Could It Be Magic

by Heather Mar-Gerrison

  Now that Saul was fast asleep and it was nigh on two in the morning, the whole Halloween thing had passed and Laars was able to think straight again.

  It was obvious to him now that Saul had to have been doing more than having a couple of cocktails, which wasn’t really Laars’ scene but hell, it was the biggest party of the year so far and everyone did stupid things at times. If he caught the person who’d slipped his bestie a spliff, however, he’d beat them to a pulp…

  Still, it didn’t stop him from acknowledging that Saul really had bewitched him – and he really didn’t have any other explanation for hearing his voice in his head all of the damned time – and he couldn’t deny that he really did turn up at his place all of the time with no explanation… Could he actually have been telling the truth? Nah… He laughed at himself for getting carried away with the whole Halloween thing but on the other hand…

  They were so going to have another conversation in the morning.

  Chapter 24 – The one…

  Saul

  Saul woke up to someone covering his face in little kisses.

  He opened his eyes and found himself staring up into the eyes of his very own (possible) demi-demon. He sighed with pleasure, no longer afraid that his soulmate was quite possibly capable of destroying the whole world in a fit of pique. He remembered his Medieval Magic topic in Magical History lessons from high school and remembered being horrified that all of the demi-demons had been all but wiped out of the magical community in the seventeenth century. Some, it was believed, had gone into hiding in the non-magical world and Saul could only assume that Laars’ family had done that, thus avoiding extinction… Well, he was awfully grateful to Saul’s great-great-great grandparents for doing so – because he’d never felt more alive than he did right now. He finally felt that everything was right with the world. He’d found his soulmate. Life was finally perfect.

  “Good morning.” Laars murmured, “I went out and got breakfast for us.” He grinned, “I didn’t think you’d really want to go out dressed like a cat.”

  Saul chuckled, “Good call.” He said with a happy sigh.

  “Which means we can snuggle up together and eat our breakfast… and then we can get back to kissing and uh, stuff.”

  Oh, my God! Laars was the coolest guy he’d ever had the pleasure to meet – and he wanted to kiss him… and he wanted to touch him. Wowsers!

  Never in all of his nineteen years had anyone ever paid him such attention. Still, no one else had ever been the one, either…

  But was Laars the one?

  Of course, I’m the one.

  Saul whipped his head around and stared at Laars, who was staring back at him with a matching look of shock. “You’re the one?” he asked.

  Laars nodded, “Looks like it.” He said, “Fuck – you really are magic, aren’t you? It’s all real – everything you said?”

  Saul nodded, “Yeah.” He said sheepishly, “I’m so sorry for not letting you know earlier.”

  Laars shrugged, “I knew there was something…” he trailed off making Saul think that he’d had more than an inkling.

  “In what way?” he probed.

  Laars looked at him, “It was something my mother said.” He admitted, “She warned me off you…”

  Saul gaped at him, “She warned you off me?” What on earth had Laars said about him to his mother?

  Laars nodded, “As soon as she heard your surname.” He admitted.

  Holy shit. Laars mother knew his father? This was incredible, “Are you sure you don’t have anything magical about you?” he asked.

  Laars looked at him helplessly, “If I do – my mother has never told me what it is.” He said firmly, “I’ve no really solid memory of my life before the car accident that killed Dad – and I’ve lived in South Manton ever since.”

  “Did your mum say anything about my dad and your dad being friends?” he asked, getting the feeling that they’d been destined to meet, somehow.

  He shrugged again, “I have no idea.” He said, “I’ll ask her, though.”

  Saul nodded, “Good idea.” He agreed, “We need to keep our ears and our eyes open from now on.”

  Laars grinned, “But not right now.” He said with a wicked glint in his eye, “Right now, you’re mine – and I’m going to make your mind go blissfully blank with what I’ve got planned for you.”

  Saul gazed at him, “You’re incredible.” He breathed as he melted against him, “Do whatever you want.”

  As soon as the words had left his mouth, Saul started to worry. That was an offer not to be refused if ever there was one…

  “Don’t worry.” Laars murmured soothingly, “I’m not going to take advantage of you and then leave you high and dry.”

  Saul looked at him, “Aren’t you?” he asked, genuinely worried.

  Laars’ gaze warmed him up to the tips of his toes. He shook his head slowly, “No.” he said softly, “I’m never going to leave you again. I’m just going to kiss you and hug you and wrap you up in my arms and next year, when we get a house together, I’m going to sleep with you every night – if you’ll let me?”

  Saul nodded, happiness coursing through him at Laars words, “I’ll let you.” He murmured, “Does this mean we’re boyfriends now?”

  Laars nodded, “It definitely means we’re boyfriends now.” He agreed, “I’m hooked.”

  Saul giggled, “Likewise.” He said as their lips met.

  *

  Saul sometimes wondered if J K Rowling had relatives that were witches. She seemed to know an awful lot about the magical world – although to be fair, she did get some things wrong. For example – the magical community’s parliament wasn’t really called the Ministry of Magic but he couldn’t help thinking that was a far better description than the Pyramid.

