Holiday Magic

by Tl Reeve

  I was suddenly very appreciative of him and his attempts to keep his tone civil at the table.

  “That sounds wonderful!” Kait said. Her smile lit up the room, and she shined it my way. If I needed a reason to reaffirm why I was making myself suffer through the family holiday, it was her and that beautiful smile. I would do anything to make her smile. Even suffer my mother’s criticism.

  My mother was just half of my concerns, though. I didn’t appreciate the way Zavyan kept looking at Kaitlyn out of the corner of his eye. He had tried more than once in our adolescence to steal girls away from me. Back then, he usually succeeded.

  I wasn’t worried in the least that Kaitlyn would leave me for him. I was more concerned about what he would do in pursuit of her. Spells, potions, tricks. He didn’t respond well to being told no.

  The rest of the meal passed rather uneventfully, much to my relief.

  “I can help you clear the table,” Kaitlyn offered.

  “No need, dear,” my mother said. With the wave of her hand, the dishes and leftover food was gone.

  “Sometimes, I forget you don’t have to do things the human way,” Kait said.

  “No, we don’t.”

  Fed up with my mother’s attitude and snarky remarks, I stood up, about to excuse the two of us from the table to give Kaitlyn a break.

  “Where are you going, Aramaeus? We haven’t had dessert yet,” Mother said. She motioned for me to sit back down. Then, she snapped her fingers and made ice cream sundaes appear in front of each of us.

  “Do these have nuts?” I turned and asked.

  “Of course, dear.”

  “Kait is allergic to nuts.”

  “Really, Aramaeus, it’s fine. I can just pick around them,” Kait said. She never liked to cause a fuss, but I wasn’t taking risks with her health to avoid upsetting my mother.

  “You’re not supposed to eat anything that has touched a nut or been made in a factory with nuts. It’s not okay, Kait.”

  My mother huffed and snapped her fingers again, making all the sundaes disappear. She snapped again, and plain chocolate brownies with vanilla ice cream appeared.

  Everyone dug into their dessert quietly. I finished mine and patiently waited on Kaitlyn to finish hers. The moment she was done, I stood up again.

  “I’m going to take Kaitlyn upstairs, so we can get properly dressed for going out in this weather to find a Yule log,” I announced to the room.

  Not waiting for a response, I walked around the table, took Katilyn’s hand, and escorted her from the room.

  “Why do I feel like your mother hates me?” Kaitlyn asked as we climbed the stairs.

  I let go of her hand to wrap my arm around her shoulders.

  “She doesn’t hate you. She’s just not. . . fond of her baby boy dating a human. To be fair, though, I don’t know if she would think anyone would be good enough for me.

  “She just seemed especially hostile at dinner is all.”

  At the top of the stairs, I pulled Kaitlyn into my arms and rested my chin on her head.

  “If it makes you uncomfortable, we can leave. It’s no skin off my back. We can go pack right now.”

  “No, no, no. I just wish I knew how to get on her good side.”

  “Be Zavyan.”

  “Aramaeus, I’m serious.”

  I loosened my arms so I could lean down and kiss the frown off her face.

  “Don’t worry about it. I love you, and that’s all that matters.”

  4

  Kaitlyn

  I had never, in my life, had to bundle up as much as I did that night. T-shirt, sweater, jacket, scarf, gloves, a hat, and snow boots. I could barely move my arms or neck, but Aramaeus assured me I would freeze without them.

  “Well, aren’t you a cute little marshmallow?” Zavyan said as I walked back down the stairs after Aramaeus. “Are you planning to go on a three-day trek in the Himalayas?”

  I heard Aramaeus mutter a curse under his breath. A second later, Zavyan’s hair burst into flames.

  He shrieked as he put out the flames, then shot his own curse back at Aramaeus. Unfortunately for me, Aramaeus managed to dodge it.

  Aramaeus must have forgotten that I was behind him because he cried out the moment the stunning curse hit me, and I started to fall.

