Page 25 of Silver
“I hate that we have to kill mages like this,” I admitted, somehow feeling like an awful future leader.
“We all do,” Niam assured me. “But we also know they’ve been fed lies by the leaders, who they have to obey no matter what. If theystopped and listened, they would return and be killed for disobeying orders.”
“And we did talk to that one mage. She was full of hatred towards us too far gone to listen to reason,” Xarius reminded me.
“Um, hi!” Julie yelled from behind us, waving her hand like, “bitches, I’m still here!”
“Oh, right,” Xarius muttered awkwardly, then chuckled and hugged her tight. “I missed you, Jules.”
She seemed like she wanted to fight him and demand answers, but soon melted into the hug, tightening her hold on him. “I missed you, too, Xar, but you have a lot of fucking explaining to do.”
Xarius winced, then nodded.
“While you get her up to date, we’ll clean up the mess,” Silver said, taking me and Niam and leading us over to the bloodbath our familiars had left us.
“Julie is taking this well,” I told Silver and Niam, looking over at Xarius and Julie. After we’d cleaned the area, we had to leave the scene immediately, taking our van and trailer with us. Julie sat in the front with Xarius as we all did our best to help him explain everything.
“She is,” Niam agreed, yawning. I was sitting on the end of their bed with Silver’s feet in my lap, gently massaging them while Silver and Niam snuggled together, fighting to stay awake. I loved seeing their relationship evolve and how easy they worked together. There was no jealousy from either Xarius or me, both of us understanding they had a special bond, something we should all be grateful they shared. I also had to admit to myself that knowing Xarius was okay with it helped. Had there been any other feelings between them than friendship, he wouldn’t have been as supportive of it as he was.
“Okay, so you are all mages, and you got cool animal friends, too,” Julie stated, almost like she needed to say the things out loud for herself to really believe them. “I mean, it does make sense since I literally saw you use magic, I just don’t get why they’re after you? You said you were shunned from your world because you didn’t have magic, but you do?”
We let Xarius answer that one, content to just leave them be for a while as we rested in the back.
“We got our magic while being here,” he began. “We didn’t unlock our magic like normal mages do when they’re kids or young teens, we got it by finding our soulmatch. My match is Niam.”
“Oh… kaay, so why are they after you because of that?” she questioned.
He sighed. “Because the leaders of our world knew we would be more powerful than them. They shunned us so we wouldn’t take their place as leaders.”
“Wow, that was a dick move,” she said, shaking her head in disgust.
“It really was,” he agreed. “As soon as Niam and I got our powers they knew and sent mages down to deal with us.”
I leaned back against the wall for comfort, no longer able to see Julie’s expression but it was clear from her voice she wasn’t liking our leaders.
“Please tell me you plan on taking over and kicking their asses?” she pleaded.
“We are,” Xarius laughed.
“So, what’s the plan now?” she asked, clearly including all of us in her question.
“Now, we need to buy an RV and then we’re headed towards the last mage here,” Xarius explained. “After that, we need to figure out how to do portals so we can reach the final mage, who’s being sent to another world.”
“Ah, they were afraid they would get their magic, too?” she asked, proving to be as smart as Xarius had claimed.
“Exactly. But that also means when we leave, you’re here on your own, but the mages shouldn’t be a problem then and if they ask where we went you can just tell them we went through a portal.” They would likely know as soon as we left this world, so I felt confident Julie would be safe then.
“Does that mean I won’t see you again?” she asked, sounding genuinely hurt by it.
“I hope we will. But we first have to deal with the leaders, after that I hope portals will be easy for us to make so I can visit you whenever I please.”
“I hope you will,” she said quietly.
We were all silent for a while, the three of us in the back half asleep as we moved closer to the next motel.
“Declan helped me pack,” Julie admitted with a whisper.
Xarius gasped loudly. “He what?!”
