by Sariah Skye
“No, but do I have a choice?” I replied, disgruntled.
“All right then. I will gather potions and send you two on your way… Leo and Gabe, it wouldn’t hurt to work on some magic a bit… for Leo’s confidence,” he suggested, looking at Gabriel pointedly.
He nodded. “Sure thing.”
Maxxus stood, and sauntered to my side. “No offense, but I cannot rest until Leo does. I will go with you.” Gabriel protested, but it was Finnian who spoke.
“No, Maxxus. I have something special planned for you,” he said. This was met with a suspicious glance from Maxxus. “It’s best to leave them to it… for the magic. For now.”
Tentatively, Maxxus agreed. Finnian motioned for him to follow. Maxxus stubbornly growled, and pushed past him to exit the room first. I snickered at the display of machismo.
Kiarra gave me a quick hug. “I’ll see you in a bit Leo, back at the house. Okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. I looked to Gabriel, who seemed suddenly shy, like when he was Cute Coffee Guy again, who could not work up the nerve to talk to me. “Well? What did you have in mind?”
Gabriel avoided my gaze. “Whatever you want, I guess. You seemed to have a pretty good handle on it yesterday, but… it is whatever you want.”
I sighed. I motioned for him to lead the way out and I followed him into the Square, just outside of the Loremasters’ building. Finnian and Maxxus had already disappeared, and I saw the back of Kiarra’s black-braided head as she made her way across the Square.
It was still afternoon, the sun hung low over the copper-painted trees that surrounded us, casting leafy shadows on the ground below. The majority of the Square was empty, as everyone was assumedly preparing for whatever Monday nights held in Castle Danger.
Gabriel and I parked ourselves on a bench alongside the Square and sat down. We sat in uncomfortable silence for a while, Gabriel suddenly interested in his black suede skater shoes; me into the overgrown cuticles on my human hands.
He spoke first. Or, coughed, breaking the silence. “Well, this is awkward.”
I chuckled, letting my hands fall from my lap to either side. “Yeah… but it doesn’t have to be. We’re still friends, right?”
Gabriel agreed. “Right.” He paused in thought, momentarily. “Well, let’s do this.” He spun around and summoned a ball of light in his hand and tossed it at me.
I beamed as I caught it with precision in my hands and spun the magic, adding my own uniqueness to it and razing a lightning ball, and I tossed it back.
He grinned. “I can’t believe that potion worked so well. You really are getting this,” he praised proudly.
“More!” I insisted.
Gabriel spun his hands around each other, summoning up earth and dirt from the ground. With one quick flick, he tried to push his dirt ball to my feet, but on reflex, I breathed out quickly like I was blowing out a candle and flung my own hand at the ball, causing a small gust of wind from my palm to the magic dirt ball. It broke the dirt ball apart on impact and blew the particles across Gabriel’s lower legs and shoes before falling to the ground once again.
Gabriel smirked. “Well, well… nice work.”
I sniffed, surprised as I examined my own hand before my face. “That… that whole thing is still so surprising,” I said, with a small laugh.
He chuckled. “Yeah, I bet.” Gabriel rose to his feet and grasped my hands, pulling me to a standing position. “Ground rules. I’ll shoot something at you, you dispel it, or combat it or whatever. It won’t be anything big enough to hurt me, so just go all out—full force. Don’t go easy on me. No one else will over there or wherever you’re going. Got it?” he was stern, eyes narrowed, proving his seriousness.
I nodded and raised my palms up, like I was guarding myself—hopefully looking more confident than the deranged praying mantis from earlier.
“Okay.” Gabriel whispered something to himself unintelligibly, moving his hands around each other. A small cloud like ball formed between them. I squinted at him as if to say, “Really? A cloud?”
Just as he was about to release it, I heard a tiny crack of thunder as a small bolt of lightning shot out of the cloud.
“It’s a miniature storm…” I mused to myself, in awe. Despite the solemnness, I couldn’t help but grin.
Gabriel pushed the cloud at me, catching me off guard. The mini storm cloud slammed against my palms, the lightning stinging my skin lightly. “Ow!” I cried out. I snorted, and shoved it—non-magically—into the ground. It didn’t disperse, but sat there, shooting out its small bolts of lightning.
