"Not to be a downer," Jaime said. "But he's going to start expecting us to kill him."
"So maybe he'll stop making social calls?" I hoped.
Jaime shrugged. "God knows what he's going to do. Maybe he'll try and kill you instead."
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I shake from the onslaught of birds coming to peck out my eyes."
"Green magic's pretty serious stuff, Vic," Jaime countered.
"Yeah, I'm sure it is," I said sarcastically.
"Stop underestimating him," Jaime tutted in an annoyed tone. "So far he's continuously managed to get the better of us."
"We're not thinking out of the box enough," I said suddenly, sitting forward in my chair. "That's why we failed."
"Really? I thought it was because we had the grand idea to send animals to kill the animal wizard."
"The sarcasm isn't helping," I snapped at my best friend. Jaime shrugged, the ghost of a smirk on his face.
"I don't know why you want to kill him so badly," Jaime sighed. "He doesn't do much else but irritate you."
I raised my eyebrows in confusion. "That's exactly why I want to kill him."
Jaime closed his eyes and lifted himself into the air, lying horizontally and as comfortably as if he were in bed.
"I think you're being overdramatic. Maybe I should cast a spell on you and find out what your true feelings for Kellin are."
"No need, I'll tell you," I answered. "Disgust with a hint of detestation."
"I think you're mistaking loathing for longing," Jaime said, opening his eyes to look at me.
"Stop with this idea of yours that a single part of me likes Kellin," I snapped.
"I'll stop with it when you admit it," Jaime grinned. "I can see it in your eyes."
"I didn't realise you were going blind," I uttered. "Maybe there's a spell somewhere to repair your eyesight."
"Oh Vic, you're hilarious," Jaime said, rolling his eyes. "But I'm serious."
I stopped, looking at Jaime quizzically. "What the hell are you talking about? Jaime, I hate Kellin. I'm literally plotting his murder as we speak."
"I honestly believe you're doing that just so you can live in denial about your feelings," Jaime declared.
"Are you hearing yourself right now?"
"I'm trying to stop you from making a mistake," Jaime said firmly. "I think you should stop with these drastic measures you seem to be taking and reconsider."
"The only mistake I made was ever being friends with Kellin in the first place," I muttered.
"Surely what happened between you two wasn't that bad that it sparked a century-long rivalry," Jaime stated, floating closer to me as he spoke.
"I don't remember," I shrugged. "But he certainly is taking it very personally."
"Come on," Jaime whined, "you have to at least know something."
"Well I don't, Jaime," I said rather irritably. "I don't know why we suddenly stopped being friends and more importantly: I don't care."
"That's not true," Jaime said gently. "We both know you do."
I glared at my best friend, crossing my arms over my chest defensively. "If you're not going to help me, then leave me to figure it out on my own."
"You can't do it without me," Jaime countered. "Blood oath, remember?"
"Honestly I'd rather face the consequences of the blood oath than have to deal with Kellin's annoying ass," I scoffed.
"Well I'm hurt Vicky," the all too familiar voice drawled. "Really, I am."
Kellin floated down from the ceiling, grinning at Jaime and I like the goddamn Cheshire cat.
"How long have you been here?" I yelled at him.
"Long enough," Kellin answered simply, floating past Jaime until his feet reached the floor. "You were too busy arguing to hear me come in though."
"Hello Kellin," Jaime greeted him. "Sorry for trying to kill you."
"That's okay," Kellin grinned. "I think the gesture was amusing."
"Amusing? We tried to kill you," I said, dumbfounded.
"Yes, key word there being 'tried'," Kellin smiled.
"Go away," I said exasperatedly, scrubbing my face as I spoke.
"Well there's no fun in that," Kellin said. "Is there?"
I bent my knees, gaining momentum before I jumped to the air and instead of falling, continued to rise. The rooms in the old tower that I lived in had high ceilings made for chandeliers and general aesthetics. Instead, I had shelves upon shelves running up along the walls of this particular room, filled with bottles and boxes of ingredients for potions or large dusty spellbooks.
