Page 26 of Tino

Laying down next to Tino had my body relaxing. I hadn’t even noticed I wasn’t breathing as easily before as I was now. Somehow just being in the other room was too far from my man. I smiled to myself, so unbelievably gone for the only man who’d ever owned my heart. And the only one who ever would.

“Tair?” he whispered, as I snuggled up against him, sighing with happiness as his warm body met my cold one. I’d placed a blanket around me while I’d read, but it still wasn’t enough warmth to fullybe comfortable. Now however, it was perfect. Tino’s arms came around me as he, too, sighed with contentment, and together we fell asleep. Safe. Home. Loved.

Chapter 18

Tino

I looked at Gilbert who was swallowing down a whole pig. I was battling the urge to gag at the sight, but knew I had to get used to it. He was mine forever and had apparently been mine before if the book Tair showed me was correct. He’d proudly showed me the pages where our powers were written down in detail, going so far as to describe what we could do together too. Gilbert had been named Ferro in that life, but according to the drawing of him, he was the exact same in appearance. Kitty had been named Charcoal which we determined must’ve been from an inside joke we’d forgotten in thislife. It wasn’t as though we could remember past lives, the only proof was the feeling of safety we felt around the others. Silver, Wilston, Niam, and Xarius were our family, and I felt it deep in my soul.

“That’s vile,” Tair exclaimed next to me. It appeared he had trouble watching Gilbert eat, too.

Silver scoffed. “You obviously haven’t seen our familiars eat mages then.” That got the attention of several mages around us. It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to announce while we ate with the others, but Silver wasn’t wrong either. According to the book Tair had read, it was also something we’d done back then, offering dead mages for our familiars to eat and gain their powers. The more magical creatures they ate, the stronger they became.

I read a couple of pages this morning with Tair, and we found so many cool things we had to teach Gilbert and Kitty. We already knew they could be invisible, but we found they could teleport, too, while invisible. In the book it was written down as an ability they only had while invisible, but they could turn invisible at will, then appear in another location in the next instant before turning visible again, startling enemies and driving them mad.

Willow came over to our table with a serene smile. “Hi boys, everything to your liking?” We’d asked her not to call us anything formal which in turn had turned us into her “boys”, not that we cared what she called us, but seeing as she had wanted to adopt Silver, it was a little sad. Silver thought so too, but had refrained from telling her. She truly seemed like she would’ve been a great mother, and I could only guess they hadn’t been able to have kids themselves.

“It’s perfect,” Xari replied with a grin. He was easy to please, and as long as Niam was next to him, he seemed to always be happy. Niam gave her a soft smile and nodded as he chewed on his food.

Nujik had woken us this morning and told us a feast would be held in the middle of the camp. Several tables filled the huge space but it had quickly filled with mages as they woke up for the day.

Willow and Nujik had made a point when they said we should all eat before we started testing out our magic. It had also helped that we’d gotten a lot of sleep since bonding. I’d hoped to get somebondingtime with Tair this morning, but we’d both been too hungry to stay in bed, and after eating some left overs while reading the book, we’d been interrupted by Nujik. I would just have to jump my man later today to show just how much I appreciated him. It was stillsurreal to think that we could have sex whenever we wanted now. After being denied it for days, it seemed too good to be true, but nothing was stopping us other than the mages who kept bothering us about our duties, which was fair, but still fucking annoying.

Willow continued to linger at our table and I sensed she wanted to tell us something we didn’t want to hear. “Just out with it,” Xarius sighed, clearly feeling her emotions.

She gave a tense smile in return, then frowned. “I don’t know how to say this, Silver, but your grandma passed away yesterday.”

I didn’t have Xarius’s emotional power, but I swore I could feel Silver’s heart breaking. A sob escaped him and then Wilston guided him back to their cabin for privacy. I felt torn.

“Should we go with them?”

Xarius shook his head. “I sense he needs Wilston for now. Maybe later we should stop by.”

I nodded and shared a worried look with Niam. He could feel pain, but I had no idea if this sort of pain could be taken away by him too.

Willow continued to stand there looking at us, and as sweet as she was, it was getting annoying. I looked at the table where Nujiksat with some other mages and with my mind I willed her to go over there. Knowing it wouldn’t work didn’t mean I didn’t want it to. But to my surprise, she turned and walked over to the others, silently answering my wish.

Niam frowned at her retreating form but seemed just as pleased as I was that she was leaving us alone for now. We hadn’t had a private moment with our small soulbounded family since before Tair and I bonded, and we all needed to continue bonding for us to face the council of mages.

Xarius looked at Tair and then at me before asking, “Still up for training today? We can always postpone it if you want Silver and Wilston to be there too.”

I shook my head just as Tair replied with a firmno. We were in agreement then, both eager to work our new magic.

“I don’t think it’s wise to waste time,” I said, looking at Niam too. “We need to train, and right now Silver needs to mourn. It could take days before he’s ready to continue training for all we know, and if that’s what he needs, then I’ll happily wait for him to join us.”

Xarius nodded. “I think you’re right. I just have one question for Nujik and Willow before we start training.”

“What’s that?” Niam asked, looking worried for a moment.

Xarius leaned in closer so we wouldn’t be overheard by the nearby mages. “How did they know Silver’s grandmother died?”

“Oh,” Tair exclaimed, and then realization dawned on me too. “You think they still have ties in the Realm of Mages?”

Xarius shrugged. “How else would they know?”

“I think they told us when we got here,” Niam spoke with a frown, deep in thought. “Other mages are on our side and waiting for us in the Realm of Mages, they told us as much. One of them could’ve been watching his grandmother, maybe our families too.”

“That makes sense,” I agreed, mulling it over in my head. “If I were them, I would watch our families too.”