Falling For Them Volume 2: Reverse Harem Collection

by Nikki Bolvair

  Food sounded good, and she found herself wanting to trust the odd man, but not sure she should.

  Oregaine showed her a circular mirror. “This is a mirror portal. First, I’ll teach you how to attune it to the boys so you can watch over my sons.” It seemed too tiny for a portal, but what did she know about magic? Nothing.

  “Will it matter if I don’t possess any magic of my own?”

  “Not at the moment.” An illusive smirk flitted across his face. It made her want to be a part of whatever secret he seemed to be keeping. Running his fingers against the mirror, a scene appeared on the flawless glass. A boy around her age knelt in the dark. Morning dew made the ground around him wet.

  Frowning at the vision, she glanced between the boy and Oregaine. “He has your hair,” she noted.

  “My eldest son, Eric.” Adjusting the mirror, the scene reflected on its surface changed. Two boys around her age sat at a large desk, surrounded by other children. “The younger two, Adrian and James.” Love and sorrow passed over his features. “I need your help to keep them safe.”

  Rhea glanced up at Oregaine’s bright-blue eyes, nodding once. She still didn’t understand why he chose her, or how she could help, but determination to learn built within her, especially since it would get her a warm place to sleep and food in her tummy.

  Over the next couple of days, Oregaine taught her how to work the mirrors by focusing her will. On the third day, she could find the boys without his aid. By the fourth, she learned a few useful skills, such as how to create a portal on a small mirror just big enough for her hand to go through. This came in handy when she needed to drop the boys some copper coins where it could be found without suspicion. She didn’t know where Oregaine got all his power or knowledge from, but she grew to like him. He didn’t really act like a normal caregiver should, but he did keep his promise. For the first time in years, she didn’t want to run away.

  ~

  Seven years passed, and she fell into a comfortable routine. Oregaine hired a tutor for her non-magical studies in the morning. Afternoons were spent doing her own thing, which usually involved being in her room, curled up in her favorite chair with a book from Oregaine’s library. The flame-colored walls, along with the brick fireplace made the room the most inviting in the house. A thick, white rug covered the wooden floors, and she was a stickler for making sure her room was tidy at all times.

  Recently, she found a way to construct a new mirror, breathing life into a large, reflective bird. It quickly became her new companion, and she took the bird everywhere with her. Mirror, an unoriginal name as could be, became her gateway to watching over the boys.

  When acting as a viewing portal, Mirror’s wings would lengthen, and then flatten into a straight, hard surface. The image slightly distorted, as if she viewed the reflection in a still, clear lake. Although Mirror could hold the shape in the air, the bird found it easier to land on the ground and pull her thin legs into her body for stabilization.

  Rhea even learned how to spell Mirror to watch the boys for her, alerting her whenever something needed attention.

  On a morning without lessons, she sat slumped in a soft chair, her attention on Mirror. Today Eric would turn eighteen. Oregaine told her birthdays were usually celebrated, but the boys never even seemed to notice the passing of theirs.

  Leaving their small house and heading to the well to gather some water, she watched Eric yawn and shiver in the chill air. Hoisting the water bucket up, Eric dumped its contents into a second pail to take inside. Once back in the kitchen, he stripped off his tunic and washed as well as he could. From previous experience, she knew the twins would be up soon since they needed to get down to their glass shop. After the previous glassmaker died with no heir and Eric his only journeyman, he and the twins took over.

  Eric hurriedly pulled on a clean tunic to ward off the chill. His breath puffed out in a small cloud, and Rhea wondered if she should start a fire in the fireplace. She made a mental note to ask Oregaine if that was overstepping her bounds after the boys left for the shop.

  “James! Adrian! You getting up?” Eric called out.

  “Yeah.” James stepped out of the room he shared with his twin, rubbing at his eyes. He ran his other hand through his blond curls, untangling them with his fingers. Even though they appeared identical, Rhea could pick out the small differences in each of the twins, easily telling them apart at a glance.

  “Adrian, too?”

