“I barely feel any magical energy in you,” he said. “It’s there, I guess. Wasn’t until I got close, though.”
“My bloodline isn’t very strong,” I said.
I’d had a long time to come to terms with my low magical capabilities. Witch and wizard magic was heavily based on bloodlines, creating an elitist society. My family were close to the bottom of that society. Still above humans, who were looked down on by the upper echelons of mage community, but barely. Solstice was close to the top, with a scholar for a father and a politician for a mother, and her magic was through the roof. She made spells I struggled to complete look like a piece of cake. When I was younger, I’d been jealous of it, but now I was resigned.
My place was in research, not practical applications.
It had been until I got fired and replaced with a more ‘qualified applicant’, anyway. The man they replaced me with had fewer qualifications in archival systems and was only fluent in two of the six primary spell languages, while I was fluent in all six. But he had greater magical capacity than me, so I’d lost what I’d thought was my place in the world.
Even among my family, I was the weakest link. I remembered learning magic with my parents as a preteen, watching them try to hide their confusion and disappointment when I couldn’t manage a spell that should have been easy for someone my age.
The self-doubt rabbit hole was one I didn’t want to descend down at the moment. This wasn’t the place.
“I’ve still got enough magical energy that a spell designed for humans wouldn’t have affected me, though,” I added on.
Waylon was skeptical, and I tried to fight a flush of embarrassment. They were all strong physically, if not with magic. The only strong thing about me was my brain, and my mind happened to be fighting against me today. I couldn’t think through a situation when I was terrified and one wrong move away from another debilitating panic attack.
“A good explanation for why you can find the property, but why did you decide to enter?” Bennett asked.
I felt like I was being interrogated, and kind of regretted not opting to ask my questions first. I would have to tell them about Uncle Felix and his will, but I would have liked to have been able to gauge their reactions beforehand. “Um, well, my uncle left me this property in his will. His lawyers contacted me and I was hoping to stay here for a while. I obviously wasn’t accounting for being forced to stay in the house. Before I was in the house, the property wouldn’t let me leave either.”
“Your… uncle?” Waylon asked, sliding back onto Bennett’s lap.
“Yes. Uncle Felix. Do you know him?”
“Oh, we know him.”
“He’s one of our, uh, caretakers,” Bennett said. “Checks on us and brings us what we need to live, stuff like that.”
He stumbled over the word caretaker, like he wasn’t sure what to call him. The more time I spent with these men, the more I was realizing they had to be prisoners. We were all locked in this house for a reason. They were nice enough so far, but must have done bad things to have gotten locked away in a secret prison. Unless they’d all wandered in accidentally like I had, but that seemed unlikely. Had my uncle been working for the Hallowed Council? What my parents had told me about him didn’t line up with a government job. He was more of a back alley vigilante type.
“Unfortunately, he’s passed away. And apparently he owned this property, graveyard and all, and left it to me in his will. I have no idea why he didn’t tell me about the… um, residents. You.”
I tried to sound sad about his passing, but I’d never met him. He’d placed me in a horrid situation by giving me this house, so I didn’t think I would have liked him much when he was alive either.
“Felix was eccentric. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is some kind of test or trick for you. He’s not cruel, though, so he would have left you a way out. He always came and went as he pleased,” Bennett said.
“Any ideas where I might find this way out?”
“He wouldn’t have left anything straightforward. He was kind of a cunt,” Kirin said, leaning forward on his knees. The position made his biceps bulge. Each one was probably as thick as my entire body. “But he’s got an office. None of us have ever been in it, but if he’s dead, I doubt he’ll care if his niece is snooping around.”
“Can you show me where the office is?”
Kirin stood, and Bennett was quick to stand too. “Kirin,” he hissed, glancing between me and the giant orc.
“What?” Kirin said, laughter booming. “If the princess doesn’t want me giving her the grand tour, she’ll ask for you, Benny. Won’t you, princess?”
My heart fluttered.
Fuck, why did being called princess by the orc give me stomach butterflies? There was no way I could be attracted to the overly confident, enormous creature, but something about his deep voice wrapping around the word princess… “I’m fine going with Kirin,” I said hurriedly. “As long as you can promise his flirting is harmless.”
Bennett glared at Kirin before turning to me. “He would never do anything you didn’t want. I promise. And if he does, I’ll happily kill him for you. Might be good to get rid of him.”
Barking out a laugh, I stood from the couch. “Surprisingly, I’m going to take your word for it,” I said, pointing at the orc. “Just don’t… can you stay a metre from me at all times, please? You’re very big. It’s intimidating.”
He puffed up like being called intimidating was a compliment. From me, it wasn’t, but him thinking so wouldn’t do any harm. “I’ll lead the way and you can leave as much space between us as you want, princess.”
“Actually, I’d like to request you don’t call me princess, either.”
