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A Time To Heal
Remy shivered, the chill in the air sending ice right down his back as he stepped onto the hard standing outside the back door of the manor. Still, he smiled when he looked out at the star-studded winter night and up to the stone circle on the horizon, not really sure why he made the gesture, since there was nothing to see except indistinct shadows against the night sky. The why was further down in his bones, a depth of power that added a second tremble to his body and he drew in a hasty breath as his instincts rose quickly to meet it.
"I feel it too," Theo's warm tone soothed the momentary panic rising in Remy and when he glanced at his twin he was given an understanding smile lit by the twinkly Christmas lights around the kitchen window.
"How did Daisy handle this year after year on her own?" Remy let out some of the tension in his chest and his breath whirled in the air in front of him. "It's so...so –"
"Big," Theo finished for him simply, still smiling as he turned to look out into the wild part of the manor grounds.
"Why are you so damn calm?" Remy asked, stamping his feet and adjusting the gloves over his fingers, which were rapidly turning to ice in the freezing night.
"Wait a bit longer," Theo replied and his brother's smile began to irk Remy.
Yet, Theo's attention remained set on the horizon and so Remy grudgingly turned back to the place where the stars met the land. He shivered again, more strongly this time as Blackwood's age hit him squarely in the third eye. However, with Theo standing beside him, he resisted the panic that threatened to rise for a second time and met the power head on.
For a second, Remy felt like he was going to sink through the soles of his boots. Nausea welled up in response to the flood of power. However, just as he felt his knees would give out, the magic that had landed on him suddenly took notice of who it was it was trying to dominate. Remy gasped as he felt an echo of the recognition that had taken him over earlier that year when he and Theo had accepted the Guardianship of Blackwood and his own Natural power flowed out like it was greeting an old friend.
Remy couldn't help himself, as magic met magic, he grinned.
Theo must have felt him settle, because his twin observed, "Good, isn't it?"
"How did you get there so quickly?" Remy breathed, in awe of the comfort that took hold of him.
"I'm older," Theo quipped back lightly and then led off with a positive tramp. "Come on, let's get this done."
Remy didn't make a habit of wandering around in the dark and the cold when there was a perfectly good house behind him to keep warm in. Yet, tonight was a special night and he could feel it in his bones. The air held almost unnaturally still over their progress, like the night was waiting for something. Only the sounds of their boots crunching on the frosted grass and their breathing broke the quiet. The magic of it all made the hairs on Remy's neck stand up.
Remy'd only made this night-time journey once before, the previous Winter Solstice when Auntie Daisy had decided it was time that he and Theo started to learn the rituals that kept Blackwood secure. He had never expected to be making the next walk without the forthright old bat. His heart twinged for her sudden loss. Remy leant on the strength of his surroundings then, letting it patch, if not completely mend the hurt that was left from the rough year that was behind them.
Theo walked a couple of paces ahead of Remy and, bringing his senses in, he focused on Theo's back. It was good to see Theo taking the lead again and smiling. There had been a time after Francis' attack when Remy had despaired of ever seeing either again. Yet, becoming Guardians of Blackwood had changed all that and, although he was feeling very young and nervous as hell about getting things right, he was very much aware that he walked in the company of all those who had gone before him.
"If you project anymore, you'll end up sizzling," Theo's dry amusement drifted back to him and took Remy by surprise; he'd been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn't realised he was releasing any magic, but his skin was bristling with it.
Still, Remy was not inclined to stop the nice sensations that came with the release, nor was he going to let his big brother get away with a quip like that, so he threw back, "Some of us have a natural affinity for these things."
Theo snorted a dismissive laugh, but did not make another comeback and Remy was satisfied when he felt his twin's magic bubbling up to the surface as well. Theo had always been far more controlled than him and the little bit of freedom felt like a good rebellion for both of them. With the wood overlooking them from the hill to his right and the neatly trimmed gardens left behind them, Remy knew in his heart that this was not a time for carefully worded expressions; it was a time when wild magic met what was left of the savage in humankind. Puffed with pride that he was allowed to partake of such a powerful event, Remy increased his pace to walk shoulder to shoulder with Theo and they strode the final few metres into the circle of The Elders together.
