by Crook, Amy
The wish tree proved to be the key to Fenway’s madness, and his subsequent ranting included a confession to all three murders. The rest of his plan they pieced together from things found in the house, which it turned out wasn’t even his — it was in a legal deadlock between owner and developer, and Fenway had moved in during the confusion and annexed the tree with no one the wiser. Police came by daily to pay for Horace to take wishes to the tree for them, sometimes with wishes from friends and family, and from all reports the tree was already showing signs of recovery.
The trap-spell on the wish tree had been Fenway’s final effort to bind Julian and Julian’s power to his land. The doll had snuck through Alex’s wards by tying itself to Julian’s power rather than his person, but the trap had been much worse — it had gone after his soul. It was evident that Fenway had no idea how wish trees really worked, and only a very loose grasp on magical theory itself, and had stumbled onto his plan by assembling things he’d heard through his work. From an illegal sacrifice they’d stopped before it started, to Duckworth’s obsession with Julian, he’d stuck together fact with fiction until he’d come up with his mad plan.
Fenway was now in a very specialised institution, fixed with magic-dampening cuffs on every limb and watched over at all hours by his keepers. He’d been remanded yesterday by a judge, and so today it was time for the Guardians to go. Jones had been sent home days ago, grateful to be headed back to his own bed.
“I’ll miss you guys,” said Julian, hovering as James packed up their things. His knee was already healed, thanks to potions, rest, and a number of visits to the hospital for further healing.
“We’ll visit,” assured Jacques from the kitchen, where he and Alys were preparing a parting feast.
“And you’ll visit us,” added James, working efficiently to get everything they’d brought packed down into neat bags and bundles.
“We have to, or Father Stephen will send you to hunt us down,” said Alex, from where he was lounging rather sulkily on the couch. “I like not being in danger, but I hate it when you leave.”
“You have Alys now,” said Jacques. “You can’t complain about feeding yourself this time.”
“And you have privacy now,” said James wryly. “No more worrying about us listening in.”
“Oh,” said Julian sweetly, “we didn’t worry.”
James hit him with a pillow.
CHAPTER 25
“It’s time for your surprise, I think,” said Nat, strolling out of the kitchen just after the front door closed on James and Jacques.
“Is it ready?” said Alex, grinning like a loon.
“What surprise? And what do you know about it?” said Julian, looking from Nat to Alex.
“You’ll see,” said Nat, and he clapped his hands. Wood began to stream out of the laundry room, rather more than Julian thought would have fit in the first place, and it set itself up to the left of the fireplace, around the window. The pieces moved and shifted until there were two tall, deep bookshelves flanking the window. A cushioned bench built itself between them, making it into a proper window seat with a deep green velvet cover that went beautifully with the dark wood. Everything was finished to match the rest of the room, and decorated with carved patterns of vines and leaves.
“Oh,” said Julian, walking toward it when he felt the magic settling. “This is for me?”
Alex came up behind him and snuggled close. “You always say it’s not the same, reading without a window seat.”
“And yon bookshelf’s overflowing,” said Nat, gesturing to the small shelf along the other wall. “This’ll give ye room to grow.”
“It’s perfect,” said Julian, lifting the seat to look at the compartment under it, and then putting it down and curling up, looking out over the city from his new perch. “Really perfect.”
Alex gathered up Julian’s feet and sat with them in his lap, crowding the little bench — not that Julian minded just now. “We thought you might put a window box outside here, so you can have more fairy visitors while you read.”
“We’ll just leave you two to your thanking now,” said Alys, tugging Nat back into their laundry room hideaway and firmly shutting the door.
“Thank you,” said Julian to Alex with a grin, leaning in for a kiss.
Alex met him halfway, and they just kissed like that for a good long time before they parted. “Celebrate having privacy again?” he offered, breathless and grinning.
“Oh, yeah,” said Julian, kissing him again. He ducked another to get up and lead a laughing Alex backward into the bedroom, everything forgotten but the joy of being together again, and safe.
Julian shed his clothes on his way to the bed, sliding under the covers and holding them up so Alex could join him. Nothing but the soft glow of nightlight-runes along the baseboards lit the room, leaving them in a warm, close semidarkness. It felt all the more thrilling, knowing there was no one outside the closed door trying not to listen in. Alex gathered Julian close, kissing and petting him until he was purring, sure hands moving over his body, making him forget anything but being there in Alex’s arms.
“I want to be inside you,” whispered Alex, low and teasing in his ear. “Can I?”
“Please,” said Julian, the word coming out on a whimper that might have embarrassed him if it hadn’t made Alex growl possessively.
“Oh, yes,” said Alex, kissing down his neck, nipping at his sensitive throat. “My Julian.”
His big hands slipped down to Julian’s narrow hips, rolling Julian onto his back, and Julian obediently spread for him, inviting Alex into his arms and his body. Alex followed the motion, letting his weight settle atop Julian for a few comforting moments, warm and strong and solid above him. Their kisses were slow and sensual, while Alex’s hands roamed Julian’s body all over again, Alex’s magic caressing his skin and making Julian writhe beneath him. Julian buried his hands in Alex’s soft curls, unable to muster up enough thought to put them anywhere else, but Alex didn’t seem to mind. He was humming with satisfaction as Julian arched and whimpered at his touches. Their kisses tasted of ozone and need, power flowing between them, sparking along Julian’s nerves and lighting him up inside.