“Gotta fight it with magic!” Gabriel said, in a taunting tone.
I looked up at him briefly and frowned. Making an odd face at him, I turned back to the tiny storm at my feet. I moved my hand behind me, like I would wave it out and exhaled. I caught a small breeze and pushed it to the little storm. It tossed the storm ball slightly away from my feet; it wasn’t enough.
I grumbled. I pulled at more air from around me with my hands and pushed it towards the storm again, the air magic naturally mixing with the magic mist I exhaled when I was performing magic. I didn’t have to exhale with such force now, just willing it worked. Which was nice because I didn’t want to sound like I was wheezing. The storm fizzled slightly, but seemed to catch the magic and grow slightly bigger.
“Crap…” I muttered to myself. I pulled more air from around me—this time with both hands—and swirled it around the storm. I pushed my hands together, as if slamming out the storm from existence. The little storm ball gave one last boom of thunder before fizzling out.
Gabriel chuckled. “Not bad.”
I stuck my tongue out defiantly at him.
Gabriel appeared pensive for a moment. He pushed up the sleeves of his black sweatshirt and rubbed his hands together. His face in concentration, forehead wrinkled and biting his lip. A little tremble went down my spine… he was still so damned attractive. A tiny shiver traveled up my spine, recalling his lips on my neck, and I felt my knees nearly go slack. Not now, Leo! I was getting really frustrated at this male indecision.
But I could still have a little fun, I decided, getting a sneaky idea. Trying to hide my deception, I kept a straight face.
“Now what are you going to do to me?” I asked, mocking in a singsong tone. Gabriel, you know you want to take off your sweatshirt. It’s hot. I stared into his face intensely.
Gabriel, who’d been about ready to summon another feat of magic, suddenly dropped his hands from their position. “Wow… suddenly it’s really hot out here, don’t you think?” he commented, waving his hand in front of his face.
I raised my brow and smirked lightly. “Steamy.” I said, feeling a cold breeze dip down from the tops of the trees and rustle the top of my short haircut. Whatever it was outside, it was the opposite of hot. For sure.
“Wow. Sheesh, where’d that come from?” Gabriel gripped the bottom of his sweatshirt and deftly pulled it over his head, careful to avoid removing his glasses. He tossed it on the ground. “That’s better. Now… where were we?”
He was wearing an athletic-cut, ringer style T-shirt. When he lifted his arms to begin his summoning, the hem of his tee raised, exposing the trail of hair on his stomach.
“Oh geez…” I muttered to myself. So I still liked to look… sue me.
I heard a giggle from behind him. I peered over his shoulder and noticed two girls—one had wings, one did not—watching our little show. The one with the wings smirked approvingly at Gabriel’s backside.
I narrowed my eyes at them. “Oh yeah…” I stared intently at Gabriel again, squinting ever so slightly.
Summon some dirt. Toss it over your shoulder. Just do it.
Gabriel’s palms faced down towards the ground and he slowly raised them, bringing with them a mound of loose dirt. He spun his hands slowly around each other, forming the dirt into a dusty, dirt ball. He looked up at me briefly and for a second, I thought he would toss it at me. I stood ready, if he d
id.
But just when I fixed my stance, Gabriel nonchalantly tossed it over his shoulder, as if it was yesterday’s trash into the bin.
The fae girls shrieked as they were showered with dirt. They were not expecting that.
I covered my mouth to hide my uproarious laughter.
Upon hearing the shrieks, Gabriel seemed to come back and notice what he did. “What the…?” he stammered, confused. He swiveled around to see the girls hurriedly brushing the dirt off themselves. Gabriel was immediately apologetic.
“Oh my god, I’m so, so sorry!” he said.
The two girls just scowled at him, and stormed off. I couldn’t contain my laughter any longer. I roared, laughing so hard that my knees did go slack and I crumbled to the ground, literally rolling on the floor laughing.
Gabriel stomped over to me, and stared down at me admonishingly, his arms crossed over his chest. “Did you do that?”
“Do what?” I squeaked out, between laughs.