But today I wasn't heading toward any of the shelves, instead continuing to just drift upwards.
"What's he doing?" I heard Kellin ask from below me.
"Having a tantrum," came Jaime's curt reply. "He's gone up there to sulk."
"So, why haven't the two of you tried to kill me this time?" Kellin said, his voice increasing in volume to make sure I could hear from all the way above him. "I have expectations for the two of you."
"We weren't expecting you to come back again," I replied, my voice equally loud for the same reason. "We didn't prepare this time."
"Actually we thought you were going to devise a plan to kill Vic," Jaime explained.
"Course not," Kellin laughed. "He's too much fun. I'd be bored without him."
"Bored?" Jaime began and I could hear the smirk in his tone. "Or lonely?"
Kellin paused, a silence settling over the room. "What do you mean?"
"Jaime," I warned.
I had reached the ceiling and turned so that I could look down at them. Even from here I knew Jaime could see the daggers I was glaring at him.
"What?" Jaime asked innocently. "It's a valid question."
"Stop it," I said gruffly.
"Stop what?" Kellin questioned.
"I want to know something," Jaime began again, ignoring me.
"No, you don't Jaime," I spoke.
"About you, Kellin," Jaime continued.
"Uh sure," Kellin agreed. "I mean we have reached the stage in our relationship where you're trying to kill me, so I guess we can get to know one another."
I furrowed my brows in frustration and clicked my fingers. Suddenly I was no longer hovering against the ceiling but instead standing between Jaime and Kellin, a faint pop echoing in the room.
Jaime seemed to look straight through me, ignoring my presence entirely. He lifted his hand and gave a short wave and that simple hand gesture sent me flying across the room.
I caught myself before I plummeted into the wall, flying back towards where Jaime and Kellin were.
"Do you like Vic?" Jaime asked quickly before I could reach them.
I stopped moving entirely, half off the ground, half on it.
The usual smile on Kellin's face slowly started dissolving as he processed the question.
"What makes you think I do?" He mumbled.
"The fact that you're constantly here," Jaime replied. "Around him just to annoy him."
Kellin's face turned into a scowl. "I have nothing in my heart for Vic Fuentes other than the blinding rage of pure and utter hatred."
And with those words, Kellin vanished from the room.
I looked at Jaime with raised eyebrows and the ghost of a winning smile on my face.
"Well you're right, Jaime," I said. "That's love if I ever did see it myself."
"He's about in as much denial as you are," Jaime sighed. "Honestly, I'm a wizard not fucking Cupid."
"Nobody's telling you to play Cupid," I pointed out to him. "Now are they?"
"That's because they don't have to tell me," Jaime said. "It's plain as fucking day that my services are in dire need."
"How many times do I or him have to tell you?" I almost yelled. "We hate each other. Hate, with a capital H and a curly E."
"You say that," Jaime said, looking at me with knowing eyes. "But then tell me why the two of you initiated the blood oath?"
"Because we were sixteen and dumb-"
"A blood oath that prevents either of you from doing anything that could hurt the other," Jaime continued.
"So? We were idiotic kids," I said.
"Even then, every kid is told the dangers of a blood oath," Jaime said. "At sixteen you cannot tell me you didn't know what you were doing."
"What are you trying to say?" I said, my voice getting higher.
"I'm saying you can pretend all you like," Jaime said. "But that blood oath is screaming a different story."
"Yeah Jaime, we were friends," I tried. "Best friends."
Jaime shrugged. "I think it'll do you some good to try and at least remember why the two of you are fighting. If you remember and you still want to kill him then fine, I'll devise the best plan to do so."
I whined. "Jaime you're being so difficult."
Jaime shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm playing the role God sent out for me to play."
And then Jaime was gone and I was left alone to wonder why the fuck Kellin and I had stopped being best friends.
-
I let out an irritable sigh. I was perched on the roof of a skyscraper, looking down at the bustling city below my feet. It was only sometimes that I even bothered to come to the normal world - more content to sit in my old abandoned tower in the country and brood.