  Aramaeus caught me, stiff as a board, in his arms and carried me down the last couple of stairs.

  “See, this is why you don’t bring a mortal into an immortal house, Blaise. What if Zavy had shot back something worse? We could have been dealing with an injured, or even dead human. What would the council say? Really?” Aramaeus’s mother spoke the words to his father, loud enough for anyone to hear.

  Or maybe it was intentional.

  All I knew was I couldn’t move my body. I couldn’t even blink. I was terrified.

  “Stay calm, Kait. We’ll get this off you in a moment,” Aramaeus said as he carried me to the couch.

  “Can you reverse it?” Aramaeus’s father asked Zavyan.

  “It should run its course soon,” Zavyan said.

  “You asshole!” Aramaeus shouted.

  Flat on my back, I couldn’t see anything, but I heard Aramaeus rush his brother. Sounds of a scuffle flowed and a lot of yelling, some in Latin.

  A loud exclamation from their mother silenced the room.

  “Let me fix it,” she said.

  Shahara moved to stand over me. She made eye contact with me for a moment, a sour expression on her face, but then she raised her hands.

  The witch chanted in Latin for a few seconds. In an instant, like a steam valve letting off pressure, my body relaxed onto the couch as I regained control of it.

  “Thank you,” I said to Shahara.

  Aramaeus ran to my side, kneeling by the couch, and grabbing my hand. The fear on his face gripped my heart.

  “I am so sorry, Kaitlyn. This is my fault for bringing you here. I thought everything would be okay, but this was obviously a mistake.”

  “Aramaeus…”

  “We can pack up and leave as soon as you’re ready. Maybe you should rest a while first.”

  “Aramaeus…”

  “I’ll make sure nothing like this ever happens to you again.”

  Letting go of his hand, I sat up and swung my legs down to the floor. I grabbed his face in my hands.

  “Aramaeus, I’m fine. It was a freak accident. Please, don’t let this ruin the whole trip. We’ve barely been here.”

  “What?”

  “I want to stay, Aramaeus.”

  He wrinkled his brow and stared at me as if I were a lunatic. Maybe I was, but maybe I wasn’t. Either way, though, I wasn’t going to be the source of more contention in his family. If we left now, I knew his mother would blame me, and our relationship would never fully recover. I didn’t want her to hate me for the rest of eternity.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “Yes.” I dipped my head down and gave him a quick, reassuring kiss. Letting him go, I stood. “Is it too late to go out and cut that Yule log?”

  “Of course not,” Blaise said with a smirk and a smile. He walked over to the door and picked up an ax. “Let’s go.”

  Aramaeus was still stunned, so I walked around him and joined his father at the door.

  “Are you guys coming or are we going to do this alone?” I asked.

  Blaise opened the door with a wide grin on his face.

  “After you.”

  Aramaeus

  * * *

  I watched in shock as Kaitlyn followed my father out the front door, almost arm in arm with him, who had an ax in his other hand.

  Zavyan stared at me and shrugged. He was out the door behind them, leaving me alone in the living room with my mother.

  “Why are you trying so hard to leave, Aramaeus?” my mother asked as the front door closed behind Zavyan.

  Standing up, I sighed. I really wasn’t in the mood to have that conversation with my mother, but there wasn’t a good way to avoid it. So,
I was just going to have to face it and say my piece.

  “Because everyone is determined to make this a horrible experience for the woman I chose to share my life with. You tried to slip her a potion. She thinks you hate her, and Zavyan can’t stop flirting with her. And she just got hit with a stun curse. She would have been safe if we had stayed at home and forgotten about this trip,” I said.

  “That can’t be all of it. You act like you’re ashamed of us.”

  I never wanted to roll my eyes harder than I did at that moment, but I knew better than to do it around my mother. She’d be likely to make them pop out of my head if she saw it.

