We had dismissed them both and were now parked at the car dealership to look at the camper we’d seen online.
Long story short, we were now the proud owners of a small teardrop trailer that was now secured behind our van. It was large enough to house two men for sleeping. We deemed it good enough for now. The camper we’d had our eyes on, had been sold yesterday and the smaller one they had hadn’t been available for over a week; they’d just forgotten to take it off their site. Since we were in a hurry, we’d decided the teardrop trailer was better than nothing, plus it was cheap enough that we could pay for it in cash without taking on any debt. We’d just bought a mattress and some pillows and a duvet, so when Silver joined us, he would have his own place to sleep. If we planned on having him stay in the back of the van whenever we drove around, maybe we could offer to have Snowflake there to help protect him so he wasn’t alone. There was a window separating us from the back to the front, but it still felt better not leaving Silver entirely alone in the back.
“Can you take out the locket?” Xari said, jumping back behind the wheel. The mattress was now fully in place and we’d made it cozy enough.
I took it out. “Much brighter,” I said, showing him just how much it shone now.
“I think we’re less than an hour away,” he grinned, the relief evident in his tone.
We drove into a town much bigger than the others we’d visited so far. The locket dimmed noticeably whenever we steered off course, making it easy to track him down to the strip club that we were now parked behind.
We got out and called our familiars. Thank God, the glow wasn’t noticeable when Snowflake was invisible. “So, a strip club,” I said, looking around, trying to gauge just how seedy of a place it was.
Xari shrugged. “It’s one way of staying alive, hell even I’d thought about it at first. No former job experience and no one to vouch for you? Yeah, stripping was likely his only choice.”
“He could be a bartender, or a bouncer,” I offered, thinking about just how different my life would’ve turned if I’d never met Betty and Jerry.
We walked inside hand in hand, and I instantly knew this was the sort of seedy I didn’t like. I tried peeking at the locket, which rested against my chest, the chain comfortable around my neck. I led us while Xari helped steer me out of the way so I could focus on how the locket behaved. I stopped outside a door labeled “Employees only.” I ignored it and walked inside with Xari right behind me. The door took a little too long shutting behind us, Snowflake and Leon battling it as they followed us.
We entered a hallway with several doors on either side. The music from the club was still loud, the bass more noticeable than the actual music. I watched the locket as it guided us to a door on the right. I knocked and when a cheery “come in!” sounded, we entered.
And there sat Silver. He was beautiful, with wavy hair that went to his shoulders, and was, of course, silver. Not that I believed that was his true hair color, not with his young age. Though it did look natural. His green eyes watched us warily as we entered. “Um, can I help you?”
Xari quickly shut and locked the door, making Silver look tense. I didn’t want to scare him, so I quickly blurted, “we’re shunned mages, too!”
His eyes widened and then he smiled with relief. “I’d hoped to one day meet some of you, not that I believe the council would want that, with the weird place they decided to dump me in,” he said, and his irritation with the council matched my own.
“I was dumped in a forest, several hours away from any road and with protective mama bears surrounding it,” I said, hoping we could bond a little before getting into things.
“I was dumped in a hayfield,” Xari said. “I swear I can still feel the hay against my skin some days.” Silver and I laughed at that. This was good! We would get along perfectly.
“I was dumped into the ocean,” Silver said. “At night, the only thing guiding me to shore was a lighthouse.”
“Those assholes!” I exclaimed, not caring that Xari’s mother was one of them, because that was just plain cruel.
Silver shrugged, “well, I did tell them exactly what I thought of them, not my fault they couldn’t take constructive criticism.”I was pretty sure Silver and I were platonic soulmates.“How did you find me?” he finally asked.
I decided to start with the most important part first. “It’s a rather long story, so let’s start with the most pressing thing first. We’re being chased and attackedby mages from our world trying to kill us.” His eyes widened as he looked between us both. “We got our magic, which they tried to keep us from getting, and now they want us dead.”
“Wait,” he said, holding up a hand that had pretty nails with glitter on them. “You were born without magic like me, right?”
We nodded. “Or we thought so, but we just needed our soulmatch to unlock our powers,” I explained, then realized it sounded ridiculous.
“Mmmhmm sure,” he said, totally not believing a word we said.
I sighed. “Snowflake, you can be visible now.” My beautiful snow leopard was still glowing. “We need to check out why he’s glowing,” I reminded Xari, then looked at Silver who was understandably startled. “This is my familiar Snowflake. I got him after we unlocked our magic.”
He shook his head, then took in a deep breath. “Okay, so let’s just say I believe you. Why would they try to kill you? They sent us here because we were ‘defect mages’ so shouldn’t they be fucking pleased we were deemed good enough for their fancy world?”
Xari spoke up now. “Because we’re more powerful than the council of mages. The legends of old spoke about six men who ruled our world, all born without magic until they met their soulmatch and unlocked their magic, getting familiars to help fight and protect them. We were shunned because they didn’t want us to get our powers and steal the throne.”
“Umm,” Silver said, and we decided through eye contact to tell him the whole story. Sitting down on a worn couch, we got into it, telling himeverything.
Chapter 28
Xarius
After telling our entire story to Silver, he looked wrecked. I could sense all of his emotions as we went through everything, and now, he was left with two. Anger and fear. I could tell he wasn’t entirely sold yet, and I guess it was wise not to immediately trust two strangers, but he was at least not completely shut off. He even showed sympathy in his emotions when he looked at Niam. And Niam seemed to have a fondness for Silver, too, his emotions showing that he cared for him already.