The stone circle stood as one of Blackwood's power nexuses, and it should not have been a surprise to Remy that as soon as he stepped into the ring the sense of magic went from distracting to mind-blowing, but he realised, slightly too late, that he had left himself too open to the power around him. He battened down the hatches before his knees gave out and felt Theo bring up similar self-protection.
"Wow, this place suddenly got more of a wallop!" Remy exclaimed, staggering rather than walking to the centre of the circle.
Theo was silent and his eyes went heavenward as they stopped at the centre of the nexus. His expression spoke for the wonder in both of them as the untamed power of the universe aligned around them.
"It wasn't like this last year?" Remy checked, half asking, since he was sure he did not remember the magic that he was positive could eat his soul if he let it.
"We were just observers last time," Theo breathed in a reverent whisper, his awe turning into an open-mouthed grin.
"So, what do we do now?"
Theo cocked his head to the side and closed his eyes, a small frown ghosting his features. His brother had spent a lot of time in this circle ever since Daisy had sent him out here just days after he'd come home after Francis' attack. Remy wasn't sure what Theo did out here for hours, Daisy had actually locked him in the circle in the study to stop him going out after Theo that first time and ever since, he had reluctantly kept his distance. Still, it meant Theo knew the place better than he did, so he just waited.
"Something's wrong," Theo revealed, his brow furrowing more deeply, "the balances are wrong."
Without opening his eyes, Theo pulled off his glove and held out his hand to where Remy was standing. Remy immediately mirrored the move and slipped his rapidly chilling fingers between his twin's and then his fingers didn’t matter anymore. Theo's presence slipped into him easily as it had ever since they were small and then he too felt the reason Theo was frowning. He couldn't really place what it was he was feeling, but he felt, with conviction, somewhere deep in his soul that the waves of power from the nexus were just 'not right' and his own brow knitted.
Theo's magic mixed with his, making Remy feel complete, and he found himself half smiling and half grimacing as the right and the wrong clashed in him. The contradiction was confusing and he was glad that Theo was taking charge. He let his magic be led, something only Theo could do, and shivered as their joint power flowed out through his body. That tremble became a fully-fledged shudder as the offer they made suddenly became a demand from outside and the nexus pulled. Remy heard Theo grunt and then they were both falling to their knees, hands firmly clasped. Suddenly frightened, he checked his twin's face: Theo's eyes were still tightly closed and his grip was like iron, but something in his face told Remy of purpose and he resisted a new urge to panic.
His stomach had dropped through his feet as soon as the nexus had hooked onto him and Remy gritted his teeth, trying not to be sick. Nothing has ever felt so elemental, not even his innate contact with Theo, and Remy knew he had no control over what was hap
pening. Magic rushed into him and Theo as one from the nexus and their own rushed out, literally breath-taking and Remy's breath rasped over his teeth in jagged gasps as he struggled with it. The avalanche of power was overwhelming, fundamental.
Remy's muscles turned to water and his chest muscles contracted so tightly that he began to see spots in front of his eyes. Still the onslaught continued, nature slamming through human flesh and it could not go on. Yet, as he felt Theo's fingers loosening on his own, his weakness mirrored, the conflict ended. The power flow stopped as suddenly as it had begun, his own magic shutting down in what was left of his self-protection, and Remy pitched forward at the shock of it. Theo did not so much catch him as fall into a helpful position that stopped his descent and Remy reached wearily for his twin's shoulders.
His nerves jangling and his mind humming with left-over magic, Remy leant his head against Theo's ear and muttered, "I'm sure I would have remembered Daisy doing a dying swan impression last year."
"It must have been her death," Theo murmured back at him, "I think I felt her. I think Daisy dying took something from Blackwood and we had to put it back."
"Oh, good, glad we could be of service," Remy huffed, trying to get back some of the oxygen he'd lost during the experience. "Nice to have had some warning!"
Theo surprised him then, because he sniggered. The small sound swiftly grew into a full-blown laugh and it was such a wonderful sound coming from his over-serious twin that the release caught Remy too. It wasn't funny, nothing about the last year had been amusing, not Francis' attack, nor Daisy dying, but the release after so much was wonderful and, feeling gloriously out of control, Remy laughed as well.
Stockings - Two Haward Mysteries Christmas Short Stories Page 3