Page 32 of The Mage on the Hill
The drive to Pine Creek Gorge wasn’t a hardship at all, meandering along Route 44, through the ancient rounded mountains of the Allegheny Plateau where deciduous trees well on their way to full leaf provided bright green skirts to the darker pine crowns. Here and there, early wildflowers in yellow and white made brave forays past the guardrails along the sides of the road.
Houses cropped up less frequently—a lone one farther down the hill from the road, several clustered in a row along a flatter stretch as if they sought others of their kind. Zubayr lived in one of these houses. Darius knew that and still had difficulty placing urbane, Philadelphia-born Zubayr in this setting.Many years ago. People change.
All too soon, they’d arrived. He pulled into the driveway of a neat ranch house with a white pebble walkway to the front door and planters with explosions of pansies on either side of the front steps. Zubayr had always loved bright colors. Darius switched off the ignition and froze. Of course he was going to have to open the door and move his legs. Eventually. Though he couldn’t quite see how it would happen.
“Hey,” Toby said softly. “You’re not okay, are you?”
“No.”
Darius startled when a hand closed gently around his. Toby had scooted awkwardly forward so he could face Darius around the center armrest. “The worst that’s gonna happen is he doesn’t want to see you. Maybe he’ll say something nasty. I don’t know him, but I guess that could happen. And he closes the door and we go away.”
“Not supposed… to see me.”
“Nowyou want to worry about what the guild says? Kinda late for that, don’t you think?”
“For me.” Darius powered the seat back so he could turn and see Toby better. “For you.”
“You don’t want him dragged into this. Especially if he’s had a quiet life and doesn’t want to see you.”
Darius ducked his head on a nod, startled again when Toby’s hand moved to cup his cheek.
“Everyone keeps saying you were such an arrogant bastard. You sure care a lot for someone who was.” Toby stroked his thumb under Darius’s eye. “Maybe let him make that choice, though?”
He couldn’t have stopped himself from leaning into Toby’s touch if he’d had a will of steel. Right then, his will was more room-temperature mercury, sliding and slipping about. Or, as Toby slid his fingers back into Darius’s hair, more like talc as it completely crumbled.
Toby leaned in, head tilted. The shock of their lips meeting sent a dizzy rush from Darius’s balls to his throat. He grasped Toby’s elbow to keep him close and closed his eye, drowning in the gentle electric caress of Toby’s mouth. His tongue traced the seam of Darius’s lips and he opened on a sharp intake of breath. Such heat, such an enthusiastic offering oflife, Darius tried to pull him closer, frustrated by the confines of the car.
“Oh gods.” Toby pulled back, thumb still caressing Darius’s cheek. “That was amazing, but I probably shouldn’t have done that, huh?”
Darius pulled in a slow breath, let it out, then opened his eye. “I….”Oh, well done. Brilliant response.“I don’t….”
“Sorry. I ambushed you. A little.” Toby slid his hand down to grab hold of Darius’s fingers. “That wasn’t right.”
“I’m not….” So many things he wasn’t. He settled on “Not angry.”
“Good. That’s good to hear. Ready to get out of the truck before we fog up the windows?”
Though his face felt like it was on fire, Darius chuckled and opened his door. He’d never been thisawkwardbefore. Granted, it had been some time, but his past social life had been filled with assertive moments, eitheryes, I want youorno, this isn’t appropriate. None of this shillyshallying.Great. Now I’m starting to sound like Aunt Eva.
He stood staring at the mountains, letting the breeze cool his face until he was certain he no longer looked like a blond, one-eyed pirate lobster. Toby was right, of course. Zubayr would either let them in or send them away. Pain and humiliation might be part of that second option, but to come here andnottry to see him was unthinkable. They’d been close, once. Not close in a romantic or sexual sense. They’d understood each other, though, and Darius had hoped Zubayr would be the person to take up his teaching methods someday.
Until, abruptly, they had run out of days together.
Head up, Darius shook back his hair and did his best to walk instead of shuffle to the front door of bright peacock blue. Toby kept a few steps back, and Darius couldn’t blame him for that. The doorbell—because of course Zubayr had one since a sharp knocking sound would annoy him—played three descending notes and a voice called out, “Just a minute,” from the back of the house.
Light, hurried footfalls, the turn of a lock—and there he was, just as perfectly put-together as he always had been, black hair cut short, umber skin smooth and unblemished. He hadn’t changed at all.
“Holy mother of….” Zubayr’s stare could have been horror or hostility. “You can’t be here.”
“I know.” Darius stared at his shoes, uncertain how to proceed. “I’m sorry.”
Zubayr slammed the door in his face.
That certainly takes all the uncertainty out of it.With his heart heavy enough he was shocked the porch boards didn’t break, he turned and shuffled back down the steps, where Toby took his hand in silent sympathy. Unable to speak, he gave Toby’s fingers a squeeze.Thank you. I know you’re there.
He really should’ve questioned his motives for coming here before distressing Zubayr like that. Was it just a need to reconnect, or had he come here to use his former student? A tool to help unravel the puzzle of Toby’s channels? The guild might have been wrong on many counts, but that didn’t mean his own choices weren’t often suspect too.
“Hey. You’re thinking too hard,” Toby murmured.
