Page 17 of Xarius (Shunned Mages #1)

Niam

There was a heavy weight on top of me, almost suffocating me in my sleep.

Xarius? I blinked my eyes open and almost screamed.

A freaking snow leopard was asleep on top of me.

I wasn’t kidding. I dared look to the side and saw Xarius was awake and if his huge eyes were any indication, he, too, hadn’t seen this coming.

Movement from the other side had both our attention, and this time, I did scream.

A freaking ostrich. Yeah, an ostrich was standing beside the bed, staring at us.

My scream startled them both, and the leopard rushed down the bed and…

protected me? The ostrich ran around in what appeared to be circles. It wasn’t the biggest room.

Xarius’s arms wrapped around me, holding me close as we watched the animals calm down and realize that there wasn’t any danger.

Then the leopard jumped back onto the bed and, like a small house cat, began circling the bed until he found a spot he deemed acceptable.

Which was basically most of the bed. His tail hit me in the face, the only clear proof I wasn’t dreaming this.

“Um, did you?” Xarius asked behind me while I stared at the ostrich as it looked around the room calmly.

“Why would I have anything to do with them?!” I whisper-shouted.

“Well, it wasn’t me!” he whispered back, holding onto me tighter. “Wait… I remember something my mom said about familiars, strong animals that protected the mages and helped them fight, too.”

We both looked at the animals. “So, they belong to us?” I asked, getting weirdly giddy over the thought of getting a familiar.

“I believe so, yes.”

“How the fuck are we going to get them in the van?” I asked, finally realizing the situation we were in .

“Um, maybe they can be summoned, like those mages that learn to call upon small animals.” It wasn’t hard to learn and the animal would need to be summoned to the mages side every week.

They were made entirely of magic, making them self-sufficient.

I knew if they ate, they could stay for longer before being resummoned, and the same happened if they slept like a normal pet did.

If we could figure out how to make them disappear and reappear at will, then it would make our life on the road much easier.

“We need to practice our summoning magic before we can leave this hotel room.” I was starving, my new magic taking whatever it could to fuel itself, and that meant the burger from yesterday was long gone.

“And here I thought we would have plenty of morning sex,” Xarius grumbled. He was too adorable.

Getting out of bed was hard with the big cat taking up all the space, but I managed to get out from the warm covers. I searched the floor, still wary of the huge bird that was staring intently at me as I looked around the room, bare assed, after some clean clothes.

“You know,” he began, blatantly ogling me as I continued my search. “This isn’t helping the no morning sex situation for me. ”

I huffed. “Then stop looking at me!”

“I can’t! Your dick is waving at me!” he whined.

I sighed and turned my back on him instead, feeling no shame whatsoever. I guess this was what being bonded was like.

“Not helping, baby. Your ass is beckoning me, too.” Damn him. I wasn’t about to have a boner with a bird watching me. That was just weird.

Reaching the bag that had my clothes in it, I quickly donned a pair of boxers.

Feeling much better now that I was somewhat dressed, I looked over my options and put on some comfy pants and a soft long-sleeved t-shirt.

We wouldn’t be leaving the room before our familiars had left, which meant I just needed to be comfortable.

Xarius had begun dressing as well, pouting once again over the lack of sex.

“Which one do you think is mine?” he asked, walking over to where I stood.

“No idea,” I replied, looking over both animals. “Maybe we share them?”

“Hmm,” he said, moving to the other end of the room. The ostrich followed. I walked into the bathroom, trying to see if it followed me, too. It didn’t. The snow leopard came in behind me, and sitting down it looked up at me with beautiful blue eyes, awaiting my command.

“So, that answers that,” I said, mostly to myself as I looked closer at the snow leopard. He was stunning. I had to name him something, but I found that I wanted to name them with Xarius. In my mind, they were our familiars, and even if they each answered to one of us, we still shared them.

I tried to walk around him, wanting to get back to Xarius, but to my surprise he didn’t move, which honestly wasn’t a surprise. He’d stolen most of the bed and was now stealing my space to escape, too.

“Hi, um, kitty cat, can you move away? I need to get back to Xari.” I felt stupid calling the snow leopard a kitty cat, but I still hadn’t thought of a name and needed to get back to Xarius. He nodded and moved back into the bedroom, like he understood me perfectly.

Xarius came over to me, grabbing onto my waist as we stood there and watched our familiars. “I think they understand us,” I whispered, like I was afraid they would hear me now .

He whispered back, both of us not taking our gazes away from them, “Oh, they for sure can.”

