“Who are you talking to?” Marco asked, coming up behind me.
I laughed and faced him. “Well, I’m not really sure. I suppose my peanut.” I placed my hand on my belly.
Marco smiled. “You’re going to be one badass mom. I’ve seen you fight. Besides our training, I’ve been on the other side of those attacks. I know what you can do.”
“I wonder if he or she will be a spellcaster or a vampire.” I mainly thought that aloud. I was sure Marco didn’t care either way. But, to my surprise, he looked interested.
“Babies can be born spellcasters?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Mr. Smarty sage didn’t know that?”
He tilted his head and smiled. “There’s a lot I don’t know, at least from your world of magic. I was the one who mainly focused on dark magic, of course.”
I shrugged. “Well, now you know.” I stepped closer. “About that, on a serious note, I want to help you become immune to death by overload.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want history to repeat itself.”
“Well, I could just watch my charge.”
“Yes, but there may come a time where it doesn’t matter how much you control it. Like with Vlad. That was a powerful spell, and you could have died.” I gazed at him, concern in my eyes.
He smiled warmly. “If it weren’t for you.”
I laughed. “I can’t take all the credit, and you know that. But I want to make sure you’ll be alright.”
He gazed out over the snowy landscape in front of us. “For now, let’s focus on the main goal. Mastering this spell and having a good time on vacation.” He put his arm around me. “You can worry about me later.”
I laughed. “Yeah, okay. That’s fair. I’ll worry about you later.”
He smiled at me. “Thanks for caring about me.”
I closed my eyes, resting my head on his shoulder. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s something,” he disagreed. “And it feels good to be cared about.”
“Get used to it,” Caleb said, approaching us. “Because Jade’s not the only one.”
Marco turned to face him, surprised. “You…?”
Caleb laughed. “Yeah, me. The past is the past. I hold nothing against you.” He patted Marco’s shoulder. “Stop living in your past self’s shadow, okay? Forget him. Be you. The you we’ve all come to consider a friend.” He gazed at me. “Or, whatever you two are.”
I stifled a laugh, knowing that Caleb was joking, but Marco looked genuinely terrified. “No, no, it’s not like that. I just-“
Caleb’s laughter cut Marco off. “I’m teasing. I know you two are close. I get it.” He hugged Marco. “And hey, thanks for helping Jade and Morgyn. I really appreciate everything you guys are doing.” He stepped back. “And I’m sorry if I haven’t expressed that in the past.”
“It’s not your fault.” I spoke quietly. “It’s completely understandable.”
Marco nodded. “I second that. And honestly, it’s tame compared to-” he stopped. “Well, not thinking about the past anymore.” He laughed nervously.
Caleb laughed. “Yeah. It’s tame.” He stepped back toward the door. “I’ll let you two do what you do.”
Marco nodded. “We should work some more on the spell.”
I agreed and we headed downstairs to be away from the others as we worked. We chipped away at it for an hour when we finally felt we had a baseline for the spell.
“So, we would need to base this off of the discharge spell,” Marco said, gazing off as he thought about it. “Adding the core power spell to it to take out the dark magic. Then a natural healing spell to prevent pain.” He smiled. “Like I did with you.”
“Ah,” I smiled. “So that was going easy on me, eh?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Even in my darkest time, I was still somewhat merciful.”
Marco, Morgyn and I started practicing mixing the spells together, focusing all of our energy on it for another half hour until Marco had enough.
“Dammit!” He growled. “I just want to get this right!” He brought his hand down to the floor and accidentally shot magic as he did. It fizzled out on the floor, and he stared at the spot it had landed for a moment.
“What is it?” I asked, confused.
“I did it.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. That was the spell. It…it worked!” He looked up at me, his eyes glassy, but happy. “Wait, let me try again.” He held his hands up and focused, conjuring red magic in his hand. He opened his eyes and fired it at the wall. “Oh my god…” He grabbed me and picked me up in a hug. “We did it!”
I laughed. “Good work, Marco!”
He was overjoyed. “No, it wasn’t just me. It was all of us.”
I ran to get Caleb, who came bounding downstairs. Marco taught me the spell and I walked over to Caleb to cast it.
“Wait, no,” Caleb put his hand up. He looked at Marco with a smile. “I want you to do it.”
Marco stared at him. “M-me? Why?”
“To prove to you that I trust you.”
I smiled and stood back as Marco nervously approached him. “Ah, uh, well, okay.” He held his hands out in front of him and closed his eyes, resting his palms on Caleb’s chest. “It shouldn’t hurt, but if it does, I’m sorry.”
Caleb nodded. “I understand.” He smiled. “Just relax.”