  “You have treated me like second best since the day I was born, Mother. Nothing I did was important because Zavyan did it first. You always showed up for him, but never for me. So excuse me for not wanting to come around for more helpings of it.”

  I spun on my heel to leave the room, but my mother shot a spell at me that froze me in place. I could move everything but my feet.

  “You can’t say something like that and walk off, Aramaeus.”

  “Then use your words instead of your powers,” I snapped back.

  “And would you have stopped if I asked you to?”

  “Well, we’ll never know now, will we, Mother?”

  “Stop that,” she said as she released the spell holding me. “Come over here and sit down so we can talk.”

  “Fine.” Walking back over to the couch, I reluctantly sat. My mother took a seat in the chair across from me.

  “You really think I favor Zavyan over you?”

  “Yes.”

  My mother leaned forward, resting both elbows on her knees.

  “How can you believe that?” Her voice was almost a whisper.

  “Because I’ve seen it, Mother. Every day of my life.”

  “Oh, honey,” she cried, covering her mouth with her hand to stifle a sob.

  We sat there in silence for a moment as she tried to compose herself before speaking again. She got up from the chair and sat down on the couch beside me and took my hand.

  “I am sorry I made you believe that, Aramaeus, because that was never my intention. Zavyan needed extra help as a boy. Spells and curses, even potions, came easily to you. You never had to study because you were a natural. Zavy was a couple years older, but he was barely ahead of you in his studies. It took him longer to figure things out. You didn’t need my help, so I was always trying to help Zavyan catch up.”

  “What?”

  “Look back into your memories for a second, sweetheart. You’ll see it.” She let go of my hand to allow me to sit back.

  I let my body sink into the couch as my consciousness slipped away toward my memories.

  Zavyan, my mother, and I were sitting at the dining room table. We were both buried in our spell books, working on controlling the elements.

  Concentrating, I made a flame appear in my hand. Then, I made it leap to my other hand.

  I was so excited that I turned to show my mother. I tugged on her sleeve to get her to look at me.

  “In a second, Aramaeus,” she said. She turned back to Zavyan and pointed to something in the book, talking to him in a low voice. A moment later, Zavyan froze the flame in my hand, making me drop it and shattering it on the table between us.

  “Good job, Zavy! You did it!”

  I remember feeling like she didn’t have time to acknowledge my achievements. Soon after, I stopped telling her when I mastered a new skill.

  But, the more memories I replayed, the more I could see her trying to help Zavyan and make sure he stayed on course.

  As I came out of the past, I looked at my mother through new eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  “I’m sorry too—for not making sure I gave you enough encouragement and attention. I thought Zavyan needed it more, but that obviously wasn’t true. I see that now. It was my mistake.”

  She leaned over and gave me a hug. It was the first real embrace we had shared in many years.

  “There’s one more thing,” I said.

  “What, honey?”

  “You have to stop making Kaitlyn feel uncomfortable here. She’s important to me.”

  “If that is what you want, I can do that. I will give her a chance instead of judging her. I don’t know if I will ever think she is good enough for you.”

  “She is perfect for me.”

  “She’s a human, Aramaeus. Do you really think you could be happy with a human for the rest of your life?”

  “Of course I could, Mother. Kaitlyn is it. She’s the one. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And I’m not going to give her up for anything. She is all I want for the rest of my life. I never want to be with anyone else.”

  “Aramaeus, are you saying?” My mother’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head.

  “I am going to ask her to marry me this holiday season.”

  “What about your immortality? Are you really willing to watch her age and die while you stay young and beautiful? Is she prepared to endure that? You need to talk to her before you propose.”

  “We won’t have to worry about that.”

  “Why?” The strained silence between us was almost painful. “Please tell me you’re not thinking of doing that, Son. Please.”

  “I’m going to do what I have to do to spend the rest of my life with the woman I love. What is the point of immortality without the one you love? I’d rather spend one amazing, mortal lifetime with her than put her through the misery of aging without me. I won’t want to keep living once she’s gone anyway.”

