Still, since then, for decades, I’d been filling two of the stones with my energy every day. It wasn’t like there was anything else for us to do in here, anyway. It wouldn’t work, of course, but… it had become a routine.
“Why are you doing this?” Grady’s voice carried through the glass. He was crying. Again. That bloody bastard of a boyfriend was making him cry again. Grady wasn’t an overly emotional guy in general, and yet, that man always did this to him. And I’d be forced to watch Grady trying to hold back his tears until he couldn’t anymore. It was torture.
“You know why,” Eddie replied.
Grady moved closer to the mantel where he kept my prison, and he crossed his arms over his chest. “Laz is just a friend. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this. He’s my best friend, Eddie. He’s been my friend for years. He’s family.”
“You go out with him every day for lunch, and you can’t make time for me.”
Grady threw his arm out and yelled, “He works three doors down, and we walk across the street! If you wanted to have lunch with me, you could come down to the store!”
Eddie ground his teeth. “Do not speak to me that way, Grady. This is your only warning.”
My eyes widened at the audacity of this man. How dare he say that. He’s been screaming at Grady for an hour and this was the first time Grady had even raised his voice a little.
Typically, this was the time when I’d have to clench my jaw in anger because Grady always backed down. Every single time. It made no sense to me because Grady was such a confident guy in every other aspect of his life, but with this man, this Eddie, his confidence was so low that he never stood up for himself. Just once I’d like to see him put that bloody bastard in his place.
Grady turned away from Eddie, his gaze sweeping across the mantel, but not really seeing. His eyes were far away for a moment, then his eyebrows scrunched together and his eyes focused on the snow globe. His face was confused as he stared, and it took me a moment to realize that Tiberius and I were not standing in our usual positions and my eyes were open. My eyes widened a fraction in panic—strange that they moved—but my body was frozen to the spot. I’d learned long ago that the curse didn’t allow me to move when a human was gazing upon my prison. It made humans think I was nothing more than a decoration, and therefore, I stayed under the radar. At first, I’d been upset that I couldn’t ask for help, but the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated that they couldn’t see me move. The last thing I needed was a bunch of humans performing experiments on my prison—I couldn’t risk any harm coming to Tiberius. Maybe I couldn’t do anything outside the globe, but I didn’t know if things could be done to us inside it.
My small eye movement—something that had never been possible in front of a human before—made Grady move closer to me, his face almost pressed to the glass as he took me in.
“What the hell are you doing, Grady?” Eddie yelled.
Grady didn’t take his eyes off me. He stared, gazed into my eyes, and I saw the sadness, the loneliness there inside his. I wanted to give him the courage to stand up for himself against this man, if only I knew how. It was obvious that someone had hurt him in the past, or maybe it was just this bastard that did it to him. I wish he’d be brave right now like he typically was with everyone else.
“Grady!”
Normally, I had to watch him sag into himself, make himself small, back down and take whatever hurtful things were thrown his way. But not this time.
Grady nodded at me—well, at my snow globe—as if in agreement with me, then he straightened his shoulders and faced Eddie. “I told you we’re just friends.”
“That’s not what it looked like to me last night!”
“He had a rough day, and I gave him a hug goodbye. If you have a problem with Laz and me being friends, then you can go fuck yourself!”
My eyes widened at that. Grady wasn’t one to throw words like that around often. He wasn’t one to yell. But I certainly enjoyed seeing this side of him come out in front of that other evil human.
“Do. Not. Raise. Your. Voice. At. Me.”
“Or what? What are you going to do?”
Eddie suddenly moved. He came at Grady, and in a flash, my mind showed me his plans. Maybe it was some sort of seer ability or maybe it was merely the fact that Eddie was so angry, I knew in my gut he was about to attack. And Grady was not a fighter. He was strong, I’d give him that, but a fighter he was not.
Eddie pushed Grady so hard, Grady fell backward, knocking his head on the edge of the mantel. My breath was caught in my throat as fear laced my insides.