Marco focused his energy and built up the spell in his hands again, causing them to glow. Now, as he opened his eyes, Caleb’s body glowed from the spell. He closed his eyes too, and I saw the red begin to mix with black, a sort of swirl of the two colors emitting from Caleb’s body as Marco’s magic pulled out the black magic in Caleb’s core. Caleb didn’t seem to be in any pain.
Marco looked at me, tilting his head to have me come over to him. “Battery pack,” he joked.
I laughed and placed my hand on his shoulder, giving him enough to finish the spell. The magic around them dissipated, and Marco stepped away.
“How do you feel?”
Caleb took a deep breath. “Like a weight has been lifted.” He held out his hand for Marco to shake. “Thank you.”
Marco shook it with a smile. “My pleasure, friend.”
Morgyn put his arm around me. “Great work guys.” He smiled. “I’m proud of you, Marco.”
Marco closed his eyes and smiled. “Thank you. I…” he stopped and seemed to get emotional. “I’m just glad I could help.” He opened his eyes, which were now filled with tears. “I’m glad I could do something right. Something good.”
I hugged him, and Caleb and Morgyn followed. Marco started to cry hard, sobbing quietly. We all just hugged him, holding him close.
The rest of the day went well. Morgyn took the girls on the mountain to ski. Wolf, Lilith and Kris went with them. Marco went for a hike to process everything, and Caleb, Ambrosia and I sat in the living room with hot cocoa, since Ambrosia and I couldn’t go skiing.
Ambrosia stared at her mug, swirling it around.
“What’s on your mind?” Caleb sat forward and looked at her inquisitively.
“Um,” she looked away. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what you’ll say. We still don’t know each other too well.”
Caleb shrugged. “You don’t have to tell me, of course. I would never press.”
Ambrosia looked at me, and I gave her a patient smile. She looked at Caleb and sighed. “You found out way too recently that you were a parent. But now, you’re a bit more than that.” She lifted her head, trying to be more confident. “Wolf and I are expecting a baby. You’re going to be a grandparent too.”
Caleb smiled. “What? That’s great! Congrats!”
She looked back at her cocoa and gave a half smile. “Heh. Thanks.”
Caleb’s expression shifted. “You…you’re not happy about this?”
Ambrosia put her hand on her belly. “I am, but I’m scared. Wolf and I…we are, uh, jeez, this is embarrassing. Let’s just say I’m not surprised I’m pregnant, if you catch my drift. We can be a bit active. Like puppy love stages, infatuation, whatever. Part of it is due to my modeling. It just-” she stopped. “Okay, anyway, I don’t know if we are mature enough for a baby. And I do worry about what it might do for my career. I make a living off of people taking pictures of me. What if people don’t…like me anymore? I know that’s a selfish thing to think about, and maybe we were reckless and irresponsible, but abortion and adoption aren’t options for us. I could never live with myself, knowing I didn’t give myself a chance to be a mother.”
Caleb and I sat in silence, unsure of what to say. I put my arm around her. “No matter what you feel about it, we’re here.”
She smiled sadly. “Thanks Mom. I know.”
“We love you,” Caleb said quietly. “And I’m totally easy to spoil my grandchild.”
Ambrosia gave him a cheeky smile. “You’ll have your own child to tend to.”
I put my hand on my belly. Caleb placed his hand on mine. “Then I’ll have three to spoil.”
“Three?” Ambrosia tilted her head.
“You too, silly,” he laughed.
She waved her hand. “Ah, nahh. I’m too old to be spoiled.”
“You’re never too old to be spoiled,” I interjected.
She laughed. “Well, I certainly won’t turn down any of this potential spoiling.”
We all laughed together, keeping our conversation going. Ambrosia really seemed to become more comfortable with her pregnancy as the week progressed. She even started to seem excited. I was happy for her. And we were excited to be pregnant at the same time as well.
Toward the end of the week, when our crew went out skiing, besides Ambrosia and I, I went into the kitchen and was surprised to see Marco there.
“Oh! Hey!” I stepped back. “I didn’t expect to see you here. You didn’t go up with the others?”
He shook his head, then sipped some of the tea he had in his hand. “Nah. It’s not that I’m not enjoying myself, but the cold weather is getting to me. I’ll stay where it’s cozy.”
I giggled. “Next vaca needs to be in Sulani.”
He laughed. “I’ll be begging to come along, if that’s the case!”
I stepped closer. “Well, maybe we can use this time to our advantage.”
He looked alarmed. “What? What do you mean? Why?”
I tilted my head, confused. “I mean, it’s a good opportunity for me to teach you how to be resistant to overload.”
He immediately calmed, his muscles relaxing. “Oh, right.”
I gazed at him a little longer, still confused by the exchange. “Uh, well, it’s not too hard. Should really only take a couple of minutes.”
He set his cup down. “Alright. I’m ready.”
I took his hands. “Marco, I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but relax, okay? I’m not going to hurt you or anything.”