But sometimes I came and basked in the normality of things, listening to stranger's conversations and laughing at all their trivial problems.
I could jump, right now and plummet to the ground below. I wouldn't die since I could just teleport at the last second or simply just fly back up. Even if I made contact with the ground below, I could cast a quick spell before impact which would heal all my bones and I'd be right as rain, walking amongst the crowd like nothing had happened.
I waved my fingers almost lazily and a coffee cup was brought into existence, floating just a couple inches from my fingers. I grabbed it out of the air and took a quick and long sip, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
I don't know what had come over me lately as I slumped down on the edge of the building, my legs dangling over the edge. It was like I was stuck in this stupid thought that I just needed to remember why Kellin and I had fallen out in the first place.
We had been so close, finding out what we could do, learning spells together and then suddenly we had just stopped. As if the invisible rope tying us together had suddenly been sliced apart by a cleaver.
I remember the ending. Meeting up in the dead of night, our friendship hanging on by threads. I remember how suddenly the accusations had gone flying and how quickly it had spiraled into one of the worst evenings of my life - and I'd lived a long time.
Parts of me wondered if that time had been too long. I hadn't aged a day after twenty-one and I didn't know if I even could.
All the wizards I'd run into had been old yes, but certainly hadn't looked it. I had for the most part isolated myself from that world, so I actually hadn't met many wizards. I certainly didn't keep up any relations with them, save for my limited number of friends and Kellin.
Although the latter wasn't really something I had any say in. Kellin usually came and went as he pleased, never failing to track me down whenever I'd moved my location.
I'd lived in hundreds of homes: whether they'd be in the city amongst all it's normalities or far away in the middle of nowhere.
It's not like it mattered. If I needed a normal home in the normal world - or anything really - then I could always conjure up as much of their currency as I wanted. (Or convince the seller to just give me whatever it was they were selling.)
Kellin had found me in each home at least sometime down the line. I'd placed wards against them, tried casting circles no wizards but myself could cross and he always, always found a way in.
Then he'd break my potion bottles, create rats to sleep in my roofs, make termites eat away the wood of my walls and make birds shit all over my patios.
I hadn't lived near normal people for years now. I found them weary, with all their rules and inability to tolerate each other. So when I'd come across the huge old tower in the countryside, I hadn't moved out of it.
I hadn't bothered to ward the tower or put circles around it or do anything. Kellin kept breaking in and I just was so tired of trying to keep him out. The more effort I put into keeping him out, the more exciting it seemed for him to break in.
How could Jaime not see that this was the reason I couldn't wait for Kellin to be six feet below the ground? It wasn't because of Jaime's sneaking suspicion that I had some god awful crush on the boy.
I was too old for mediocre things like crushes. I was a hundred and eighteen for fucks sake. I really was just looking for some peace and quiet at this point.
Which was consequently how I kept finding myself in the normal world. Going to coffee shops or involving myself in their forms of entertainment.
I read their books, watched their movies and listened to their music. The one thing I liked about their world was watching how it changed all the time. I'd lived through a century, watching them build and destroy and create and evolve.
Some part of me liked being in the middle. Belonging to one world and yet living in another. At the end of the day, I liked my solidarity more than anything - hence the fact I'd set up shop in the middle of nowhere in an abandoned tower. But I still liked being around all of this.
A couple decades ago - when magicians were new and exciting - Jaime and I had gone to see a couple of them perform. We laughed at the lengths they had gone to to perform simple feats and the huge contraptions they'd build in order to achieve them.
The amount of thought that went behind every design and every trick - just for their audience to have the slightest taste of magic. Jaime and I had considered performing before, pretending that we were just as illustriously tricky as the magicians with the contraptions - just instead using real magic and passing it off as fake.
But now I was wondering if I liked coming to the normal world so much because Kellin never really followed me here and since he hadn't been able to find me, he'd instead almost always be waiting for me when I got home - even if it was just to ruin my otherwise nice day.