Not again. I can’t watch this happen again.
Tiberius was squawking and flapping and panicking as much as I was.
Eddie grabbed Grady’s shirt and hauled him close to his face. I saw blood on the back of Grady’s head, and I saw red.
I didn’t hear the words Eddie was yelling at Grady, all I saw was the blood. Grady’s blood. He was already bleeding, and Eddie wasn’t backing down.
Without a thought, I ran to the cottage and grabbed one of the magic-storing stones. It wasn’t going to work, but I had to try. I’d been storing my energy for years; I had to try.
With my familiar on my shoulder to provide extra strength, I pressed my hands to the glass with the stone in my right hand. I called upon my magic and felt it tugging at my belly and chest. Using laser eye focus, I glared at Eddie. He had Grady up against the wall, shaking him, yelling in his face, banging his already bloody head against the sheetrock. Grady was trying to push him off, trying to free himself from Eddie’s clutches, but he was panicking and his eyes were unfocused.
With every ounce of willpower I had, I shoved my energy and every last drop of magical essence from the stone out toward Eddie. I didn’t cast a spell, I didn’t have the words in my own panic, I only had my intentions. I needed to get Eddie off of Grady. I needed Eddie to hurt, to go away, to leave Grady alone.
The magic rushed out in an arc of icy, white mist. At first, it didn’t go through the glass, but then Tiberius squawked and gave it another push, using his own energy and our familiar connection to help.
It was slow at first. Almost as if it had found a tiny crack and could only release a bit at a time. But then the icy magic found its footing and zoomed across the room with a fierceness I hadn’t felt in centuries, right at Eddie. Eddie screamed as it hit him, frost immediately forming on his hair and eyelashes, then his body flew through the air in a big arc, landing in the hall on the other side of the living room archway. But that wasn’t good enough. Grady needed a barrier between them. So my magic pushed Eddie again, and this time, the front door opened and Eddie blew right through it before the door slammed shut behind him.
I fell forward when I released the magic, my forehead resting on the now-frozen glass prison. That had taken a lot out of me, but it had exhilarated me even more.
“Tiberius,” I said after a few breathless seconds. “I used magic. It worked. It worked outside our prison.”
Tiberius adjusted himself on my shoulder and nuzzled my cheek and the top of my head.
“Holy shit,” Grady breathed. “What the… what the hell was that?” He glanced around the room and narrowed his eyes in my direction, but I was hoping the mist from the spell inside the snow globe was enough to cover the fact that I wasn’t in my normal spot or position. Although, the mist could be suspicious as well.
Knocking on the front door filled the room, and Grady’s expression turned fearful. Luckily, he cleared his throat and yelled, “Go away, Eddie!”
“Open this door right now, Grady. We need to talk.”
“No!”
“Grady…” Eddie’s voice was sad and pathetic.
“Go away and never come back. You’re not welcome here… or anywhere in my life.”
“You’re breaking up with me?” He sounded angry again.
“Yes, you asshole! You hit me! Get the fuck away from me before I call the cops!”
<
br /> “Yeah, whatever. You were a lousy lay, anyway.” I heard Eddie’s boots stomping away and down the porch steps.
Grady sighed and sagged against the wall, and I wished I could help him further. I wanted to hold him up and sit him on the couch and heal his bleeding head. I wanted to hold him and take away his pain.
When he reached behind his head and winced, then stared at the blood on his hand, an ache formed in my chest. It had been a long time since I’d felt such a pull to be released from my prison. I’d grown accustomed to it over the years, and had settled for the fact that I’d be here for the rest of my very long life. But now, when I had to see this kind, gentle man hurting only feet from me, I wished with all my heart that I could help him.
Grady sighed before slowly walking to the couch and dropping down to it. He pulled out his phone—one of the many inventions I wish I could try myself. The world had evolved so much since I’d been imprisoned. I’d been lucky to be set near a television in my last home, so I’d picked up on some of the strange lingo and learned about the technology from a distance. But I’d always wanted to try things for myself. Grady started a call, and even without listening, I knew who he was calling: Laz.