Alex’s mouth moved from Julian’s kiss-bruised lips, back down his throat and further, licking and biting at his collarbones, kissing down his sternum, visiting each nipple with singleminded attention. Julian’s fingers stayed tangled in Alex’s hair as he slipped down further, nuzzling at Julian’s flat belly and giving his cock a passing caress with cheeks and lips and magic, then going further still to find Julian’s needy entrance. Julian cried out as Alex’s tongue flicked out to tease him, then pleasure him. Julian’s voice sounded wonderfully loud in the small, still room as he said Alex’s name over and over.
Alex kept up his ministrations until Julian couldn’t even form both syllables, then slipped a pair of slick fingers into him while that energy-laced mouth sucked at each tender bollock in turn. Julian would have begged if he’d had the breath, but Alex kept stealing it with his deft touches, playing Julian’s body with as much skill as any instrument to get the sounds he most wanted to hear. Julian felt as if Alex had awakened every nerve in his body to pleasure, opened him wide and made him so wonderfully sensitive that there was nothing in the world but Alex. Julian drowned in the feel of his hands, his mouth, his body and the weight of him in the bed, the sound of his breath and the hum of his magic.
Alex’s fingers left him, mouth lifting, breaking the circuit for a moment, letting Julian find his breath and his centre. “Are you ready for me, love?”
Julian huffed out a needy laugh that was half moan. “Sooo ready, my love,” he answered, tugging Alex up for greedy kisses, feeling the spark as their bodies reconnected.
The spark became a complete circuit as Alex slid into him, the heat and solidity of his body accompanied by the feel of his magic, and all the love and desire that threaded through it. Julian shivered, wrapping his legs around Alex, pouring his own mag
ic back into their kiss. A small part of him wondered what Alex heard when they did this, what motif his love and need added to the melody of his magic. The rest of him was entirely occupied with the feel of it, the information he got secondary to the sensation of being made love to, of being Alex’s.
Their hands and bodies moved together, guided by familiarity, by desire, and by magic, until they found their peak together, one sparking off the other until there was nothing but white-gold pleasure. Julian opened his eyes a few moments later and gasped, seeing the ceiling lit with motes of light like stars above them. Alex twisted around, then laughed. “I wonder if they’ll stay,” he said, turning back to kiss Julian again.
Julian mmed contentedly. “We can always make more.”
CHAPTER 26
Julian stood in the doorway to the luck garden at the Temple, grinning at Mary Margaret, who was in the other doorway, ready to inspect his work. “Well?” said Julian, gesturing to the round room with its curving path, lucky clover and terraced flowerbeds.
She grinned, walking the longer path in its S-curve around the room. Julian met her partway so they could sit on one of the benches against the wall. “I think you did a beautiful job,” she said. “I’d almost call it Journeyman work, but we both know you’ve still got learning to do.”
Julian chuckled. “My magic’s grown by leaps and bounds, but there’s a lot of knowledge left to cram into my head,” he agreed.
“Which is why I’ve agreed with Dr. Tamlinson and Father Stephen to share your time, for free while you’re an Apprentice, of course,” said Mary Margaret.
Horace trilled happily and came swooping down from the hanging plant where he’d been hiding; Julian had installed a circle of seven air ferns around the skylight at irregular heights so the bird now had somewhere to perch when they were there. Mary Margaret laughed and held up a hand, kissing his shining head before handing him off to Julian.
“I agree,” said Julian, winking at the bird, “It’s wonderful news, thank you. Alex will be relieved that I’m spending more time in warded buildings, not that he’d admit it.”
“I’ll admit it just fine. I like you safe.” said Alex, coming in to join them on the bench. “But why am I admitting it?”
Julian giggled and told him the news, and they sat in the sunshine and talked about schedules and logistics, and Alex once again suggested driving lessons. “It’s not as if we can borrow Jones all the time,” he said. “I think he wants to stay in the country for a while, now that he’s finally back there.”
“Maybe,” said Julian, making a face at the idea of yet more lessons. “But only if you do, too.”
“Maybe,” said Alex, making the same face right back.
Father Stephen arrived and they gave him a tour of the garden and tips on how to care for it when Julian wasn’t around, and started discussing what sort of tasks Mary Margaret considered Julian fit for on a regular basis, as well as tasks that Alex could do for the Temple, should he choose to accompany his boyfriend in his charitable endeavours. Even Horace was finding a way to be useful, as he continued to take wishes to the recovering tree while its legal status was disentangled.
It wasn’t the future that Julian had envisioned for himself even a year ago, but it felt good to be making choices for himself, and to live a life full of equal parts magic and love, with friendships on top of it all.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy Crook has made her living for the past 15+ years with art and design. She lives in San Leandro, CA, with two cats, a roommate, and a pair of custom-made tentacle pillows. She’s a dilettante geek and non-practicing goth. That means that she loves in-jokes and things with skulls on them, she tends not to go too deep into most geeky pursuits, and she rarely dresses up as a Goth (though she does use her purple tentacle parasol to ward off the sun). Strangers stop her on the street to tell her that her hair is long. She loves tea and gin, and she hates it when the trees try to have sex in her sinuses. She’s a real geek girl, for certain values of “real,” “geek,” and “girl.”
This is her second novel published, and a sequel to the first.