“I-” he stopped, closing his eyes and laughing softly. “That’s not what I was thinking,” he said. “I know you wouldn’t intentionally hurt me.”
I let go of his hands. “Okay, just making sure.”
I taught him how to prevent overload and watched him cast it, smiling happily, like a teacher watching her star pupil. As I suspected, it didn’t take long at all.
“Good.” I lifted my head confidently. “Now you can cross that method of death off of the list!”
He laughed. “I’d say that’s a relief, but I’m not sure if it is.”
I laughed with him. “Well, any other method can be rectified anyway.”
He nodded. “I won’t be reckless, so you don’t need to revive me.”
I grinned. “Better not, or I’ll have to revive you twice.”
He caught my drift in that I was threatening to kill him and revive him again. He laughed again.
In just a couple short days, we were packing up to leave. Caleb gave me a kiss on the cheek. I immediately felt more movement in my belly.
I stood straight and smiled. “Peanut really loves you.”
He smiled, wrapping his arms around me. We kissed.
“I’m going to be spending quite a bit in the realm when we go back home,” I said.
He tilted his head. “Oh?”
I nodded. “Marco is going to need a neutral party to reintroduce him to the realm. He won’t be accepted with open arms.”
“Ah,” Caleb also nodded. “Good. He needs you then.”
I smiled. “I just hope people will accept him.”
“And if they don’t?”
I frowned. “Well, I don’t really know. Let’s hope it doesn’t go that way.”
He hugged me. “You have a way with words. I’m sure you can talk them into it.”
I laughed nervously. “Yeah, well let’s hope.”
We made our way back, and I hugged Marco as he went back to his apartment.
“Hey,” I smiled. “Thank you for everything.”
He hugged me back tightly. “My pleasure.”
“Meet me at HQ tomorrow at 7:00 okay?” I gazed at him.
He nodded. “Yes.”
We parted ways and I followed everyone back to our apartment. Upon walking in the door, I was immediately overwhelmed, but in a good way. Jewel’s plans had come to life in our home. It looked completely different, but beautiful. The pool was still in the same place, but the living room area was far more open with a playroom where a large bathroom stood. Jewel’s room had all new furniture and was very colorful. Upstairs was a spa and sauna area and what was a bar area was now a nursery. Tears filled my eyes as I looked around.
“I…” I stopped. “This is…” I sobbed. “This is beautiful. Thank you.” My tears streamed down my face. Caleb rubbed my back.
“It really is.”
I smiled happily.
We left our suitcases for the night and sat down to talk before going to bed. Despite being tired, I just stared at the ceiling with a smile. Good things were coming, and I couldn’t wait.
Morgyn got into bed beside me and pulled me close. “You okay?”
I nodded. “I’m better than okay. Everything is just a dream come true. It’s perfect.”
He kissed my forehead and held me close. I closed my eyes, sighing deeply and happily. We fell asleep in each other’s arms.
The next day I got ready and dressed in record time, heading off to the realm to arrive before Marco. I couldn’t risk him getting there first because I had no idea what to expect.
What I didn’t expect was to see the members of the council standing before me. The council consisted of the retired sages. If we could really call them retired. Being on the council was a whole new job of its own. It was more like a promotion.
Simeon came over to me, concern in his eyes. “Is Morgyn coming?”
“He’s not due here for another hour,” I said, checking the clock on the wall. “What’s going on?”
“Word got out that black magic was used by you and Morgyn,” Simeon explained. His eyes widened as he looked behind me.
“And me,” Marco said. “And I take full responsibility for it. But, I’d like to state my case, if I may.”
I stepped back, at Marco’s side, causing Simeon to narrow his eyes. “You’re siding with a killer.”
I shook my head. “But only a few days ago, he potentially saved a life.”
Morgyn came in quickly. “Sorry, I got the call and came right away.” He looked over and saw Ethren, Keisha and Tess, the three former sages, and now the council members. “Oh. This isn’t good.”
“No, it’s not, Morgyn.” Simeon crossed his arms in front of him. “What did you do?”
Morgyn opened his mouth, but Marco held up his hand. “Please, Simeon. Let me speak to them. Everything will make sense.”
I swallowed hard, watching the three former sages headed toward us. “Looks like you’ll have your chance.”
“Marco Lew,” Tess scowled. “By what means are you here, in our realm?”
“I revived him,” I said, determined.
“And why would you?” Tess prompted sternly. “You understand his presence here is quite unwelcome.”
I nodded. “I needed his assistance in extracting black vampire magic from Caleb Vatore.”
Before Tess could speak again, Marco stepped in front of me. “If I may?”
Tess crossed her arms in front of her. “I’m listening.”
“This had better be good,” Keisha scoffed.
