JAMES – Everlore
I had seen it too, and even more than seeing it, I had felt it. The look on her face must have been mirrored on mine. Magic didn’t surprise me, but magic here with her? Yes, that was a surprise. I’d never heard of anything like this happening with a human before, her pull on me was unbelievable, but the feeling when our skin touched was a completely new kind of magic for me.
It was impressive that she didn’t run screaming from here or go into a state of shock right there, she was human, after all. But now we couldn’t go on pretending. I had been avoiding the truth of our parallel worlds because I wanted to spend more time with her, even though it was forbidden. Maybe more dangerous, I wanted to keep spending time with her. How long could I go on playing with this fire? She had asked me a question, so I didn’t I owe her the truth? We were still looking at each other, her perfect blue eyes locked on mine. At the risk of pushing her too far and revealing too much, I dove in. “Sinclaira, how much do you know about the legends from this area?” I asked her, hoping she had at least some awareness of Everlore. Even if it was a flimsy childhood story. In places where magic existed in a strong way before the barrier, the human stories and legends usually reflected that. “I’ve heard stories about people seeing…strange things around here.” she hesitated and then before I could speak she added, “Last night, I found something. A book in the manor’s library,” she hesitated before continuing, ‘full of legends…” There was a question in her gaze, and I knew she was asking as much as she was telling. Words began tumbling out, “James, things have been happening to me. I’ve been, seeing things…unusual things.” She concluded cryptically, but I was too stunned to speak. What had just happened between us was magic, true magic. She was talking about magic. I slowly nodded, encouraging her to continue, “What kind of things?” I asked. “I’m not sure, but it feels, magical.” she said quietly. There it was, the truth that was hanging between us. A soft pink color rose to her cheeks. “And now,” she rubbed her elbow, “what just happened,” She was talking about a grimoire, magic from my realm. How could this possibly be the case when she was human living in the human realm. There had been almost no magic in the human world for over a century. I looked into her clear, bright eyes, “Do you believe what you saw?” As she looked back at me I was hit with a strong wave of that magnetic energy. It was physically pulling me in toward her and I had to consciously keep myself from moving toward her. For a long moment she was silent; considering, but she held my gaze, as though she already knew the truth. She was deciding whether I was the one she could truly trust. There was another shift in her energy, as she decided. She was feeling out the space around her, more in tune with her energy than any human I’d ever seen, but she seemed oblivious to it. “Yes,” she said firmly. A thrill coursed through me. However sure she may appear to be though, telling her more might send her into shock. I had never faced this problem, it was forbidden to interact with humans, and I had already obliterated that rule to spend more time with her. “Do you trust me?” I asked her, and without even a moment of hesitation “yes,” was out of her lips. I could feel that charge in the air around us again, the magic responding to both of us. I took a deep breath and plunged into the deep waters between our worlds. “There is another realm that exists alongside your world, known as Everlore. It’s a realm of magic.” Her expression became hard to read. Her mouth opened and closed, as she tried to form words, but none came. The questions rolled over her face one being overshadowed by the next. She looked as though she wanted to tell me that wasn’t possible, and yet, I could see her grappling with the truth. Then without warning, I felt her tasting the energy around me. Using that sixth sense common in my world, but non-existent here. She seemed unaware of her actions. Oblivious to the fact that she was accessing the magic to feel into the space between us, sampling the feelings, the energies, in the air. “How do you know about it?” she asked me, her eyes narrowing, the air still buzzing. I was momentarily silenced. Stunned. She was using magic. I couldn’t lie to her, I wouldn’t, even if it was against the rules. “It’s my world.” Her eyes took on a strange expression, she was seeing me anew. This is it, I thought to myself, the moment when she would run, her natural human fear taking over. But she didn’t. Instead, she reached for my hand, her fingers lacing through mine, the glow appeared again. Pure golden light spilling from between our fingers at the point where they met. It tingled, the sensation of a fine paint brush dancing across my skin, humming, with an energy of its own. “So if I’m the one who sees things that other people don’t, does that mean other humans can’t see you?” Feeling her energy interact with mine was intoxicating. “Typically, yes.” I said working to stay focused.
Time could have stopped. With her fingers intertwined through mine, a strange exchange was happening between her energy and mine. It became hard to tell where she stopped and I began, as though the golden magic swirling around us was melting into liquid and forging the connection between us. She looked up into my eyes and I could have sworn I had known her for a lifetime.
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