“Hey,” Grady said softly into the phone. He sounded heartbroken. “I-I… my head’s bleeding.” He winced and pulled the phone away from his ear for a moment. “No, I’ll tell you when you get here. Yeah. Okay. Bye.” He clicked it off and threw it on his coffee table before falling over to lie on the couch.
As he started falling asleep, I simply stared at him.
He was truly a beautiful man. He was athletically built with strong, lean muscles from his morning runs—I’d overheard that he’d played basketball in high school. Being six-two probably helped with that. Long eyelashes, bright blue eyes, a splash of freckles over his pale skin. His hair was almost an auburn color, and even though he tried to tame it, he had a cowlick that made it stick up in the back. Sometimes he’d use some kind of gel in his hair, and it would hold when he left the house, but it never failed to make me smile when he’d come home with his hair sticking up every which way. Or on the days he’d eat lunch outside and the skin along his nose and cheeks would turn pink. Or the way he talked to himself when he thought he was alone. Or the way he wiggled his butt while he was cooking or cleaning.
Watching him stirred something inside of me, something that had only ever stirred for one person my entire life. It was strange having these feelings and physical reactions to someone that didn’t even know I existed. I couldn’t seem but want to be close to him, want to stand beside him, hold him, touch him… that wasn’t a feeling I was accustomed to, but Grady was a special human; kindhearted with a gentle soul.
Tiberius hooted in my ear quietly, and I turned my attention to him. “We helped him, Tib. We actually helped someone.”
Tib nuzzled my face, so I grabbed him off my shoulder to pull him into my chest. He nuzzled under my chin and along my neck as I petted his soft, white feathers.
“I’m sorry I got you stuck in here with me. I know it’s been a long, long time since you’ve been able to stretch your wings.”
He chirped at me, and through our bond, I felt his happiness. It took me aback for a moment before a slow smile spread over my face. “I’m glad you’re in here with me, too. I would’ve lost my mind long ago if you weren’t with me.”
He chirped and rubbed under my chin again, so I held on tight and watched Grady as Laz came inside, using his key to let himself in.
When Laz pulled Grady into his arms, a red-hot burning jealousy hit me like a brick. And I sucked in a breath. That didn’t usually happen. I knew they were only friends, and I was happy Grady had someone to lean on. Wasn’t I?
Yes, I was.
I only wished that someone was me.
With a long-drawn sigh, I leaned against the glass and watched life pass me by.
Chapter 3
Grady
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Laz asked me for the hundredth time.
“I’m good. I just… I didn’t want to be alone,” I admitted quietly.
Laz scooted closer on the couch, wrapping his arms around me. “I’m glad you called me.” He squeezed me into his side. “Are you sure we don’t need to get you looked at? What if you need stitches? What if you have a concussion?”
I rested my head on his shoulder. “I feel fine, it’s just sore, and it stopped bleeding. You said it stopped when you helped me clean it.”
“How did you hit your head?”
I bit my lip. I didn’t want to lie to him, but I didn’t want to tell him the truth either. He’d want me to go to the police, and that was the last thing I wanted. Eddie was gone now; I just wanted to move on. So I cleared my throat and said, “I banged it on the mantel. Eddie and I were fighting, and I fell backwards, tripped on the rug or something.”
He was quiet for a moment, then whispered, “If he hurt you, if he… if he does it again, I’m going to kill him.”
I closed my eyes. Of course, he hadn’t been fooled. But I still didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “He’s gone. He’s not coming back. Wanna watch a movie?”
He sighed at my dismissal and subject change, but nodded his head. “Sure, but I’m picking. I refuse to watch another Christmas movie in November.”
“Thanksgiving is tomorrow, it’s practically Christmas already.”
He rolled his eyes. “You started watching them—and making me watch them—in July.”
“Christmas in July is a thing.”