  James shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah. I woke him up, at least. I can’t promise he’s coming soon, though.”

  Exasperated, Eric rolled his eyes, shouldering his way past James into their room. “Adrian?”

  Adrian sat on his bed, rubbing his eyes, an exact replica of James. “I’m up. I’m up,” he grumbled, neatly rolling out of his bed.

  “Good. I brought the water in. Go wash. We’ll grab something to eat on our way to the shop.”

  Adrian yawned as he stumbled out of his room and to the water bucket. He washed up quickly, cursing the cold.

  Using Mirror, Rhea continued watching them as they headed down the dirt path leading to their glass shop. The building consisted of three rooms: the waiting room, kiln room, and washroom. Finely crafted finished glass pieces sat on a table by the front door, waiting to be picked up by those who commissioned them. It was the benches against the front wall that made the room a waiting area. On the opposite wall, a door opened into a larger room where two massive kilns sat on either side of the far wall. A workbench and sand barrel filled the space between them, cluttered with experiments and works in progress, along with general tools of their trade. In a miniscule room off to the side sat a small bathing tub, rarely used.

  Joy always simmered to the surface when she watched them work. Asking Oregaine about heating their house could wait. They didn’t need their home to be kept warm the entire time they were gone.

  Eric went out back to fill a wooden bucket with some water while the twins started heating the kilns. After a while, they all settled down with their tasks, James and Adrian working on creating glass lanterns while Eric brought in the water. Once done, he joined the twins at the workbench where Adrian used a pair of tongs to set the glass on the bench in front him.

  Lips quirked in a smile of thanks, Eric used a smaller, thinner set to sculpt the glass the way he wanted.

  When he completed a handful of intricate trinket boxes, he held his hands over one of them, making sure it wouldn’t burn him.

  Adrian suddenly spoke up, “Wouldn’t it be better if we could find a way to trap the light inside the lanterns indefinitely?”

  “Better still, if you two would get your butts back to school.” They argued about this often, and it always ended the same.

  Not out of earshot, Adrian grumbled, “You didn’t go to school, so we shouldn’t either.”

  “It doesn’t work that way, Adrian.” Eric bit his lip, trying to reshape a piece of glass. It had cooled rapidly and couldn’t be molded as easily anymore. Before either of the twins could say anything more, Eric cursed, and the piece shattered in his grasp. His fingers had started to glow before the glass went flying everywhere, nicking his fingers and palms with the tiny shards.

  Hurrying over, James’s brow furrowed in concern as he did a quick check for other injuries. “What happened?”

  Fingers still glowing faintly, it didn’t seem like any of them noticed. He shook his head. “No idea. I didn’t do anything I haven’t done a million times before.” Taking in the scrapes on his knuckles, he turned his hands over to check for deep nicks. Did he not see the fading glow?

  Mirror possessed the ability to outline magic, maybe… “Mirror, turn off magic.” With magic muted, the glow on his hands disappeared. “Ah. Thank you, Mirror. Resume.” She went back to watching Eric and the twins.

  “You need to take care of your hands,” James spoke up, heading out of the room to grab some bandages.

  “No. I’ll go wash them. I can’t keep working with bandaged hand
s, and we are already behind.” Eric stood up, heading for the wash basin in the next room.

  Rhea tapped Mirror, letting it go dark before skipping from her room to find Oregaine. Locating him in the kitchen, she questioned, “Sir, I thought magic was punishable by death?” Tapping her fingers together, she watched as his skin paled.

  As he turned to stare at her, she averted her gaze. “Yes, why do you ask?”

  “I think Eric possesses magic.”

  He ground out a curse, running his hands through his hair. “I feared this would happen. I hoped the minuscule amount of power they controlled when they were younger would be it.”

  “What should we do?” She bit her lip, trying not to let her worry show.

  “You will need to be more vigilant in your observations. Set Mirror to watch the boys at all times, in case someone finds out about their power.”

  Nodding, Rhea agreed. “But what happens if they run into trouble because of it?”

