, but he didn’t give off any threatening vibes so I just decided to indulge myself. I lay down next to him and shuffled as close to him as I would dare, without actually touching him, and closed my eyes.
"Hey, it’s 10 o’clock, we let you sleep in, do you guys want to wake up and eat?” My mother called through the door.
'Thank god she didn’t open the door!’ I thought frantically as my eyes snapped open and saw how close I was to Archer; I was closer than I remembered, but what was more alarming to me was that my left arm was wrapped around him like a blanket. I pulled back sharply, but then my logic kicked in and I slowed down. When my arm was off of him, I slowly rolled myself away and slowly stood up.
“You’re so weird.” Archer said, his humour clearly evident in the way he spoke. I froze for a second before I turned around to look at him, his brown eyes looked back up at me, sparkling with amusement.
“You were awake I take it?”
“Yeah, woke up when your mother called.”
“But she called so quietly…”
“I’m closer to the door?”
“Oh well, would you like breakfast?” He opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by his stomach grumbling. I couldn’t help myself from bursting into laughter, the timing was perfect and soon Archer was laughing too.
“Ok,” He managed to breathe eventually, “Let’s go eat before we die from laughter.” I was able to take deep breath before I burst out laughing again. It was one of those times when the joke isn’t actually that funny, but it’s funny enough to make you look like a total idiot in public because you just keep laughing. After about 3 minutes of me laughing stupidly and Archer attempting to calm me down and at the same time not join in, we made it down stairs in one piece, which was a good start.
As we walked to the table I slung my arm around his shoulder before I could think about what I was doing. Archer stopped for a beat before walking forward again, I tried to look at him, but he was looking down so I couldn’t catch his eye. My parents weren’t in the kitchen cooking, which was a surprise, but they had already set up plates of food, side by side, still steaming from heat. When I was sure my parents were elsewhere I moved towards the table and asked why he paused.
“Sorry, it’s just. I’m not in a relationship, but I feel like I’m betraying my friend.”
“Like how? We haven’t done anything, and you’re not dating him, are you? At least, I think it’s a him, is it a him?”
“Yeah,” He admitted and then sighed, “His name is Christian, the one who’s helping me, but he’s liked me, probably loved me, from the day we met, but it never feels like it. He’s been trying to take me on a date for so long but I was never ready, then I meet you and BAM! Here I am, eating breakfast with you after sharing the same bed and to top it all off I agreed to let you take me on a date. I’m so confused.” I immediately moved back to him and he flinched away again. I froze.
“Look, if you’re too worried, you don’t have to go on the date with me.” It pained me to say it, because I really, really wanted to go on a date with him, but I didn’t want to force him to and if it meant too much to him, I could always wait. I smiled down at him, he was only a bit shorter than me, but it was enough to be obvious who was taller. He looked down for a few more seconds but then he looked up and smiled sadly,
“Not today… I just can’t. I’m sorry.” I placed my hand on top of his to reassure him,
“That’s alright,” I then paused and thought for a second, “Hehe, I mean, we only just met, some people might see a date so soon as going too fast.”
I smiled happily on the outside and he tried smiling back, I’ll be honest though, I was quite disappointed, but then again I suppose being completely naked and underneath someone when you first meet probably made me seem like I was coming on too strongly.
He shook his head at me as my parents walked into the kitchen, raising an eyebrow again. I just shrugged; I never knew what they would do when magic was involved. He smiled again and said under his breath, “This is going to be an interesting day never the less.”
Chapter 1 - Part 2
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