He shivered, rubbing his elbows with his palms. I could see the goose flesh forming on his exposed forearms. “Why did I take off my sweatshirt?”
I roared again. “Hey, if those girls hadn’t been there, I’d have made you take off the T-shirt too!”
“What?” Gabriel suddenly noticed his sweatshirt was gone, tossed to the ground. He quickly grabbed it, shoving his arms into it. “Damn, it’s cold!”
“Sorry!” I giggled, not actually sorry at all. I slapped my hands on my legs, still rolling with laughter.
Gabriel stood over me, trying to appear angry. But even he couldn’t hold back his laughter for long. A choked laugh escaped him finally. “Okay, you got me that time. But did you have to make me throw dirt at them?”
I raised an eyebrow. “They were checking you out,” I said simply, puffing out my lower lip in a pout.
Gabriel leered. “Oh? That’s a problem?” Gabriel held out his hand to me as I tried to get up. He pulled me right up and just centimeters away from his body. I refused to look at him, feeling a sense of stubbornness over me.
Gabriel crooked my face toward him with a finger, forcing me to look him in the eyes. “You know, you didn’t have to compel me. I’d take it off for you, if you only had asked.”
I winced, surprised at his boldness. I smirked a half smile in the corners of my mouth. “I’ll remember that.” My eyelids felt heavy at that moment… being near him again brought back those feelings I’d felt for him before… tingly, excited, eager. His arms were comfortable and safe, as they rested on my sides, his hands resting on the crook of my hip. I inhaled his familiar scent and had to fight the urge to rest my head against his chest and go slack, listening to his strong heartbeat. Dammit, I really must figure this mess out, because clearly, my one-hundred years of celibacy was finally getting to me.
He let out a little sigh and rested his chin on my shoulder, wrapping his arms a little tighter against my waist. “Oh, damn… why does this have to be so complicated?”
“What?” I asked, dazed by the nearness of him. I remembered. “Oh… yeah.” I looked up at him sheepishly. “Sorry.”
He smiled wryly. He raised a hand to my cheek and stroked it lightly with the tips of his fingers. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. I’m only sorry because I really, really want to kiss you right now, and I’m not sure if it’s appropriate.”
I grinned. “Oh?” I looked up at his wistful brown eyes. I stared so long, they started to turn blue… like..
… Maxxus. And suddenly I remembered why it might not be appropriate at that moment to share a kiss.
Reluctantly, I pulled myself out of Gabriel’s embrace. “Yeah… I guess not.”
Gabriel appeared crestfallen as he allowed me to step out of his arms. “Well…”
“Yeah…” A thought slapped me in the face. We’d be leaving for Anarach either tonight or tomorrow.
I inhaled a cleansing breath and clapped my hands together. “Well, then… more magic?” I said, sounding a lot more perky than I felt.
Gabriel snorted. “Sure…” he said slowly.
He and I practiced magic for the next hour or so, first starting off with me deflecting some of his smaller summons: a water ball (I threw a fireball at it, and it went up in a puff of steam), a burst of air (another burst of air I shot at it) and a ball of mud (which I threw more earth at and pushed it with wind to the ground in a combo-move. I was quite proud of that one).
After awhile we moved out of the square and to the border of the forest to avoid the crowd of mythos that had gathered to watch us, and so it would be safer when we conjured up bigger magic.
He was having me help him blow a tiny tornado around the bases of the pine trees that bordered the forest. I concentrated on my magic, willing it to grow slightly. With a wave of my hand, I pulled wind down from above us and flung it at the small twister and pulled it apart, effectively destroying it.
Gabriel smiled proudly. “I think you’ve got it.” We decided we’d had enough and it was nearly dinner hour. Kiarra promised us a large, “going away feast” so since we were finished, we started over to Kiarra’s. I picked up my footsteps in anticipation of what she would make; I was practically drooling. I hadn’t noticed Gabriel had fallen several paces behind me until I felt a sudden presence of ozone that made all the hairs on my neck stand up. I stopped in my tracks and barely heard the crackling of the plasma ball as it whizzed by my ear.