  Although everyone who was born to a witch knew about the Pyramid and respected its laws. Meh, what did it matter – she’d given nothing away with her amazing stories about the boy wizard...

  His experience of wizards wasn’t quite so enamouring as the books he’d read, though. In his experience, they were a conceited bunch of know-it-alls’ – and yes, he was particularly bad at getting all the stages of his spells in the right order –with some pretty catastrophic results but since he was no longer continuing down that path, it didn’t really matter. He’d left the magical community and had been accepted at a perfectly normal university for perfectly normal people. Saul Blackthorn had gone straight – well, actually that wasn’t quite true either, since he was now going steady with Laars, he was as far removed from straight as it was possible to be...

  Since being Laars’ boyfriend and even before then, since leaving the magical community, even – his ability to perform magic seemed to have improved beyond all of his wildest expectations.

  Maybe falling in love was the key to being good at magic. Maybe where he’d come from it had been completely futile because he was attracted to the same sex and it was never going to happen... who knew? There had to be some explanation for it...

  His mind drifted to his boyfriend, Laars. He had the strongest feeling that his magical ability improving was directly related to being with him. Laars was everything he hadn’t been looking for in a guy but good lord, he was everything he needed now.

  He was a redhead for a start and he had green eyes... And everyone in the magical world knew that redheads and green eyes were trouble...

  Hell, his father only had the green eyes, which were a little more commonly found, but even without the red hair to accompany his green eyes, he was pretty damned scary.

  Saul turned over and looked at the clock on his sideboard. He spied the letter that had arrived the previous week, leaning against the clock. Mother of Merlin! He’d forgotten all about that letter from home.

  He bit his lip as he continued to stare at the unopened letter. Actually, that wasn’t strictly true. He’d put it there and had deliberately not opened it. But that was over a week ago and he really should have read
it by now. He opened it and read it. His mouth dropped open in horror. It was from his father advising him that he was coming to visit at the end of the month. Some cock and bull story about wanting to see how his grades were coming along. Like he gave a shit? No way. His father knew something. He must have found out somehow… it was the only explanation. He was going to have to warn Laars…

  But what did his father really think he could do to change anything? Saul was well aware that he was a complete disappointment to his father. For starters, he was useless at magic (or at least, he had been, before he left). Secondly, he was gay. Therefore, he was completely useless to his family at passing on the magical abilities to future generations.

  He had no abilities for the family business and he couldn’t make any connections with equally as powerful and influential families, since he wasn’t interested in getting married – well, not to a girl in any case. If only they’d relax their stupid laws and allow gay marriage, it really wouldn’t be a problem.

  The magical world seemed to be approximately two hundred years behind the times – still believing that girls should be paraded at balls to meet with prospective suitors. What a load of bollocks. Saul was quite sure a good ten per cent of the guys in the magical community were, just like in the normal community, quite likely to be gay. They just went along with their parents’ wishes for an easy life and went behind their wives’ backs. Well. He wasn’t a liar or a cheat and he was not going to live a lie. Saul Blackthorn might be weird, but he was a man of honour and courage – and besides, he was in love with Laars Zanelli, who still needed warning about Nigel Blackthorn…

  Chapter 25 – Impending doom…

  Laars

  The insistent hammering on Laars door had him frowning as he wrapped a towel around his waist and made his way hurriedly to the door, still dripping wet from his shower.

  He opened the door and was almost bowled over by Saul pushing his way past him to sit himself down on his desk chair.

  He had his hands in his hair and looked completely freaked out over something.

  “What the fuck’s happened?” Laars asked, immediately concerned for his boyfriend.

  Saul looked up. His beautiful eyes had a haunted look about them and right now, there was no golden glow within the inky depths, “I ignored a letter last week and I really shouldn’t have done. It was from my father – oh, God, Laars – he’s coming to visit at the end of the month when the Pyramid has its annual recess.” He whispered, “He must have found out about us, somehow. What the fuck am I going to tell him?”

  Laars frowned. The look on Saul’s face was pure terror. There was something going on here that Saul had conveniently forgotten to tell him about… “I don’t understand,” He said as patiently as he could, “I get that you didn’t feel comfortable about coming out at home – but what exactly is the problem with you and your dad – and uh, me?”

  Saul shook his head, “Oh, fuck.” He muttered, “I didn’t want to have to tell you – and honestly, it’d be better that you didn’t know...”

  Laars went over to his boyfriend and took his hand in his own. Ignoring the electrical charge that went right through his body at his touch, since Saul was looking too freaked out for a make-out session, he looked him in the eyes, “You’ve got me worried now, baby,” he said “And I really want to know.” He added, “Anything that gets you this worked up and making your eyes go dim, concerns me greatly.” And if he’s going to give me a hard time for wanting to be with you, I’d like to know exactly what I’m dealing with…

  Saul managed a small smile and then he seemed to realise that he’d barged in on Laars when he was only dressed in a towel, “Oh, shit!” he exclaimed, averting his gaze hurriedly, “I’m so sorry! You’re not even dressed!”

  Laars waved away his concerns with a flick of his hand, “Don’t worry about it,” he said with a grin, “you’ve seen it all before, right?”