  “Then you’ll need to rescue them.” Decisive, he turned back to the counter, getting food ready for lunch. “And you’ll need to be extremely cautious about revealing your own magic.” The way his hands shook as he chopped vegetables for a stew, she realized he tried to be unemotional and couldn’t quite pull it off.

  “I possess little magic of my own,” she replied. Only the memory of the countless hours she spent summoning Mirror kept her from claiming she didn’t have any magic at all.

  He glanced in her direction. “You are mistaken, Rhea. You hold more power than you realize. As the god of fate, I knew you to be the person I would need to help my sons. My ability to gift you with any magic is limited to teachings, until you reach the age of sixteen. Although I hope I won’t need to bestow any upon you until you become much older.”

  “What? I don’t understand…” She trailed off, her questions getting stuck in her throat.

  “Creating your own familiar takes quite a bit of power, Rhea. Without any instruction from me, you created Mirror. Getting it to follow the boys around like a puppy? Even I am unable to do such a thing. I must to guess where the boys will be or find them and follow them manually.” He threw a couple of ingredients into the stew cooking in the hearth.

  “I… um… what?” How should she respond? She guessed she should be even more grateful to him for taking her in, since she could have been killed if anyone found out she possessed magic.

  “If a god gifts you with power, Rhea, you will stop aging,” he continued as if she never spoke.

  “Stop aging?”

  “Yes. Living out the rest of time with a fourteen-year-old is not what I want, nor will it be your destiny.” He patted her head as he moved to sit on a wooden chair.

  “You already seem to know what will happen.” She paused, considering. “Why didn’t you know Eric would end up with magic?” she questioned.

  “Fate is fickle. What I see contains many paths, including this one.” He let out a heavy sigh. “I hoped I would be wrong.”

  “Why?”

  “Following this path won’t be pleasant. However, I can’t tell you anymore without possibly changing the outcome, don’t ask.” He stared at her, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Yes, sir.” She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll watch over them closely for you.” Heading back up the stairs, she avowed, “I’ll keep your boys safe.” She would spend the next few years with Mirror by her side, in case they needed her.

  Oregaine smiled at her parting words. “I want to keep all of you safe.”

  Chapter Three

  The Escape

  Tapping Rhea, Mirror woke her up. She intended to get up early, but after staying up later than usual to watch the twins work on a secret project at their shop, she couldn’t help sleeping a bit longer. James and Adrian left after Eric fell asleep, which forced her to jump between viewing the twins and Eric. Together, they worked on some sort of birthday gift for their older brother, heating and shaping various pieces of glass, when there was spare time away from Eric. It was not clear what they were making, but she hoped Eric liked it.

  After dragging herself out of bed and getting ready for the day, she let Mirror ride on her shoulder as she went downstairs. Oregaine handed her a bowl of oatmeal, and she sat down at the table to eat it.

  Watching the boys as she ate, the twins stood at the kiln, heating metal to create a sword. At nineteen, they’d grown slightly taller than their older brother. Eric stood between the two of them, using his power to heat the metal further.

  “Why does he heat the sword up when it is already in the forge? Seems like it would be pointless.”

  Oregaine glanced up from where he sat, spoon halfway to his mouth. “His ability allows him to heat the metal without burning the twins. By putting it in the fire, he doesn’t expand excess energy to do it.”

  “Oh, makes sense.” She turned her attention back to the boys.

  “Now, James,” Eric grunted.

  James put his fingers on the sword, bolts of white-blue lightning racing along the blade, binding to the metal. They messed around with creating new weapons for themselves. How effective would they be if they didn’t know how to fight, let alone use them? She guessed it was a good thing she kept an eye on them, since a more recent part of her training included defending others.

  “Marin will be coming over tonight. He claims he needs to speak with me.” Oregaine’s announcement made her grimace. She didn’t particularly care for Marin, mostly because she needed to disappear whenever he came around. Technically it didn’t break any laws, but asking someone to keep an eye on his boys fell into a bit of a gray area. And Marin was the god of law, so keeping out of his sight was prudent.