  “So, you’re willing to give up your powers?”

  “For her, yes.”

  5

  Kaitlyn

  “Have you ever chopped a tree down before?” Blaise asked me as we stood near the tree we had selected.

  “No, but I’m sure I can figure it out,” I said. I was excited to try. We never had a reason to cut down a tree where I grew up. We didn’t do a lot of landscaping in the city.

  “Here,” Blaise said as he handed me the ax. “Just swing for the base of the tree, and don’t let go of the ax while you’re doing it.”

  “Gotcha.” That wasn’t the clearest explanation, but I had seen enough trees chopped down on TV that I thought I could figure it out well enough.

  As I swung the ax back, I prayed I was doing it right. Then, I let the tree have it.

  When the ax hit its mark, Blaise called out, “Timber!” And the tree fell to the ground safely.

  “Let’s go get this tree chopped up,” Zavyan said. With the snap of his fingers, the item in question was instantly cut up into appropriate-sized logs.

  “Pick your favorite, Kaitlyn. You are our special guest, after all,” Blaise said.

  The logs were pretty much the same size. If one was better than the other, I couldn’t tell, so I chose one I liked from the middle.

  “This one,” I said as I bent down to pick it up.

  “Good choice!” Blaise gave me a pat on the back. “Zav, you get the rest of the logs back to the house.”

  Zavyan snapped again.

  “Done.”

  “Now, let’s take this thing inside so we can get it on the fire and conjure up some hot cocoa to warm our bones,” Blaise said.

  “Sounds great,” I said.

  As we strolled back to the house, Blaise told me a few childhood stories about Aramaeus and Zavyan, much to Zavyan’s chagrin.

  When we got to the front door, Zavyan opened it for me because my hands were full. I walked in to see Aramaeus sitting on the couch, talking with his mother in a low voice.

  “We’re back,” I announced. I lifted the log over my head like a trophy. Aramaeus got up from the couch and made his way to me.

  “Good job, sweetheart,” he said. “Want me to help you with that?”

  “No.” I stood up on my tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. “I carried it this far. I want to put it in the fireplace.”

  “It’s right over there.” Aramaeus
pointed me to a large, brick fireplace with a mantle that extended halfway across the room. He moved the grate so I could position the chunk of wood just right.

  The log seemed the heaviest as I squatted down in front of the fireplace and leaned in to place it in the middle. I almost fell when I tried to stand back up, but Aramaeus caught me in his arms.

  “Still falling for me?” he said with a crooked smile on his face.

  “Of course, every single day.”

  “Good.” Aramaeus righted me on my feet.

  “So, how do we light this thing?” I asked.

  “Let me.” Pointing at the fireplace, flames jumped from his fingertips and onto the log. It caught fire immediately. “There you go.”

  “That’s a neat trick.”

  Aramaeus wrapped his arms around my waist and walked with me to the couch.

  “Honey, do you think you could whip up some hot cocoa?” Blaise asked Shahara, dropping a kiss on the top of his wife’s head.

  “Of course.” With a flick of her wrist, a tray appeared in her open left hand. Five mugs of steaming hot cocoa sat on it with a bowl of mini-marshmallows in between them. “Anyone want a little nip to help you warm up from the cold?”

  A small bottle of brandy appeared in her empty hand, and she added some to all the mugs.

  “Cheers,” Blaise said as he grabbed his cup and took a big swig. Aramaeus and Zavyan grabbed their cups. Then, I reached in for mine, adding a heaping handful of marshmallows to the top.

  “Thank you!” Aramaeus said as he snatched one of my marshmallows and popped it in his mouth. I grabbed another to throw at him, but he used his powers to guide it through the air and into his mouth. The silly grin he gave me was enough to melt my heart all over again.

  Every time I caught a glimpse of him, I wondered how I’d gotten that lucky. A small part of me was afraid he would get tired of being with a human one day and would leave me for a warlock or a vampire or some creature who could live forever with him.