Page 19 of Xarius (Shunned Mages #1)

Niam

We drove until Xari reached the same place he’d taken me after our chase in the woods, at least that’s what he told me.

It was deep in the forest and we drove on a cleared road until we reached our destination.

I figured it was some sort of campsite, not that there was anything other than nature, but the cleared space where you could drive indicated that cars had been there before.

The space we stopped at was like a parking lot, a big circle with dried mud on the ground and trees surrounding it.

We were the only ones here, free to practice our magic and let out our familiars .

“I was thinking we let our pets out while we work on the locket,” I said, jumping out of the van.

Xari followed. “Sounds good to me. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get a direction we can follow.

” I really hoped so. If the two mages that we knew were here weren’t soulmatches, then we had to wait for who knew how long before the others arrived.

I wasn’t dying to return, but I also didn’t like living in limbo and since Xari had already lived like that for five years, I wished he wouldn’t have to experience that again.

“Leon come back,” he ordered, and the ostrich came into view, cocking his head as he took in Xari.

“Snowflake,” I said, hoping the name would be enough. He appeared and bumped his head against my waist, purring happily.

“So, you were right not to say their name at the diner,” Xari grinned.

“You’ll find that I usually am right,” I sassed, scratching Snowflake behind the ear.

“Do you need to hunt for food?” I asked, waiting for Snowflake to indicate he’d understood me.

“If you’re hungry you can hunt, we’re staying here for a while, and I’ll call for you if that changes.

” He licked my hand and ran deeper into the forest.

“I guess that meant yes,” Xari laughed, then asked Leon to do the same. Once Leon disappeared into the woods, too, not to hunt exactly, but likely to find something he could eat, we opened the van and sat down on the back between the open backdoors.

Taking the locket out, he handed it over to me. “Do you see any opening?” I examined it, surprised by the weight of it.

“No, but I think we need our combined magic to open it. Look.” I pointed to the two different metals that surrounded it. I took that as a sign two were needed.

“I hadn’t even thought about what they meant.”

I took his hand in mine, guiding it over to my other hand that held the locket. “We need to somehow use magic without me accidentally causing you pain again.” I wasn’t sure how I’d done it yesterday, and I really didn’t want to hurt him again.

“I think our magic will be easier to control now that our bodies aren’t new to it, besides, we have our familiars now, too, and I bet they couldn’t be summoned if we didn’t have enough control.

” His words helped reassure me, somewhat.

I still feared hurting him, but I needed to at least try.

“Think about wanting to open it,” he guided, then closed his eyes.

I followed his lead and with my own eyes closed, I began to think about wanting it open.

It began growing hotter to the touch, warming between our hands. Then we heard it, a soft click.

Opening our eyes, we looked down at the now open locket. “There’s a note!” Xari exclaimed. He quickly grabbed the note and unfolded it. There was a lot written down, and both sides were filled out. “I’ll read it out loud.”

“Our dearest boy.

Congratulations on finding your soulmatch!

We are so happy for you both. With your new magic at your hands many things will be easier.

The locket is your guide to finding the others.

There will be two other soulmatched pairs.

The legends had six members in the council of mages, three bonded pairs, all ruling together.

You are bound to the others, not in the same way the two of you are together, but through the bond of your past. You are the reincarnated souls of the legends, we know this might sound crazy, but according to legend, you’ll keep being reborn to lead the mages.

As we write this, we already know the final mages will be there within six years.

We have no idea when your soulmatch arrives on Sutiner, or how long you’ve been there before reading this, but know they will all join you when you’ve been there for six years, we hope that helps.

We need to warn you and your bonded. The council will know when you receive your magic and will likely send someone to.

.. deal with you. You must fight back! Practice your magic and train your familiars.

Do whatever you can to succeed. We’ll be waiting at home for you to return and take your rightful place.

When all of you have your magic, then you’ll be able to return.

How, we sadly do not know, but we trust you’ll figure it out.

To find the other mages using the locket, you need to think about their names and beg the locket to guide you. We infused it with our magic, too, hoping it would help guide you.

We already know the names of the next two who’ll be shunned after you.

Silver Whitestone can’t exactly get naked and use magic there.”

That was true. I shrugged, “we’ll deal with that when the time comes. For now, I think some food would be good.”