He sighed and shook his head, then put on a Halloween movie because that made so much sense the day before Thanksgiving.
I settled in beside my best friend, feeling incredibly grateful for his presence, for his consistency, his dependency. His normalcy. He was my comfort zone after all that… craziness.
All of the craziness. Not just how Eddie had gotten violent, but how… how he’d fallen over. No, how he’d flown across the room and out the door. The door that opened for him and slammed shut on its own. What the hell was that?
I glanced over at the mantel. After… everything, I swear the snow globe had been filled with smoke. The same smoke that had seemed to lift Eddie off the ground and throw him around. And earlier… earlier the little man and his owl were… different. As crazy as it sounded, they had moved. I knew they did.
Narrowing my eyes, I focused on the snow globe from my spot on the couch. The little man inside was normally off to the left a tad with his owl on his right shoulder, but…
I leaned forward to get a better look. Was he… was he leaning against the glass? And the owl… was it in the man’s arms?
What the…
Am I losing my mind?
“Grady?”
I snapped my gaze back to Laz.
His brow furrowed. “You alright?”
“Huh? Yeah. Just trying to get comfortable.”
He nodded and refocused on the movie.
My gaze snapped back to the snow globe, and I frowned. The man and his owl were off center on the left with the owl on the man’s right shoulder. Just like they always were.
Shaking my head, I turned away. Maybe I’d hit my head harder than I thought and my mind was playing tricks on me. That must be it. There’s no way the man living inside my snow globe is moving around… is alive. Nope. No way. Right?
Right.
I blinked my eyes open and frowned. Where am I?
Sitting up, I glanced around the room I was in, then tilted my head. Am I in a cabin?
As I took everything in, a sudden memory hit. I was six and my parents took me to a ski resort over Christmas where we stayed in a cabin with a fireplace and a tiny kitchen and a big, blue, fluffy couch, and a huge Christmas tree in the corner… exactly like this one. Am I dreaming?
I stood and looked around with a frown. That cabin had been one of the last places I’d gone with my family. I’d always loved it there and wished I could go back, but I’d never wanted to go alone.
&
nbsp; As I did a complete three-sixty, right when I faced the same place I’d started at, I jumped. There was a man. In black. Standing in front of the couch with his back to me. What the heck? Where had he come from? He hadn’t been there a second ago.
When he remained standing there for a few seconds, I quietly said, “Hello?”
The man startled and whipped his head around with wide eyes. He looked me up and down, then settled on my face as his brow furrowed and he whispered in a shocked voice, “What are you doing here?”
I blinked in surprise. “What am I doing here? Dude, this is my dream vacation cabin. What the hell are you doing here?” I had no idea why I was being so blunt in my dream, but since I knew it was a dream, I didn’t really care what this fake man thought of me… even if he was pretty damn gorgeous.
He took a tentative step toward me and whispered, “Grady?”
“Uh… yeah? How do you know my name?” Stupid question, I knew, but I couldn’t help but ask.
He didn’t answer, he only stared for a long, drawn out moment. “You’re really here, aren’t you?”
“What are you talking about? This is my dream, weird dream guy, of course I’m here.”
A slow smile spread on his rugged face. “Alaric Bloodgood.”
“What?”
“My name. It’s Alaric. In case you were wondering.”
I had been, so I nodded. “Nice to meet you, Alaric.” I held out my hand to shake, and after staring at it for a long moment, Alaric took my hand in his.
As soon as our skin touched, I felt a cold zap shoot through me. It didn’t hurt, not really, but it almost felt like I’d been zapped with a cool energy. Like I’d drank an energy drink straight through my skin. It was… pleasant and comforting.
From Alaric’s gasp, I assumed he’d felt it as well.
Or… not really since he wasn’t real and this was a dream. Still, it felt like I felt it. In my dream world. When had a dream ever felt this real?
Alaric continued staring at me with an emotion I didn’t understand. Wonder, maybe. And the longer he stared, the longer I stared back.
Wishing on a Dream Page 2