  Tapping Mirror, she gestured for the bird to follow her over to the stairs. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me.” He nodded to show he understood as he continued to flip through the book in front of him.

  Rhea spent the rest of the day reading a book Oregaine gave her. Periodically, she glanced at her bird, assuring herself the boys were still okay. The book, 101 Uses of Magical Fungi, nearly bored her to tears, but it might contain information she could use in the future.

  Her eyes drooped, and she yawned, forcing them back open. Before long the book lulled her to sleep.

  Jolting awake, she glanced around for Mirror, and found her on the bed. When Rhea tapped the surface, something seemed off. Mirror responded slowly as if reluctant to show Rhea the boys. She shook the bird, hard. “Wake up, you stupid mirror!” Slowly the fog covering her surface dissipated, showing her something shocking.

  “The crimes against you include use of magic, and selling it to the public. You will be bound until we reach the king, and his judgment is given. Now, get moving, boy!” A large, bearded man smacked Eric on the back, giving a short, cruel laugh. Eric’s hands were bound behind him by a glowing black rope, informing her it would repel all magics. Eric didn’t even struggle. When she moved the mirror, she realized why. A burly guard stood behind each of the twins.

  Dashing from her room, she headed downstairs. The sound of voices made her pause. Oregaine warned her to stay upstairs until Marin left, but wouldn’t this be considered an emergency? Heading into the room the men occupied, she decided to classify it as one. “Sir?”

  Oregaine glanced up at her. “Pardon me a moment.” He stood, giving a short bow to Marin to show respect before approaching her.

  “Sir?” she repeated.

  He gestured for her to exit in front of him.

  She led him back upstairs. This would work better, anyways. Mirror could show him what happened, and she wouldn’t need to deliver the news herself.

  “What is this about?” His lips pursed as he wrinkled his brow in concern. Breathing a sigh of relief, it was clear he understood there was an issue.

  In a whisper, so not to chance anyone overhearing her, “The boys are in trouble.” Tapping the bird, she brought up the image of Eric. Ropes looped around his wrists, tied to somethin
g in the wagon, and forced him to follow a caravan.

  “What did they do wrong? What are the accusations?” Oregaine gripped Mirror’s wings hard, causing her to let out a squawk. At her sound, he released his grip.

  “Someone must have witnessed them using magic…” she trailed off, flushing when she realized she couldn’t say anything for sure. “I mean, the charge for their arrest is magery.”

  “Then the time has come for you to take action,” he announced. He didn’t seem overly upset about the militia capturing his children. Perhaps he didn’t want her to know how badly it affected him or maybe this outcome was better than others he had seen.

  “I… I don’t understand.” Frowning, she watched him cautiously.

  “My meeting with Marin cannot wait. Until then, the boys will survive. Once Marin leaves, and you’ve packed the essentials, I will assist you in getting to them. Now, go ahead and gather your things. Afterwards, I suggest getting some rest until I’m done.” He stood, leaving the room without another word.

  A few more hours passed. Her packed bag sat on her bed, and she sat next to it, staring at Mirror. The bird cooed as she traced her finger along the image of Eric’s thick hair. Oregaine’s words were true; the boys seemed to be safe for now.

  Adrian wiggled his fingers behind his back. The rope slid around his wrists, biting into his skin. Rhea zoomed Mirror in on his hands, watching him. He twiddled his thumbs, bouncing on his toes. He shifted his weight, drawing James’s attention.

  ~

  Oregaine came to her room, free of Marin. “Ready?”

  “I don’t really know what to be ready for…” she trailed off, raising a brow in question.

  “Ready for your fate.” A smile ghosted across his lips. “Remember, you have trained for this for years. I’m counting on you to save them.” He handed her a small reflective orb. “Keep this with you. When you reach a point of desperation and there is no way out, use it. I cannot reveal more than that.” She was used to that phrase. Being able to see the future meant he had to be mindful of his words and actions to avoid inadvertently altering the current timeline.