With ninja dexterity, I spun around on my heels and—palm outstretched, fingers splayed—I caught the speeding plasma ball in my hand (not actually in my hand, but I contained it in the space around my hand). I grinned triumphantly, watching the ball of energy crackle and spin in my palm. My hands tingled from the energy—and from the magic and suddenly it became too intense; my hand felt like it was on fire. I yelped a little, and tossed the ball of plasma on the ground…
…or what I thought was the ground. Gabriel had picked up the pace and instead of slamming it against the dirt, unfortunately I shot it directly at him. Surprised, he put his arms instinctively up over his face and the plasma ball directly hit his left forearm.
I cried out. I breathed out an immense breath, willing the magic to disperse. It fizzled out and a scalding burn was left behind on his skin.
“Oh shit! Shit!” I said, covering my mouth in both shock and shame.
Gabriel winced, trying to twist his arm around in position so he could see it. “Ugh...well that happened,” was all he said, with a dry chuckle, when he saw the blisters already forming.
“Oh no… I’m so, so sorry!” I apologized profusely trying to get him to give me his arm
“No, no. I never should have caught you off guard like that. I just thought… well…” he grimaced. “Damn that hurts…” he muttered.
I pulled his arm straight, much to his protest. “I’ve got this.” I hovered my hands directly over the burn mark and concentrated. I wasn’t quite sure what it was inside me that caused the healing—what kind of magic—but it felt like a soft, pink light from my chest. I inhaled and breathed out slowly, picturing that soft light touching his arm gently and erasing any injuries.
He cringed, gritting his teeth as I worked my magic. I closed my eyes to better concentrate. I imagined the area healed, replaced with new, fresh skin. Like it was never there.
Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief, and I opened my eyes. He lifted his forearm at me, rubbing at it with his other hand. “Good as new?”
I pulled his hands away to see the injured area for myself—there was barely even a scar left over, but the burn nicked off a little of his tribal tattoo—only a little. The ink did not reappear even though the skin was healed—I supposed since technically, that was an injury too. It couldn’t be helped. I frowned. “Aww… I think I ruined your tattoo.”
Gabriel craned his arm to get a better look. He shrugged. “Eh, just a little. Easy enough to touch up, no big deal. Better than that pain of that burn!”
“Oh…” was all I could say, feeling guilty, but
Gabriel just grinned.
“You still care about me,” he said, rather simply.
I rolled my eyes. “Oh come on… of course I do, why would that have changed?”
He dropped his gaze and pressed his mouth into a thin line. “You know why.”
“Just because I now have feelings for Maxxus, too, doesn’t mean what I felt for you disappeared. You’re my knight. I’ll always care.”
A slow smile crept across his lips. “That’s good to know. Even if you and Maxxus get married and have twenty babies—” I choked on a breath at the thought of having twenty babies period, “—you’ll still care?”
“Of course I would!” I insisted. “Twenty? Crapbags, Gabe… is that all you think dragons do?” I asked kiddingly.
He shrugged. “Well, I would if I were with you.”
Now it was my turn to smile, before putting a palm to my head, avoiding the stare of his brown eyes. Don’t get lost in them, Leo… just don’t.
He cleared his throat, and snickered. “Thanks, Leo. Boy, I’m glad you made me take off my sweatshirt,” he said. “That would have made a nasty hole… and that’s my favorite shirt!”
I smiled. “Mind controlling, for the win.”
He chuckled, and I jumped, startled by the phone buzzing in my front jeans pocket.
Do you have a moment? I want you to see something. Finnian
I quickly tapped “yes” and “where”. “Finnian,” I said to Gabriel, motioning to the phone. “He needs to borrow me a minute. Meet you later?”
Gabriel nodded. “Sure,” he said. He paused before turning off. I gave him a confused look. Smiling, he quickly placed a soft kiss on my cheek before turning and running away.
I grinned after him. Finnian instructed where I should go—a brick building on the opposite end of town, near the Guest quarters. I made my way there now.
As I neared the building the temperature seemed to increase by at least twenty degrees. You could almost see the heat emanating off it in waves.
I pushed my way through the heavy iron door. The inside was dim, light only by firelight coming from various sources like the oven along the wall and a forge in the center of the room. There were assorted metal tools lining the walls and leaning against tables and stands. I had no idea where we were.