  “Not really,” Saul whispered, “I was never allowed boyfriends at home...” His face was bright red and he looked mortified to have just given that nugget of information away. Laars’ heart went out to him.

  “You weren’t allowed them?” he asked, but even as the words left his lips, he knew that Saul was telling the truth. He’d already worked out that Saul was completely and utterly innocent from their making out sessions. He’d never been kissed before Laars had kissed him and that had been, pretty much, as far as it had gone since. Not that he was complaining. Rubbing against each other with as few clothes as possible as they kissed was pretty damned erotic, anyway…

  Saul shook his head miserably, “Oh, God.” He whispered, sounding as if he was in pain, “There’s so much about me that you don’t know – things that I should have told you about, way before now…” He turned tortured eyes on his boyfriend, “Dad wants me to marry a girl to pass on the bloodlines...”

  Laars was completely floored now, “Doesn’t he understand homosexuality?” he asked, aghast, “It doesn’t really work like that – and what does he mean, pass on the bloodlines?” What kind of an archaic weirdo is this guy?

  Saul bit his lip, “I haven’t been completely honest with you.” He said, making Laars’ jaw drop. Being convenient with the facts and actually lying about who he was were two different things and Laars had been convinced that Saul had always been open and honest…

  “You haven’t?” he asked. What about? Are you really a total Casanova and have bedded a million idiots that were sucked in by your bewitching charms?

  Saul shook his head miserably, “Will you promise not to be really mad with me when I tell you something?”

  Laars nodded. It was clear that Saul had a lot on his mind. He could generally hear every word that Laars was thinking and he was sure he’d have cracked at least a small smile at that last thought. “Sure,” he agreed, “Anything.” Please explain, I’m having the worst sort of mind-fuck over this conversation...

  Saul took a deep breath, “To begin with, I thought that Dad was just really pissed off with me for having pretty much zero magical ability and a love for rocks and that was why I’d been sent away to university in the human world – but then I met you and it all started to make sense. When the book of spells was delivered… that was when it really hit me.”

  Laars was completely baffled by his boyfriend’s explanation now. Book of spells? This whole new world he’d been thrust into just kept getting more and more bizarre… “I don’t follow.” He said.

  Saul nodded. It was fair enough. It had only occurred to him after he and Laars had become boyfriends. It was like an epiphany or something… “I thought I’d been sent here to study Geology.” He said, his eyes gazing into Laars intently, “I honestly believed that but when I really started to analyse my father’s motives, along with the way my magical ability started to kick in after I met you – it all became clearer. I was sent here to find someone to marry.”

  Laars gaped at him, “Marry?” he squeaked. Fuck. He might not be a teenager anymore but he wasn’t sure he was ready for that.

  Saul nodded, “According to the ancient Pyramid law that Dad loves to uphold even though most of the magical community have left it where it should have been left – back in the dark ages – I have until my twenty-first birthday to find my soulmate.” Laars must have been having a really in-tune day around Saul because he heard what he didn’t say. And I’ve found my soulmate. The only trouble is – it’s you.

  Saul bit his lip adorably, looking really vulnerable, “and I know I said I was going to tell him as soon as I got home, but I don’t think I’m brave enough.” He was visibly shaking, “Oh, God, Laars.” He whimpered, “Dad’s gonna totally blow a gasket when he finds out and I’m scared about what he’ll do when he does.”

  Laars gathered him up in his arms and kissed his forehead. Yes. He could see Saul’s dilemma, but seriously, it was beyond their control. They’d met and fallen in love and there wasn’t a damned thing either of them could do about it to undo that, “So, what the
fuck are we going to do?” he asked.

  Saul gave him a watery smile, “Well,” he said sweetly, “I have thought about it a bit – and I’ve got a sort-of plan…”

  Chapter 26 – Dangerous?

  Saul

  His plan wasn’t great and Laars had been quick to point out all of the loopholes in it.

  “But what if he gets straight past all of your carefully constructed mind walls or whatever it is that you’ve got going on? What then?”

  Saul was convinced that he could block his father’s probing. It had never been a problem for him to achieve total mind blocking. It was the only reason he passed mind manipulation at Ordinary Level Magic – but it was mainly due to the fact that he was so bad at magic that his mind was closed.

  “I’ll just try contacting them and telling him that I’ve got too many deadlines to meet and that I can’t spare the time…”

  Laars nodded, “That sounds like the best plan,” he said, “Good luck.”

  Saul’s mind wandered to the kissing session that had followed their discussion. It had been particularly hot, since Laars had only been wearing a towel and his desire for Saul had been impossible to miss…

  Would it have been a total disaster if Saul had acted on his own desires and touched him? Or would their physical union be too much to hide from the Pyramid Hierarchy? Witches and demi-demons were a forbidden combination because of what they were able to produce as off-spring. Of course, that wouldn’t be a problem for Saul and Laars, since they were both men and therefore weren’t able to produce anything.

  Saul understood the reasoning of the prohibition of witches and demi-demons. Demi-angels were the most feared creatures of all, due to their instability. Demi-Angels were perfectly reasonable people until their soulmate was taken away from them. Once that occurred, all hell broke loose – quite literally…