Page 70 of Black and White, Twice the Might

“Can we start moving in tomorrow?” Xander asks as we park in front of the B&B.

“We can start bringing smaller things over, things that can fit in the car,” Sly says.

“And we can check with everyone when they are free to help,” I say, getting out of the car. “Or maybe we should hire a van.”

“Adhan wouldn’t have offered if he didn’t mean it,” Sly points out.

“That’s true,” I reply, using the key to open the front door.

It’s quite late, so we walk up to our rooms quietly and deposit the boys in their room and go into ours.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am,” Sly says, pulling out the keys to our new house and looking at them.

I wrap an arm around him. “Me too. To have somewhere permanent to live, somewhere we can build friendships. Where we can relax and breathe is exciting.”

“And a proper building for your chocolate business. I’m glad we came here instead of going to Little Welling.”

“Me too. But now I’m tired. Let’s go to bed, and tomorrow we can take things to our new house.”

“Yep, we can.”

I wake up hours later.It’s still dark outside. For the moment, I’m not sure why I woke up. Then I feel it, something’s wrong. I sit up, just as there is a knock on the door.

“Ebby,” I hear Xander. He’s trying to be respectful of the other guests, but his knocking is getting louder.

I jump out of bed and rush to the door, remembering at the last minute to magic myself some PJ bottoms before opening the door.

“It’s Enoch, he’s having a nightmare, and I can’t wake him.”

I rush into their room and see Enoch lying asleep, moving, twitching, and groaning, tears streaming down his face. I sit on the side of his bed and touch his shoulder. “Enoch, you’re safe. Wake up now.”

“I thought the new necklaces were supposed to stop nightmares,” Xander says, standing at the bottom of the bed.

“Nightmares caused by dark magic, not normal ones,” Sly says.

I look and see he has an arm around Xander. I’m not sure when he woke up, but I’m glad he’s here.

Enoch cries out in pain, and I shake his shoulder a bit more forcefully. “Enoch, wake up.”

His eyes fly open and he sits up, looking momentarily startled, before noticing me and flinging himself into my arms.

I wrap mine around him. “You’re safe, brother, I have you,” I assure him gently.

I feel fine tremors racking his body as he cries, and I hug him tighter.

The boys both used to have nightmares a lot those first few months after we rescued them. They have mainly stopped now, bar the occasional one.

I drop a kiss on his head as Xander climbs on the bed beside Enoch and hugs him. Sly sits on the other side and joins the hug.

Slowly, Enoch calms down, his tremors stop, and he starts sniffing. He slowly pulls back, and we all loosen our hold on him.

“Sorry,” he mutters.

“Hey now, none of that. Do you want to talk about it, or forget it?” I ask him softly.

“It was the same as always, Father attacking me with his magic. He hurt Xander so bad I wasn’t sure if he was alive or dead, and then started on me again, but his magic kept cutting into me, like knives slashing me over and over, but suddenly the other witches were there and he started on them. You woke me up just as Sly came rushing in.” He pauses. “I know we’re protected against him and that he has no magic, so I don’t know why I had that dream.” He finishes, wiping his cheeks.

“There are a lot of changes happening at the moment,” Sly says. “Maybe that triggered something.”