“I think we should name them, you know before we make them leave for now.” I felt him nod beside me. “So, I was thinking maybe something with snow for mine, or is that too cliché?”

He tore his gaze away from our familiars and looked at me, smiling his easy smile. “You want him to be named Snowflake, right?” blushing, I nodded. How did he know?!

“I’ve called him that in my mind since we saw him,” he laughed. Well, that had to be a sign.

“Then he’s Snowflake,” I announced, feeling like a proud parent.

“Leon,” he then said, looking over at his ostrich. “He looks like a Leon.” I couldn’t really disagree and calling him birdie wouldn’t be fair to this majestic creature either.

“Leon it is,” I agreed.

We stood there, side-hugging and looking over at our familiars proudly. I had a family now.

“Now we just need to figure out how to unsummon them.”

An hour later, and I finally figured it out. I looked at Snowflake and said, “take a rest, Snowflake, and I’ll call for you when I need you to return.”

And Snowflake disappeared.

“Snowflake, return,” I said, hoping it would work.

Snowflake reappeared, rubbing against my face like he’d been gone for hours. It felt weird being touched by him, but also like a big hug. He was mine. Ours.

“It seems so simple now that you’ve done it,” Xari said, rubbing his growling stomach. “Of course, we just need to ask them to leave, they can understand us. All those weird sentences made zero sense to me either.”

We’d gone over “ I unsummon you ”, and “ be gone ”, then we’d showered and it might’ve turned into a bit more, before we sat down and it clicked.

We unsummoned them and moved out for breakfast. We decided to drive back to the diner because according to Xarius they had “ banging waffles” .

I wanted banging waffles, so off we went.

I was still getting used to feeling the magic under my skin, the power I now held so comfortably.

To think I was ready to live my life without it.

If it hadn’t been for Xarius, I wouldn’t have known I could get magic, that I would be one of the most powerful mages.

It made sort of sense if genetics were at play, which they often were with power.

Both my parents were strong mages, and Xarius’s mom belonged to the council of mages.

Maybe the rest of the council members would send their children off, too, although only one other had a child, that I knew of, and they were still a toddler.

It was normal for the council to offer their positions to their children when they retired, and if no one fought them for the position, they would get it simply because they were the child of a former leader.

Sometimes people challenged them and won, making them the new leader no matter their upbringing.

Our home world was all about power. Why hadn’t I questioned the shunning of non-magical mages?

I had been too busy trying to figure out how to live in another world to care about the council playing me.

Xarius had changed everything for me. It was one thing knowing I could get magic, when he’d said it, a longing and a want had started, but I didn’t want magic if it meant remaining here and having to hide it.

When Xari had said we would be the most powerful mages, even if he was proven to be wrong, that couldn’t be ignored.

The hunger for revenge had awoken inside of me.

The former resigned shunned mage that I had been, had been given a chance to fight back, to become what I had only dreamed of becoming.

Giving in and joining Xarius had been the easiest thing to do after that.

After our first kiss, it had been clear we truly were meant to be. I simply didn’t want to question it. I trusted him. And that trust had given me my bonded, Snowflake, Leon, and my magic. I had a family of my own now. I had a purpose that didn’t just involve survival.

“Everything okay?” Xari asked. We’d just parked behind the diner, and I hadn’t even realized it until now. “Your emotions are all over the place, not too many bad ones, but still.”

I smiled at him. “I just thought about how much my life has changed in these few days. I came here just wanting to survive, hoping I could get a job doing something creative with my art, and now… now I’ve got a family.

I’ve got you.” He must’ve felt the love that poured out of me, since he kissed my cheek tenderly and returned my smile .

“I found out about the council of mages’ deceit the day before I got shunned.

My mom was against it, but three against one left her powerless to do anything, and she could be killed for allowing my mother to tell me their plan, something she worked out herself.

I promised her I would return, that we would see each other again someday.

You are the reason I’ll have a chance to do that someday. So, thank you.”

I was crying now. I hadn’t even thought about how badly he wanted to return.

He had parents who loved him, maybe friends, though I doubted that from the sound of it.

If I’d continued to reject him, he would’ve never been able to see his mothers again.

I truly had been selfish. “You don’t have to thank me.

Being with you is what I want, too, not just for power and revenge.

I want everything you’re offering, but mostly, I want you.

I know in my soul you’ll offer me the kind of love I’ve only dreamt of. ”

“Neither of us are alone anymore,” he said, then kissed me. “Let’s get some waffles.”