Marco ignored her, but held his head high, despite his growing nerves. “I was revived. Yes, by Jade, but she was at her wits end. She needed to save her boyfriend, Caleb Vatore from the grips of a black magic spell cast on him by Vladislaus Straud. I saw this as a second chance and vowed to not go down the path I chose in my first life.” He looked down briefly, clearly intimidated by the situation. “I taught Jade and Morgyn dark magic, and we vowed to never use it here in the realm. I am aware that this is a safe space.”
“Why did you teach them?” Ethren asked calmly.
“We needed the three of us to discover an extraction spell to remove that magic from Caleb. It was rather time sensitive as the magic was making him angry and unable to control himself from lashing out at others.” Marco shook his head. “We practiced for a long time but finally created the spell we needed. I personally cast it on Caleb, and it was successful.” He sighed. “I understand that what we’ve done was wrong, and I will take full responsibility for it. If you wish to ban me to the dark realm again, strip me of my power, I will accept it.”
All of the sages, current and former stayed silent for a moment. Ethren nodded to Tess. “We will discuss this.”
They walked away and up the stairs.
I sighed. “I thought today would be a good day.”
Marco looked away. “Dark magic is dark magic. It doesn’t matter what it was used for.” He smiled slightly. “At least this time, I will accept my fate, knowing I did what was right.”
Morgyn looked away. “I’m so sorry, Marco.”
Marco waved his hand. “It’s alright. We knew this might happen.”
The three of us sat down, awaiting the council’s decision. It felt like it took forever. When they finally came back, their expressions were grim. It wasn’t going to be good news, then, was it?
“Come with us, Marco,” Tess said matter-of-factly.
“I’ll see ya,” he said sadly as he stood up.
Morgyn and I watched as the four of them walked out the door.
“God this isn’t fair,” Morgyn scowled. “He did everything right, yet he’s still being punished. I hate it. I hate everything about it.”
I rubbed his back. “Me too.”
We started to walk away to head to our respective places. It was going to be a long day. Part of me regretted reviving Marco. Maybe I could have found another way? Now he was banished to another realm for eternity. Because of me.
“Jade Hunter and Morgyn Ember,” we heard. We both turned. The sages were coming back in. “Come outside please.”
Their voices roused the curiosity of the spellcasters in HQ. They were instructed not to follow.
‘Well, hey, at least Marco wouldn’t be alone, huh?’ That thought was the only thing curbing my anxiety. Morgyn took my hand and we headed outside together. We stood by Marco.
Tess sighed. “Our formal decision is as follows; you three will be monitored for awhile, but I do believe you did nothing out of malice, despite it being wrong and against everything we stand for. That aside, you will all be rewarded for your findings. You’ve done well. You have helped a lot of people with these findings and will be credited for them. All of this notoriety, however, will be stripped if any of you use any type of dark magic again. Is this understood?”
The three of us nodded and spoke in unison. “Yes ma’am.”
She smiled. “You’ve done well. Especially you, Marco. It’s good to have you on our side.”
Marco smiled warmly. “Honestly, it’s good to be on this side.”
Tess laughed. I smiled and rested my head on Marco’s shoulder, giving a half hug.
We all returned inside where Tess directed everyone’s attention to us and announced our parts in the creation of the spell. Many of the spellcasters were surprised, including L and Simeon, who glared at Marco.
“In addition,” Ethren spoke up, “Marco is Morgyn’s successor as the sage of untamed magic. That role was once reserved for Jade, but now she is the sage of alchemy, Marco has taken that role.”
“Wait, what?” Simeon protested.
Ethren held up his hand. “Marco has shown a genuine display of behavioral changes,” he said. “We would not have manually appointed him in that position if we felt otherwise.”
Simeon crossed his arms. “Suit yourself, but I’m sure this is all a lie.”
“Simeon!” Tess snapped. “Contain yourself! You know we don’t make these decisions lightly.”
Simeon simply walked away, L following close behind.
“I apologize, Marco,” Tess said, clearly frustrated.
“No, I understand,” Marco sighed. “I caused a lot of pain for a lot of people. I hope they will see a change in me and form a new opinion.”
Tess nodded. “I wish you all luck.” She smiled. “Great work.”
With that, the three former sages left. Marco breathed a sigh of relief.
“Jeez, they’re intimidating,” he laughed nervously.
I laughed with him, my heart finally slowing from the ordeal.
Morgyn hugged us both. “We are the luckiest damn bunch of rebels in this realm.”
Marco laughed again. “Yeah, we are.”
I grinned. “We deserved every bit of that anxiety.”
The day went back to normal, aside from L and Simeon completely ignoring Marco. Marco had grown quite a thick skin for that though, and he just continued his day to day. Morgyn trained him to help him with his sage duties. I couldn’t help but think this was only the beginning.
I was right. There was a lot more to come…..
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